Billington Sea, Plymouth, MA Fishing Report

MAFF @ Billington Sea, 5-8-2011 - Cabin Fever

As all who were there can attest to, the day started off looking like it would be a nice, warm day. But as the day went on, clouds rolled in and the wind picked up quite a bit. It ended up being a cold, blustery day out when all was said and done.

Sam and I weren't quite as prepared for this tourney as I would have liked. It was my first time even taking the big boat out this year, and we had only just gotten on the water and were rigging up the last few things when the field took off. We saw two boats head to each of the areas we had in mind to start, so we ended up heading off to the island right in front of the launch.

We got most of our fish on brush hogs pitched to cover or shallow structure. The shore cover was not very productive for the most part, as it was very shallow. Another foot of water would have been awesome. We got one of our nicer keepers off a dock in 3 feet or so, which culled our 13 inch rat that we caught early in the morning.

We managed to find one fish on a bed all day. It seemed nicely locked on, and doesn't move far from the bed even when spooked. Pitching the brush hog on the bed was rewarded with a quick pickup and spit. Repeat this for about 5 missed hooksets. The dropshot didn't even get more than a cursory look from her. Back to the brush hog it was, for another 6-8 missed hooksets as the fish doesn't even keep it in its mouth for more than a split second.

A beaver-type bait gets the first real bite, but the fish is barely hooked and comes off. Amazingly, she went right back to the bed. As we are maneuvering the boat back and forth in the wind, it looks like we spooked her off the bed. A closer look reveals that she's chasing bluegills, not being spooked. Out comes the bluegill swim jig. First pitch only skirts the bed and barely gets a look. Second pitch drags the jig right into the bed. Stop the jig, couple little twitches, and she slams it. Moments later, we have our fourth and biggest fish in the boat.

We saw a ton of bait in the weedbeds in the west basin, and fished a spinnerbait for a while. It seemed like a perfect time for it, and the pickerel certainly agreed! We picked up 6-8 pickerel and one bass that didn't cull before going back to our soft plastics. In hindsight, we probably should have kept at the spinnerbait as we got no more bass for the day and still kept getting pickerel on the plastics.

Our final bag went 10-8, with a 3, a couple of 2s, and a couple of heavy 1s. We put a total of seven bass in the boat, five on the green pumpkin brush hog, one on a jig, and one on a white/charteuse spinnerbait. We probably stayed on the shallow cover too long, but it's hard to abandon something that's been working so well.

As a bonus, I cranked the motor for the first time this year and it started right up. All in all, a pretty nice outing. It was great seeing everyone again!

• Added By: michaelk on 05/09/11 10:03 AM
• Also There: samf
• Location: Billington Sea, Plymouth, MA
• Report Date: 5/8/2011
• # of Hotspots: 6
• # of Photos: 1
• # of Fish Caught: 7
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