Since the Wachusett Reservoir reopened to the public for fishing on Saturday, April 6—as it does every year on the first Saturday in April—lake trout have been biting exceptionally well. During the spring, lake trout move into shallow water, sometimes as shallow as 3 to 10 feet, in pursuit of forage fish, thus making them more susceptible to shore fishermen who flock the reservoir come that first Saturday of the month. According to the Massachusetts Freshwater Catch and Release Records, David Desimone has the state record for caught-and-released lake trout with a 34-inch fish he caught in 2020; but that record is dated. In 2023, Jeff Evans caught a 37-inch laker from Wachusett, which earned him a gold pin and a plaque from the Massachusetts Freshwater Sportfishing Award Program. However, Evans’ record catch has been tied once and broken twice (by his own two friends) since the fishery opened less than a week ago. And, as with any good fishing story, these record-breaking fish did not come easily.
On April 6, opening day, an angler hooked and landed a 38-inch lake trout, besting Evans’ catch-and-release record by just 1 inch. But that record lasted only 2 days before it was broken again by John Stamas while fishing with Michael Xu, known on social media as Tackle 2 the People.
John Stamas began fishing Wachusett—or “the Chu” as it’s called by dedicated shore anglers—in 2019 when he moved to Lancaster, MA. He began by researching what species swim in the massive lake, and joined a Facebook group that could provide a little more insight into fishing patterns, lures, and techniques used to catch smallmouth bass and lake trout in the Chu. Eventually, he befriended Eli Bachour, a fellow Chu fanatic, when they bumped into each other on the shoreline after previously messaging online. The two became dedicated to their pursuit of lakers from shore, often hiking several miles in a day to find productive areas together. Since April 6, they’ve covered over 15 miles of ground in 3 days of fishing. That’s what led them to discover a hot bite for 3-pound smallmouth bass that were convening over a sandy flat.
On Monday, the day of the solar eclipse, Bachour and Stamas headed out just before sunrise with a plan to find and catch big smallmouth bass, and they did just that. “Usually, after catching a few 3-pound smallies each, we’ll call it a day by lunchtime. But on Monday, we hung around for a few extra hours to fish through the eclipse in hopes that it would ignite some sort of bite, whether due to a change in pressure or a shift in wind/weather conditions ,” Stamas said.
The duo stuck it out, relentlessly casting football jigs in an area where they had been catching large smallies. The day prior, Stamas hooked into something huge in the same spot, but it broke him off after cutting right through his 12-pound fluorocarbon line. “We fish 12-pound line on our bass setups because the water visibility is so clear in the reservoir, the fish can be very line shy,” Stamas said. “I knew I had lost a good fish because we’re very familiar with this area, which is typically a bass spot, and I know there are no snags nearby. It’s just a sand and gravel bottom.” After several hours, luck—if you call it luck—shifted in their favor. At 3:30 p.m., the exact moment the solar eclipse peaked in the area, Bachour’s football jig got smacked and a battle ensued. To his surprise, he was measuring a new personal best lake trout at 37 inches and 14 pounds by 3:34 p.m.
“We had been hitting deeper holes for lake trout without much to show for it,” said Bachour. “Our typical lakers fall between 2 and 4 pounds, and rarely do we find them this shallow, so we knew immediately that this was a special fish.” It was a special fish, indeed, not only because of its size, but the fact that it was landed during the peak of the solar eclipse. And although it was a pound and a half heavier, Bachour’s fish happened to measure the exact length as the 37-inch laker his friend and previous state-record holder, Jeff Evans, caught in 2023.
Arguably the most noteworthy part of the catch, is the tackle Bachour used. Both Bachour and Stamas fish for smallmouth bass with 7’1″ medium-heavy conventional St. Croix Mojo Bass rods, paired with a Shimano Curado DC and Abu Garcia Revo SX, respectively. Never did either of them think they’d see a fish that size taken on bass gear from shore.
Fast forward to Tuesday, April 9, when Stamas returned to the Chu with Michael Xu of Tackle 2 The People. Their plan was the same as the day prior: hit the water at sunrise and fish through the late morning into the afternoon. They spent the morning casting spoons to no avail, when Xu finally hooked an average-size Wachusett lake trout in the 2- to 3-pound range on a small swim jig. Yearning for more, Stamas and Xu hiked back to the spot where Bachour had landed his 37 incher less than 24 hours ago, and got to casting. They hammered the area with jerkbaits and jigs for about 5 hours when Stamas finally hooked a 3-pound smallie that attacked his jerkbait as it approached the shore. After that, they decided to focus on targeting bass for the remainder of the outing in order to get one more solid fish on camera for a video Xu was filming for his YouTube channel.
After a few casts with a football jig tied to that same 12-pound-test fluorocarbon, Stamas felt a solid bite and set the hook into what he expected to be a quality smallmouth bass. The fight that ensued would prove otherwise. Following a dangerous game of give-and-take with his delicate line, Stamas eventually landed the 39-inch lake trout that weighed a whopping 20 pounds on the scale, besting the short-lived catch-and-release record that had been set just three days prior on opening day at the reservoir.
“Eli and I have been fishing this reservoir together for years now,” said Stamas. “We really put in our time and we’ve seen and heard of some large lakers being caught, but until this week, neither of us had never landed one heavier than 6 1/2 pounds, so we knew it was just a matter of time for us to be rewarded,” he continued.
A new personal best and a potential state-record laker, both landed on bass gear, and on the same type of football jig, is no easy feat. But, when you routinely cover 15 miles of shoreline over the span of a few days, fishing 8 to 10 hours at a time, that is the type of effort that tends to be rewarded by the fish gods.
And, as if catching a potential state-record lake trout on bass fishing gear isn’t exciting enough, Xu got Stamas’ entire catch on video. Eventually, the footage will be uploaded to the Tackle 2 The People YouTube channel but, even without the video, Bachour and Stamas have another one of those “Still can’t believe it” fishing stories that is worth every ounce of effort they put in to fishing their local honey hole over the years.
How to Find and Catch Lake Trout from Shore in the Northeast
