My Colchester area Lake Evaluations

Babcock Pond, Colchester (119 acres) is a very shallow, weedy, lake. The last time I fished it in 2008 the weeds were within 2” of the surface. I have not been back since.

Bashan Lake, East Haddam (273 acres) is a large clean lake. The boat launch is hard to get to and tucked away in a far corner. The lake is very deep and has a clean bottom. I have not caught many fish there, but I have caught some big bass and pickerel.

Gardner Lake, Salem (529 acres) is a very big lake, too big for me and my kayak. If there is any wind at all, this lake gets too rough for me to fish effectively. I have only fished about 1/16th of the lake, without much success. I mostly ended up with a bunch of tail-less worms. The deep lakes confound me, so I don’t fish them any more.

Lake Haywood, East Haddam (174) is a very nice lake. The boat launch is pretty far from where I like to fish. This is one of the electric motor only lakes, so it is a good place to go on a weekend because you don’t have to worry about jet skis or water skiers. This is a very clean lake with a variable bottom. It ranges anywhere from 2 feet deep to more than 30 feet deep. I find it can be a very difficult place to catch fish, on an average day, I catch 4 – 7 fish, and my high for this lake is 14 fish.

Holbrook Pond, Hebron (83 acres) I only fished once. It was very weedy and shallow and I didn’t catch anything.

Mansfield Hallow Reservoir, Mansfield (460) is a beautiful body of water with some great looking coves and bays. I watched a deer swim across a bay one morning. I have fished it when the reservoir was low and when it was high, but only caught a few fish. Everyone that I have talked to has the same story, big fish if you can find them, but few are caught.

Moodus Reservoir. East Haddam (486) is big, but not very deep. I have not had much success there, but others have. This is another lake that gets very choppy if there is any wind blowing. I don’t fish it very often.

Norwich Pond, Lyme (30acres) I fished for the first time this spring. I caught 3 – 4 fish, but the pond looked like I should have done better. Maybe because the water was still 55 – 60 degrees the fish weren’t active. I will try it out later this summer.

Pickerel Lake, Colchester (82) used to be very weedy. While viewing a property there I noticed that the lake wasn’t weed choked any more. I have fished a few times this year with pretty good success. There are a LOT of pickerel there, quit a few bass and even one big (5lb) bullhead that I caught. There are still a lot of weeds there, but the lake can be fished.

Red Cedar Lake, Lebanon (127) is one of my favorite lakes. It is not very deep, but it has a lot of stump cover. I don’t catch many fish there, but I do get some big ones there. You need to fish weedless or be prepared to loose a lot of tackle. The parking lot is very small. During the summer you’ll need to get there early or there will be no place to park. Weekends can be real busy with jet skies and water skiers.

Savin Lake, Lebanon (49) is small with a varying depth. I used to catch lots of bass there. The last 2 years I have only caught 1 – 2 fish per trip. I have not tried it this year and no one else seems to be fishing it either. I drive by there on my way to Red Cedar and have not seen anyone parked there.

Uncas Lake, Lyme (69acres) is very nice deep lake. It is electric only with a nice shoreline to fish. It is another deep lake that has confounded me. I did have a good day fishing the shoreline with flukes, but only caught a couple the next time I went there.

Lake Williams, Lebanon (272) is my other favorite lake. I go there often and it is almost
always good to me. It is big and mostly shallow. It can be very busy on weekend with jet skies, etc, but there are usually no problems on week days. The car top boat launch is at the dam; naturally the best fishing is at the other end of the lake

Largemouth Bass Fishing Amston Lake July 29th

I fished Amston Lake today and caught 20 fish. There was one perch and the rest were largemouth bass. I had no luck in the lilly pads where I caught the big ones last week, so in desperation I started fishing the shoreline. Most of the fish were small, but I did catch three bass that were 17" long. I used a combination of Yamamoto Senkos and grubs.

Amston Lake July 25th

I fished Amston Lake today. It was a little windy and I have lost my anchor. I wasn't able to set up the way I would like to, for the big fish. So I hit the areas that were out of the wind and also did some drift fishing. I was able to catch 20 fish, mostly bass with a couple of pickerel and perch thrown in. I used a combination of Yamamoto Senkos and grubs to catch most of the fish. I caught one 15" bass and everything else was small (6 - 11").

Pickerel Lake Colchester CT July 24th

July 24th my neighbor (John) and I went fishing at Pickerel Lake. The weather was good, but the fishing could have been better. I caught 7 fish on various soft bait and John caught 6. His catch included a good size largemouth and a big smallmouth. I had the strangest catch of the day and maybe of the year. I caught a 19" bullhead on a grub. It is the first time I have caught one there and the CT Lake guide doesn't list bullheads at Pickerel Lake. It just shows you never know what is in a lake or what the cast will bring you.

6 Pounder at Red Cedar Lake Lebanon CT

It is a good thing that I am a morning person. For the last week the fishing is mostly over by 9am. I do enjoy being up before the birds start chirping and watching the skyline turn pink, yellow and then full daylight. Today I went to Red Cedar Lake in Lebanon, CT. I didn't catch a fish for the first hour and then I caught a 17" bass. The next cast I got one even bigger. He took me for a long ride in my kayak and I had to pull him out from under a underwater stump. But the bass was 21" inches long and had a 16.5 in girth. According to the formula the fish weighed 6 pounds. I "only" caught 11 fish for the day, but I did catch two more 15" bass before I quit for the day. All but one small perch were caught on the Yamamoto Senko. This year, it seems like I am advertising for Gary Yamamoto, but the darn things work.

Amston Lake July 19th Good Fishing

Another great day of fishing. I went to Amston Lake this Sunday, the weather was perfect and the fish were biting. I caught and released 20 fish by 8:30am. Most were in the 11-13" range with one 16" long. I had a 4 to 5 pound bass almost up to the boat before he slipped the hook. The fish were caught on Yamamoto's Senkos and Berkley's Turtleback Worm. The fishing seems to be at peak levels now, I hope I can get out more this week.

Lake Williams July 17th Lebanon CT

Friday, July 17th, I went fishing at Lake Williams in Lebanon, CT. It was a beautiful day, no wind, clear sky and the clean air you get after a hard rain the night before. The fishing was very good. By 9am I had caught 20 fish and per family agreement, I had to go home. About 15 of the fish were 11-13 inch bass, the rest were small bass, pickerel and perch. I caught most of the fish on a Zoom U Tail worm. I bought those years ago, but never used them because they didn’t fit well on a size 1 hook and they were too light to cast. I took them out of retirement now that I am using the jigs. They work really well and it is something I haven’t thrown at these fish before. I’m going to go through my old worms and see what other stuff I can bring out of retirement.

Colchester CT Lake Pickerel July 16

On Thursday I went fishing at Pickerel Lake in Colchester CT. The weather was good, but the fishing was tough. I threw my usual stuff at them, but with little success. By the end of the morning I caught 4 pickerel, 2 perch and 2 bass. One of the bass was 18” long with the fins of an earlier meal sticking out of his gullet. Most of the fish were caught using a Yamamoto Senko.

On the 13th of July we went to Red Cedar Lake in Lebanon, CT. On this trip my son (Alex)brought one of his friends fishing. Alex caught the first fish of the day and the biggest (17"), so that gives him bragging rights for a while. I did come away with the most fish caught for the day, with 14. Most of the bass I caught were 12-13" range. I also caught a couple perch and a 20" pickerel. I was mainly using a jigged grub retrieved just above the weeds. I have included some photos of me in my kayak.

Fishing Red Cedar Lake Lebanon CT

Red Cedar Lake (Lebanon, CT) was good to me today! I started fishing around 5:15 and had 20 fish by 7:50am. As usual, I was fishing 2 poles. One had a Yamamoto grub and the other had a black/blue laminate senko. I had the grub on a 1/8oz jig. I would throw it out, let it sink and then slowly retrieve it just above the weeds. About 60% of the fish were caught using the grub. Beside the largemouth bass, I caught a couple rock bass and 4-5 small perch. The highlight of the day was an 18” largemouth caught on the grub. I didn’t get a tow from the fish because I was anchored at the time. I don’t have a lot of confidence in those little jig hooks, but it held this fish. These fish were in the middle of the lake today. In a kayak, early weekday mornings are the only time I feel safe being in the middle of a lake that allows power boats.

Pickerel Lake July 6th

What a beautiful morning it was. 61 degrees and no wind at all. I started fishing around 6am. I caught 7 bass and 1 pickerel in an hour and then nothing. They just stopped biting, anything! The fish I did catch were nice fish though. Two of the bass were 17” long and took me and my kayak for a little ride. The rest of the bass were about 13” long. The pickerel was 21” long. I caught all of them on a Yamamoto Senko. For some reason I haven’t caught anything on the Berkley Power Baits. Last year I was about 50/50, but this year it has been 90% Yamamoto.

Lake WIlliams July 5th

I got up early and arrived at Lake Williams before sunrise. The fishing was good and I caught 10 bass within an hour. I caught them on a Yamamoto Kut Tail Worm and a Yamamoto Senko. All the fish were 11-13” long and things were looking real good. Then the wind started blowing 10-15mph and the fishing got bad. I didn’t catch another fish for 3 hours. Even when I got behind an island and out of the wind I didn’t catch anything. I did get a couple of bites but I caught nothing else.

The low point of the day came when I did get 2 bites in one spot. I got set up, dropped my anchor and got a new worm on. Just as I was going to cast a couple of guys in a bass boat cruised right over the spot where the fish were. This is the second time this year at this lake, that someone in a boat drives their boat within 20 yards of me right where I’m casting my line. Does this happen to anyone else, or is it just kayaker’s that get no respect?

Kayaking 4th of July on the Farmington River

(Alex and his kayak)

One of the things my son and I like to do is to go white water kayaking. We just came back from a trip to the Farmington River. We went to Main Stream Canoes and Kayak in New Hartford, CT. From Colchester it takes about one hour to get there. They offer a livery service from their location to Riverton, CT for $20/boat. Depending of how fast the river is running it takes 3 -4 hours to kayak back down the river to the parking area. It is mostly Class I water with an occasional Class II (see my April blog for definitions) rapid thrown in. This section is not for novice kayak/canoe users. Main Stream does suggest the downstream section for novices or people trying out new boats.

My son has one of the new “spud” boat type; I have an old school, “Eskimo” type kayak. His boat can do all kinds of tricks and can do Eskimo rolls. The downside of his boat is that the boat is less stable than mine. It will tip over easier. Mine is hard to tip over, but once it does, it won’t Eskimo roll, so I’ll have to “bail out” and swim.

The river was a little higher than usual which made some parts of the river harder and some easier. We had a great time. We got very wet from wave splashes, but neither of us got flipped over. I think white water kayaking is better than going to Six Flags Amusement Park.

Colchester, Lake Haywood Fishing

On July 3rd I went fishing at Lake Haywood in Colchester CT. I caught 8 fish; 6 largemouth bass, 1 rock bass and one sunfish. The bass were caught on Yamamoto senkos and the others were caught on a jigged grub. The bass were all in the 13 – 15” size range. The weather was great and I wish I didn’t have to go to work this afternoon.

For new readers, I fish from a Wilderness Pongo kayak. It has good length, tracking, an adjustable seat and I have modified it for fishing. I installed 2 fishing pole holders and a console that hold my tackle box, cell phone, needle nose pliers, etc. If you see a blue kayak with a “Prudential Connecticut Realty” decal on it, come over and say hi.