charles river.

[silverado mike]

well I took out the long rod and the waders in a metrowest area of the charles just to see what I could get to bite. well the bite was on!
I was on the water at 1:30 in the afterneen sun. thowing a red ant pattern.
started off with a 2# Lmb then a few sunny's and a perch. then I came across a nice pool with a fast currentup tight against the bank. I was staying away from the pool so that I didnt have to spook anything (I was upstream)
the casts were 50+ feet long and right on target. the first 10 cast preduced sunies or perch I think it was the 15th or 16 drift when bam!! I thought I was onto a 4# large mouth when all I saw was a flash then a jump and off it went down stream..after a 5 min tug of war I brought a 19 inch rainbow to my waiting hards.. --127-3- after a few more casts into the same hole I was cut off on a tree (bad cast) so I put on a black wolly bugger and on the first cast up came a 14 inch rainbow this one didnt fight to hard it had a nice initial run but then lost steam and turned over for me. I fished for an other half hour with a few more sunies but nothing of size.

All in all a nice sat afternoon on a new section of an old river.

Mike

[PMcHallam]

Mike,

Good to hear there's still some trout in the Charles. I live in Medway, so the Charles is the closest body of water for me if I can squeeze in an hour or two, which is about all I manage to get lately.

A word of caution.. the Charles has gotten cleaner, but there are times various stretches of it still exceeds standards for either swimming or boating in terms of e. coli content, particularly after a good rain. Check out Charles River Watershed assoc site, they post a monthly water quality map - www.crwa.org. I'm speaking from a gastro-intestinal lessons learned viewpoint, unfortunately.

Pat

[teflon_jones]

WOW, that's some seriously good fishing!!! --127-3-

[Plastics Galore]

Hearing of tales of large trout and carp swimming the murky waters of the charles I decided to try my own luck. Two friends and I went out on his boat on a sunny sunday afternoon, although we didn't have much luck in the way of seriously big fish, we did catch a good number of smallmouth bass. Most of the luck occured with just flipping long-tailed grups into sections with heavy cover. Most of the bass ranged around 10 to 15 inches, but fought surprisingly well. Some will even jump completely out of the water when they hit the grub :brow

[medburd]

I live on the charles river in Waltham and I can honestly say....the charles river while not the cleanest body of water in the boston metro area it could quite possibly be the most productive for catching a variety of species..for myself that happens to be northern pike and largemouth bass....it's not often that I get skunked in that river...and it is only getting better with time!!....I have yet to get serious with a fly rod in the fresh (more of a saltwater flyfisherman)..but it is damn good fishing...oh by the way..if anyone asks..tell em "there aren't any fish in the charles river so don't bother, it must be too damn polluted for fish to survive there"...that way we can keep it all to ourselves! http://www.reel-time.com/forum/images/smilies/brow.gif....my biggest pike to date from the charles...33-1/2" 5 years ago!. my biggest bass...6-1/2lbs. Watched a guy pull out an 8lber in front of my apartment last year....and the wildlife is spectacular if your into that sort of thing..I actually have a balled eagle in my area..so keep an eye on the children if your fishing in waltham. http://www.reel-time.com/forum/images/smilies/yellowspin.gif

[mike kelly]

you don't think one of the children balled the eagle do you? :)

[medburd]

oops did I do that? bald balls balled....the red sox one!! and I'm tired...

[Chuckster]

That thumbnail looks like the area near my old apartment off Crescent Street...correct?

Also, is that a Black-Crowned Night Heron? Sure looks like one...

Years ago I fished that river alot, and I once took a 5lb largemouth from an outfall pipe upstream near the golf course. I miss freshwater fishing...