Deer Hunting Dec 2012 Worthington MA

I went deer hunting with my father in Massachusetts this year. I was fortunate this year, I got a doe permit for Zone 4N. I have a spot there that has produced some good does over the last few years. Every year I have hunted there with a doe permit I have been able to fill it.

This year I got a 130lb doe there. The DEP guy that registered the deer said this was the oldest deer he has seen taken in a few years. She only had one molar left and that was cracked.

The picture below show the stump I hide in when I watch this run.

Colchester Hunting Nov 16

Fishing and soccer season are over and hunting season has begun. I took a course and and missed the turkey season this year. The good news is that my tree stand survived the snow storm. How has the acorn crop been this year? Where I hunt there aren't any acorns, so hopefully we'll have more deer movement this year.

Cochester area fishing w/o August 1

This week I went to Amston Lake, WIlliams Lake, Powers Lake and Red Cedar Lake. At Amston Lake I caught a lot of fish, 24 to be exact, but all were small. Have you noticed that some days it seems like only the big or medium or small fish are biting? On this day t was all the 6 -10 inch fish and a lot of tails bit off the grubs.
The next day I went to Lake Williams and I had a great day with big fish. I caught (4) 2 pound bass and a 4 pound 12 oz largemouth as well. All the big fish were caught in the weeds with senkos and I got a bunch on the way back with spinner bait, all told I landed 21 fish.
Matt and I fished Powers Lake with some success. The lake seem to be the same depth as Williams, without the cover. They don't seem to be very interested in Senkos and we caught almost all the fish on lures and spinners. Matt worked on catching as many sunfish as he could and caught 13 sunfish and small bass. I used bigger bait stuff and caught 10 fish. All mine were small except for a monster bass that hit a crank bait and weighed out at 5 pounds 2 ounces.
On Saturday I had to be home by 10 so I went to Red Cedar Lake. It is small enough for me to fish it well in 3-4 hours. I caught 11 fish with two 2 pound fish. For some reason I am not doing as well this year at Red Cedar. I think it is getting fished pretty heavily this year. I have seen the same groups of fishermen there multiple times during my trips there. So I assume they are fishing there a lot.

Colchester Area Fishing W/O July 25th

Another week of vacation spent fishing almost every morning from 5:30 to 11am. I fished Red Cedar, Savin, Williams, Amston and Pickerel Lake.
Lake Williams was very good, I caught 31 fish including a 4lb 7oz bass. Most of the big fish were caught using a variety of senkos. On the way back to the dam I fished a spinnerbait along the East shore and caught 8-9 small to medium bass that way.

I wanted to try Savin Pond again on a day with good weather. The last time the weather and the fishing weren't very good. Well this time the weather was good, but the fishing wasn't. I only caught 4 fish and had very few bites.

Red Cedar lake gave up 14 fish, about average for the lake, the biggest weighed 4lb 4oz. Nothing was particularly effective and I tried senkos, jigs and spinnerbait.

Amston Lake has been different this year. I am not catching fish in the North cove this year, but having pretty good luck fishing the shallow area in the middle of the lake. I noticed that I was getting spinnerbait hits on the drop more than during the retrieval. So I switched to a heavy jig and bounced some super grubs on the bottom. This is how I caught most of the fish including a 4' 7oz bass and a 2 pounder.

On Sunday I went to Pickerel Lake and caught 13 fish. All the fish I caught (pickerel, perch and bass) were less than 10" inches long. There was one fisherman flipping worms under the docks that said he caught a 6 pounder that morning. Another boat that was coming out when I was leaving said the two of them caught a total of 13 small fish. They said that the lake is just too weedy this time of the year to catch anything good.

Colchester Area Fishing July 18th

This was a very hot week, with temperatures in the 90's every day. I fished Red Cedar Lake, Amston Lake, Powers Lake and Savin Pond. Fishing was less than average with no big fish caught.
Matt and I fished Red Cedar. We fished from 5:30 to about 10am. He caught 10 and I caught 13 fish. Almost all the fish I caught while using the Baby Bass Senko fished wacky style.
Amston Lake fishing was good. I caught 19 fish with a combination of senkos. By 9am they weren't hitting the senkos so I started fishing deep with jigs. I usually don't have much luck with deep water, but this day was different. I caught 8 more fish bouncing the jig on the bottom.
On Saturday I went to Powers Lake. I had 3 bites right in a row witht the baby bass and promptly lost it on the 3 bite due to a faulty knot. Tying a bad not was bad enough, but I was really upset with myself when I discoverd that was my last baby bass, I forgot to restock them. It gets worse, they would hit any other senko I had. They wouldn't hit the spinner bait either, so I went to the jigs and caught 9 with that. Most were 6-8 in bass. The biggest fish was a 16" pickerel.
Sunday I went to Savin Pond and did not do very well. I caught 5 small largemouth and a 15" pickerel. I sure hope this heat wave breaks soon.

Colchester Area Fishing July 11th Week

Good weather for fishing this week. On Monday Matt and I went to Lake Williams. It was the first fishing trip of the year for Matt and he made the most of it. He caught the first fish of the day and had a real hot streak going with a red senko. At one point he had 7 fish to my 3, but when they stopped hitting the red, he lost momentum. Matt ended up with 9 bass and I caught 16. I got the biggest fish, a 2lb 14oz bass.

On Wednesday I went to Red Cedar Lake and caught 16 bass, pickerel and perch. I have been trying out the crank bait lures and they accounted for the perch and pickerel. Most of the bass were caught on the smoke senko, but none of the bass were big.

Friday was the day I went to Amston Lake. Using a mix of senkos I caught 24 small to medium bass. They were not interested in the crank bait lures.

Sunday was spent on Powers Lake, it was very crowded. There were at least 6 fishing boats/kayaks there besides mine. The fishing wasn't very good, all I caught was 7 small fish using crank baits and senkos. After a week of use, I am going to put the crank baits away and try deep jigs and spinner baits next week. As the summer is really starting to heat up I need to go into deeper water.

Colchester Area Fishing Week of July 4th

Lake of Isles
I spent most of this week fishing, including the Lake of Isles Lake near the casino. On Monday, the 4th of July I went to Lake Hayward, because I didn't want to be bothered by water skiers, jet skiers, power boats, etc. It was a good idea and many had the same idea as well. I was the second person out of the boat ramp but within 2 hours 13 more boats launched from the ramp. The lake was too crowded for me and after caching only 2 average size fish I quit and went home.

Tuesday I spend with my family, and Wednesday I went to Red Cedar Lake. It never felt like it was good fishing, but by the end of the morning I had 14 fish. One was 17", two were 15" long and most of them were caught using the Baby Bass Senko. It was a good day for equipment too, I didn't lose any jigs, hooks and only used up 2 worms. I am almost fishing exclusively with senkos now. I am getting no action on the hulas, grubs or power worms.

Thursday morning was spent fishing Amston Lake, it was very good. Using a combination of the smoke/pearl senko and a converted grub I caught 25 small to medium bass and pickerel. I had a Yamamoto (Watermelon w/red flakes) "Creature" with two long fins in front, small paddles in the back and finished with a hula skirt. I haven't caught anything with it, so I cut off the big fins and fished it with the 3 inch body, paddles and hula skirt, 8-10 of the fish were caught with this grub.

Friday I took a trip to Amos Lake. I only got 20 minutes of fishing in before it started raining. So I sat in my car for an hour until the rain stopped and went back out. It is a big, beautiful and deep lake. At one point I tried to test the depth of the water, but my (30')anchor line ran out before the anchor hit bottom. This being the first time to fish this lake I fished the edge of the lake for most of the shoreline. I caught 6 small (6-8") bass using senkos and had no luck with the hulas or grubs. It is a very nice lake and I do plan on going back soon.

On Saturday I went to Lake of Isles and Avery Pond. Lake of Isles is very pretty with its golf course and it's rock crusted islands. The water is moderate to shallow with a lot of weeds. I only able to catch a couple small bass in the lily pads. I did see another boat catch a couple nice sized pickerel. I was finished by 9:30 and went to Avery Pond. It is a nicely sized round pond with mostly shallow water. The wind was blowing 10-15 mph by then and the water was pretty murky. Again, I was only able to catch a couple small bass.

Sunday was my first time on Powers Lake. I really like this lake. Other than the Yale "Educational Center" (complete with cabins, beach, slide, kayaks, canoes, raft, pavilion)there are no camps on the lake. It seems to be moderate depth along the edges with patches of lily pads along it's shoreline. I did not fish the middle, so I don't know how deep it goes. By 9am I had caught 10 (8-10") bass in the northern section. As I moved to the southern part, there were no more bites. I put a small crank-bait on one of my poles and started flipping it under the overhanging tree limbs. A sunfish hit it while it was still on the surface. So I started fishing for sunfish that way. I would throw it out and count to 5 while it laid on the surface, then I would retrieve the lure. By the time I caught 10 more sunfish, it was noon and I was getting hungry. I was worth the extra drive and I will go back.

Fishing the week of June 27th

Eagleville Dam

I took vacation and did a lot of fishing this week. It started off pretty bad with a trip to Pickerel Lake. I fished the whole morning there and caught 4 small bass. The middle of the lake is very weedy and I had no luck on the edges either.

On Tuesday, I went to Lake Williams to restore my confidence on the Lake that has been kind to me. It did not let me down and I caught 20 fish. Most of the fish were hiding in the lily pads and were caught with a combination of Lemon senkos and Zoom chartreuse worms. The biggest was 18" and there were some 15" caught too.

Wednesday, I went to Mitchell Pond. I have never caught a fish over 8" long there, but there are a lot of them. This day was the same and I caught 22 small fish using old worms that I don't use anymore on the bigger lakes. The fish were taking them skimming along the tops of the lily pads and/or slowly sinking between the pads.

Thursday, I tried to go to Red Cedar, but there was no room in the parking lot. Lacking time to go anywhere else I went to the nearby Savin Pond. In the 3 hours I fished there I caught 6 fish. The biggest fish weighed 2lbs 13oz was caught on the Shad senko. There was a lot of wind, time was short, I decided I would try it again soon.

On Friday, I felt like trying some place new. I went to Eagleville Pond near Mansfield, CT. It is a pretty lake until all the heavy machinery starts on the east shore. There must be a dump, quarry or something like that over there. The truck/heavy machinery noise was loud and non-stop. Fishing a lake the first time under windy conditions is very difficult. I know I wasted a lot of time fishing dead water. I only caught 5 fish that morning. Two of the fish were 15" long and caught on the shad senko that did well at Savin on Wednesday. I caught most of the fish in the tops of trees that had fallen into the water.

Saturday, I went back to Savin and was chased around the lake by a couple of guys in a john boat. Every time I'd catch a fish they'd leapfrog their boat in front of me and start fishing towards me. After 2 hours of that I gave up and went home. I did catch 4 fish, one weighed 3lbs 14oz using the smoke senko.

Sunday, I went back to Lake Williams and caught some really nice fish. I fished from 6 am to 1 pm and caught 20 fish. The fist three hours I only had 3 fish caught at the north east end of the lake where I usually do pretty well. When the the wind came up from the west I moved to the Northwest part of the lake and started catching fish in the lily pads. The bass and pickerel were hitting the shad and baby bass senkos. The biggest bass was 4lb 3oz and the next biggest weighed 2lb 6oz.

Fishing the week of June 20th in the Colchester Area

A good and bad week for fishing. Work, family and home improvement ate up most of the week, but I did go out 2 days and caught good fish. On Thursday I went to Red Cedar and caught 19 fish. About half were small pickerel, bass and perch, the other half were 13 - 15" bass. Most of the lake I fished were dead, but there were 2 hot-spots on the north end that accounted for 90% of the fish. The north end of the island furthest from the shoreline and off the 2nd beach had fish that really liked the watermelon/lemon senko. The biggest bass I caught weighed 2lbs 7oz.

On Friday, I went to Lake Hayward. After paddling out of the shallow area by the boat launch, I caught a couple bass where the lake first opens up. Like a fool, I then hurried down the lake to where it fully opens up. That's where I caught most of the fish the last time I fished the lake. After 2 hours of fruitless fishing I belatedly went back to where I caught the fish early in the morning. Using the root beer senko that worked so well in the weed last week I caught a total of 10 fish there in an hour and a half. The biggest fish was 3lbs 3oz. The moral of the story is, "Catch the fish where they are, not where they were last week."

Fishing the week of June 13 2011

Pretty good week of fishing. I got out 4 times and caught big fish 3 times and got to use senkos. The first lake of the week was Williams. I caught 14 pickerel and bass, the biggest was a 3lb, 6oz bass. There was nothing in particular they liked, so I threw a lot of senkos and hula grubs at them.

The next time I went out I fished Pickerel Lake. I fished the wood side at first and caught a 3lb 9oz bass hiding in one of the downed tree-tops. The submerged tree-tops were good for a few more fish. As I moved into the lily pads I started catching them on a root beer senko. There were a bunch or reddish vegetation in the lake, so maybe thats why it worked. A few fish ambushed my green hula when I parked on one side of the lily pads and threw the bait on the opposite side and retrieved it. They must have been sitting on the edge because they would nail it just before it reached the pads. The wind pushed me all the way back on the camp side of the lake. I used a white hula and caught 4-5 more small fish. All told, I caught 14 fish that day.

On Saturday I went to Red Cedar Lake. I tried the usual stuff but the fish were not very interested. I only caught 10 fish that day, but at least I didn't loose any gear. I fished the senkos weedless and it probably cost me a few fish. The biggest fish was a 15" bass caught off the last house before getting back to the boat launch.

The fishing Sunday (Fathers Day) was much better. I caught a few fish early in the middle of the lake, but that tailed off as the sun got higher. I moved to the edge of the lake as the speed boats and water skiers came out. Remembering the fishing earlier in the week I started fishing the weeds with the rootbeer senko. The pickerel loved it. They would wait for it to settle and as soon as I picked it up they would nail it. In a 50 yard stretch of shoreline I caught 10 pickerel and a couple bass. I lost a couple big bass when they got tangled in the weeds and pulled the hook out, but I did catch a 15" and two 16" bass. On the way back I threw the root beer senko into the weeds next to the dam and got a big hit. It was one of those hits that immediately pull the kayak. The hit came on the edge of the weeds and I was able to keep the fish from the thick stuff. The bass weighed 3lb 3oz and was the last of the 25 fish for the day.

Fishing the week of June 6th 2011

This week I fished Lake Hayward, Lake Williams and Red Cedar Lake. The day I fished Lake Hayward was beautiful and the fishing was good. I caught 9 fish, which is about normal for me. I used a combo of grubs and senkos because there was nothing in particular they wanted. The fish were a mix of mostly 11 to 13" pickerel and largemouth. But I did catch a 4' 3 oz bass under a dock and another 3lb 14oz one on the way back just before the lily pads.

The fishing at Lake Williams wasn't as good. I "only" caught 9 small bass and pickerel. I usually do better there, but fishing has not been as good as previous years. Most of the fish were caught in the north end lily pads using carolina rigged senkos and finessing a hula through the pads.

Red Cedar was very similar to the Lake Williams trip. Nine small fish were caught using the same mix of worms and grubs with no one bait being better than another. I even broke out some of may old stuff that I don't use much withiut success. Most of the fish were caught using senkos in the middle of the lake and hula grubs fishing the developed side of the lake. Nothing seemed interested in the flukes this week, so I guess they are done for the year.

Lake WIlliams June 4 2011

I only got out fishing twice this week. even with the slow Real Estate market, there always seems to be something that needs doing. On Tuesday I went to Red Cedar Lake in Lebanon. There was a light breeze all day long, I tried the senkos a couple of times, but the wind was too much. The fish were hitting the hulas and jigs, but not as aggressively as they had in the past. The fishing was pretty good with 14 fish caught. The fish were mostly small, an equal number of pickerel and bass(and a perch), the biggest was a 13 inch bass. I lost 2 jigs in the stumps and had 8 grubs ruined by use, pickerel and having their tails clipped.

Saturday morning I was out on Lake Williams, Lebanon. The day started at about 45 degrees, with no wind. I caught nothing until I got past the campground using the grub/hulas. I switched to the senkos and started to catch fish. Using a variety of green and smoke senkos I caught 11 bass and 3 pickerel. Two of the bass were 15" long and everything else was between 8" and 13" long. When the wind came up (around 0930) I was limited to the north shore of the lake and the islands. I can't wait for summer days of calm breezes.

Fishing Memorial Day Weekend 2011

Fishing Memorial Day Weekend 2011 was different this year. The weather was warm, but the water is cold for this time of the year. I am still catching more pickerel than bass. I went out to Lake Willliams Saturday afternoon at about 3pm. Fishing was spotty. The fish were not interested in the Senkos, still hitting the regular and hula grubs and the flukes are starting to taper off. I caught most of the fish in the back 1/3 of the lake and in the big lily pad patch. Don't know for sure if it was the fish, or the fact that I was able to get out of the wind there. The total for the day was 15 fish, all were small to average .

I did not fish on Sunday and went out bright and early Monday morning. The fishing was pretty good at Red Cedar Lake. I only had about an hour an a half to fish before the thunder and lightning arrive and I had to get out to there. In that time I caught 6 fish, two of them were 15" bass. It was too windy for the senkos, but they were hitting the hulas pretty good. It warmed up nice in the afternoon, but I did not go back there. The 6 available parking were probably gone by then. I went to Pickerel Lake. Fishing was not good. I only caught 4 fish in 4 hours, all small to medium size.

Colchester CT area Fishing May 27

This week I went to Mitchell Pond in Salem and Upper Moodus Reservoir. Mitchell pond did not work out wee. In about 4-5 hours fishing I caught 7 fish, a mix of pickerel and bass. I will try it again later in the year.

The next time I went out I decided to go to the upper Moodus Reservoir. As I went by the dam I was reminded that they are repairing the dam and the reservoir is about 2 feet down from it's usual level. The wind was blowing pretty good there, even though it was calm at home. Paddling against the wind, in low water and not catching any fish I was thinking about going somewhere else while it was still early in the day. Just as I was about to turn around I caught the first fish. I was using "Chompers" 4" Chartreuse Pepper skirted grub and caught 3 fish in the next 5 casts. The 5th cast was one of those long casts I use when I get a loop in the reel. I made about 5 turns on the reel when my pole bent into a big "U". After 5 minutes of fighting and 25 yard ride, I pulled in a 4 lb 3 oz largemouth. It's my first large fish of the year. I ended up with 14 fish for the afternoon, with the one big one.

May fishing Colchester CT area 2011

Man what wet and windy spring. Between the weather and work I haven't fished much this spring. Some of the days I did go fishing had marginal weather, but I was suffering from fishing withdrawal and had to go out. The lakes are still high and cold so I'm catching mostly (90%) pickerel. The best day so far was at Lake Williams when I caught 20 fish in the back Lily pads with a white and a green hula grub

The biggest fish so far are a 23inch pickerel and a 15 inch largemouth bass. I am using Yamamoto hula grubs and flukes like the one above. I've not had much success with flukes in the past but the ones I'm using this year are working pretty good. I'll write more about that in a later blog.

The fishing at Red Cedar Lake, Lake Williams, Gardner Lake and Pickerel Lake has been average for a late April early May. I did not catch anything at Ruby Cohen Pond. I plan on fishing Upper Moodus Reservoir and Mitchell Pond soon. I'll let you know how it goes.

Fishing Pickerel Lake April 26 2011

I got up at 3:30 this morning to hunt turkeys in Massachusetts with my dad. No luck with the birds and came home. I did some Real Estate work and went fishing. I just had to go fishing the temperature got up to 80 degrees. By the time I got out the wind had picked up and the temperature had dropped to the mid 70s. The wind had picked up to 10-15 mph and was coming right down the lake. Fishing was difficult and it sometimes required 7 or 8 paddle strokes between each cast, but the fish were bitting. I ended up catching 14 fish, pickerel and 3 small bass. The pickerel were mostly small, 2 were 17" long. Most of the fish were caught on a 4" white swimsenko. At least the trip back was quick with the wind pushing me back to the boat launch.

Bass Fishing Lake Williams April 15th

First fishing trip of the year. It was only 50 degrees and windy, but I just had to get out. The wind pushed me down the lake from the dam pretty quickly and I fished all the way to the back cove before I caught anything, From there I was able to escape most of the wind and the fishing in that shallow water was very good. In 2 hours I caught 15 pickerel and 5 bass. One of the pickerel was 18" long but everything else was small. I was using a grey Yamamoto Hula Grub and a silver one when that one lost a flipper to a very determined pickerel. The trip back to the dam was a trip to remember. I had to paddle back against that same 8-10 mph wind and by this time the sun was almost down and the temperature had dropped a couple of degrees. I forgot to bring my gloves and had to stop 3-4 times to warm my hands. It was a great trip and well worth the painful trip back.