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.

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 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.