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Left the house at 0615 and arrived at the Tully River access at 0700. Loaded up the kayak and headed north on the river toward Long Pond. The sun hadn't come up over the tree line yet, so it was still gloomy looking. Paddled the 1.3 miles back to Long Pond, occasionally stopping to fish when spots looked good.
Didn't catch anything until I got to the northern end of Long Pond where I hooked into a pickerel. After the cold paddle, fighting frozen eyelets on my fishing rods and no bites, I was happy to hook even this medium size pickerel. I kept fishing the northern end of the pond and hooked a second pickerel of decent size. Fished along the east side of the pond. Threw my KVD Caffeine Shad Swimbait at some dying lily pads in a little deeper water and retrieved it back into the shallower water. I felt a light bite and set the hook. I then experienced the best fight I have felt all year. This fish dragged my FS10 around, tail walked, jumped, and tried everything to spit my hook. The hook was buried in the roof of his mouth and there was no shaking it, I had him pegged good. Lipped him beside the kayak and could not believe how big his mouth was. This was easily the biggest Largemouth Bass I have ever caught. Lipped him with the scale, 6 pounds 4 ounces. Took a few pictures and let him slide back into the water. It was a pure pleasure to watch this fish swim away. Fished some more and paddled home.
It has been a great year. I went on 37 fishing trips, paddled over 80 miles of waterways and visited 15 different lakes, ponds or rivers. Caught a lot of fish, learned a lot. All fish, except one, was successfully released to live and fight again.
This may be my last fishing trip of the season. Other things are coming up that will take priority.

Hit the pond at 0650 this morning. It was around 33 degrees when I set out this morning. Saw no movement at all in my usual spots. Was fishing with plastic swimbaits and a bluegill swimbait. I cast the bluegill swimbait and was slowly retrieving it when I felt a light thump. I thought I ran into some weeds, the lure got heavy, I gave it a tug to free it from the weeds. Needless to say, it wasn't hung up in the weeds. My lure was stuck in the mouth of the biggest Largemouth Bass of the year and the 2nd biggest bass of my life!! She weighed in at damn close to 6 pounds. First picture of the scale said 6 lbs, second said 5 lbs 15 oz. You can bet I'll call her 6 all day long!!
Wind picked up and made the paddle back to the access point a challenge. Waves were white capping and breaking over my bow. One wave broke over the cockpit edge and soaked my right leg. It was good to know that my kayak could deal with weather like this, but I was glad to get off the water. Getting wet is not a bad thing when the water if 75 degrees or higher, and it's warm outside. It's a different story when the water temp is mid 50's and it's only 47 outside.
It has been a great year kayak fishing this year. I think I will have one more weekend then I may put the kayak on the wall and call it a season.

Been "rutting" in the fishing schedule, working over the same bodies of water. This morning I decided to go someplace new that I haven't fished before.
Quaboag Pond has some nice fish in it, but there are not too many places I have visited that you can paddle about 100 yards off shore and still be in about 4 feet of water. The place is also filled with weeds. There were some good looking places along the West bank, lily pads and other good looking stuff. Paddled to it and found out the water was 2 feet deep and surface temperature was over 80 degrees. Algae was all over the place and that doesn't usual go hand in hand with a good fish population. Without a huge small baitfish population to eat the algae, the s*** actually robs the water of oxygen and that ain't good for any living creature. Hey, don't ask me - I read it somewhere.
Paddled North to the mouth of the Quaboag River. Water was a little deeper, a little cooler and void of the heavy concentrations of algae. Worked a Keitech Easy Shiner along a point. Cast the bait and I think the fish saw it coming and sat there with it's mouth open. As soon as I engaged the reel, the fish was pulling. Great fight and a new suprise.... I am pretty damn sure I just caught my first Smallmouth Bass. Bronze colored with no lateral line.... That's a Smallmouth!! 1 pound 10 oz!!. ( CORRECTION: My friends have told me that what I thought was a Smallmouth is actually a Largemouth. S#$@ - the hunt is still on.)
Worked the same bait along the point East of the river mouth and caught a second fish. He showed himself chasing baitfish. Threw my swimbait in his swirls and he ate it. 2 pounds 14 oz.
Paddled around and caught a third, and a final nice Largemouth near the mouth of the East Brookfield River at the Northeast side of the pond.
Wind kicked up, elbow was a little sore, headed back to the boat ramp and went home.

Paddled 5.07 miles.

Returned to the same place I went last week. One thing about new places, you always want to try them twice. Now that we are getting deeper in the summer fishing season, the sun is actually rising 30 minutes later than it was a few weeks ago. Doesn't really mean much, I still left the house at 0415 and arrived at Tully River at 0500. Launched the kayak with just enough light to navigate the river without running into anything. The darkness and fog made the river eery, but it was pretty. The sun burning off the fog and bringing light to the day was welcome. 1st fish of the day was a nice little crappie. Ist largemouth bass of the day was caught in the same place I caught bass last week. Bass weighed in at 2 lbs 10 oz. Definitely a fight on a medium light action spinning rod with 6 lb test. I have to say, the fish in this river and pond are the best fighters I have experienced in all my travels this year. 2nd bass was caught in Long Pond and weighed in at 2 lbs 15 oz. 3rd bass was nice one. Weighed in at 4 lbs 1oz. Caught on a KVD Caffeine Shad 5" swimbait.
This place is a great trip, providing you get there at the crack of dawn. Once the sun is up for a couple of hours, the pleasure kayakers come out of the woods and the peace and quiet is gone.
Oh, by the way, conversations between kayaks 200 yards away sound like they are sitting beside you on the water. Today, I learned that Marshall's is a good place to find stuff cheap, one lady would like a more comfortable kayak because the molded plastic seat makes her ass hurt, and a few things about their husbands. Thanks ladies, but I would have liked to enjoy my fishing Saturday listening to the frogs and birds and otters splashing......

Departed home at 0415 this morning and launch the kayak into Tully River at 0500. Headed North toward Long Pond. Caught 3 Pickerel, 2 Largemouth Bass and a Crappie today. Caught them all in the river and had no bites in Long Pond. First Pickerel smoked my hollow body frog. He was a good size, but nothing special. Threw my frog into some tree branches that were sticking out of the water. My 20lb test braid line was over a limb when the bass killed my frog. I set the hook and had him pinned to the other side of the branch. I kept his face pinned to the branch and he wiggled and came over the top, then I pulled him in. Second bass missed my frog so I picked up my spinning rod with my grub on it and threw right back to the same spot. Bass killed my grub.
Paddled back to Long Pond, fished and got nothing. It was pretty out there. The fog was lifting and the sun was trying to break through the clouds. There wasn't another soul out there. Otters were making sure I knew this was their pond, slamming their tales in the water everytime they submerged.
Started paddling back toward the river and worked a few places on the way back. When I got to the South side of the beaver damn, I hooked into a pretty big Pickerel. May even be my personal best Pickerel!! It ate my KVD 5" Caffeine Shad swimbait.

After fishing for 5 hours on Friday at West Waushacum Pond and catching 7 fish that were all small, I packed up the kayak and headed to Tully Lake. I fished this lake earlier in the year and didn't do to well. I arrived at the lake at 0500 and caught the first fish on the second cast. It was a good sized bass. Pull really good and took me for a ride. Caught two more bass through the course of the day and 4 pickerel ranging from one nice big one to one that was smaller than the bait he tried to eat. Had a great time today..... I'll be back again.

They are painting the office today, so I decided to "work" from home. Was sitting in my kayak at 0500 for a second visit to Whitney Pond. Fishing was slow today. Took awhile to get a bite and a long time to get a bass bite. First fish was a crappie. Next a good sized pickerel. I explored some shallow back bay areas. Had a nice bass tug my line, give a good aerial show and spit my hook. I was paddling back to the boat ramp, had to give it the proverbial "one more cast" and caught a nice bass, then caught a crappie, another nice bass and a small pickerel.

Launched the kayak at 0445. Pond was covered in fog. Access is very difficult due to underwater rocks at the launch area. Pond has a few deep spots but a lot of areas are under 4-6 feet. The large northwest cove is filled with stumps.
Caught 11 fish. 2 pickerel, 2 crappie, 2 perch and 5 largemouth bass. 1 of the pickerel was the biggest pick I have ever caught. It had to be well over three feet long. Crappie were nice sized, perch were fairly small and all 5 bass were over 2 pounds with the largest coming in at almost 4.

0500: Launched at Lake Wampanoag. Headed strait across the lake to East shore just South of the Damn. There is a shallow flat between the island that is about 4 ft deep that drops off to the South side into about 10 ft of water. Caught Bass #1 there - nice 2 pounder. Then headed up the East coast of the lake and into the narrow channel that travels along the South side of the large Island. The channel is very shallow and is becoming covered with lily pads. Caught 6 bass, 4 pickerel, 2 crappie and a turtle today. Beautiful day, easy paddling, wind was not a factor at all.

Was supposed to take a buddy of mine kayak fishing for the first time, but he sent me a text the night before and bailed on me. no worries, I have no problem going alone. Hit Lake Wampanoag again after a good weekend last week. There was a storm that rolled through on Friday night, but the lake was smooth at 0500. Not another soul on the lake either. Paddled up to the North end of the lake and fished the coves. Caught a pumpkinseed, a nice bass that weighed just shy of 4 lbs and a crappie before I headed home at 1100. North wind really kicked up and made it difficult to maintain position. Parking Pole is a great tool to help you stay put in shallow water. Wasn't the best day, but it was great to get out.