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.

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.

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."

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.

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.

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.