Cape And Plymouth Area
Took the day off today and headed to the Cape 1st then moved to Plymouth in the afternoon. We arrived at 8am at our #1 spot with high hopes. My buddy had fished here the week before and caught 18 bass in a half day with a 5 and three 4's in the mix. Flat, mirror like conditions greeted us. Not good!! We fished for 2 hours with only a couple HUGE pickerel for our efforts. Finally about 10:00 the wind started to come up. WE picked up our swimbaits and started chucking them on the drops..... still nothing. I decided to throw up super shallow and as soon as the bait crashed down it was crushed by a 4lber. AS I brought her to the both we look down and see a 6+ following behind the 4.... DOH!!! After a quick pic and release we dicided to check out the shallows. The wind was iffy at best. It would come and go. We make our way down this one shoreline and we see 8-10 bass all between 4 lbs and 6lbs just either sitting there or slowly cruising. We backed off the threw the kitchen sink at them...... Nothing We move around a point and my buddies spinnerbait gets slammed..... another HUGE pickerel......... nope an 8lb Pike!!!! What???? there are not supposed to be Pike in this pond. After we snap a few pics we continue fishing for another couple hours with only a few small keeper bass to show for our efforts.
At about 12 we decide to move off Cape to a Plymouth area puddle. this place is about 50 or 60 acres max. It has a mix of boulders and overhangs. Jigs were the bait of choice here. The wood was void of live but the boulders were holding some nice fish. I got a 5.25 and a 4.1 off the same boulder, just on opposite sides. My friend got a 3+ on another group of rocks and we caught 4-5 smaller bass all on jigs in the rocks before it started to get dark and we left. Total bass for the day was around a dozen with a 5+ two 4's and a couple of 3's in the mix..... Not bad at all!!! My budy has the pic of the Pike along with another bass pic on his phone. I will add them when I get them
Sam, that's been my "go to" bait at Ponki. The bite has not been there, though. But at least your advice is consistent with what I've been thinking.
ponki? try double willowleaf with silver / gold blades or double silver due to clear water. white / chartreuse or white. 3/8 oz. for higher in the water column and ticking the top of the weeds or 1/2 oz. to rip it through the weeds. bang it off of those rocks as well.
I hope so, I've been throwing spinner baits for the past month with not much to show for it. Fished Ponki yesterday for 5 hours, only two bass on the spinnerbait, though I did get 4 picks including a very beefy 23".
Water temps started in the mid 50's and bumped up to the upper 50's by the end of the day. The lower to mid 50's for me, is the best fall bite. Spinnerbaits should really start to shine.
Great report Rich. I absolutely love the photo of that pike, an truly beautiful fish.