Long Pond Harwich
My wife and I took the Friday off to go stay for a couple nights on the beach in Harwich Port before the Nashua T. I dragged the boat down with us, and went out on Long Pond Friday for half the day.
I hit the water around 6 am, noticing that it was town sticker parking only. A local guy told me I'd be able to pay for the day when I left, so I headed out anyways.
After running around the lake a bit to check things out, I pulled up on the shallower side of the northern stretch hoping for some topwater action. I fished a Sammy, a Buzzjet, and a spinnerbait. I got one swing on the Sammy over some weeds in 8 -10 feet, but it failed to connect. That was all she sang for the first couple hours as I fished my way around a point and into the western basin. I marked some fish on a steep dropoff around the point, but did not get bit dragging a jig down the drop.
Run to the far west looking for some different water, to no avail. Shallow cover was empty, docks were empty. I marked a bunch of bait in 20ish feet, which turned out to be White Perch that were eagerly hitting the dropshot.
Back to the northern basin, where I started bruising around looking for structure on the s***ty finder I have in the console. I spot something looking like a rock at 15 feet and drop a marker to come back and check it out. After some more scouting, I return and check out the marker on the finder: Looks like some kind of boulder perhaps, so I let out the dropshot, and almost immediately hook up with a solid fish. After hauling White Perch, this one feels like a tank, and it comes up and jumps once before diving down and peeling drag over and over again. It's a good sized smallie, but on the ML dropshot and the light test line it feels like a monster. Every time I get her close to the boat, off she goes again peeling drag. I take my time, and get her to the boat and in the net after a couple minutes and a quarter mile drift in the wind. Turns out to be a nice 3lb 2oz smallie at around 17 inches with a nice gut on it. Just a fantastic fight.
I get nothing else in that area, and head out looking for more deep structure. I find another rock-looking thing in 25 feet, and drop the marker again. Pull up, drop shot down, and another hookup! Almost immediately another big smallie comes up and jumps, and I have to duck as the hook and sinker comes flying back at me. This one looked like a better fish than the first one, and it's sadly the last smallie I hook up with that day.
I saw some of the biggest schools of White Perch there that I've ever seen. At times 8-10 feet thick, and stretching over 20-30 feet (although they could have been heading the same way as me). I could have spent all day catching them if I had been in the mood. If you're looking for some easy action, that's where it's at.