Report; Quabbin Res., 5/25/16

[Crestliner08]

Walt & I launched around 7:40 am on Wednesday. Air temp was 57 degrees with the water at 60 degrees. Still a bit cool. The air warmed up rapidly to over 80 degrees by 10 am however. Very hot day out on the water today. By the time we pulled off at 1 pm, the temp was close to 90.

The weather forecasts, both locally and NOAA for our area, predicted 10 - 15 mph winds with higher gusts. That did NOT materialize, I'm sad to say. It was pretty much calm to a very slight breeze from time to time. This made our normal drifting presentation just about null & void. So, we did a lot of anchoring and casting. Trolling didn't seem to produce much either, as the fish were more concentrated in the shallow weed edges. Our arms aren't what they use to be, so it really took a toll on us, with the heat and repetitive casting, which is why we pulled off so early.

It was not a great day numbers wise, but the quality of the crappie were certainly better than what we had experienced on the Ct. River a few days ago (previously reported here). We found most of our fish in the 6' - 15' depths, but most were in the weeds. We picked up a couple of bluegill and yellow perch as well, but crappie were the dominant species. We used curly tails, paddle tails and straight tails. Nothing much took over the pattern. It was much more about location than anything we were throwing.

Ended up with 42 fish. Most of the crappie were very respectable. Here are a few pictures, starting with Walt's catches:







And here are a few of mine:







All in all a pretty decent morning, even though the action wasn't as fast & furious as we've experienced last season. However, this is still earlier than when we started fishing for crappie on this reservoir last season too. By mid-June, things will pick up rapidly - and hopefully, so will the winds!

["D"]

Very nice as usual. Like Walt's new hat. Next time you guys need new boonie hats, Slab sells some nice ones in the C.c store. Reasonable price and you always get some "extra's". "D"