Pre-Spawn and 2023 Goals

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Bass pre-spawn is here in Massachusetts! While I haven't had a lot of time to go out, the fish are biting! Get your wacky rigs, top waters, shallow crankbaits, and other shallow lures ready. The weather may not be seasonally appropriate at times (given that it hit 90 a couple weeks back) but the bass are getting ready to make little babies and need to eat whatever they can. May last year was the time I caught my first bass at Buffumville Lake in Charlton, and it was on a wacky rig.

The little guy in the picture was caught on a Ned rig with a 5 inch Senko, which was my first time getting a bite with that set up so that made me very happy. Not to mention that it was my first bass of the season! 

2023 Goals

Last year was an all-around learning year. I was learning how to fish, tie knots, boat, locate fish, how weather affects the fish, properly use lures...the whole nine yards when it comes to fishing. As a 33 year old, I had a lot of catching up to do to be on par with the locals who have been fishing their whole life. Thanks to the internet though, I was able to quickly pick up a lot of information. Almost too much.

Fast forward to this year, I've basically mastered fishing spinning gear. I'm comfortable with a few different lures and rigs, like the drop shot, wacky, and Whopper Plopper. However, there's still a lot of stuff I have left to learn, and a lot of lures and rigs that I have yet to catch any fish on.

This year, I'm focusing on catching fish on different lures and rigs, while keeping my sanity by still using some of the same stuff I'm comfortable with. I'm also focusing on learning the ins and outs of some of my local bodies of water. It doesn't make sense to me to keep trying new places if I haven't figured out where the fish like to hide on the local places I haven't had much luck. The fish are there, just not biting what I'm offering.

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