Fishing Lake WIlliams Sep 1 2010

My birthday present from me, to me, was to go fishing. I know, a real surprise. I went to Lake Williams and the weather was great. I had a big grub on one pole and a senko on the other. After the usual trial and error I settled on a chartreuse grub and green senko. I usually try to work the grub just above the weed line. This involves a bit of guess work, counting 3-5 seconds after the jig hits the water and then retrieving. But today I let the jig hit the bottom, let it set a couple of seconds and then retrieving. I was only getting weeds on the grub 1 out of 5 times and a lot of hits came as soon as I lifted the jig off the bottom. I caught most of the fish in the weeds at the north end of the lake using this technique. I ended up with 13 bass, 2 pickerel and a sunfish. Four of the bass weighed 2 pounds.

Fishing Red Cedar Lake Lebanon Ct Aug 27 2010

Finally, after a week of rain, work, wind and family I got to go fishing today. I didn't get out until 11:30 but the temperature was in the mid 70s. From the boat launch I went along the right shoreline with senkos and grubs. When I started the wind was low and the water was clean. I was catching fish with the smoke grub and smoke senko. When the wind picked up and the power boats started, the water got murky. They stopped hitting that combination, but I caught a few fish with the green/lemon senko. In three hours of fishing I caught 9 fish. Four of the fish were 2 lb bass, two 8" bass, two 18" pickerel and a 5" perch. Should be able to get a couple more weeks of fishing in before turkey season starts.

Fishing Pickerel Lake August 15 2010

I had a couple of hours between appointments this morning and went fishing. The surface temperature at Pickerel Lake was around 59 degrees but the water temperature was still warm. The fishing was slow and I caught 5 fish by 9am when I had to quit.I caught 3 bass of average/small size, a 21" pickerel. The last fish weighed 5 lb 9 oz and was a bullhead or catfish. I don't know how to tell the difference. It really put up a good 5 minute fight and took me for a ride. It took 4 minutes before I got the fish to the surface and even then, it was hard to see in the murky water. That fish made getting up at 5am worth the effort.

Fishing Red Cedar Lake Aug 7 2010

Matt and I went to Red Cedar Lake in Lebanon, CT today. It was dark when we got there and the lake was smooth as glass. The temperature was around 58 degrees, a welcome change from the 85 - 90 degrees we've been having lately. I caught my first bass in less than 5 minutes. As usual this time of year we were fishing senkos, throwing them out and letting them slowly sink. By 9am Matt had 3 more fish than I did and we were on our way back. Then I caught 4 big fish in a row including this nice 4lb 11oz monster. Thanks to Matt for taking the picture, I owe him one.

Fishing Lake WIlliams July 30 2010

We took a trip to Lake Williams this morning. It was a perfect morning, cool without a breeze. Fishing was slow, we would catch 4 fish on a green senko and 100 yards down the lake they would only hit a red one. They stopped biting around 9am and we quit fishing at 10:30. Matt caught 6 and I caught 13 including the 3 pounder shown above.

Fishing Lake Hayward July 28 2010

Matt and I went to Lake Hayward yesterday. It was Matts's first time there. It is a big beautiful lake , very clean and has electric motor only regulations. With all that going for it, I don't fish it often because I don't catch many fish there. Yesterday was no exception, I caught 6 and Matt caught 6. It is our first tie. Matt has learned well and someday the student shall surpass the teacher. All fish were caught on senkos although I tried all my jigs as well.

Fishing Red Cedar Lake July 22 2010

Matt and I went to Red Cedar Lake in Lebanon, CT yesterday. As you can see from my photo below, we got there early! Fishing was slow, but steady. We couldn't find any Senko they really liked until in desperation I put on my last choice, a pearl white one. I caught 3 bass on the next 5 casts. You never know what they are going to like. Most of the fish were caught in the middle of the lake. The north end that was so good last time did not bring in any fish and we both lost gear on stumps there. We fished the west bank on the way back to get out of the wind. I caught a couple nice ones under the docks and off the shoreline. Unfortunately I got a phone call half way back to open a house for an appraisal and had to quit for the day. Matt caught 7 bass and I caught 17. Five of the fish I caught were in the 15 - 17 inch range.

Fishing Lake Williams July 20 2010

Matt and I went fishing this morning. We got there early and had the lake to ourselves. It was a beautiful morning but the fishing was slow. We tried all our senkos and the few fish that were biting seemed to like the green w/red flakes. Later on they started hitting a tequila power worm. Matt caught 7 bass, I caught 14 bass, a pickerel and 2 perch.The bass we caught early wer all good size, between 13-15 inches long. By 8am it was starting to get warm and the fish mostly stopped biting. After 8 all I caught was a the perch and a small bass. By 10am we had enough and quit for the day.

Fishing Mitchell Pond July 15 2010

Matt and I went to Mitchell Pond yesterday morning. This pond in Salem, CT seems to be filled with 4-8" bass. I have been there twice and haven't caught anything bigger than 8 inches. It was breezy and difficult to fish unless you got out of the wind. We were able to fish one cove and a shoreline out of the wind and caught a lot of fish using senkos. On previous trips Matt had caught a maximum of 3 fish, today he caught 12 bass. He said it was almost too easy today. When they are in the mood and you have the right color senko on your line, it can be like magic. I caught 15 at Mitchell and caught 2 more at Pickerel Lake that night, one was 11 inches and the other was 18 inches long.

Fishing Lake Williams July 11 2010

I woke up at 3am this morning and could not get back to sleep. So I decided to go fishing, what a surprise. When I got to Lake Williams the parking lot was empty and I had the lake to myself. This was going to be a quick fishing trip because the sun was up and I forgot the suntan lotion. The area off the campground gave up 5 bass and a couple of kayakers went by me to the north end of the lake. The senkos were working well and another kayak went by me and started fishing ahead of me in the lily pads to the Northwest. I bypassed all of them them and went to the northeast side of the lake and caught 15 more fish before 9am. All of the fish were caught on senkos. Most of them were in the 11 - 13" range, a couple were bigger and a couple were smaller. Because of the O rings I didn't loose a single worm! What a great day and a great lake!

Fishing Pickerel Lake July 7 2010

Matt and I went fishing at Pickerel Lake on Wednesday morning. I only caught 6 fish and Matt caught 2. One of the bass was 22" long and another was 17". As usual I was dropping senkos as my primary bait, but later on I was having better luck with a hooked tail worm on a jig.

I have been using "O" rings on my senkos and they have saved me a lot of money on senkos. Last year I would sometimes loose a senko on the first fish I caught. Now I can catch 5-10 fish on each. I slide the ring around the worm every time I catch a fish or change it to spread out the wear on the worm. There have been a few occasions when a fish has managed to pull the worm through the ring without me hooking them. I like to think those were pretty good sized fish to be able to do that.

We had to quit early due to a dentist appointment. Too bad, I think we could have caught more fish that day.

Fishing Lake Hayward July 5th 2010

I went out to Lake Hayward on Monday. The Yamamoto Senkos were working pretty well and I caught 14 bass. I caught most of the fish early in the morning in the section just before the lake opens up. When it started to get warm the fish stopped biting. I moved to the deeper section of the lake and tried jigging, but didn't catch anything in the deep water.

Fishing Red Cedar Lake July 4 2010

I was able to get to the lake for a few hours today. The weather was good and there were a couple other boats on the lake when I got there. The fishing was slow and it seemed that the other boats were doing the same. From all the floating weeds and murky water there must have been a lot of watercraft on the lake yesterday. I only caught a couple fish in the middle of the lake and I let the wind push me to the far end. I didn't start catching fish until I was back past the islands. Maybe there is less boat traffic down there; the fish were more aggressive. Most of the fish were caught on a green senko and ranged from 8 to 15 inches long and the final tally was 8 bass and 1 pickerel. I had a nice conversation with the new owners of a house on the lake. It's a great lake and I envy them.

Fishing Lake Williams June 25 2010

I took Matt to Lake Williams in Lebanon, CT for his first trip there. It was tough fishing into a 5-6mph headwind and the fishing was sluggish. I caught a couple of fish by the campground and a few more fish further up the lake. By the North end lily pads I did pretty well with the Senkos. Matt was getting a lot of hits with the jigs, but wasn't having much luck hooking or landing them. I spent some time with him teaching him how to fish the senkos, but by then the fish weren't hitting them anymore. By that time it was almost 11 and we had to leave. Matt caught 2 small bass and a pickerel. I caught 13 bass and pickerel. Three of the bass were 17" long; one of them is pictured above. It is nice fishing with someone that can take pictures. He took a pretty good photo for his first time with a camera.

Fishing Lake Williams June 21 2010

I was able to get out yesterday afternoon for a few hours. It was a little breezy and of course I had to paddle into the wind. I made up my mind to put swimsenkos on one pole and regular senkos on the other. Anchoring next to the dam I tried out a few color combinations and caught a 15" bass on the blue senko. Until I cleared the small islands I was out of the wind so I fished the east shore and caught a small bass and pickerel. I caught a big (17") bass by the big rock half way up the shoreline and then paddled up to the lee side of the big island. There I caught a couple small and a couple good size bass. From there I fished the east and north shore until sundown. I only caught 12 fish but 8 of them were 15-17" long, almost all of them on senkos.

Fishing Amston Lake June 15 2010

Between work and family commitments I was able to get in a couple hours of fishing yesterday. There is a lot of real estate going on so I wanted to fish close to home and fished Amston Lake. I started around 10am and the fishing was real slow. The first 3 fish were an average of 6" long and took an hour to catch. It took a while to find the right pattern but once I did the fishing was slow and steady. Most of the fish were on the small side, but 3 of the bass were in the 11-12" range. The best fish of the day was a 18" bass on a senko like the one pictured above. By mid afternoon the wind was picking up and I had places to go. The final count was 16 bass, pickerel and a crappie.

Fishing Red Cedar Lake June 11 2010

I wasn't able to start fishing until 9am, so I wasn't sure how this would turn out. Usually I only fish early morning of late afternoon this time of year. I ended up catching a lot of fish, even with he late start. Maybe it was because it was a cool day without sun until around 2pm. I was surprised to see at least 3 other boats fishing the lake, one of the guys reported catching a 4 pound bass. I had a good day as well. No big fish but quite a few 15" bass and a bunch a smaller bass and pickerel and crappie. There were a lot of fish that got away and 3 or 4 tail-less grubs were pulled in, but when I quit at 3pm I had caught 20 fish. About half the fish were caught on swimsenkos and the rest on jigged grubs.

Fishing Gardner Lake June 9 2010

For a while Wednesday morning I was really doing well. I put the kayak in by the dam and paddled to the deep water with only a couple casts on the way. On one of those casts I caught a 6" bass. When I reached the place I wanted I started off with Yamamoto Senkos. Within 40 minutes I caught 5 (13-15") bass and a 18" pickerel and was really feeling good. Then everything stopped and I didn't catch another fish for 2 hours. The next fish was caught in the shallows in the midst of the lily pads. I fished the weeds for another hour without landing another fish. Oh well, that's fishing!

Fishing Pickerel Lake June 5 2010

The picture shows the lake's dam and the house that is right behind it. Saturday night the weather forecasters were all talking about great big storms, lightning, etc. They haven't been very accurate lately and the weather looked good at my house, so I went fishing. There weren't many boats on the lake for a Saturday night, probably due to the forecasters. The weather was nice all night, I ended up catching 8 small fish (bass & pickerel) in about 4 hours of fishing. All in all it was a very nice night.

Fishing Lake Williams June 4 2010

On Friday afternoon I went to Lake Williams. At the dam there is a bench placed as a memorial to an 18 year old named Matthew Kanter. As usual the fishing doesn't get good until I got to the northern end of the lake. I fished the west shore to ovoid the wind and to stay away from the water skiers as much as possible. I caught one fish opposite the campground and only two more before I got to the lily pads. The lily pads were full of fish and my new weedless technique worked well. All the bass and pickerel were 10-13" long, but you should have seen the one that got away. I hooked a 3-4 pounder that took me for a ride in the lily pads for about 2 minutes before he threw the hook. By 7:30 I had caught and released 12 more fish and decided to cross over to the west shore. There were a couple of aggressive fish in the middle of the lake that I caught. By the north end of the big island there is a small patch of lily pad and there we some bass jumping out of the water trying to catch flies coming off the water and the dragon flies cruising by. I took the weedless rig off one of the poles and put a green Senko on. The first cast on the edge of the pads was snatched by a 15" largemouth. My next cast caught another the same size. After a couple more casts I saw a big on on the far side of the lily pads jump out of the water chasing a fly. After getting in position the next cast on the edge only sank about 3 seconds before the line started moving into the pads. I set the hook and caught another 15 incher. By this time it was 8:15 and I started fishing my way back to the dam. Within 10 minutes I caught my 20th fish and stopped fishing.

Fishing Amston Lake June 2 2010

After catching 6 fish at Gardner Lake on Monday I needed a boost, so I went to Amston Lake. The night before I decided it was time to cut back on all the excess plastic bait I have. I threw out a bunch of stuff that I wasn't going to use and put some aside to try one more time before getting rid of them. I like to change up my bait and fishing style once in a while, especially when I feel like I'm depending too much on one style or pattern too much. So on this day I put away my grubs and senkos and went with Zoom's Chartreuse worm, Berkley's Swirl tail and Ribbon tail. The results of the day were pretty good. I caught 16 fish including bass, pickerel, perch and crappie. I don't know if was related to the different bait and patterns, but a lot of the fish were caught in places where I haven't caught fish before. There is a concept in this that will require more thought. The biggest fish was a 21" pickerel caught on the red swirl tail. The next time I go out I will try these baits and patterns to see if this is a fluke, or a lesson to be learned.

Fishing Gardner Lake May 31 2010

After the good day of fishing on Friday, I decided to go back to Gardner Lake on Monday. In hindsight I should have gone somewhere else. The lake was very busy with fishermen, jet skiers, power boaters and water skiers. I fished about 6 hours and caught 6 fish, 4 bass and 2 pickerel. All of the bass were 13-15" and the pickerel were 16" long. All of the bass and one of the pickerel were caught on Yamamoto Senkos. The other pickerel was caught on a jig with a big grub on it.

Amston Lake Fishing May 30 2010

On Sunday I went to Amston Lake to fish. I had a self imposed curfew of noon and I was ready to quit by that time. The day was moderately windy so I spent as much time paddling as fishing. Being a weekend there were a lot of people out on the lake. I spent about a hour in the lily pads and only caught 2 fish, but the main lake was pretty good. Using big grubs on jigs, I caught 20 fish. Most of the fish I caught were pickerel and the rest were bass. All of the fish were in the small to medium size category.

Fishing Lake Hayward May 29 2010

There was a light breeze on Lake Hayward even at 6 am, but it never got too windy. I caught my first fish on my 3rd cast and thought I was going to have a good day. The lake was as busy as I expected on Memorial Day weekend, but everyone was considerate of each other. Everyone seemed to be catching fish, but no one was catching a lot of them. I was using everything I had, but there didn't seem to be anything in particular they were interested in. My final total for the day was 16 crappie, pickerel and bass. The biggest fish (15")was caught in the shallow marsh right in front of the boat launch.

Fishing Gardner Lake and Pickerel Lake May 28 2010

I haven't fished Gardner Lake in a couple of years. The old boat launch area is not set up for a kayaker. I'm afraid that if I put my boat in the water that it will be gone when I get back from the parking area. The fishing wasn't too good either. I think the most I caught in a day was 2 fish. One day while touring houses with my office I drove by a remote corner of the lake with a dam. It looked real interesting som I went back a couple week later to look it over. It turns out to be a good place to put a kayak in the water and fish the other part of Gardner Lake. This part of the lake is not as deep as the other half. On the 28th I spent half the day paddling around this half of the lake. I was more interested in learning water depths, weed beds and what color combinnations the fish liked that seriously fishing. I was able to catch 11 pickerel and bass. None of them were very big. Around noon I went home, had lunch and a nap.

At 4pm I decided to take a trip to Pickerel Lake. By this time th wind was blowing pretty good, about 10-15mph. Fishing was slow and by 8pm I had only caught 4 fish. As the sun went down the fishing got better. In the next 45 minutes I caught 7 more pickerel and bass. By time it was very dark and I stopped fishing when I realized that I did not want to take a hook out of a pickerel in the dark! My total for the day was 23 fish. Almost all of them were caught on some combination of a jig or weed less hooked plastic worm/grub.

Fishing Ruby Cohen Park May 22 2010

I only had a couple of hours to fish the other day. So I went to Ruby Cohen Park in Colchester. The town purchased it a couple of years ago and it has a couple of small ponds that I've been meaning to try. I had been there before as a chaperone for my kids school trips. I was surprised to see that both of the ponds are 80-90% covered by lily pads.

When I got there there was a couple of women there. One of them was working with a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever. It was real impressive watching her work with the dog. She would throw a float in the water for the dog to retrieve. The dog would jump in, swim out to the decoy, return and drop, shake and heel, all on command. I'm still trying to get my dog to stay off the table when I'm eating. It turns out that my daughter knows her. She is a dog trainer, the dog (Daphne)has won many competitions. She is from Colchester and she runs Hawk Nest Kennels.

All the splashing didn't hurt the fishing. In the 2 hours of daylight I had left I caught 6 pickerel. The catch of the day was a 22 inch monster that really gave me a good fight. The 8lb test line held up fine, even with all the weeds, but I have made up my mind to put some 14lb test line on my reel. I caught all the fish with weedless single tailed grubs and Yamamoto Swimsenkos.

Lake Williams May 20 2010

What a beautiful day to be on the lake. My main goal today was to get out in the big lily pond area and catch some fish on top. In about 3 hours I caught 5 fish, none of them big. Apparently they weren't in the mood or the high pressure zone on top of us turned them off. I did catch 2 more fish on the way back to the boat launch. Most of the fish were caught on top using Yamamoto Swimsenkos. I did catch my first fish on a Yamamoto Senko for the year.

Fishing Red Cedar Lake May 16th 2010

After my open house on Sisson Rd I went fishing at Red Cedar Lake. It was very windy, but I was only 2 miles from the lake. Being a Sunday there were boats and jet skis on the lake so anchoring off shore was not an option. The wind quickly pushed me down the lake to the lilly pads which were partially sheltered from the wind. I used the same weedless combinations that I used on the 11th with some success. I think the fish I caught on the 11th were now wise to the deception. I caught 7 (bass and pickerel) fish by 8pm and then started heading back to the other end of the lake. By that time the wind had let down and the boats/jet skis were docked. On the way back I caught a bass, a pickerel and a small perch before it got dark.

Fishing Pickerel Lake May 13th 2010

Did not have much luck fishing the main lake today. The jigs and senkos I threw out there were not drawing much interest. A couple of guys putting their bass boat on the trailer only caught 1 fish (bass) in 3 hours. In 2 hours I caught 3 fish, one sunfish and 2 pickerel. One of the pickerel was 18 inches long and would have made the trip worthwhile by himself. Fishing picked up at the south end of the lake using a combination of flukes and swimsenkos trailed across the top of the water through the weeds. I ended up catching 15 fish. The biggest bass was about 13 inches. While I was fishing a couple of guys from the CT DEP came up in a boat asking questions for a state fishing survey.

Red Cedar Lake Fishing May 11th 2010

Red Cedar Lake, Lebanon CT

The office had no meeting or tour on Tuesday, and it wasn't raining. Lately, if it's not raining, it's a good day. The wind was 10-15 mph, but it was pushing me down the lake at a nice pace. In the first two hours I caught one fish. By that time I was down by the lilly pads. I changed from the jigged grubs to the topwater weedless setup. I had a lot of fun for the next couple of hours catching bass and pickerel. Two of the bass and one pickerel I caught were 15-16" long, the rest of the fish were average, 12-13" long. I caught a few more on the way back to the boat launch for a total of 15 fish.

Fishing Lake WIlliams May 7 2010

Lake Williams, Lebanon CT

To use a football analogy, "I took what the defense gave me." In this case, the wind (15-20mph) was from the Northwest, so I fished off of the North shore. Fishing was slow, but fruitful. I caught crappie, perch, pickerel, sunfish and large mouth bass. The 4 bass I caught were in the lilly pads and were about 12-13" long. I used some big single tail grubs, fished weedless on top of the water. There is nothing I like more than seeing a fish hit a bait on the top of the water. I ended up catching 20 fish in about 5 hours of fishing. Most of the fish caught were on the small to medium side. The wind pushed me back to the dam at a good clip. That was really appreciated because I was very tired by then.

Amston Lake May 2 2010

After a week of chasing turkeys in the Berkshires with my dad, I got a chance to fish on Sunday afternoon. Not want to take a chance on not being to find any parking I went to Amston Lake. The wind was high (10-20mph) on the lake but the weather was warm and sunny. At one point I had to paddle across the lake to get to the lee shore. My Wilderness Pungo is very stable and made the trip without trouble.

I hit a few hot spots and ended up catching 20 small fish, mostly pickerel. This is the first time I've caught crappie there. Jigging soft plastic works well, but I am really looking forward to dropping some senkos if and when the wind stops blowing. Hopefully I can get ahold of some of the big bass hiding out there.

Red Cedar April 24 2010

The customer never showed up for todays showing. I consoled myself by going fishing. Red Cedar Lake in Lebanon, Ct was crowded , but I was able to get the last available parking spot. It was sunny, windy and the temperature was in the mid 50's. Fishing was slow and I ended catching 10 fish in about 4 hours. One of the pickerel was about 15" long and 2 of the bass were 12-13". Due to the wind I am still jigging single tail grubs.

Amston Lake Fishing April 21 2010

Took the kayak out to Amston Lake today. Fishing was good, as usual. I caught 20 fish using jigs and single tail grubs. Most of the fish were small (11-15") pickerel with a couple of small bass thrown in. I ended up with 3 tail-less grubs and 2 other so beat up that they barely stayed on the jig. Water is still too cold for the bass to get going I guess.

Lake Williams April 15th

It was one of those days when I just had to go fishing! My schedule was open for the day and even though the wind was 10-20mph I didn't care. So I went to my favorite lake and the wind was whipping down from the North, the whole length of the lake. After much paddling in the face of the wind I finally got to the far end of the lake and out of most of the wind.

Fortunately the trip was worth it. I caught 20 fish, 17 pickerel, 2 bass and 1 perch. All the fish were small to average size and were caught jigging single-tail grubs. By the 20th fish I was exhausted and ready to quit. The trip back to the dam was greatly assisted by the wind at my back.

Pickerel Lake April 2010

I went to Pickerel Lake in Colchester, Ct Wednesday. I just had to go there after touring a couple of houses there on Tuesday. It was tough being there and not being able to fish.

There were quite a few fishermen there for a week day, probably about 4-5 boats. The weather was sunny, about 60 and 5-10mph winds. Due to work and a Lion's Club meeting I only had 3 hours to fish. I ended up catching 6 pickerel and 1 bass. The bass was about 10-11 inches long and the pickerel were 12-15" long. Because of the wind, I used jig with single tail grubs. Sometimes I complain about catching pickerel. Not today, without them, it would have been a slow day of fishing.

April 2010 Amston Lake Fishing

It was of those gorgeous April days on Monday. High 70 degrees with a 5 - 10 mph breeze and I went to Amston Lake fishing. I bought a bunch of new soft baits for this years. This lake is very clean, so the exotic colors were pretty much ignored. I caught most of the fish on the standard green variations. I caught 2 yellow perch, 6 bass and 12 pickerel. The biggest bass was about 11 inches and the biggest pickerel was about 13 inches. Because of the wind, everything was fished with a 1/4 oz jig.

April 2010 Early Fishing

Finally, Fishing in 2010. I have fished Lake Williams, Red Cedar and Pickerel Lake over the last three days. The fishing is slow, but I don't care! It is great to be out on the lakes in sixty degree weather. So far in three days of fishing I have only caught ten fish with an equal mix of pickerel and bass. I have been jigging single tails and creatures. I bought a new batch of colors for both and just have to try them out. Love this weather, got to take advantage of it while it lasts.