Hows the fishing at the Quabbin?

[CWulf]

My son an I are going on our annual trip to the Quabbin for a day of fishing. Going to rent one of the boats at Gate 8 Fishing Area 1. Any reports? Recommendations on lures, baits, etc?

 

[HorizontalHunter]

I went a few weeks back and the lakers were 25'-30' down and sh Nets behind a silver dodger was the ticket.

Bob

 

[CWulf]

I went a few weeks back and the lakers were 25'-30' down and sh Nets behind a silver dodger was the ticket.

Bob

Ok, thanks Bob. We’ll give it a try

 

[HorizontalHunter]

We usually use downriggers to troll the shiners for the lakers and streamers up top early for the salmon.

Typically dodgers or Dave Davis are our "goto" for the lakers. If I am in a rental with no downriggers I usually anchor up with 2 anchors (to stop the spin) and run shiners on the bottom.

Bob

 

[larueminati]

I rent a few times a year and we've only caught lakers and they were all on trolling crankbaits. You'll need something to hold your pole on the side of the rental boat and one person drives while the other sets up their pole. 2oz of weight with a 6' line and then a 3way swivel with the crankbait 8' off that threeway. It's a huge rig and you need to take care when letting it out but it works and doesn't get tangled believe it or not. That weight only gets you down to around 35' when factoring in the drag from the trolling speed, lead line doesn't work much better I actually prefer a thinner 8lb line for the mainline.

May not be what everone else does but it's worked great for us, like I said all lakers haven't caught any salmon. Acutally we've gotten a few GIANT smallmouth with this setup aswell.

Good luck.