Arlington, MA & Medford, MA Fishing Report

Transitioning To Fall

It’s been a while since I posted any trip reports, and the funny thing is I’ve been doing more fishing over the past week than I have all summer. Thing is, while the cooler weather and abundant sunshine has made these trips a pleasure, the fishing has really… REALLY slowed down, at least in my neck of the woods.

Here are a couple of observations from the last two weeks with respect to Lower Mystic Lake and the Upper Mystic River:

• Overall, water levels are down in both the Lake and River, especially so in the case of the later. In fact, when combined with the overall clarity of the water, at certain points of the river one can see the bottom from shore to shore. Good aspect of this is getting a good sense of the bottom cover; bad news is that the fish aren’t hitting there.

• Water temperature in the Lake is down considerably, with the warmest spots coming on flats, and at that, only later in the day. Action in these spots, which was pretty good a few weeks ago, has died to nothing.

• While there are still a good number of weed beds in the River, they don’t appear to be holding many fish, even on the backside with a good current or in the holes.

• I’ve seen evidence in two cases of stripers currently being in the Lake and/or River. Last weekend I saw one tearing up the surface feeding on some type of shad (or equivalent), getting it to chase my super fluke but missing it. In addition, I came across a dead one washed up on the bank near the High St. Bridge, the size about 15 – 20 lbs., which is probably not far off what I saw feeding in the Lake.

• Strikes have been few and hard to come by, with the action just starting to pick up around 6:00PM.

That being said, I have been fortunate enough to catch four fish, three of them on the very last cast of the day if you can believe it. Two were dinks, one a hair over a pound, while landing a nice 2lb-plus this afternoon. Three of the fish we caught tossing 5” Senkos along the edges of lily pads in either Pumpkin or Black, while one was caught on a 4” Senko in Watermelon w/Red Flake on a weighted Texas rig working it fast through a weed bed.

It’s tough-going, I’m working for every fish, and hopefully something of a true pattern will emerge in coming weeks.

• Added By: ewhit73 on 09/14/09 09:20 PM
• Location: Arlington, MA & Medford, MA
• Report Date: 9/5/2009 - 9/14/2009
• # of Hotspots: 5
• # of Photos: 4
• # of Fish Caught: 4
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