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 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 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 September 22nd

I had a break in my calendar and went fishing this morning. I went to Red Cedar Lake in Lebanon, CT. The early morning was dead calm and the temperature was a comfortable 57 degrees. The lake has definitely gotten colder, but not pain full wading out to launch the kayak. Fishing was not good. By 9 am I had only had a one fish hooked. A small pickerel that got off before I got him to the boat. Then I got a real estate call and decided to go home. Fishing my way back I caught 4 bass. One about 9" and the others were 12-13". Two of the fish were caught on on a Yamamoto Senko and the others on a Yamamoto Creature.

Red Cedar Lake Fishing August 18th

I took a friends son fishing yesterday to Red Cedar Lake. He loves to fish, but his family is not into it. I let him use one of my kayaks and he did very well for the first time kayaking. He caught 2 bass and I caught 8. I used a combination of Yamamoto Senko and a double tailed grub. He used a single tailed grub. It was a pretty good trip considering it was so hot and windy.

Red Cedar Lake August 11th

August 11th I went fishing in the afternoon. I started aroung 5pm and fished until it got so dark I couldn't see the line any more. I caught a cople of pickerel in the middle of the lake and caught a couple of bass furhter down the lake. About 6pm the jet skiers and water skiers came out and the fish stopped biting. I fished the fringe of the lake without luck until just before dark. I don't know if it was a coincidence but it was at this time the water skiers quit for the night too. I ended up with 9 fish, all but the first 2 were bass. The bass were all in the 11-13" range and they were all caught on Yamamoto Senkos of various colors.


(I Just sold this condo. Hip Hip Hooray!)

Bass Fishing Lake Williams July 31st

On Friday, July 31st, I went to Lake Williams. I arrived before sunrise on a cloudy morning. The fishing was pretty good and I caught 13 bass. Once again the fish were interested in the Yamammoto Senkos, fished “wacky style”. I don’t think it looks like anything in the water, but the wiggle thing it does as it sinks drives aggressive fish to grab it. The only question on most days is, what color do I use today? I use blue, red, lime, green and green/white worms most of the time. The fishing came to an abrupt end when the rain that was supposed to come in the afternoon arrived at 10am. I had afternoon office duty at the office anyway.

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").

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.

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?

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