kman

This year we have been trying out a lot of new spots. We had struck out gaining access to a few places that I heard great things about. They were private or impossible access. One night driving home after not having access, we drive by a place that looks interesting and also hidden from view. There is an hours at best left of light. We decide lets try it. Picked up a few fish right away. As dark fell upon us, the fish went nuts feeding. We cruised around the place and pretty much got hits on everything thrown. Place looks great, structure, pads lots of wood, but all spread apart nicely and easy to fish. We caught 60 or so fish. Here is the thing, they were all 1.5 1.75 lb fish, with 2 lb fish thrown in here or there. They were hitting dead sticked slammers and everything else. It was fun and definitely worth checking out in the daytime. We return another morning and fish for maybe 4 hours. The fish were not in the same spots, but we did find them deeper. Same thing, all stunted under 2 pound fish. Not worth going back.

spot 2

Long paved road makes access tough if gate is closed. If gate is open, you can drive down and unload, then park on street.
The gate got locked on us by afternoon, we had a long way to carry a lot of stuff. Roger tried to get police to open gate for us. They sent the Fire department, they showed up and just drove away. Not seeing any cars behind the gate, they assumed we got out. Roger ended up removing a security barrier pole,poorly cemented in ground, allowing us to drive in and load up. Was it worth it? Roger caught a heavy 3 and a 5 on a frog. Odd hay like weed beds, had some big bass under them. The frog got them out. I caught a lot of decent fish there, and Rog had a nice lunker. I don't think it's worth going back.

Spot 3 didn't work out, caught fish but would never go back.


Spot 4 is a place we fished a few weeks before. I did well and caught some decent fish. Rog caught a few but could not get them to bite. I liked the place and we wanted to fish it again. We went back and did some night fishing. The buzzbait was key, but you really had to work it. I caught 6 bass on the buzz, best 5 going 20 lbs. haha It was fun. Rog got the SKUNK.

I hooked up with fellow maff member Ted. We fished from 6 am to Noon. I picked up a few on the buzz again. We got them on jigs as well. The morning was off to a good start. We were fishing in a cove that previously did not fish well. I was throwing a buzz again, when this massive wake came up behind it. I am thinking big pickerel. It sucks down the buzzbait, hardly a hard hit at all. I'm hooked up and it's swimming at the boat. We get a real good look at it. It's a HUGE fish, substantially bigger than several 7 lb fish I have caught. It came in easy and then made a run when at boat. I had to swing him around trolling motor. As I did this he was coming up and inches away from Ted grabbing him. The lure pops out, fish gone. Dead silence. Just reporting what happened from two guys who experienced it. It matters not who believes me. I would of preferred to hold it and not just tell a story. I have a decent big bass resume, I know what to compare it too. Obviously it greatly adds to the allure of this place. So anyway, Ted has to leave at Noon and Roger is coming to take his place. We do well and catch some quality fish. Rog had 5 fish or so. I had a lot more than that. lol. He would have his day.

Roger and I returned another day. We get on the water before 4 am. I pick up a few nice fish on a slammer right away. The buzz was dead and the jig bite was slow. I picked up a few on worms. The ones we were catching were nice heavy 3's. I caught a 4+ on the slammer and then the bite went dead for a bit. The wind had picked up and the water had a good chop to it. 100 yards off shore in the chop, the slammer bite turns on. We catch some more heavy 3's and a 4. Roger then gets a massive hit and brings in a 4.11. Few more good fish in between and Roger gets another massive hit. He brings in a 6.8 lb fatty. His new PB. Was a beautiful heavy fish. We added a few more 4's. The big fish came out to play today.

The dirty Bassasins aka Shawn W and Sam F challenged team Northshore to yet another Dorito challenge. History of the challenge aside, it is exactly what the title suggests, the losers give the winning team a bag of doritos. The bassasins did NOT bring a bag and should of been disqualified right there and then. Sam and his infinite smugness said it wont be needed.

Now I should rip these guys a new one for labelling me a cheater in the Horn pond challenge. I will play nice.

I picked up some 3 lb + fish very early in the day, followed by a 4.4. Roger picked up an unexpected smallie and later in the day matched my 4.4. We had an 18 lb bag at days end.

Knowing these guys have been training hard, avoiding all organized events all year, trying to up their game for round 3, I had no idea what they had. It turns out they had a 4.2 that fell out of the boat when they tried weighing it. Tough luck guys, perhaps a bobber and worm event held onshore with helmets is more along the lines of what you need. Fish falling out of the boat did not matter anyway as 4.4 is bigger than 4.2.

on Another note, it kind of looked like Shawn was taking off his underwear across the lake. I have no idea why and quite frankly it disturbed me a bit. Perhaps he can shed some light?

All in all a fun day and I almost feel bad that they are 0-3 in their own challenge. A for effort guys. lol

We decided to hit up a new spot and give it a try, it did not disappoint. Started the day around 6 am. I picked up a few small bass on jigs to get things going. I threw a swim bait and it got crushed on my first cast. Roger netted the fish and took a picture. I did not have a scale with me and unfortunately his scale was broken and would not work. It sucks to not know the weights but nothing we can do other than release the fish and keep fishing. Two cast later the swimbait gets crushed close to shore and its a 5 lb + but it got off.

After some decent jig fish, my swimbait gets crushed again between two docks, net the fish snapped a pic and released. Roger picked up a 2 lb fish on a jig and as I was netting it there was a 5 lb fish swimming with it. I threw a jig its way but to no dice. We had to split around 11 but all in all a good morning on the water. maybe 15 fish or so caught but some quality in the mix. The first fish I caught was the biggest and the second was 5 +

I got out with Roger for a few hours today. Some ice still on the lake and water was very cold. I threw jigs, spinnerbait, Huskie jerk, KVD sexy shad, and even a senko but still got the skunk. Roger on the other hand managed three bass and a few pickerel. he caught all his on square bill cranks, reeling very slow. It was still nice to be out there and nice to see fish caught. Biggest fish went 3.11

The challenge was set for 6 am start time til 2 pm weigh in. Shawn W teaming up with Sam F VS Kman of Team Northshore. No handicap was needed, these guys can fish, so I decided not to give them a spread. My kind gesture was not returned and was met with smugness and poor sportsmanship.

To my utter disbelief Sam F was prefishing the lake on the morning of the event. Throwing a buzzbait to the right of the ramp at 5:30 am. I asked him what he was doing? He shrugged me off and dismissed my concerns. My favorite part of the entire lake is just to the right of the boat launch. Sam had blown up that spot leaving me to scramble for a plan B.

Shawn arrived late. I looked at my watch and it was closer to 7 than 6. Evidently Dunkin Donuts is more important than keeping a commitment and showing up on time.

Shawn insisted I launch first. He was very nervous when I went near his boat. I was not even going to check his livewell. I launched and headed off to find some untouched water Sam had not prefished.

The morning bite was good and I had a limit before 8. I text Shawn to see how they were doing. Typical arrogance he sends me a text back an hour and half later. They did well in the morning as well. The rest of the day was tough.

Roger showed up at the weigh in to make sure no more shenanigans took place, Team cheaters weighed in with a 13.2 bag. Kman weighed in with a 10.2 bag. Both teams did well for Horn pond standards.

I will file an appeal.


I got an anonymous email Friday night telling me the tourney was starting promptly at 6:30. When I got there, Kman had Sam in a bear hug and was either molesting him or trying to kill him. After hitting him with some pepper spray I got them separated and launched my boat. We let Kman pick where he wanted to fish first and then went on our merry way. It took us about an hour to figure out the fish. We got our limit (which still would have won) and culled twice. I caught a couple of afternooners but they couldn't help. Sam peed a lot but did catch lunker. Which was an estimated 4.1. Nice try Kman. No soup for you. 2 weeks

Some hot fishing going on aboard the USS Northshore. I got a message from Doug that there were some big fish in the river. I decided to head over there at 7pm. I got a call from Roger asking me if I wanted to do some night fishing in the boat.I told him I would be at the river at 7. Roger got there ahead of me and Doug was there as well. Doug said he lost a monster on his first cast.

We decided to go get the boat and fish the complete opposite end of the lake.
I would normally not leave a river with huge fish lurking. The only reason I did was because in the last 10 days, some big fish have come on the boat, all from the same spot. a few 5+ caught on back to back casts and some 4's.The spots been hot and that's where i'm going.

We get there and fish it hard and pick up a few small ones. Moving around a bit letting the spot settle down. We picked up a limit and some throw aways.

Lots of you know the spot I am talking about. If you know it, you know it. No need to mention it in responses.

It was not a great night so far but we did catch some fish. I cast a jig out at a very specific spot. It felt as if I was snagged up. I then feel it moving but felt small. It felt as if I had a small bass that was tangled up in a rope. It finally felt ok and it was not hung up. I then realized it was something big. I yelled to Roger to get the net and its big. It came to the surface and made a violent smash.I get her to the boat and Roger nets her. This thing was gorged to the max. We weighed it up on two scales and it was 7 lbs even.

I make fish look so small, look at the picture of Roger holding it. Just for the doubters who will say its 4 lbs.

Not the greatest cell phone pics being it was 11:30 at night.

Got a call from our good Maff friend Volume/Ted to fish Tuesday. Its been awhile since we have fished together. Ted is one of my favorites to fish with and I could not pass it up.

Water temp was 66. Lots of bass cruising the shallows and being spooked. Tough bite for sure but we managed a few on jigs.

Biggest bass went 3.10 caught out of the only pads to make an appearance so far. Very subtle taps as bites, letting jigs and worms soak did the trick. They would hit it and then not move at all. Could of been better but still a great day to get out.

The day started off bad. Roger called me from my driveway and informed me one of the plugs on the boat was cracked in half. Great, I have no extras. Its 1/4 past 6 am and I'm pretty sure nothing is open. West Marine opens at 7 am, so we have no choice but to wait it out. We load up and head out for the store to open. 7 am, we get the plug and we are off. The rain is picking up and i'm thinking I should of just stayed in bed.

The last time I fished upper Mystics was about 3 weeks ago and did well. Between myself and a friend we had about a 17 - 18 lb bag. Its not likely to repeat back to back trips with a 18 lb five.

Fast forward to end of the day....I had a 4.51, 4.05, 3.37. Roger threw in a 1.75 and later in the day nailed a nice 4.51 of his own. Total = 18.39. Not bad at all for a day fishing. We had about 30 fish total.

To sweeten the deal, there is a boat house owned by Tufts University. They have a a 50 foot dock. It was lined with honeys in Bikinis catching some sun after the rain was done. There must have been 20 of them. Not just quantity, but definitely some quality as well fellas.

Good day for sure.

The day started off with me getting to the fishing hole around 5:50 am. It was 28 degrees out, flat calm water. I am optimistic at this point we will have a good day. Ted/Volume arrived shortly after. The launch is about 50 yards away from available parking. After a few trips back and fourth we get all the gear, down to the launch. I noticed the transponder cable on the trolling Motor was severed in two. It was cut above the water line so I decided a quick splice was in order. We load up and launch.

50 yards offshore I turn on the Finder, only to be told transponder not connected. I am so pissed off it's not funny. I'm like F this, I pull the motor and lay it on my lap and undo the tape at the splice. I make sure everything is ok and nothing is touching bare wire, retape and try it again. Success, not sure if I lost any sensitivity but worst case I still have the depths. It seemed to work just fine throughout the day.

Now it's time to fish. It was slow going and the bass seemed to have serious lockjaw. We were throwing Husky jerks and Jigs with no success. Finally, Ted connects with the jerk and lands a solid 3.14 bass. It is still freezing at this point and the eyelets on our rods were icing up, but we have seen a fish.

Ted caught a few pickerel along the way. The fish were hitting the jerkbaits while they were sitting still suspended. The bait I was using had a problem, it was not suspending horizontal as it should. It was suspending Vertical, I was hoping to catch some bass with Vertigo but it did not happen. Ted got a massive strike and started reeling in the biggest Pickerel I have ever seen. It got off right at the boat as he was about to lift it in. I would say it was in the 6 to 7 pound range, it was massive. Usually when a pickerel falls off it's a blessing but it was kind of a bummer to see this one get away.

Ok, its 11:30 and Ted has an appointment to get to. The plan was for Roger to meet me at 12:30 and switch spots with Ted. I walk out to the parking lot to stretch my legs and see Ted off. As he is leaving these three guys pull up in a car and started to unload there gear. I can only describe these guys as three dirty Hillbillies. They were nice enough but dumb as bricks. They decided to fish right next to my docked boat. I watched them setup their gear with huge weights and steal leaders on fresh water rods. Umm ok, what are you guys fishing for? They said bass and perch, they told me via holding out their arms to a 3 foot length, that's how big the bass and Perch they catch. Well fantastic, God bless you guys. I could not take it any more and I went and grabbed another battery out of my car, switched them up and decided to head back out alone and wait for Roger.

After leaving the future Darwin award winners on the shore, I went out and fished a bit. Shortly before Ted left, we marked a hole close to the ramp, loaded with fish. It was 18 ft deep and had good promise.

I got a call from Roger and he was pulling in. I drove over and picked him up. Of course the hillbillies were casting right to the area I had marked the fish. I was not worried about them catching any, as it appeared they were using chunked Mackerel as bait.

Roger and I drove around all the usual good spots, At this point the wind picked up and the water was rough as hell. I wanted to use a working Husky Jerk, so I asked Roger if he had one. Roger bought a new tackle box in the off season, it can easily be mistaken as a 50 gallon cooler. Lol. Good thing is he also loaded it up with new tackle. He had some Husky jerks. We fished our asses off to no avail.

At the end of the day, after the hillbillies left, I finally I caught a 3.4 and 1.11 bass, right at the edge of the deep hole I earlier marked. If you read all this thinking there would be a spectacular ending, sorry to disappoint. Still a great way to spend a Sunday on the water.

Hit up a medium size lake with Roger on Friday. The bite started off a little slow,no hits on buzzbaits or spinnerbaits in the morning. The soft plastic bite started to pick up about an hour into the day. Some nice 2 lb chunks to start off the action. We just moved around a bit tossing Senkos into pads. Roger caught a 3 lb plus fish, things are looking good and its not even 6:30 AM yet. I then nail a 4 lb even.
As the day progressed the fishing was great with lots of 2 and 3 pounders. Roger then hooked into and brought to the boat a 5.4 lb beauty of a bass. He also caught another 4 lb. Its hot as hell and sunny at this point, early afternoon. The bite has slowed down substantially. I then decide a need some shade for a few. I pulled into an area with about 10 ft of shade against the shoreline, parked the boat there for a few to cool off. This area never produces, it is 3 feet deep and pretty much a sandy bottem. I had on a black n blue bitsy bug jig with a black and blue chiggarcraw crazy legs trailer. I threw it out and kept the line tight and reeled slightly, this causing the jig to move forward as it falls. Tap tap, I set the hook on a solid 2 pounder. I throw it again, tap, set hook, a 1 1/2 lb fish. The 3rd cast the jig could not of sunk more than a few inches, then the most vicious hit I have EVER felt. Normally you feel the hit then the fight takes place, not this time. This fish had my rod bent over practically before I even felt the hit. It was if it was swimming top speed away from me when it hit the jig. What a rush. I've never had a bass hit this hard and fast. It turned out to be a 5 pounder,I was actually disappointed, surely I thought I had the new State record, judging by how hard she hit this thing. Awesome day, about a 21 lb bag.

Got a little video when I could of various fish.