Lake Cochituate - Natick

We took a family ride on Sunday morning to investigate the boat ramp options. Things looked nice. There were several boats of all sizes out trolling for Landlocked Salmon. The kids and I took several casts with spinners in hopes of a Trout. -No hits. Still a nice morning to be out.

Charles River - Boston

A slow and cold morning to say the least. Andy picked me up at 5am and we headed in to Boston. We were parked and walking to the spot at around 6am. Setup, baited and fishing shortly after, I landed my first fish, a football sized Common Carp. Over the next 1hr+ I caught 2 more, the all looked identical. See clip and watch me hand land one. Andy on the other hand pulled in about 6 and had his PB, something in the neighborhood of 13+ I believe, (pictured).
I also took a slightly different approach to baiting. I used Garbanzo's Chick Peas on a hair rig and dipped the entire rig (weight included) into soft Pineapple/Pear baby food. Mix in a Little Oatmeal for consistency and the Carp seemed to love it. Garbanzo's stay on the Hair rig a little longer than corn too.

Assabet River - Mill Street - Maynard

With a few minutes to spare on my way home I pulled over and peeked over the Mill St bridge. The water was still moving very fast, and still high. I took a few casts into a couple of the pools but my spinner was swpt away over and over. The Rooseter Tail was too light for the current. I'm still at least a couple of weeks away from the Fall fish.

Norris Reservation , Norwell

Norris Reservation is a small dammed pond (mill pond) that is fed by Second Herring Brook.
It's stocked by the state with Rainbow Trout. Last year I stopped in and took a few casts with my son and ended up landed 2 nice Rainbow's. As I walked down the access path I could see ice covering nearly the entire pond with 2 small openings. At the waterfall there was a guy fishing the bottom who coinsdentally, I saw there last year. He showed me a 4lb Rainbow he caught there this past Fall. The picture was on his phone and was a bit difficult to verify. Every corner of the pond can almost be reached by a heavy lure, it's small, very small. I took 20 casts with the black/silver Rooster tail and maybe 10 with a Rainbow colored Kastmaster. According to the DFW site, it has already been stocked. No hits. Still covered in ice.

Assabet River - Ben Smith Dam - Maynard

Having a few extra minutes before the fam came home on Friday night, I decided to take a few casts at the dam. I took maybe 20 or so casts with my black/silver Rooseter Tail. The water has receeded a little bit but it's still very high. Casting up stream requires retrieving a lure from downstream. If it stays dry this week and most of next, I expect it to get better and the pre-spawn Fallfish will start holding up at the flow side of the dam.

Assabet River - Russell's Bridge - Maynard

I met Andy at Russels Bridge around 5pm for a little bridge fishing. We made an attempt at fishing the bottom with night crawlers hopeing to catch a Sucker. I was shocked that out of 4 rods we didn't even get a single hit, not even from a Sunfish.
Russell's is a great place for the camera. We lowered the Aqua-vu down and the picture below was crytal clear, sandy with very little vegistation, no fish.
The highlight of the night was seeing a couple of freinds who were launching thier Ranger Bass boat.

Charles River - Boston

Early Spring Carp fishing at it's finest.
Andy and I set out at 5:30am to fish a discharge flow on the Boston side of the Charles River. Upon arrival (nearly still dark) I mixed up a very basic starch bait of corn and oatmeal. After a sticky consistency was achieved, I began to drop a few meatball sized grenades below as well as some scattering of dry oatmeal. Not to give away too many secrets, but we also dipped out baited rigs into some sweetened baby food.
Our lines were in the water no more than one minute when I lost my first fish. I was amazed, it only took another few minutes and I landed my first fish, a Mirror Carp (pictured). This was my first Mirror, ever.
We continued to fish for about 3 hrs. I landed 12 fish, all Common Carp and one Mirror, I also lost a few others. Andy ended up catching 11 Common Carp and his PB for the day is pictured. All together we caught 23 Carp in one 3hr outing. The weather was perfect, no wind and in the mid to high 30s. We noticed several fish rising to the surface 50 to 100 yrds out.
I also have my Aqua-Vu camera back in service and the fish were swarming around the camera all morning. I'm hoping next time I'll be able to make a video of a fish being caught.
Spring is here.

Click here for a quick YouTube clip of me landing a small Common Carp:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4e-ZQt1SNs

(you might need to copy and paste the url, sorry)

Assabet River - Acton

I made a quick visit to the Powder Mill gate on my way home tonight and wasn't surprised to see how high the water level was. The water was still to high and moving way to fast to even properly retrieve a lure. Of course I couldn't resist. I tied on a heavy (oz?) rainbow colored KastMaster and pulled it thru the current as slow as I could. After 10 or so casts I made a few more with the black/silver Rooster Tail.
I also took a couple of casts at Thanksgiving Pond in Maynard before I got home. No hits, no signs of life. I think I'm still at least a few weeks away.

Heards Pond - Wayland

Finally, back in familiar waters at the back side of Heards and it was worth the wait. I'm not sure if it was the water levels or the weather that made the fish so active. So active, that for the first time since last year we ran out of bait. We burned up 1 dozen mediums and 1 dozen large in about 3 hrs. There were easily 20+ flags. I ended up catching 2 Crappie, 1 Largemouth, and 1 Pickerel. Andy I believe caught the same plus an additional Bass or two including a nice double-header (pic). It was cold and clear. In the distance we could see open water at the Sudbury River's entrance. We were setup by 6:30 and I was already home by 11:30am. A great morning. With the warm rainy forecast this week, this could have been our last trip out on the ice unless we head up North. Heards still had a decent 8-9" of solid ice, about an 1" of soft ice, with about 2" of snow on top. We're looking forward to some Spring weather that will hopefully include some Carp fishing.