I went out yesterday morning and fished The Charles for the first time ever. Launched out of Waltham at the Woerd St ramp and paddled the canoe south and fished a couple of coves for about 5 hours. My brother ended up landing the only 2 fish of the day, a nice sized pickerel and a largemouth. We each strikes throughout the day but couldn't hook up with any other fish. got a hit on my buzzbait early, brother got a couple to hit his wacky rigged senko and around noon when the bass were breaking surface in the pads we got half a dozen hits on frogs but could hook up.
SO not a very productive day, but we did get some action. I'm looking for any info on good patterns and good sections of the river to fish. When I first saw the section we were fishing I was stunned with how great it looked as far as the amount of cover(lily pads, laydowns, grass, mangrove looking roots growing from shore) I found the place was very hard to fish because every lure would snag dead grass, or lilypad roots, or pond scum(algae mats). Not to mention the water clarity is awful.
Never fished a river before, although where we were fishign was more like a big pond and not a river, didnt notice any current. Seemed like the only pattern we could figure out for bass was to fish in and around the lily pads, even though the algae mats and the grass growing to the surface made it hard to throw anything other than a frog. Defiantely need to try some heavy jigs to flip into the pads. COULDNT FIND ONE BASS JIG AT TWO SEPERATE DICKS SPORTING GOODS....Maybe im just dumb but i went up and down every aisle.
Anway, Thats my report for my first trip to Charlie. Saw some huge surface breaks, and I know there are Pike in there, as well as 5 and 6 lb Bass, so I'll definately be back. Anyone ever hook into a Pike there? Any info of depth levels? It seemed very shallow in the coves where we were fishing around the pads, like 3 or 4' in most places, but the main river channel must be a lot deeper. Didnt get a single bit fishing around the main channel. I'm wondering if the 5 days of rain on top of the already dirty water just turned the bite off...I'll be back there a couple more times this year.
SO not a very productive day, but we did get some action. I'm looking for any info on good patterns and good sections of the river to fish. When I first saw the section we were fishing I was stunned with how great it looked as far as the amount of cover(lily pads, laydowns, grass, mangrove looking roots growing from shore) I found the place was very hard to fish because every lure would snag dead grass, or lilypad roots, or pond scum(algae mats). Not to mention the water clarity is awful.
Never fished a river before, although where we were fishign was more like a big pond and not a river, didnt notice any current. Seemed like the only pattern we could figure out for bass was to fish in and around the lily pads, even though the algae mats and the grass growing to the surface made it hard to throw anything other than a frog. Defiantely need to try some heavy jigs to flip into the pads. COULDNT FIND ONE BASS JIG AT TWO SEPERATE DICKS SPORTING GOODS....Maybe im just dumb but i went up and down every aisle.
Anway, Thats my report for my first trip to Charlie. Saw some huge surface breaks, and I know there are Pike in there, as well as 5 and 6 lb Bass, so I'll definately be back. Anyone ever hook into a Pike there? Any info of depth levels? It seemed very shallow in the coves where we were fishing around the pads, like 3 or 4' in most places, but the main river channel must be a lot deeper. Didnt get a single bit fishing around the main channel. I'm wondering if the 5 days of rain on top of the already dirty water just turned the bite off...I'll be back there a couple more times this year.
I've never fished there but I hear good things. I'd try it again. There was no bite yesterday. I was at one of my spots that I always catch fish and barely scratched out three bass as I was leaving. 4 hours of fishing and caught the 3 within 15 minutes of each other after the sun went down.
The Charles is weird, long and winding. Depths are all over the place. I fish the upper Charles mostly where it can go from 6' to 2' within yards.
Seems to me Charles Bass like the hug the shoreline under water weeds, under willow trees or other overhanging vegetation. Due to the water traffic, I usually do better with sinking lures than with topwater unless I'm way up in the Dedham stretch where no one goes.
That said, I was fishing a 1.5 inch Rapala looking for pickerel yesterday when a good fat LM hit it just four feet from shore under some willows. I was fishing 6lb line on a 5.5 extra light rod and reel and I only had a trout landing net with me. By the time I got the net in hand, the LM had thrown the small hook and left for cover.
Moral of this story: I'm going to by one of those landing nets with the collapsible handles.
Seems to me Charles Bass like the hug the shoreline under water weeds, under willow trees or other overhanging vegetation. Due to the water traffic, I usually do better with sinking lures than with topwater unless I'm way up in the Dedham stretch where no one goes.
That said, I was fishing a 1.5 inch Rapala looking for pickerel yesterday when a good fat LM hit it just four feet from shore under some willows. I was fishing 6lb line on a 5.5 extra light rod and reel and I only had a trout landing net with me. By the time I got the net in hand, the LM had thrown the small hook and left for cover.
Moral of this story: I'm going to by one of those landing nets with the collapsible handles.
Stay out of the coves for the most part once the fish have spawned. They are done spawning now for the most part so concentraight your efforts on the main river for the most consistant results. Can you catch fish in the coves and cuts? Sure but the majority of the bass population is using the main river at this point. Top water s like buzzbiats( on cloudy days) and pop r's or torpedos work well out in open water. Work them parrelle to the shore to keep them in the strike zone longer.Wood and overhaning brush are #1 Skip jigs, tubes and senkos in and under them. You do not want a heavy jig. It is just going to bog down even more in the slime. 1/4 oz is ideal 3/8th is the most you want to throw. If it cant get through the pads , cast past your intended target in the pads and drag the jig along the top to the pocket you want to hit. A lot of times a bass will blow up or at least show itself as you are dragging the jig. If you do not connect, reel in and cast back to where you saw the bass move. This works great for missed frog bites as well as long as the bass completely missed the bait and did not "feel" the bait.
Hope this helps.
Hope this helps.
I think of the Charles as two different rivers, upper and lower. Both fish differently. The upper Charles fishes shallow and kind of weedy, almost like a small pond. There is not much current and has a lot of shore line structure.
Lower is the complete opposite. Depending on how far up you are you are dealing with tides. The current is stronger, and can hits depths of 35+.
I haven't been out on the river in about 2 weeks, looking to log some hours tomorrow.
Lower is the complete opposite. Depending on how far up you are you are dealing with tides. The current is stronger, and can hits depths of 35+.
I haven't been out on the river in about 2 weeks, looking to log some hours tomorrow.
Hit the Charles too yesterday, afternoon trip. The waterchestnut has covered all the coves. If you wanted to punch through those mats, it would be a crapshoot if you catch any as those mats are so expansive. Productive in some spots but definitely a lot of dead water. You would need to find all the sweet spots (depressions, laydowns, etc) before the thick stuff grows. All of our fish came on frogs and senkos. Frogs around the weedy areas and senkos on the clean banks. The bite was slow overall but I found all the fish holding tight to cover which is typical for stained water and even more for rivers. Most fish were caught around the 95 bridges and beyond.
Thanks for all the advice. Next time out I'll try to focus on the main river channel fishing the overhangs and the wood. The coves are nasty and overgrown with pads, but without any sonar or map, I had no idea how deep the main channel was so I stuck to the fishing I new. Thanks for the info on jig size, because I was thinking 1/2-3/4oz., but I'll try out something smaller. I figured around the wood was gonna be a good pattern, but fishing out of a canoe, its hard to stay on point to make good casts to the shore, we'd end up push right into the spot we're trying to cast into. I guess its just gonna take some experimenting, but next time I'll try out some poppers or X-Walks around the shorline overhangs and wood and try to toss some jigs to them.