Holdover Bass

[Snapprhead27]

Has anyone gone out looking for any? With the weather we've been having I'm itching to get out and wet a line. Just not sure where to try, I see people on YouTube getting them from Yaks, which I don't have.

 

[Norm]

The usual spots here in RI/MA haven't produced anything so far.

 

[BennyV]

Never really had luck in my neck of the woods. I heard back in the day they were caught around LIPA outflow. I envy those guys that are getting a few on the Housy, but it's just too damn cold.

 

[longcast]

The salt ponds out east have holdovers and if you look hard, white perch. Love how you mentioned LIPA. I fished there religiously 30 years ago. Pick cold nights, NW wind and go. It was a blast! 9 foot S-Glass with a Penn 5500 and 10# test with a leader of maybe 15#. 1/2 oz bucktail with a 6 inch grub or swimmers. And on real slow nights, pop a hellcat on and the fish let you know they were there! Biggest fish was 21lbs but most were small. 4-6 # as I remember, but some fun nights of 8-12 lbs on every fish. You would drive up and get excited if you saw all stacks smoking, you knew warm water was there. Of course in stealth mode moving covertly through the neighborhood. Not often, but also fished on the T Bar further east on a big NW as the warm water would get pushed east along the bar. Also some scary experiences trying to get back if you waded across too many bars following the fish around! I think over the years a few souls lost their lives fishing too long on the outer bar. Some nights the water was too high to continue out to the further bars so you heaved it across the current as far as possible and left your bail open for a long long time and let that swimmer get pulled out to where the fish were sitting. Some nights my fishing buddy and I kept our rods real low as we were the only folks hooking up. Took water in the waders just to be the guy furthest out to avoid tangles in the line up, basically free lining half a spool!! Thanks Benny for making me think!!

 

[BennyV]

The salt ponds out east have holdovers and if you look hard, white perch. Love how you mentioned LIPA. I fished there religiously 30 years ago. Pick cold nights, NW wind and go. It was a blast! 9 foot S-Glass with a Penn 5500 and 10# test with a leader of maybe 15#. 1/2 oz bucktail with a 6 inch grub or swimmers. And on real slow nights, pop a hellcat on and the fish let you know they were there! Biggest fish was 21lbs but most were small. 4-6 # as I remember, but some fun nights of 8-12 lbs on every fish. You would drive up and get excited if you saw all stacks smoking, you knew warm water was there. Of course in stealth mode moving covertly through the neighborhood. Not often, but also fished on the T Bar further east on a big NW as the warm water would get pushed east along the bar. Also some scary experiences trying to get back if you waded across too many bars following the fish around! I think over the years a few souls lost their lives fishing too long on the outer bar. Some nights the water was too high to continue out to the further bars so you heaved it across the current as far as possible and left your bail open for a long long time and let that swimmer get pulled out to where the fish were sitting. Some nights my fishing buddy and I kept our rods real low as we were the only folks hooking up. Took water in the waders just to be the guy furthest out to avoid tangles in the line up, basically free lining half a spool!! Thanks Benny for making me think!!

Welcome! Thanks for sharing the story.