Wachusett Reservoir Gate 35
Weather looked to be good so today I went out to Wachusett Reservoir. Got to B&A Bait shop around 7am, got some shiners and some crayfish. Headed out to gate 35. Walked in a ways and took the left branching path to the shore. I wanted to be sure I was past that first cove where the small stream enters. At the bank here you can get fairly deep with a good cast (maybe 20-25 feet deep) and there are weedlines here so I figured why not set up shop.
Used slip sinker rigs and circle hooks. One rod shiner, one rod crayfish. Had a good run on the crayfish rod, missed the fish. Another hour goes by with no real action, checking bait and recasting every 20 minutes or so.
Checking the shiner rod around 8:30am and I thought I snagged a rock or something. I gave it a little elbow and then it began to swim! Very reasonable fish I figured. Fish was staying down and head shaking a ton, not sure what it was going to be, smallies usual go airborne after hooking. Took a good 3 minutes to steer this fish into shore. Finally got a look at it, BIG largemouth! I don't catch many largemouth here. Landed fish and tried my best to take a couple pictures. Measured 20 inches and fat fish, easy 4 pounds.
Got another 2 smallmouth (small fish) on shiners, no takers on crayfish. Wind started picking up a lot and it was hard to keep baits set correct. Headed out around 11am.
Two things make me hate Wachusett, one old, one new. Old: the freaking ticks! Don't touch anything here, holy cow. I deep woods off'd a lot at the parking lot before I went out but I was scared to death until I got home and could really check myself over. No joke, this place is heavy on ticks so take precautions. The new? These crazy brown snakes!!!!! The are all over the shore and go in and out of the water. They get real close and just look at you. Never seen them here before and not a good thing. Nasty critters.
I fish the same way all the time, have caught a few lakers on senkos fished deep unweighted, but mostly it's bass I get because I usually go in the dog days of summer.
do you only go for bass at wachusett?
northern water snakes are a scourge.....