New England Freshwater Fishing

On September 15 fishing partner, John Chrisant, and I returned to Quabbin Reservoir’s Gate 31 in New Salem, Massachusetts. Our plan was to fish the main reservoir for largemouth bass in the morning and then switch to O’Loughlin Pond for crappies in the afternoon. Because air temperature at the 6:00 a.m. opening hour was forecasted to be only forty-two degrees, we delayed our arrival by a couple of hours to give the sun time to warm everything—air, water, bass, and us. Recap: Fishing on both sides—main reservoir and O’Loughlin Pond—proved exceedingly slow. I didn’t even keep count of the bass we caught. There weren’t many, and except for two decent largemouths in the 1- to 2-pound range all were dinks. Fishing on the main reservoir was bad enough, but O’Loughlin Pond was extremely disappointing. Usually the regulating pond, which is separated by a dam from the main body of water, provides enough crappies and bluegills along with pencil pickerel and small largemouths to keep us busy and happy. Not this time. We stunk the joint out there, boating just one largemouth, one crappie, several midget bluegills, and four pickerel. We did hook one fair-size pickerel and got to enjoy a long battle on the crappie rod and 4-pound-test mono before the chain—it looked like a 20- to 22-incher when it jumped—bit through the line. More than likely John and I won’t bass-fish Quabbin again this year. Summer’s over, and so is our hot summer bassin’. We might give Quabbin’s landlocked salmon and rainbow trout a shot later in September or in October, but I think our next outing will be at Goose Pond where we’ve done very well with trout. By the way, water level at Quabbin Reservoir is way down. Most of our favorite reed stands are either in water too shallow to hold fish or nearly out of water completely. Many are literally high and dry.