Ashland and Hopkinton Reservoir

[notime]

As the summer winds down I was thinking of hitting Ashland or Hopkinton State parks for trout as I live close to both. Is it worth the effort, or should I just drive to Walden or some of good trout rivers further north and west?

[Sentience]

I have never been to these places. As for Walden, I only go there in the spring and fall. This is for a few reasons. 1) the water warms up there so that you are really looking at fishing for smallmouth and largemouth bass at this time of year. it's not like the trout aren't there, they are just deep and you almost can't get to them without a watercraft of some sort. 2) in the summer, when both the water and the weather warms up and the kids are out of school, walden pond gets out of hand as far as people. it's sort of like a zoo on some days and never very peaceful on these days. this is to say nothing of the people walking around yakking loudly on their cell phones etc. 3) it is $5.00 to park there in the summer. call me cheap, but i get so used to not paying anything there in the off season that it seems unreasonable. i know its for a good cause and all but...

as i said above, walden is a great place to go in the early and late seasons. and it is close to boston (where i am.) in the early season they will rise to dries like griffiths gnats and such. in the fall it is more buggers and streamers. when no one is around it is a very beautiful place. i even like the train roaring past once in a while. but i like trains. there are also some nice trout in there. a few other drawbacks just so you know in the future are that they close the gates locking you in after 6:00 p.m. in the off season and 7:00 in a summer. so this sometimes means quitting just as its getting good and running like hell up to the lot. secondly, there are a ton of bait fishermen there who are into lawn chairs, gut hooking and limiting out on smaller (or worse bigger) fish. these guys are generally nice and don't bother me, but i guess i would rather see the trout in the pond than on a stringer.

as far as the nissitisset and squanacook rivers and any other rivers near you, they usually suffer from high temperatures right now. this makes early morning and evening the better times to go or you have to know where the cold water springs are. both of these are great especially in the spring. right now though i usually make the haul out to the swift just because i know the water will be cold, even if the trout seem to be (illegally) disappearing. i love trout fishing. its funny i see the same people all over the state on pretty much the schedule i have just outlined above.

[SamRiley]

Walden is hard to beat. Take the yak and be there when the gate unlocks in the morning. White's around the corner has Salmon too and is and easy yak pond.

[Bob Parsons]

Hopkinton should be getting its fall stocking soon as the water cools down. They usually include a few salmon in the mix.

[tyteloop]

I live in Ashland and have fished the reservoir very unsuccessfully over the years! It's only good for fly fishing for a couple weeks after stocking - either spring or fall. and you'll be competing with elbow to ___hole bait bouncers. If you have floatation, you can get water to yourself, but the state doesn't stock it heavily enough to justify all that work. If you're willing to drive 75 miles to the swift (another crowd!), why not go to the salt, where the stripers and blues are fattening up on peanut bunker and a 30 incher of either is possible?