Ponkapoag Fishing Report

Ponkapoag 8/19/2011

Third weekend in a row for Ponakpoag and this was the best so far. Up at 5 AM, out the door by 5:30. Sun is just coming up but somebody's beaten me to Ponky again. Haul the kayak to the launch. Decide to practice a bit with my new baitcaster. After 10 casts I get a huge birds nest. Ten minutes and 20 fewer yards of line later I'm finally back in business and launch the kayak.

Begin working the shore. Brought three rods with me today - rigged with spinner bait, senko, rebel minnow - so I don't have to fiddle with tackle boxes. Five minutes in I cast my line, rod hits another rod and goes flying out of my hand into the murky depths. S***! Hey, the line is still floating. Grab the paddle and hook the line and begin pulling it in. CRAP! The bail on the reel is open and I'm pulling all the line off. Maneuver the kayak over the drop spot and I as I pull the line I can see tip of the rod standing about 5" below the surface. Reach in and pull it back out, equipment salvaged, but now unusable because there's no line left on the reel.

In June, I lost this same rod at Buckmaster on my inaugural kayak run. Two weeks later, I found it in 7 feet of water. The sun was at just the right angle in the right spot, so was I and I caught the glint off of the reel. So now I'm confused. Is this good luck or bad luck? Who knows but it makes another good fishing story.

Getting back to yesterday, the day has not started out so great so my expectations have been tempered. I keep working the pads along the southern shore moving west. Tossing a purple senko, and BAM, I get a nice 15" bass. Sadly it is gut hooked and I think I injured it. This is the one thing that I dislike about these plastic baits. I think I'm going to flatten the barbs from now on.

Keep working the senko but no more action. Switch over to my baitcaster and spinner bait. I'm now fairly far west along the shore. A slight breeze has come up blowing south to north, I'm drifting very slowing into open water casting every which way. Pretty soon I'm into a 16" pickerel.

Switch to my tried and true Rebel minnow. Several more pickerel, the largest is 15". Now we're cookin'.

Still casting the Rebel and BAM again. Whoa, this one is BIG. My rod's doubled over and it's pulling line from the reel. Straight down into the weeds -- where it shakes the hook. CRAP. A few more casts with the Rebel, a few more small pickerel and it's back to the spinner bait.

A few casts and the bait just stops. No hit, no tugging, just plain stops. Think I'm hung up on a weed so I start pulling back hard and a HUGE bass comes flying out of the water. The things is literally two feet out of the water with all fins spread out. I've got a perfect side-on view of the thing and it's a monster! And it threw the hook! Lesson learned.

Keep drifting and casting, alternating between the spinner bait and Rebel, catching lots of smaller pickerel, until I'm on the north shore. Paddle back across the pond to the northeast corner and restart my drift. No luck on the senkos so I start in with the Rebel again and BAM, a 14 inch bass.

All told about 10 pickerel, 3 bass, a yellow perch and a sunny.

Later in the day went to Dicks to purchase some larger 5" and 6" Rebel/Rapala minnow lures. The larger fish keep throwing the 3" lures and I'm getting too many smaller fish.

• Added By: berkleegrad on 08/21/11 11:03 AM
• Location: Ponkapoag
• Report Date: 8/20/2011
• # of Hotspots: 2
• # of Photos: 4
• # of Fish Caught: 13
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