Cochester area fishing w/o August 1

This week I went to Amston Lake, WIlliams Lake, Powers Lake and Red Cedar Lake. At Amston Lake I caught a lot of fish, 24 to be exact, but all were small. Have you noticed that some days it seems like only the big or medium or small fish are biting? On this day t was all the 6 -10 inch fish and a lot of tails bit off the grubs.
The next day I went to Lake Williams and I had a great day with big fish. I caught (4) 2 pound bass and a 4 pound 12 oz largemouth as well. All the big fish were caught in the weeds with senkos and I got a bunch on the way back with spinner bait, all told I landed 21 fish.
Matt and I fished Powers Lake with some success. The lake seem to be the same depth as Williams, without the cover. They don't seem to be very interested in Senkos and we caught almost all the fish on lures and spinners. Matt worked on catching as many sunfish as he could and caught 13 sunfish and small bass. I used bigger bait stuff and caught 10 fish. All mine were small except for a monster bass that hit a crank bait and weighed out at 5 pounds 2 ounces.
On Saturday I had to be home by 10 so I went to Red Cedar Lake. It is small enough for me to fish it well in 3-4 hours. I caught 11 fish with two 2 pound fish. For some reason I am not doing as well this year at Red Cedar. I think it is getting fished pretty heavily this year. I have seen the same groups of fishermen there multiple times during my trips there. So I assume they are fishing there a lot.

Colchester Area Fishing W/O July 25th

Another week of vacation spent fishing almost every morning from 5:30 to 11am. I fished Red Cedar, Savin, Williams, Amston and Pickerel Lake.
Lake Williams was very good, I caught 31 fish including a 4lb 7oz bass. Most of the big fish were caught using a variety of senkos. On the way back to the dam I fished a spinnerbait along the East shore and caught 8-9 small to medium bass that way.

I wanted to try Savin Pond again on a day with good weather. The last time the weather and the fishing weren't very good. Well this time the weather was good, but the fishing wasn't. I only caught 4 fish and had very few bites.

Red Cedar lake gave up 14 fish, about average for the lake, the biggest weighed 4lb 4oz. Nothing was particularly effective and I tried senkos, jigs and spinnerbait.

Amston Lake has been different this year. I am not catching fish in the North cove this year, but having pretty good luck fishing the shallow area in the middle of the lake. I noticed that I was getting spinnerbait hits on the drop more than during the retrieval. So I switched to a heavy jig and bounced some super grubs on the bottom. This is how I caught most of the fish including a 4' 7oz bass and a 2 pounder.

On Sunday I went to Pickerel Lake and caught 13 fish. All the fish I caught (pickerel, perch and bass) were less than 10" inches long. There was one fisherman flipping worms under the docks that said he caught a 6 pounder that morning. Another boat that was coming out when I was leaving said the two of them caught a total of 13 small fish. They said that the lake is just too weedy this time of the year to catch anything good.

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 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.

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 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 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 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 Lake Williams June 25 2010

I took Matt to Lake Williams in Lebanon, CT for his first trip there. It was tough fishing into a 5-6mph headwind and the fishing was sluggish. I caught a couple of fish by the campground and a few more fish further up the lake. By the North end lily pads I did pretty well with the Senkos. Matt was getting a lot of hits with the jigs, but wasn't having much luck hooking or landing them. I spent some time with him teaching him how to fish the senkos, but by then the fish weren't hitting them anymore. By that time it was almost 11 and we had to leave. Matt caught 2 small bass and a pickerel. I caught 13 bass and pickerel. Three of the bass were 17" long; one of them is pictured above. It is nice fishing with someone that can take pictures. He took a pretty good photo for his first time with a camera.

Fishing Lake Williams June 21 2010

I was able to get out yesterday afternoon for a few hours. It was a little breezy and of course I had to paddle into the wind. I made up my mind to put swimsenkos on one pole and regular senkos on the other. Anchoring next to the dam I tried out a few color combinations and caught a 15" bass on the blue senko. Until I cleared the small islands I was out of the wind so I fished the east shore and caught a small bass and pickerel. I caught a big (17") bass by the big rock half way up the shoreline and then paddled up to the lee side of the big island. There I caught a couple small and a couple good size bass. From there I fished the east and north shore until sundown. I only caught 12 fish but 8 of them were 15-17" long, almost all of them on senkos.

Fishing Lake Williams June 4 2010

On Friday afternoon I went to Lake Williams. At the dam there is a bench placed as a memorial to an 18 year old named Matthew Kanter. As usual the fishing doesn't get good until I got to the northern end of the lake. I fished the west shore to ovoid the wind and to stay away from the water skiers as much as possible. I caught one fish opposite the campground and only two more before I got to the lily pads. The lily pads were full of fish and my new weedless technique worked well. All the bass and pickerel were 10-13" long, but you should have seen the one that got away. I hooked a 3-4 pounder that took me for a ride in the lily pads for about 2 minutes before he threw the hook. By 7:30 I had caught and released 12 more fish and decided to cross over to the west shore. There were a couple of aggressive fish in the middle of the lake that I caught. By the north end of the big island there is a small patch of lily pad and there we some bass jumping out of the water trying to catch flies coming off the water and the dragon flies cruising by. I took the weedless rig off one of the poles and put a green Senko on. The first cast on the edge of the pads was snatched by a 15" largemouth. My next cast caught another the same size. After a couple more casts I saw a big on on the far side of the lily pads jump out of the water chasing a fly. After getting in position the next cast on the edge only sank about 3 seconds before the line started moving into the pads. I set the hook and caught another 15 incher. By this time it was 8:15 and I started fishing my way back to the dam. Within 10 minutes I caught my 20th fish and stopped fishing.

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 Lake WIlliams May 7 2010

Lake Williams, Lebanon CT

To use a football analogy, "I took what the defense gave me." In this case, the wind (15-20mph) was from the Northwest, so I fished off of the North shore. Fishing was slow, but fruitful. I caught crappie, perch, pickerel, sunfish and large mouth bass. The 4 bass I caught were in the lilly pads and were about 12-13" long. I used some big single tail grubs, fished weedless on top of the water. There is nothing I like more than seeing a fish hit a bait on the top of the water. I ended up catching 20 fish in about 5 hours of fishing. Most of the fish caught were on the small to medium side. The wind pushed me back to the dam at a good clip. That was really appreciated because I was very tired by then.

Lake Williams April 15th

It was one of those days when I just had to go fishing! My schedule was open for the day and even though the wind was 10-20mph I didn't care. So I went to my favorite lake and the wind was whipping down from the North, the whole length of the lake. After much paddling in the face of the wind I finally got to the far end of the lake and out of most of the wind.

Fortunately the trip was worth it. I caught 20 fish, 17 pickerel, 2 bass and 1 perch. All the fish were small to average size and were caught jigging single-tail grubs. By the 20th fish I was exhausted and ready to quit. The trip back to the dam was greatly assisted by the wind at my back.

April 2010 Early Fishing

Finally, Fishing in 2010. I have fished Lake Williams, Red Cedar and Pickerel Lake over the last three days. The fishing is slow, but I don't care! It is great to be out on the lakes in sixty degree weather. So far in three days of fishing I have only caught ten fish with an equal mix of pickerel and bass. I have been jigging single tails and creatures. I bought a new batch of colors for both and just have to try them out. Love this weather, got to take advantage of it while it lasts.