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.

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 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.

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.

Colchester Halloween House

We are really into Halloween at our Colchester,house.

Not only do we decorate our house, we put the trick into "Trick or Treat" on Halloween Night.

We don't scare small children when they come by, but everyone else is fair game.

We have been known to use air cannons, smoke machines, tree stands, jumping spiders, zip line monsters and more.
I won't tell you what we're going to do this year, it would ruin the surprise.

Hiking Day Pond in Colchester Connecticut

(Day Pond Picnic Area)

Day Pond in Colchester CT, is one of the best hikes in the area. If you combine the north loop and the south loop it's about 2.57 miles. Terrain is varied, with a lot of ups and downs. Good boots are recommended. The trails are mostly well marked, but care must be taken. There are several paths, roads and power lines not marked on the map provided by the state.

During the primary hunting season (October - December) it is a good idea to wear fluorescent orange.


Link for a Trail map from the State of CT.
http://www.ct.gov/dep/lib/dep/stateparks/maps/daypond.pdf

Colchesters "57" Fest for 2009

Colchester’s 2009 “57” Festival will be on Saturday, September 12th from 4-8pm. It will be at the town recreation complex at 215 Old Hebron Rd. There will be games for the whole family, a food court, music by the group “Blues Patrol” and finished off with a fireworks show at 8pm. There will be very limited parking there, so it is recommended that you take the shuttle buses to the event. Parking and shuttle buses are located at:
Saint Andrew Church on Norwich Ave (across from the Town Hall)
Jack Jackter Intermediate School on Halls Hill Rd
The commuter parking lot on Lake Hayward Rd (Route 2 & 11 exit 19)
There will be limited handicap parking at the site. For more information go to the Town of Colchester web site at: www.colchesterct.gov/57fest
The rain date is Sunday, September 13th.


Site Map

Bass Fishing Lake Haywood August 1st

Saturday, August 1st I fished Lake Haywood in Colchester, CT. The boat launch is half a lake away from where the fish are, but at least we can get on the lake. It is very clean and quiet. No gas powered engines allowed on the lake. I usually don’t catch many fish here, and today was no exception. I only caught 6 bass. Four of them were in the 13- 15” range; the other two were 4” and 6” long. I went there for a change of pace and to try out some deep water fishing. All the fish I caught were in shallow (8 -12 feet) water, but I did spend some time in the deep water. I had two hits and actually had a fish on for about 5 seconds. I might actually learn how to catch them in deep water someday.

My Colchester area Lake Evaluations

Babcock Pond, Colchester (119 acres) is a very shallow, weedy, lake. The last time I fished it in 2008 the weeds were within 2” of the surface. I have not been back since.

Bashan Lake, East Haddam (273 acres) is a large clean lake. The boat launch is hard to get to and tucked away in a far corner. The lake is very deep and has a clean bottom. I have not caught many fish there, but I have caught some big bass and pickerel.

Gardner Lake, Salem (529 acres) is a very big lake, too big for me and my kayak. If there is any wind at all, this lake gets too rough for me to fish effectively. I have only fished about 1/16th of the lake, without much success. I mostly ended up with a bunch of tail-less worms. The deep lakes confound me, so I don’t fish them any more.

Lake Haywood, East Haddam (174) is a very nice lake. The boat launch is pretty far from where I like to fish. This is one of the electric motor only lakes, so it is a good place to go on a weekend because you don’t have to worry about jet skis or water skiers. This is a very clean lake with a variable bottom. It ranges anywhere from 2 feet deep to more than 30 feet deep. I find it can be a very difficult place to catch fish, on an average day, I catch 4 – 7 fish, and my high for this lake is 14 fish.

Holbrook Pond, Hebron (83 acres) I only fished once. It was very weedy and shallow and I didn’t catch anything.

Mansfield Hallow Reservoir, Mansfield (460) is a beautiful body of water with some great looking coves and bays. I watched a deer swim across a bay one morning. I have fished it when the reservoir was low and when it was high, but only caught a few fish. Everyone that I have talked to has the same story, big fish if you can find them, but few are caught.

Moodus Reservoir. East Haddam (486) is big, but not very deep. I have not had much success there, but others have. This is another lake that gets very choppy if there is any wind blowing. I don’t fish it very often.

Norwich Pond, Lyme (30acres) I fished for the first time this spring. I caught 3 – 4 fish, but the pond looked like I should have done better. Maybe because the water was still 55 – 60 degrees the fish weren’t active. I will try it out later this summer.

Pickerel Lake, Colchester (82) used to be very weedy. While viewing a property there I noticed that the lake wasn’t weed choked any more. I have fished a few times this year with pretty good success. There are a LOT of pickerel there, quit a few bass and even one big (5lb) bullhead that I caught. There are still a lot of weeds there, but the lake can be fished.

Red Cedar Lake, Lebanon (127) is one of my favorite lakes. It is not very deep, but it has a lot of stump cover. I don’t catch many fish there, but I do get some big ones there. You need to fish weedless or be prepared to loose a lot of tackle. The parking lot is very small. During the summer you’ll need to get there early or there will be no place to park. Weekends can be real busy with jet skies and water skiers.

Savin Lake, Lebanon (49) is small with a varying depth. I used to catch lots of bass there. The last 2 years I have only caught 1 – 2 fish per trip. I have not tried it this year and no one else seems to be fishing it either. I drive by there on my way to Red Cedar and have not seen anyone parked there.

Uncas Lake, Lyme (69acres) is very nice deep lake. It is electric only with a nice shoreline to fish. It is another deep lake that has confounded me. I did have a good day fishing the shoreline with flukes, but only caught a couple the next time I went there.

Lake Williams, Lebanon (272) is my other favorite lake. I go there often and it is almost
always good to me. It is big and mostly shallow. It can be very busy on weekend with jet skies, etc, but there are usually no problems on week days. The car top boat launch is at the dam; naturally the best fishing is at the other end of the lake

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.

Kayaking 4th of July on the Farmington River

(Alex and his kayak)

One of the things my son and I like to do is to go white water kayaking. We just came back from a trip to the Farmington River. We went to Main Stream Canoes and Kayak in New Hartford, CT. From Colchester it takes about one hour to get there. They offer a livery service from their location to Riverton, CT for $20/boat. Depending of how fast the river is running it takes 3 -4 hours to kayak back down the river to the parking area. It is mostly Class I water with an occasional Class II (see my April blog for definitions) rapid thrown in. This section is not for novice kayak/canoe users. Main Stream does suggest the downstream section for novices or people trying out new boats.

My son has one of the new “spud” boat type; I have an old school, “Eskimo” type kayak. His boat can do all kinds of tricks and can do Eskimo rolls. The downside of his boat is that the boat is less stable than mine. It will tip over easier. Mine is hard to tip over, but once it does, it won’t Eskimo roll, so I’ll have to “bail out” and swim.

The river was a little higher than usual which made some parts of the river harder and some easier. We had a great time. We got very wet from wave splashes, but neither of us got flipped over. I think white water kayaking is better than going to Six Flags Amusement Park.

Colchester, Lake Haywood Fishing

On July 3rd I went fishing at Lake Haywood in Colchester CT. I caught 8 fish; 6 largemouth bass, 1 rock bass and one sunfish. The bass were caught on Yamamoto senkos and the others were caught on a jigged grub. The bass were all in the 13 – 15” size range. The weather was great and I wish I didn’t have to go to work this afternoon.

For new readers, I fish from a Wilderness Pongo kayak. It has good length, tracking, an adjustable seat and I have modified it for fishing. I installed 2 fishing pole holders and a console that hold my tackle box, cell phone, needle nose pliers, etc. If you see a blue kayak with a “Prudential Connecticut Realty” decal on it, come over and say hi.

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

Colchester Condo for Sale

There are two condos available at the Pleasant Street Condominium in Colchester, CT. These townhouse condos are part of an adult (55+) community. When finished there will be 10 units. Both units have 1880 sq feet, with 2 bedrooms, 2 full baths, attached garage and a bonus room. They are conveniently located near Colchester center where you will find shopping, restaurants, Town Hall, etc. Both feature open floor plans, sun lit bright rooms and a one car garage. They are brand new (built 2008) and have full basements, central air and screened in porches. The finished unit is listed at $229,000. This includes refrigerator, microwave, dishwasher and stove already installed.

The other unit has been left unfinished for someone that wants to have it their way. It is listed for $199,900. Flooring, kitchen cabinets, bathroom fixtures, appliances have not been installed in this unit.

For more information or to make a appointment call Steve Howard at 860-334-9336

Colchester Home Buyer Seminar

Prudential CT Realty is having a “Home Buyer Seminar.” The seminar will be June 24th from 6:30pm – 8pm at our office at 87 Broadway, Colchester, CT. This will be the last buyer’s seminar of the summer. Lori Grodzki, Senior Financial Consultant, will be there to answer all your mortgage questions. She will have the up-to-date information on the “First Time Homebuyer Tax Credit” ($8000), current mortgage rates, FHA regulations and more. There will be information packets available for buyers and agents will be on hand to answer any questions you might have. Please call 537-6699 to RSVP. Walk-ins are welcome, but we want to make sure we have enough information packets available.

Fishing Lake Haywood

Today I fished Red Cedar Lake (Lebanon, CT) and Lake Haywood (Colchester, CT). I started off at Red Cedar and caught 14 fish, one was 18”, and the rest were small. Most of the fish were caught using a Berkley Gulp Goby fishing the edge of the lake. Most of the fish were under the overhanging tree limbs. I got drenched by a 15 minute downpour that the Weather Channel did not see coming.

I went home, changed my cloths, ate some lunch and rechecked the weather forecast. That’s when I decided to fish Lake Haywood. This was my first trip there this year. It is a big lake, deep, very clean, electric motors only and the weather cleaned up nice with a light breeze. I usually catch 5-6 fish when I fish there, but today I caught 16 fish in 4 hours, mostly on the goby and swimsenko. The bass were all 12-15” but they were very energetic. Every one I hooked jumped out of the water, 4 or 5 jumped and spit the worm out.

Goby(s)

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.

Colchester Soccer Registration

Soccer registration is coming! Colchester Youth Soccer (CYS) is having it’s annual registration next month. For the Recreational Program the sign up will be at JJIS on Saturday, June 6th and 13th from 9am – 12pm. The Travel Teams will be holding tryouts on Sunday, June 7th and 14th at a time and place to be determined. For more information you can go to the CYS web site at: www.colchestersoccer.org

Kayaks for beginners.

When I was growing up all I would see on the local rivers were canoes. On the lakes canoes were seen along with the power and sailboats. I still see canoes on the water but there are 3 times as many kayaks.

They have several advantages over canoes:
Most are less expensive than canoes.
They are smaller and lighter.
Easier to load/unload and transport on your vehicle.
Most kayaks are very stable and comfortable.

The hardest thing to do is select the type of kayak to purchase. The kayak you pick depends on what kind of water your going to be paddling on.

Class 1 water would be a lake or a slow moving flat river, like the Connecticut River in Hartford.

Class 2 is faster moving with rapids but the river is easy to negotiate, like the Farmington River in the Collinsville area.

Class 3 has fast moving water with very difficult rapids that require experienced boaters and/or pre-planned routes through the rapids. Some of the narrow parts of Salmon River during high water periods are considered Class 3 water.

Class 4 is raging rivers, think of the Colorado River.

Class 5 is narrow chasms, waterfalls and other extreme water.

To paddle around a lake or big flat river you will need a kayak with a keel, (a ridge or groves along the bottom), so that the boat tracks well in the water. This makes it a little harder to turn the boat, but without it the boat is at the mercy of the wind. I have been pushed sidewise/backwards on a lake in a kayak without a keel.
Most rivers have sections that will have Class 1, 2 or 3 depending on surrounding terrain. A section of river that might be a Class 2 in July, might be a Class 4 in April after a heavy rain. Most kayaks will be alright in Class 1 and 2 water, but I would strongly recommend lessons before attempting Class 2 or higher rivers. The Appalachian Mountain Club (www.ct-amc.org/ct/index.shtm) has several classes and Collinsville Canoe and Kayak (http://www.cckstore.com/) is a good place to get purchasing advice and kayaking lessons.

There are several highly specialized kayaks available for Class 3 and above. These boats are very small and are deliberately made to tip over easily. Their size makes them very maneuverable and quickly right-able when they get flipped over. This flipping back upright is called an Eskimo Roll and takes quit a bit of time to perfect.

Kayaks have many vacation uses. In addition to sight seeing, they can be used for camping, diving, fishing, exercising and reaching otherwise remote locations. I spend my kayak time fishing for largemouth bass at the local lakes or paddling the whitewater of the Farmington River.

If you have any questions or want to talk kayaking send me a comment and I’ll get back to you.