Ashburnham, MA Fishing Report

Ashburnham 6-26 To 6-29-14

Here's one of a few trips I'll be posting that will hopefully give some useful information and tips. I have the distinct pleasure of being able to fish a private lake every year as a guest on someone's lake house. This year's trip was earlier than normal so I wasn't sure what to expect. It was pure post spawn blues but it was cool to fish for 4 straight days and literally follow the fish along their post spawn migration routes to where they hang out in the summer.

The place is relatively shallow with some 12' open water, some rocks, docks, boats, points, boulders, and pads. It's pretty flat though without a lot of offshore grass.

I started off fishing the spots I usually find productive. Oh right, they just did a massive weed kill. In fact, the day we arrived was the first day people were allowed back in the water. Fortunately a big storm was coming in so I went to the mouth of a river that connects to the lake and has a lot of pads. It's strange because the fish aren't really in the pads here. I've figured out that they really only use them as a feeding station since it's so shallow. I must have timed it right because I got to one section with wind and caught a 4, then a 3, then a 5 in a row on the frog. I got some nice GoPro footage of the 4 I'll try to put up. After that, I went to a rock pile near the mouth of the river and caught a few 2s and 3s cranking. This spot is always good when there's wind. The fish set up on the back sides of the rocks.

Quick side note: all of these spots were on the northern end of the lake where they primarily spawn. On day 2, the same spot was dead so moved to the next spot which is a big weedy cove....no weeds and no pads. Dead. On the way out to the main part of the lake I stopped at another rock pile and caught a bunch of solid fish on a spook. I even caught a nice 2 lb. smallie in 1' of water. I heard they were in thee but have only caught ultra dinks before and never really targeted them.

The next day, I fished all these spots once again and caught a bunch of fry guarders around boulders near the mouth of the river on a Lucky Craft Gunfish. But they were gone for the most part. I kept moving south and spotted a bunch more fry guarders and caught a lot of fish on a topwater popper.

So I literally followed the fish as they moved out and hung on whatever major structure or cover there was as they made their way to the southern end of the lake and the docks they usually hang out under. Just to be absolutely sure this wasn't just something out of a Bassmaster magazine, I fished these docks a lot and even threw a worm. There was nothing. Not even any bait.

I figured out that these fish were either just done spawning or close to recovered. I caught a lot of fish guarding fry and they were in the mid range depths. The water was in the low to mid 70s so they weren't shallow or deep but in the mid range.

I didn't get crazy numbers of 3 pounders like I usually do here due to the post spawn phase and weed kill, but it was interesting to fish over a 4 day spawn and follow them as they moved away from the spawning areas. It was a solid learning experience as well being able to piece all of this information together and make the best of it.

• Added By: samf on 07/30/14 07:17 PM
• Location: Ashburnham, MA
• Report Date: 6/26/2014 - 6/29/2014
• # of Photos: 6
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