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Date: November 7, 2020 Body of Water: Ashumet Pond - Falmouth/Mashpee, Massachusetts Boat: amybaby22 With: Alone Target: Stocked trout Time: 7:45 AM - 10:45 AM Conditions: Beautiful; clear and bright, 55 - 65 degrees, light wind; clear water with 10 feet of visibility; water temperatures 52 - 53 degrees F; correspondingly poor fishing With the striper season waning, I took a subset of my Great Lakes trout and salmon trolling knowledge and gear inland to Cape Cod stocked trout ponds. I started with Ashumet; it was convenient and certainly inviting on such a beautiful autumn day. Line counter reels, including one with two colors of lead core, were affixed to light bass crank-bait casting rods and an assortment of floating and sinking Rapalas, cranks and small spoons filled my tackle bag; I was ready to find trout! I'd barely gone 100 yards before the rod with my favored F9 Rapala in blue bent over; fish on! But the fight was uninspired, and my expected trout transformed into a yellow perch (albeit a pretty decent one at about 10 inches). Okay, my hot start was simply a good start; and now, the struggle began. I continued my lap around the pond, targeting 6 to about 20 feet of water, but occasionally straying into deeper or shallower areas. Weed growth was sparse, scruffy and focused from about 5 to 8 feet; the perch had hit over such a weed patch. At the pond's northern end, a little creek provided current and there was a hatch of midges; an occasional swirl indicated fishy life. But my trolling pass went unnoticed. Here, I noticed substantial marks in 22 - 35 feet of water. I spent an unproductive half hour trying to get a response from these with jigging spoons and small tube jigs. These marks convinced me there was substantial life in these depths; I replaced one rod with the lead core and a Little Cleo spoon to continue the troll. But still, I elicited no bites. Returning to the shallows, I caught three more yellow perch. These seemed to prefer the S7 Rapala in black over gold. But these were not the fish I wanted; I decided to relocate to another pond. Ashumet Pond certainly was pretty, it just wasn't worth all of my time on this particular day. Date: November 7, 2020 Body of Water: Mashpee-Wakeby Ponds - Mashpee, Massachusetts Boat: amybaby22 With: Alone Target: Stocked trout Time: Noon - 2 PM Conditions: 65 -70 degrees; bass tournament; water stained brown with 4 or 5 feet of visibility; water temperatures of 54 to 56 degrees F I arrived at the launch to find that the pond was hosting a bass tournament; but this is a sizable body of water, and this pond has a reputation for coughing up some larger, holdover trout; I could still make my day! I was immediately concerned about the appearance of the water; brown and about 55 degrees, I suspected the fall turnover was in progress, and that fishing could be tough. I tried to focus shallower on this pond based on warmth and limited visibility; my efforts were centered on 5 - 15 or 20 feet of water. I used only mono, and usually paired a floating Rapala with a sinking version. I did mix in J9 baits, thinking the extra vibration might call out some fish. Long story short, I might have had a single drive-by strike. Near the eastern shore of Wakeby Pond in 11 feet of water, the rod presenting an F11 Rapala in black over silver momentarily buckled. It had released the tension prior to my getting to it, and the drag never slipped; but it sure looked like a walloping. Thoughts of the ramp clogged with boats; putting the boat away and the drive back home; I called it quits at 2 PM. Still, I barely made it home before dark. Winter is definitely coming. What do I have to say about this? This was pleasant and relaxing enough, but the reward:effort ratio was a little low. Oh well, had I gone striper fishing and struggled, I'd likely have been distracted by thoughts of the awesome trout fishing I was missing out on. And, now I at least have some experience on these two new-to-me waterways. The amybaby22 proved to be an able trolling platform and trolled down to the slow speeds required for Sweetwater fish. I enjoyed the downscaled, light trolling tackle I had assembled; with a partner aboard, a four-rod spread will be efficient and easy to monitor and maintain. There will be more of this in my future, I am certain. Pondering the questions of core essence and finding meaning in unexpected ways
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