Quaboag, Brooksfield, MA Fishing Report

Club Tournament @ Quaboag - 5-21-2011

Second club tournament of the year took place at Quaboag, and featured much better weather than the season opener on Mashpee-Wakeby. Weather started out cloudy with a slight wind shifting between north and east. Water temps were around 63-64 to start the day. About halfway through, the weather changed to mostly sunny and water temps rose to around 70 in the shallows.

I started the day around the southern "river" opening, fishing the point and cove behind it. I got a short bass and a couple of pickerel on a sammy-style bait right off the bat, but otherwise nothing of note.

After abandoning the cove area, I fished my way along the southern shore. It was mostly a 2-3 foot weed flat, with the occasional empty bed. Alternating between the sammy, a spinnerbait, and a buzzbait netted me some more spectacular pickerel hits but no bass.

About halfway to the western river opening, I chatted with another guy out there. He told me I was fishing in the right area, so I kept at it but switched to senko more or less full time. It was almost halfway through the day and I had no fish.

Soon after, the sun came out and before long I picked up my first fish, a nice 2-2, on the senko in reeds close to shore. My second fish followed maybe 30 minutes later when I spooked a decent size fish with the boat. I moved off about 5 feet, and it came right back. From maybe 10 feet away, I dropped the senko right on it and saw it turn and gulp it in. After a decent fight, I had a 2-12 in the boat.

For most of the remaining time, I stayed in the same general area. Coming by the area where I got the first fish, I was fishing out from shore when the line took off. This one put up a real nice fight on the spinning rod, peeling drag again and again before I netted it. This ended up being my big fish of the day, at 3-9. A 4th keeper clocked in at 1-2, also on the senko.

At this point I spotted a big fish on a bed right up under shore. It looked like an easy 4, so I decided to spend a large chunk of time on this fish due to our tournament format. We were paired up across boats, and each of us could bring 5 to the weigh-in. Each team would then cull to weigh their best 5. Knowing my partner already had 4 as well, I focused on the chance of a kicker fish instead of limiting out.

I spent probably close to an hour on this one fish. It was pretty lure and boat shy, but kept coming back 5 minutes later. Whatever I tossed in there, it just wouldn't bite. With maybe 40 minutes left to fish, I found out why: A second, equally big fish rolled up on the bed and they started spawning! No wonder there was no bite, they had other things on their minds =)

I ended up running to the north end of the lake and fishing out the last bit of time with another short to show for it. I felt pretty good about my contribution, and we ended up using my 3 biggest and my partners 2 best 1-and-change keepers for an 11.66lb limit, good for second. First place was a 15.XX bag including 2 fish near 5 pounds each.

It was nice to be out in decent weather for once. For a while it felt like I was going to get skunked, but the afternoon sun helped turn things around. Thanks, Quaboag!

• Added By: michaelk on 05/23/11 12:19 PM
• Location: Quaboag, Brooksfield, MA
• Report Date: 5/21/2011
• # of Hotspots: 1
• # of Photos: 1
• # of Fish Caught: 4
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