Wachusetts

[albacized]

As most of you know, opening day at Wachusetts is in about a week and a half provided it is ice free. For anyone who drives by there regularly, does it appear that the ice is melting at a pace where it should be gone by the end of next week?

[Eddy Merckx]

For anyone who drives by there regularly, does it appear that the ice is melting at a pace where it should be gone by the end of next week?

A little too early to say for sure. Even the open water at the causeway bridge and at the mouth of the Quinnie has iced up again with this most recent cold snap.

Pretty surprising, considering that the reservoir was ice-free into January this year.

I drive past the SW end of the reservoir at least twice a day, I'll let you know how things are looking next week.

[albacized]

Thanks a lot!!

[Eddy Merckx]

Still iced up pretty good, no open water to speak of yet.

[Onshore]

I was there yesterday. The Quinapoxet River was open to the highway and appeared to be a very fishable height. Didn't get over to the east side but very little open water on the west side-Sterling/Lancaster.

Ice was over the Stillwater basin and there was a bald eagle feeding on a dead deer there.

I also checked out Comet Pond but it is still pretty well iced in.

[Eddy Merckx]

Still a lot of ice on the reservoir. The section by the old stone church is almost entiely icebound, though the area on the other side of the causeway is largely open. The far southern section along 140 is still iced up as far as you can see.

Plenty of time for everything to open up for opening day on the 7th.

[albacized]

Still a lot of ice on the reservoir. The section by the old stone church is almost entiely icebound, though the area on the other side of the causeway is largely open. The far southern section along 140 is still iced up as far as you can see.

Plenty of time for everything to open up for opening day on the 7th.

Thanks a lot. I had just read that opening day is the 7th. Is that what it orginally was or is this a new date due to the ice conditions?

[Eddy Merckx]

Thanks a lot. I had just read that opening day is the 7th. Is that what it orginally was or is this a new date due to the ice conditions?

That's the original date for this year, nothing to do with ice conditions. First Saturday in April has been opening day for quite a while.

Of course, you won't find me anywhere near the reservoir on that Saturday, guerilla fishing ain't my thing. ;)

[Doublebait]

I have a copy of the Masswildlife Chu map the has gone away(dead link). If any one wants a copy sent me a PM.
Its in pdf format and is 1.6MB.
Wasn't sure if I could attach a file that big.

[albacized]

How's the res looking for tomorrow?

[Eddy Merckx]

Good to go. Still some ice at the far south end along 140, but that's breaking up and it's not a popular fishing area anyway. All other areas are open. Good luck if you're gonna give it a shot tomorrow. Local rivers got their first stockings this week.

[albacized]

Thanks a bunch....

[ssully]

No hits, runs or errors.

Saw three small lakers (12-17") caught. Heard of one laker estimated at 5#'s

Talked to the DCR Ranger checking licenses. There is no min. size limit on lakers, he said take them all as they are overpopulated. He also stated his partners bagged 8 guys without their tickets. DOH!

FWIW, casting lures formed ice on the guides.

[lowwall]

I was there before sun up, waited till legal time and got 0 on the res, Quinpoxet inlet. I was FF and it is just tough fishing there that way. Saw one of the res sharpies get a huge Bow on a float jig rig. Nice guy and gave me lots of intel.
I hit the surounding tribs and they were loaded with Bows. The Bait Bucket Bridge gangs had not cleaned them out yet. I saw one large fish amoung the stockies that was 24"+, could have been a sucker don't know. Gave the spot up to a Farther and Son worm Dunking team.They were having a hard time catching fish. With the water temps of 35ish even the stockies were slow. Had to put a the No.10 Brassies in there face to get them. I put the kid right on the fish. Hope he caught it.


Mike

[BobG]

No hits, runs or errors.

Saw three small lakers (12-17") caught. Heard of one laker estimated at 5#'s

Talked to the DCR Ranger checking licenses. There is no min. size limit on lakers, he said take them all as they are overpopulated. He also stated his partners bagged 8 guys without their tickets. DOH!

FWIW, casting lures formed ice on the guides.

I didn't believe this when I first read it, so I went to the DFW website, and it's true. No size limit on lakers.:confused: I remember when I was a kid fishing Wachsett, and just seeing anyone with a laker was a noteworthy event. Now, 40 years later, they're practically considered a nuisance, and you can take any and all you want.
Something seems wrong with this method of management?:confused:

[Trout77]

I didn't believe this when I first read it, so I went to the DFW website, and it's true. No size limit on lakers.:confused: I remember when I was a kid fishing Wachsett, and just seeing anyone with a laker was a noteworthy event. Now, 40 years later, they're practically considered a nuisance, and you can take any and all you want.
Something seems wrong with this method of management?:confused:

Your right...it does seem strange. But remember, we can only get (around the resevior and not in it) I know guys that have scuba'ed the res and seen SCARY sized lakers!!
This coupled with the fact that this is a mesotrophic lake with a wicked thermocline, only gives us access a few months out of the year. Unless of course you dont mind losing spoons jigged along the rock countors and holes. (A tip in the summer, not "purist" by any means) stand on the causeway and SLOWLY jig a 3inch bucktail (perch color) for those wiley deep water chars.
Imagine if they gave us a day or weekend to float-tube.canoe this water!!!
Im not sure on the safety of the lake trout flesh (ie PCBs, Hg, etc.) but it is oily and okay...The Res. wont stratify for a few months the way things are going, so slap on the ol' red and white Dardevle and try all depths.....
Cheers!

[ssully]

Hey Bob,

How's things?

Quabbin actually got rid of the 20-23" slot on lakers this year as well. They still do have an 18" minimum. Unfortunately the opening day for boats (ice conditions) has been tenatively put off until the 21st. Oh well.

Here is a good article "Species balance is the key to healthy fisheries" about Lake Winni. They seem to have a very good handle on their fisheries up there. It's all about the smelt.

http://www.newhampshire.com/article.aspx?headline=Species+balance+is+the+key+t o+healthy+fisheries&articleid=619

A quote from that article.
"Landlocked salmon are not the only fish in our big lakes that need to have a close watch put on their populations. Lake trout, which unlike the salmon are able to reproduce naturally in most of our lakes, can overpopulate a lake very quickly. Lake Winnipesaukee was about to have that problem a couple of decades ago when our fisheries people wisely stopped the stocking of lakers there."

[Onshore]

I was there for a while yesterday and saw two salmon taken - one about 20", the other about 12". I took a couple Brookies of about 8-9" on a small black Leach in the big pool above Canada Mill bridge and broke off a salmon on a big Hornberg in the fast water some ways below that.

Tomorrow looks like a good day for it...

Bill

[Trout77]

I was there for a while yesterday and saw two salmon taken - one about 20", the other about 12". I took a couple Brookies of about 8-9" on a small black Leach in the big pool above Canada Mill bridge and broke off a salmon on a big Hornberg in the fast water some ways below that.

Tomorrow looks like a good day for it...

Bill

Did I hear right? A landlocked salmon in the Quinny upstream the dam?? --127-3-
I didnt think anything could use that awfull fish ladder at Oakdale :confused:

[Trout77]

salmon up here?

[Eric W]

I stopped by the upper Quinny tonight after work. Landed 3 nice rainbows in a half hours. The flows are good right now, but the water is a bit cold.

[lowwall]

Nice report but I Hope the 1,292 Viewers don't all show up at this pool at once. The name of the river would do.

Ibig pool above Canada Mill bridge

[Onshore]

Larry C. and I fished the river above Canada yesterday. Nicest day of the week with 9AM temp 36 and about 49 at noon. Water conditions were excellent but we did nothing. High point of the day was breakfast at KPs

[Onshore]

Nice report but I Hope the 1,292 Viewers don't all show up at this pool at once. The name of the river would do.

Well, Lowwall, anyone driving along the river, from whatever direction woud see that pool and it is a beauty; so I don't think I'm burning that spot. It's probably the most fished pool on the entire river. It's definitely a put-and-take river anyway. So, what's the big deal about mentioning it?

There are plenty of other pools on the Quini and plenty of other rivers in the area no so well know that I haven't mentioned in my posts.

Bill

[Onshore]

Nice report but I Hope the 1,292 Viewers don't all show up at this pool at once. The name of the river would do.

Well, Lowwall, anyone driving along the river, from whatever direction woud see that pool and it is a beauty; so I don't think I'm burning that spot. It's probably the most fished pool on the entire river. It's definitely a put-and-take river anyway. So, what's the big deal about mentioning it?

There are plenty of other pools on the Quini and plenty of other rivers in the area no so well know that I haven't mentioned and will not mention in my posts.

Bill

[lowwall]

I agree that it is a well known in your face kind of spot. And the river is Put and Take for the stockies, but any Salmon up there had a hard time getting there, I don't like the idea of advertising there presence in such a small area.

Any Way, No Offence Meant Just My opinion.

Mike

PS. 24" LLS In a Wachuset Trib today, Fished the Res proper as well. 11 Hr on the water. 1 Fish. First Cast No less.
Tough Place!

[albacized]

I agree that it is a well known in your face kind of spot. And the river is Put and Take for the stockies, but any Salmon up there had a hard time getting there, I don't like the idea of advertising there presence in such a small area.

Any Way, No Offence Meant Just My opinion.

Mike

PS. 24" LLS In a Wachuset Trib today, Fished the Res proper as well. 11 Hr on the water. 1 Fish. First Cast No less.
Tough Place!

If you don't mind me asking, what were you throwing?

[lowwall]

I was fishing ConeHeads, Buggers, Streamers , Nymphs. My Budy was "Catching" with a Roster Tail. I don't know the sizes but it was 3" log or so and White. He does well there on them. Also has some Huge ones for lakers. His first cast it hit. Not another hit all day for any of the rest of us 3 . Throwing everything you can imagine including worms!

[Onshore]

Just a clarificatiion. In my post about seeing a couple salmon caught, I did not specify what part of the river they wee taken. In the same post I did mention taking a couple brookies at the Canada Mill pool.

I drove by there last evening and the river is really roaring. Any trout stocked by the bridges or anyplace else is quite a way down stream, I would guess.

[chathamgreg]

Does anyone know how difficult of a trek it is to get from that bridge downstream to where the Quinny gets close to the road again (the other side of 190)? It looks like maybe 2 miles but what is the terrain like?

On another note drove over to the Stillwater yesterday and the river was only about 12" from touching the botttom of (what used to be) the steel bridge.

[Eddy Merckx]

Does anyone know how difficult of a trek it is to get from that bridge downstream to where the Quinny gets close to the road again (the other side of 190)? It looks like maybe 2 miles but what is the terrain like?

You can follow the rail trail almost the entire way, never more than a quick walk down to the river. I ride my bike the entire length from the mouth to Canada Mills, stopping to hit all my favorite pools along the way.

If you're talking about wading the river entirely, I dunno, never tried it.

On another note drove over to the Stillwater yesterday and the river was only about 12" from touching the botttom of (what used to be) the steel bridge.

I stopped by to check out the bridge construction yesterday. There was a beaver sitting on one of the concrete beams spanning the river, just looking down and thinking to himself "No way I'm going in there." The Stillwater rose a good 4' with the storm.

[Onshore]

You can also park along the road and walk in on a number of trail that start from the road. I would estimate it is about 7/8 mile from Canada Mills bridge to the MDC Dam.

[albacized]

I guess things have been kinda slow over there so far this season. Well, after getting out of work early for a doctors appt, I decided to head over there and give it a try anyway. I think the sun is going to get things moving this weekend. As for today, things weren't hot and heavy, but I did manage 3 smallish lakers that ranged from 10 to 15 inches. These were all caught on metals. Also, while I fished from 5 PM through 7:30 PM, these three fish were caught in a quick 10-15 minute spurt after I had been there about 1 1/2 hours. I never had a hit before or after that time.

I'm not going to disclose the location, however, it wasn't a big secret spot or anything. In fact, there were at least 8 other guys fishing the area. The only other guy who I saw catch some fish was also throwing metal as well. All the bait guys were getting skunked as far as I could tell. I'd guess that the next 2 or 3 weeks should be a lot better.

[albacized]

One word of note about Wachusetts (since I made it back over the weekend and again after work the other day), the water level is very higg. There are certain parts of the shoreline where you can normally scout around...but you can't right now. This is particularly true of the north/east shorelines where several gates are located off rt 70. Near the causeway/telephone wires, only a small portion of the shoreline is affected-you can still access a good part of that area.

Btw, I had a question about a spot I've never tried but have seen people fish-it's the first area of the res you see on your right as you're heading north on 140 almost immediately after you cross rt 70. It almost looks like an area that is more shallow compared to other areas. But I always see cars pulled over on the side and people fishing away...how is that spot?

[Trout77]

Hey guys,
I have to disagree that the Quinny is a "put and take" river. When I think "put and take" I think Lake Cochituate (and it's "undocumented workers" :brow )

There is proven reproduction of both browns and brookies here, in the Quinny and I have caught many. In fact, the Quinny (in my opinion and experience) is a good stream and very deserving of a C&R section (no bait) with minimum stocking and maximizing habitat improvement. I have never seen this stream go above 70 deg F, and there is plenty of gradient, feeder brooks and springs along it....

Alot of folks mistreat this river and I will gladley "dime-out" any poachers I see along it.
Respect our water, its about quality, not quantity.! --127-3-

[Eddy Merckx]

I have to disagree that the Quinny is a "put and take" river.

I fully agree with your disagreement! :)