The Cottage Chronicles: Episode 13 - Shoulder Season

Intro

Welcome to another episode of The Cottage Chronicles. My name is Neil and I run a small fishing site called New Dawn Tackle Company. I started this show to capture my fishing stories as well as my journey as a small business owner and a first-time parent.

The past couple episodes have been kind of slow because my fishing journey has been pretty much on pause through the winter. It was a bitter cold couple of months here in New England and I'm really excited to see the ice start melting and the seasons start picking back up.

Trout stocking started here in Massachusetts. It think New Hampshire and other nearby states have recently started putting trout in their waters too. And in the meantime, I've been doing a lot of preparation for the season ahead.

Shoulder Season

The ice has finally melted, the river is accessible again, and we're about a week out from the Wachusett Reservoir opening back up. If you followed the show at all last season, you'll know that I'm on a mission to catch a big lake trout, and the Wachusett Reservoir is the place to do it.

Last season was pretty much a total bust for me in that respect. So I turned my focus to bass fishing and got into some stocked browns and rainbows late in the year.

As of the last episode, hadn't caught anything yet in 2025. I'm happy to report that shortly after recording, I went out, I got my first brown trout of the year. But other than that, I've continued to get skunked so far.

Bait Development and Experimentation

I've got an update on the baits that I was talking about as well. I started pouring some soft plastics. I showed off my crawfish last time and I talked about some of the recipes that I've been mixing up to target some local forage. I haven't quite perfected my pumpkin seed recipe yet. I haven't started any frogs yet or fire craws, but I'm really happy with the progress that I'm making on this perch recipe I've been developing.

I showed this off on Instagram and Facebook the other day. I actually had two versions. This is the second one. I've got this sort chartreuse background with large green flake. I've got some Siren Scales in there—they're kind of like a chunky color-shifting glitter—and some very fine silver glitter.

I want to push the color a little bit more. I'm really happy with the background. I think the large green flake didn't really disperse well. It looks a little too chunky, but I'm thinking this is probably going to be the first recipe that I'm going to refine enough to start pouring regularly.

After that, I'll probably work on the pumpkin seed. I found that the craw mold that I have looks really good. It floats pretty well, but it's super hard to pour. I think I'm going to wait until it's a little bit warmer out and hope that maybe the warmer temperature will prevent the plastic from setting too quickly.

What's been happening in my test pour so far is the antennae and the legs will basically fill in only halfway. I'll get a full body or I'll get a body with some air pockets in it. But I'll get like three quarters of the actual bait that I'm trying to pour. So this little swim bait that I've got, this is about four inches, I think a half an inch bigger than the craws, but it's just kind of one solid piece. Even the thinner sections like the tail, they're really wide so the plastic can spread out. It doesn't get gummed up and plugged up as much. So I think I'm going to perfect my recipes for baitfish first and maybe focus on the craw when the temperatures are a little warmer and there's less risk of the plastic setting too quickly.

I also bought some tin. I was concerned about lead and concerned about being out of compliance with Massachusetts laws that don't allow me to throw lead under one ounce in inland waters. So I did pick up some little pieces of tin online. I'm going to try pouring those into the Ned molds and see how that works out.

In addition, I've been talking about this spinner that I've been working on. I've been looking for a teardrop shaped body. I tested out some plastic beads before, but they just weren't dense enough. I tried a plastic bead for the body, a metal bead as a spacer, the blade, and then even a smaller bead on top. I just couldn't get enough weight on that lure without increasing the size dramatically or making it awkwardly long. I'm hoping that by having a tin body it'll be dense enough but small enough that I can still have a kind of a normal size spinner that makes sense with a size 0 or even a size 1 blade.

Fly Fishing Experiences and Challenges

I've been practicing my fly fishing as well, but I haven't had much success. I took the camera out, I tried to film a little bit of fly fishing footage, and all I really wound up filming was myself getting a bunch of snags. I didn't catch any fish on the fly. I did catch that one brown trout but shortly afterwards I wound up taking a swim in my waders.

The spot where I was fishing was the backside of a big tree that fell a few feet off the shore. When I was reeling in, I hooked right into the wood. I tried to rattle it loose a few times. I could not get the spinner free no matter how hard I tried. So I thought maybe I could get in there with my waders and get a long branch or something, knock it loose. And as soon as I stepped off the bank, I fell backwards and landed right in the water.

On the bright side, I found out that my waders are nice and waterproof. They kept me pretty warm, but that was definitely a humbling experience.

I haven't noticed a lot in the way of hatches yet. I did see some stoneflies while kind of flipping rocks around last time that I was out. So I'm hoping maybe I can use some nymphs or something. I'm not really sure.

If any fly fishing people are watching this, please drop some tips. I really don't know what I'm doing, but I'm excited about it. It's something new. and I think it's going to be a really cool way to start the season.

Trade Show Order and New Products

Another big update since the last episode is my trade show order finally came in. I wound up getting three big packages, actually wound up sending the majority of one of them back. It turns out that I got a ton of extra plastics and extra jig heads. I didn't want that bad karma on me, so I shipped back what I could.

The company that I was working with was kind enough to give me a refund on my shipping costs. So it worked out okay. It was kind of a bummer. It was like six or 700 bucks in extra product. Really would have been cool, but I don't have that kind of volume in orders. And as a small business owner, it didn't seem right to take what might have been somebody else's order.

I brought in so much new stuff that I'm really excited about. I got a ton of stuff that's going to be great for trout season. I brought in some new colors of Vibrax spinners. I brought in the Meps Black Fury that I talked about last year around October timeframe when I had my haunted lure experience.

I brought in the Z-Man Flashback Mini. That's kind of like a little mini chatterbait that has soft plastic trailers on it. stoked for that one. I got some Yum Helgramites, Z-Man LarvaZ, some smaller-sized soft plastics. I'm excited to throw on a drop shot or on a Ned Rig. I got ChatterShads; I got TRD FattyZ—a couple of different plastics from Z-Man. I got some new Acme stuff; I got Phoebe's, I got a bunch of different Kastmasters. I got some Little Cleos. They're great for panfish but they're awesome for bigger game fish too. I like them for bass, pickerel— any river fish.

I brought in a whole bunch of different jerks. I've got Power Bait Jerk Shads, Big Bite Jerk Minnows, some Berkeley power worms. got a few different tools.

I brought in the standalone wacky worm tool with the bands. Some six-inch longnose pliers. and whole bunch of new jig heads and some new sinkers as well.

I've got new Ned options. I brought in some standard Z-Man Finesse ShroomZ and Micro Finesse ShroomZ. I had the weedless Finesse ShroomZ last year. I've re-upped on those. Now I've got the regular ones without the weed guard on them. I also brought in the Neko ShroomZ. It's a similar kind of mushroom-shaped head, but designed for Neko rigging.

In addition, I brought in Eagle Claw lead nail sinkers. I wasn't thinking about this one. I first purchased them. I can't use them here in mass. They're too small. But if you live in a place where you can fish lead and you like finesse fishing, that'll be a super cool option.

Channel Update

Not a whole lot else going on in the business and marketing side of things. I want to produce some new videos for my YouTube channel. I want to do some product reviews. I haven't got around to that yet.

I've been shopping for a better setup for lighting and filming stuff. I've got my backdrop behind me. I've got a couple of lights. got a cheap ring light positioned here, and I got a desk lamp on either side of me. It's amateur hour over here. I want to get a little bit nicer studio lighting and figure out my camera setup to maybe almost like an unboxing video.

I don't know if people are into that. I don't know how much that resonates with the fishing world. It seems like there are a lot of people out there that... are doing this kind of thing with different soft plastics or wake baits and swim baits, But I don't know, I think it would be kind of fun. I've never really done a product review like that before. And if worse comes to worse, I think I can up the production quality of the podcast a little bit by having some better lighting.

And of course I'm still planning to get out and do some more video too. I haven't really been out that many times this year. The bite's been super slow. So I haven't been that motivated to start shooting that footage yet. I was reading this morning the water temps in the past week have still been like in the 40s. So I don't think it's quite warm enough yet to have too much success with bass unless I start getting out to deeper water, maybe take the kayak out.

I'm not sure where the trout stocking stands in my area. Last weekend they hadn't stocked yet. This week they might have. I usually like to give it two or three weeks anyway for the trout to settle in and the bite to pick up a little more.

But I think if I catch anything in the next week or two, it's most likely just going to be Pickerel. and I love pickerel but I'm not sure that the footage is going to be that exciting. If I'm catching pickerel this time of year, I'm usually way in the shallows, in kind of a mucky cove, stumbling over myself, snagging on logs. It might be really entertaining, but it's probably not going to teach you anything about fishing.

As I experiment more with my soft plastics too, I want to film some of those videos. Right now I'm working in a super small space. I don't know if I can get really good footage or good lighting in there. as I perfect my recipes and get a little more efficient, figure out my space and what materials I need where I can start to plan the shots and figure out the logistics of filming that.

Drop a comment or let me know if you're interested in that kind of thing. I'm hesitant to film too much of the behind the scenes stuff, but I don't really know what my audience is right now. I know I've got a lot of supportive friends and family out there who get stoked to see new plastics or just kind of check in on what I'm up to. I want to connect with some more anglers and see what you guys like. What kind of products are you fishing?

I'd like to do some podcasts with guests too. I'm still kind of testing the waters. If you've enjoyed the show, drop me a comment or a review. Let me know how I'm doing.

I do want to get back to more fishing stories, and not just make this a monthly show about me complaining about my business. I'm super excited about the products that I bring in and I love what I'm doing. But I know this is not what the first couple of episodes were. Hang in there. It's going to get more exciting as the water warms up, as I get out in the kayak, as I have more success bank fishing. It's just been a really slow time of year and I haven't quite figured out the seasonality of this whole thing yet.

If you're a podcaster or you're a creator and you'd like to collaborate, please reach out. I would love to interact with more people that fish, more people that are into this kind of world.

I am very new to creating video content and podcasting. Even after a year, I still have a certain sense of imposter syndrome, but I'm trying to do better day by day. I'm trying to put something more interesting out into the world, trying to engage with other people and build a more welcoming and more fun fishing community. So if that's something you want to be a part of, please reach out.

Outtro

If want to support me and support New Dawn Tackle Company, I'll leave links in the description to the shop. You can get all your line, tackle, lures. I've got hats, I've got beanies, and I'm adding more products all the time.

If want to support the show but you're not interested in fishing gear right now or you don't need a hat or a beanie, please share this video, like, subscribe. You know the deal. Help me spread the word. I'd be super grateful for it.

You can find New Dawn Tackle Company on Instagram, Facebook, Bluesky Reddit, and even Pinterest. If you want to follow along with the show, I've got it on Spotify and YouTube. You can check out old episodes, me a question for a future episode, or just say hey. I'm always eager to provide recommendations for new gear, new places to fish, any techniques that have worked for me. Don't be shy. I'd be happy to talk with you.

That's it for this episode. Thanks so much for tuning in. Tight lines and happy fishing.