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Author:
PECo
Date:
Nov 28, 2012
Subject:
Connecticut River - Haddam Meadows 11/27
Message:
The weather forecast was for a cold and snowy, but calm day, so TurtleKiss (aka Kira) and I decided to try and catch some Abominable Snow Fish. We fished the Connecticut River from Haddam Meadows for a second day in a row. When we arrived at Haddam Meadows, we wondered what had happened to our delightfully snowy day. What we found, instead, was a miserably soggy day, filled with rain and sleet. :cry: However, we decided to tough it out and fish, anyway. We were on the water from 9:30 am to 4:30 pm. We launched The Other Woman, Too onto the calm water at the ramp: [img:752224d56c]http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/9822/img4174cropped.jpg[/img:752224d56c] [img:752224d56c]http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/7910/img4175cropped.jpg[/img:752224d56c] When we launched, the air temperature was in the 30s, the sky was completely overcast and there was very little wind. High tide was approaching at 10:53 am and low tide would be at 5:42 pm, so we mostly fished the outgoing tide. The water temperature was 37 degrees. Yeap, you ice fishing weirdos, only five more degrees to go! :lol: We headed downriver directly to the Connecticut Yankee Atomic Power Plant Canal. I gotta say, sleet [size=18:752224d56c][b:752224d56c][i:752224d56c][color=red:752224d56c]hurts[/color:752224d56c][/i:752224d56c][/b:752224d56c][/size:752224d56c] when it hits you in the face at 34 miles per hour! :? It was a relief when we were finally safely in the canal: [img:752224d56c]http://img641.imageshack.us/img641/6898/img4176cropped.jpg[/img:752224d56c] Our plan was the same as the day before; we'd fish from the cove at the end of the canal and work back down the canal as the water fell with the tide. When we got to the cove, the sleet turned into snow, at least for a little while :D : [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7ZemuUKfyM[/youtube] [img:752224d56c]http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/3237/img4177cropped.jpg[/img:752224d56c] While Kira, once again, experimented with a quickly changing array of lures (I think that she's run out of ADD meds :lol: ), I threw only a Blue Gill Lucky Craft LVR D-10 lipless crankbait, a Silver Pearl 2-1/2 inch Gulp! Minnow on a 1/16 ounce jighead and a white 5 inch slow sinking Sebile Magic Swimmer. "Someday" had arrived, so I let Kira take the front deck and pilot the boat with the trolling motor while I tried out the back deck. The bite was much, much slower than it had been the day before. We didn't get anything at all during the morning. I finally boated the first fish at 12:15 pm: [img:752224d56c]http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/5909/img41931218pmcropped.jpg[/img:752224d56c] I gotta say that nothing warms up a miserably cold, soggy day like catching a fish. Whoo hoo! :D I caught two more black crappie within the next 30 minutes: [img:752224d56c]http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/3616/img4180cropped.jpg[/img:752224d56c] [img:752224d56c]http://img594.imageshack.us/img594/2571/img4181cropped.jpg[/img:752224d56c] And, for variety, I mixed in a dinky yellow perch: [img:752224d56c]http://img833.imageshack.us/img833/9833/img4182cropped.jpg[/img:752224d56c] When we reached the mouth of the canal, I began throwing the Sebile Magic Swimmer over the shallows next to the narrow channel. The lure swims like a wounded fish near the surface and you can see it from a distance because it's white. I saw the open mouth of a fish rise up out of the water behind it and whiff. When I yelled to Kira, "Did you see that?!?!", I slowed my retrieve and the fish caught up to it. Whoo hoo! :D I assumed that it was a northern pike but, for the second day in a row, I was disappointed to find that it wasn't a pike but, this time, a chain pickerel: [img:752224d56c]http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/5743/img4183cropped.jpg[/img:752224d56c] Kira was even less impressed than I. While I estimated it to be 20 inches long, she said, "That thing? 18 inches, tops." So, I threw it on the Hawg Trough. It was just over 19 inches long. And, no, Kira, we weren't on The Price Is Right, so I was closer. :P After we drifted into the main channel of the Connecticut River, we headed halfway back up the canal to try again. I knew that there was [i:752224d56c][b:752224d56c]noooo[/b:752224d56c][/i:752224d56c] way I was going to get my soggy, frozen butt off of the river until Kira caught a fish. :roll: Thankfully, she found one with a white spinnerbait: [img:752224d56c]http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/1535/img4184cropped.jpg[/img:752224d56c] It was just a 12 inch keeper largemouth bass, but, yeap, I have to admit that it [i:752224d56c][b:752224d56c]was[/b:752224d56c][/i:752224d56c] her target species. :roll: We drifted back down to the mouth of the canal and headed off of the water in the still falling sleet. If you don't know what miserable, wet and cold looks like, here it is: [img:752224d56c]http://img855.imageshack.us/img855/3360/img4186cropped.jpg[/img:752224d56c] I'm not sure when I'll get out on the water, again, but it'll probably be on a dry, calm day. Cold I can handle. Cold and wet, cold and blustery, or cold, wet and blustery, I can't. Sorry, ice fishing weirdos, but I'm rooting against you. :lol:
Author:
Michael
Date:
Nov 28, 2012
Message:
You guys are hard core!
Author:
Redneckangler
Date:
Nov 28, 2012
Message:
My fishing is pretty much limited to the weekends now, but PM me if you're headed back out that way again. Last year I fished it right up through New Years before the ice pushed me off for a while. I don't care 'bout no stinkin' cold! If there's no ice, I'll fish.
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