Today DJ and I went fishing at Wachusetts Reservoir ( from here on out I will be referring to it as " the Chu" or simply "the lake". Both NOAA and AOL weather predicted a very cloudy morning followed by more clouds than sun in the afternoon. Knowing smallmouth ( our main objective) are more active under low light conditions
we decided last night to make a day catching feisty bronzebacks.
I sure wish the weatherman would have been right... By the time we got to the lake, it was sunny with big puffy clouds in the sky. We were both disappointed but made the best of it knowing we were fishing either way.The last and only time we ever fished there was two years ago. It was a bluebird day and we didn't catch anything, although that day we were after salmon and lakers. The Chu is a 4000 acre lake it is surrounded by forest to protect the water which is drinking water for Bostonians. To get to the water you go through gates. All the gates are numbered and that is how you refer to the lake. An example would be " Fishing was really good at gate 6." The gat
es closest to the dam are off limits,again to protect the water supply.
We started at Gate 10. DJ was using a 1/16 oz jig with a small shad body. I started with topwater with no avail. Within about 15 minutes DJ hooked the first smallmouth. It wasn't big, but it was the first fish either of us ever caught in the lake. I switched to a 3 inch grub and landed my first smallmouth. After 20 more minutes, fishless, we moved to another gate. Our plan was to cover as much water as we could until we found fish. We moved to Gate 6.
At Gate 6, I still had my grub on. DJ used his shad body most of the day until he switched to worms late afternoon. While walking the beach casting my grub, I hooked and landed a rock bass. It wasn't small maybe 8 inches. It was my first rock bass ever. I definitely didn't expect to catch one on a 3 inch watermelon grub on an 1/8 oz jig. After I let it go I tried for a few more minutes without any luck. On a side note, when I unhooked the fish, the grub flew up and hooked me in the lower lip. In the picture of me holding the rock bass, you can see blood about 1/2 below my lips. I guess the fish was a little happy to exact some revenge. I wanted to catch som
e more rock bass so I switched to plain old worms. I caught a small smallmouth but didn't get any more rock bass. DJ who was 100 yards away from me had his pole bend. When he reeled in he caught his first rock bass. We took some pics and let
it go.
we decided last night to make a day catching feisty bronzebacks.I sure wish the weatherman would have been right... By the time we got to the lake, it was sunny with big puffy clouds in the sky. We were both disappointed but made the best of it knowing we were fishing either way.The last and only time we ever fished there was two years ago. It was a bluebird day and we didn't catch anything, although that day we were after salmon and lakers. The Chu is a 4000 acre lake it is surrounded by forest to protect the water which is drinking water for Bostonians. To get to the water you go through gates. All the gates are numbered and that is how you refer to the lake. An example would be " Fishing was really good at gate 6." The gat
es closest to the dam are off limits,again to protect the water supply.We started at Gate 10. DJ was using a 1/16 oz jig with a small shad body. I started with topwater with no avail. Within about 15 minutes DJ hooked the first smallmouth. It wasn't big, but it was the first fish either of us ever caught in the lake. I switched to a 3 inch grub and landed my first smallmouth. After 20 more minutes, fishless, we moved to another gate. Our plan was to cover as much water as we could until we found fish. We moved to Gate 6.
At Gate 6, I still had my grub on. DJ used his shad body most of the day until he switched to worms late afternoon. While walking the beach casting my grub, I hooked and landed a rock bass. It wasn't small maybe 8 inches. It was my first rock bass ever. I definitely didn't expect to catch one on a 3 inch watermelon grub on an 1/8 oz jig. After I let it go I tried for a few more minutes without any luck. On a side note, when I unhooked the fish, the grub flew up and hooked me in the lower lip. In the picture of me holding the rock bass, you can see blood about 1/2 below my lips. I guess the fish was a little happy to exact some revenge. I wanted to catch som
e more rock bass so I switched to plain old worms. I caught a small smallmouth but didn't get any more rock bass. DJ who was 100 yards away from me had his pole bend. When he reeled in he caught his first rock bass. We took some pics and let
it go.Working the shoreline, DJ and I landed a couple more smallmouths DJ caught the biggest one by far. It was only about a foot, but two of mine were aquarium size. While all this was going on a pair of loons were watching us from about 150 yards out. Also DJ saw a bald eagle. He tried to point it out to me, but it went behind a forested island before I could find it in the sky. Two pretty awesome sites if you ask me, an eagle and a pair of loons.
After Gate 6 we went back to Gate 10 without any luck. We then went to Gates 17 and 18 which are both roadside. We were just exploring to see what the bottom consisted of. We tried to fish rocky areas for rock bass and smallmouth. We shied away from places with muddy bottoms or a lot of weeds. We can fish those places at home, we really wanted to catch our target species.
All together, it was only a so-so day fishing. My totals were 4 smallmouth, 1 rock bass, and two large bluegill. DJ caught 2 smallmouth ( but one was decent size) , and one rock bass. Who knows how we would have done if the weather folks would have been right. Oh well, I went to the Chu and didn't get skunked, fought one of my favorite gamefish, and caught a new species. I will definitely remember next May to try for smallmouth when the water temperature is perfect!
After Gate 6 we went back to Gate 10 without any luck. We then went to Gates 17 and 18 which are both roadside. We were just exploring to see what the bottom consisted of. We tried to fish rocky areas for rock bass and smallmouth. We shied away from places with muddy bottoms or a lot of weeds. We can fish those places at home, we really wanted to catch our target species.
All together, it was only a so-so day fishing. My totals were 4 smallmouth, 1 rock bass, and two large bluegill. DJ caught 2 smallmouth ( but one was decent size) , and one rock bass. Who knows how we would have done if the weather folks would have been right. Oh well, I went to the Chu and didn't get skunked, fought one of my favorite gamefish, and caught a new species. I will definitely remember next May to try for smallmouth when the water temperature is perfect!
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