Fishing Pickerel Lake May 2012

Yesterday afternoon I went to Pickerel Lake, it was very crowded. I fished until it was almost dark and there were 6 empty trailers still at the boat launch. I fished for an hour before catching the first fish, but it was worth the wait. The bass weighed 4lbs 12oz. Forty five minutes later I caught another 5lb 14oz fish. After that, they came quicker, but smaller. I ended up with 12 bass, all caught on senkos.

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 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.

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.

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 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 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 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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Big Bass at Pickerel Lake, Colchester CT

( Pickerel Lake Boat Launch)

I decided to fish Pickerel Lake in Colchester, CT today. The weather was perfect, 65 degrees and no wind. I did not catch a lot of fish, but I did catch some nice ones. The first two fish I caught were 18-21” pickerel on a swimsenko. The next fish was 15” largemouth, then a 17” bass, another 15” and then a 20” bass took me for a ride. I love it when a big bass pulls my kayak around a lake. I caught another 15 inch bass and then they stopped biting. I ended up catching a couple rock bass, another bass and pickerel. Most of the fish were caught on Yamamoto Senkos

Pickeral Lake May 19th

(Shaky Worm)

I went back to Pickerel Lake yesterday. At home there was no wind, but at the lake it was pretty constant 5-10 knots. I fished a combination of shaky worms and sinking minnows to catch 13 bass and 3 pickerel. It was hard fishing, casting into the shoreline, fallen trees and overhanging brush. Especially while trying to hold my kayak in place against the wind. Most of the bass were in the 12-13” range but one 18-19” towed my boat for 50 yards down the shoreline before I finally got him in the kayak.

(Sinking Minnow)

Pickerel Lake

I fished Pickerel Lake (Colchester, CT) this afternoon. The lake is well named, I caught 10 pickerel and 4 bass. The smallest pickerel was about 15”, the biggest was about 30”. All the bass were small, about 9”. I used a small fluke and jigged a swimsenko. I think it is a mostly shallow lake with lots of good cover for the fish. There is a good boat launch, with limited parking.