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.