Report; 9/9/19

Walt & I hit the Quabbin this morning to a cold start! Air was only 47 degrees and the water was 72. Winds were very light and variable as you can see from these pictures. First was from the launch area where the dam is and the second is the main lake where we started to fish:

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We fished from 8 am until about 1 pm today. Thank goodness for the side pulling trolling motor that saved us. Use to be we could rely on a fairly steady wind up there. But this year it appears to be just the opposite. So, the TM is a priceless addition to our presentation and success.

Bait was plentiful and so were the fish as you can see from these two screen shots:

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Bait was dimpling on the surface all morning long, along with the occasional "explosion" as predators from below launched their attacks on the surface schools. Pretty neat to see! :)

Our bait observations were verified with the attendance of a couple of loons as well. They appeared occasionally, indicating that the "food bag" was on. Here's a couple of not-so-good snapshots of these marvelous birds:

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Difficult focusing on photography when your rods are bouncing about! We do the best we can. :)

Anyway, final tally for the day was 77 fish caught & released. 10 were bluegill with the rest being crappie. A fairly even split between Walt & I today. We focused mainly on straight tails and paddle tails on 1/16 & 1/8 oz. ball head jigs. Forgot my GPS at home, so I don't know exactly what speed we were side pulling at, but we were moving along pretty quick.

Here's some representative pictures of the crappie we caught today:

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Did I say it was cold out there? :)

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It got better, temperature wise, throughout the morning. But along with the moderating temperatures, the bite progressively died. We pulled the plug at 1 pm as we were down to our shirt sleeves by then with the sun doing it's best to discourage our stay.

Nice day, great company, co-operating fish. Doesn't get much better folks! God Bless America!

You guys for sure hit the jackpot again, both in weather and in your catch.

You guys had a great morning again. Great to see.