taez555

I was watching the weather all day before and it looked like my plans to go fishing Saturday Morning weren't going to happen. I already got soaked earlier in the week when I didn't plan ahead and got caught mid trip in a thunderstorm. (Lightning ain't cool when you're on the water, torrential downpours aren't either especially when you have a mile to walk back to your car without an umbrella). Let's just say I was overly cautious this morning.

So I ended up sleeping in a little when I woke and saw rain, but the forcast said the rain would be light for a few hours before getting heavy with possible thunderstorms, so I figured I had a small window to fish and decided to hit the water around 6:30am.

I stuck mostly to a few spots I already knew had good cover for both me and the fish.

Got one LMB in the first few minutes, and then shifted to a different location and hit 2 more. All in the 1 1/2 to 2lb range. Good solid LMB's, but nothing worth getting out the camera for. All caught on assorted dark senkos with a 4/0 red worm hook.

The rain would get heavy, then light, then heavy, then go away, then come back in light downpours. It was a mixed morning, but the tree cover and my hat kept the rain at bay.

I switched it up a little and tried frog fishing the pads for a while when the rain got light, but no luck. I then said "what the hell" and switched over to a classic texas rigged setup with 1/8oz weight and basic Walmart variety Strike King rubber worm (dark green with flake).

The weight really helped and the first cast gave me some good distance a few extra yards and I was able to cast it right on the edge of some lily pads. All of the sudden I got a nice hit. Nothing crazy, but you could tell it was a good one.

The fish swam directly for me and into a patch of lily pads and then stopped.

I couldn't budge him. He seriously just stopped. He was still a good 50 feet offshore and hidding in this patch of pads. If I pulled hard I'd break my line or knot(of course I hooked him on my lightest setup rigged with 10lb line, instead of my main stronger rig). I gently let up tension to see if he'd run, but not enough to let him go, and sure enough he swam out of the pads and straight toward me and to the right into some tree cover, but I reeled hard and brought him to shore.

Not a huge lunker, but a solid 3lb 4oz.

I've been catching a lot of fish this year, but believe it or not this was my first shore fish over 3lbs, so even at 3lb he felt like a lunker to me. :-)

After about 2 hours I decided I wasn't going to tempt the rain gods anymore and started heading in. On the way of course I couldn't resist tossing my frog out to a few pads on my walk. After a huge splash on one cast however, I tossed out another strike king worm and after a few minutes hooked another 1 1/2lber.

So there you go. Love those rainy mornings. 5 fish in 2 hours. One psuedo lunker. All in all. A solid rainy saturday on the Sud.

Oh yeah, and I made a video of the rain. (Although it's not the same location I caught Larry) ;-)

Woke up around 4:45, hit Dunkin Donuts at 5am and was on the water by 5:30am. Temps already in the mid 70's and super humid at 5am.

The fishing was absolutely on FIRE!!! Within the first 20 minutes I had hit 4 LMB, all in the 1 1/2 to 2lb range. It didn't matter what I tossed out, what color, what size.... BAM, BAM, BAM.. they were hitting it alll. I could not believe all the fish I was getting.

Then.....

At 6am.....

It stopped.

I continued to fish for FOUR HOURS, and only hit 2 more VERY SMALL LMB by 8am, and that was it..... No more fish all morning.

What an odd day. I should have gone home at 6am.

Oh well...

No pics, since... well, it was an odd day.....

Fished from about 5:30am to 9:30am. Temps in mid 60's up into the 70's and very humid. Forcast said overcast with possible showers, but by 6:30am the sun was up and burning off all the haze. An absolutely beautiful sunny Saturday morning, although... it was partly cloudy for the most part.

All in all it was a pretty slow morning of fishing. I caught 3 fish in the first 2 & 1/2 hours. All pretty small in the 1lb to 1 1/2 range. All biting on assorted senkos, despite my attempts to try assorted creature baits, poppers and such.

Switched locations to an area with some Lily pads around 8am and hit my first big fish of the day. A solid 2lb'er that I had to seriously work to fight out of the pads. I couldn't believe I actually had to turn my drag up ALL the way to pull him in. I swear I had a lunker, but nope, just a good 2lbs.

After that I moved down the shore to another location with some more lily pads and bam!!! First cast.... same thing. 2lb 5oz hiding in the pads.

It seems I found their secret hiding place. ;-)

I kept fishing in the same location for a little while longer, and had another fish on but he was deep in the lily pads and snapped my line as I tried to pull him out. (Note to self, need to find stronger hook knot for florocarbon)

So that's about it. Just a nice Saturday morning on the Sud. 5 fish overall. There were tons of little fish swimming around, but the big ones have either gone someplace else, or are hiding in the pads. :-)

Time to go shopping for some frogs. :-)

Hit the water around 5:45am. A nice cool morning in the 50's to start, but the sun was up and blinding by 6:30am and it was heading up into the 70's by mid-morning, so you really had to pick your spots wisely.

First off, let me say, it is official. The water levels have returned to normal on the Reservoir. They must have finished the dam work, and with all the rain we had this week, the water is right back up to the tree line. Kinda sucks, there were some great spots when the water was low.

Anyway...

Started at my old reliable spot and hit my first fish of the day after about 20 minutes. A 16" pickerel on a senko (I believe a dark green one of some kind, probably with some sparkle.)

And that my friends was the only fish of the day on a senko. :-) I wasted 4 more hours and a half dozen assorted colors, but they weren't even nibbling them after that.

Next fish was only a few minutes after. A 2lb 3oz LMB on my favorite top water popper. I moved down the shoreline a few hundred feet and hit another 1lb'er hiding in some trees on the same lure. (I love poppers)

After trying some more spots and getting nothing for another an hour or so, I headed over to a shady spot with lily pads and some cover. Rigged up one of my poles texas rigged with a 1/4oz weight with a dark green and sparkle BPS 5' worm. Worked it for a few minutes and hit my biggest, weighed, fish of the day. 2lbs 12oz LMB . (The pic doesn't do it justice)

At this point I told myself I was going to leave since I really needed some coffee, but of course that turned into another hour of fishing in which I caught two more, 2+ lbs LMB. Both caught on the same exact setup as the last fish. Unfortunately both broke free right as I got them on shore. (One jumped and shook the hook loose; the other snapped the line right at the hook). They actually looked bigger than 3lbs, but since I didn't weigh them we'll be conservative and say 2lb+.

I'm actually curious if they were same the fish. I caught them less than 5 minutes apart casting in the EXACT same spot, and both reacted the same, swimming straight towards me and then to the side to cover. I almost couldn't reel fast enough to keep up with them.

Those were some smart fish.

Oh yeah, I apologize to anyone in the area at the time since when the 2nd one broke free I screamed out a few "choice words" to vent both the humor and frustration of what had just happened. :-)

I kept fishing for about an hour, but they were done and I couldn't get a nibble, so I headed in around 10:15am.

So yeah, 6 fish in 4 hours and all (except one) in the 2lb+ range No mega lunkers today, but any morning where I catch that many, and they're all that big, is pretty solid in my book.

Hit up the Sudbury Reservoir this morning at around 5:45am. Sunrise was at 5:15 so it was already clear as day by the time I headed out. Temps were in the mid 60's and very humid. First time I didn't have to bring my sweatshirt all year. It felt like summer.

Worked my way around some different areas with some nice cover and lily pads. Hit my first LMB after about 15 minutes on a weightless dark green senko on a 3/0 while testing out my main rig spooled for the first time ever with 30lb braid (no leader). Only 1lb 12oz, but not bad and a good start to the day.

Walked the shore for another 30-45 minutes with no luck in different spots. Found a nice shady spot with calm water, in a spot you couldn't get to with the normal water levels. Tossed out another dark green senko, and BAM!! the second it hit the water, didn't even have time to sink, hit a 2lb 10oz on the same reel as before.

I tried to take a pic of him next to my pole, but he kept jumping all around and wouldn't hold still, so instead of trying for another pic I just let him go. He looked and felt a lot bigger than 2.10, but hey, it's still early in the year.

Fished for another couple hours. Hit 3 more LMB. One on a popper, one more on a senko and final one on a red eye shad rattle trap.

Overall not a bad day. It really felt like summer fishing for the first time. The bass beds were still there, but mostly baron now, and you can really tell the vegetation is starting to grow underwater since most of my cranks came back covered in weeds.

Oh well, a pretty decent morning of shore fishing on the Sud.

I told myself I was going to go fishing at the crack of dawn Saturday since I had decided to take the previous weekend off, but as I hit the sack around midnight without setting my alarm I figured I'd be fast asleep at dawn and the earliest I'd be hitting the water was no time before 8am.

So 4:45am, like clockwork, I'm wide awake and my body is telling me, "it's time to hit the water". Since it's already so late in the summer, sunrise isn't for another hour and it's pitch black, so I take my time making my way down to the reservoir, and end up walking through the woods in the dark to my favorite spot.

The water was dead calm and the skies were overcast. Temps were in the mid 60's but it was surprisingly uncomfortable since it was so humid. I started off the morning with my first cast at around 5:45am about 10 minutes before sunrise using my secondary setup, a 6' pole with the cheaper reel, working a topwater popper for a few minutes trying to stir up some action. I got a bite after about 5 minutes and pulled in a nice size 1lb 9oz LMB.

It's at this point I decide to switch over to my main setup, a 6'1/2" with the good reel, rigged with a 5" baby bass senko on a 3/0 off-set weightless hook. Now at this point the water is still dead calm, but there is commotion all over the place. In just about every direction you look the calm was broken up by a splash here, a ripple there, or a whole bunch of churning over in that area. I tossed the senko as far as I could about 30 yards to the left of where I caught my first fish to a spot where I'd seen some activity. I let it slowly sink to the bottom for about 10-20 seconds and as I picked up the slack to start working it back in...

Bam!!! Fish on!! I can feel it's a big one, but its not fighting nearly as hard as some others I've caught in the past, but as soon as it gets within about 20 feet of the shore and starts to really pull hard and jump a bit, I can tell this puppy is a MONSTER and the biggest fish of the year for me. I'm not going to lose this guy so I pull him in as quickly as I can while being careful to watch my pole and line for resistance.

I get him on the shore and start to unhook him only to find I'd hooked him deep in the gut and it ends up taking me probably a minute or two to get the hook out. No wonder he wasn't fighting so hard. As I'm working to get the hook out though I can't help but notice how HUGE this guys mouth is. Seriously, I've caught tons of LMB before, but never one that truly had a mouth THAT big. I'm a big guy and I could have easily fit my whole fist in there without touching the sides. Crazy. I'm thinking as I'm holding him he's easily 5lbs+ or more. I caught a 3lb 7oz last month in the same spot and that guy was a baby compared to this thing.

So... I lay him down next to my pole to take a quick pic. (Since I shore fish by myself you need the pole for contrast). I'm just about to weigh him and maybe take another pic, and bam!!! He wiggles free and escapes!!!!! I seriously jumped in the water after him. He was dazed so it took him a second to get going, but as I'm diving with both arms, knee deep, just trying to get my hands around him, he swam away.

Argh!!!! Larry the Sudbury Lunker escaped his weigh in!!!!

Not deterred, but annoyed with myself that I was so excited that I screwed up and didn't weigh him first, I went right back to fishing the same way as I caught Larry . Different assorted 5" green/watermellon/pumpkin fleck, etc... senko's on the 3/0.. Within 15 minutes I'd hooked two more fish, a 1lb and a 1lb 3oz, working the areas with the all commotion. It was almost like cheating. See area with activity, toss out senko, catch fish. See more activity, toss different senko, catch fish.

Then... right about 6:30am, it stopped. I tried working every bait in my tackle box for the next hour plus. Tried working some more poppers to stir up action, cranks, different colors, spinners... Nothing. And the worst part was you could see that any activity that was happening at this point, although it had died down, had moved about 10 yards beyond the furthest I could cast. :-)

Larry must have told them to stay away from me.

So that was my morning... Your guess is as good as mine as to his weight. I took a pic of the 1lb 3oz for contrast, and you go back to my 3lb 7oz from a few weeks ago in my other pics(he looks tiny compared to this guy), so I'm gonna conservatively say 5lb+, although he could have easily been more.... He's about 20" if you look at my pole, and you can see a package of senko's in my tackle box to get more contrast to his size, but man!!! He could have been closer to 6lbs, but I'll never know.

Oh well.. You're still out there my friend, and I'll be back. :-)

Till next time. ;-)