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Author:
PECo
Date:
Jun 11, 2010
Subject:
Bantam River 06/11
Message:
I fished the Bantam River for the first time today from about 10 AM to 4 PM. I parked at the canoe launch on Whites Wood Road, just past the bridge to the south of Bissell Road. The parking lot was packed. Just after I launched, I caught up with Fishface, whom I have to thank for telling me about the river. Fishface told me that he had caught a decent largemouth bass just after he launched, but before I showed up. He also told me that the river was higher than he had seen in the last few years. Now, I have to say, in my eyes at least, the word "river" overstates the stature of Bantam River. It's really more of a stream, ranging from only 10 to 25 feet wide for its length down to the beaver dam just before Bantam Lake. There's a lot of cover on both sides, a few little coves and a loop around what turned out to be a little island in the river. The cover was mostly water hyacinths, with occasional patches of lilies. We worked our way downstream from the bridge. The fishing was slow at first. I caught a rock bass, and Fishface caught a tiny largemouth bass and a little northern pike. I finally caught a little 12 inch largemouth bass after an hour or so. The fishing didn't pick up until after we were well past the pedestrian/horse bridge, at the loop around the island. Fishface got a good hit on his wacky Senko just upstream from the loop, but lost the fish. Just inside the entrance to the loop, a little northern pike zoomed in to take a shot at my wacky Yum Dinger as I reeled it in. It actually hit the side of my kayak before it zoomed off. I threw my lure in the direction I thought it went and saw it grab the worm. I set the hook and as I started to reel it in, I realized it wasn't the pike, but another largemouth bass. It was just another 12-incher. I was kinda disappointed, because I've never caught a northern pike. Cue the short story: When I was 12 years old, my younger sister and I were fishing Lac Vieux Desert on the Wisconsin-Upper Michigan border in an aluminum rental boat, 50 feet off the dock. I had rowed us out there, because my dad told me that I shouldn't start the engine by myself. We were casting nightcrawlers at splashes when she got a BIG strike. The fish dove straight down into the heavy weed cover and her old white Zebco rod was bent over double. She started to cry, but I told her that she had to reel it in herself. When I finally realized that she couldn't do it, I let her give me the rod and began cranking the fish up from the weeds. When the hook got to the surface, all we saw were weeds and I thought the fish was gone. But as I cleared the mass of weeds away, we saw a humongous, toothy head. It turned out to be a northern pike and it was the biggest fish anyone in our family had ever landed. We rowed back to the dock and ran to our camper to show everyone what we caught. My mom later had the fish mounted. Although it seemed HUGE to us at the time, it was only about 18 inches long. I don't think it was even legal. But we were just kids. End of short story. Fishface and I worked our way around the loop. Near the exit, he finally landed a decent largemouth bass. It was 16 inches, 1 lb 6 oz. We re-entered the river and the fishing slowed again. As we rounded a big bend, I threw my wacky Yum Dinger across the river from the inside to the outside of the bend and got caught up in a bush on the edge of the water. As I yanked it free with a tiny splash, it shot past my head and ended up on the other side of my kayak. After I got all of the line back on my reel, I threw the Dinger back toward the bush and nailed the water right underneath it. As the worm sank, my line started drifting upstream and I knew I had a fish on. While I was hoping for a northern pike, I soon realized I had a big largemouth bass on and yelled to Fishface. It didn't jump, but pulled my kayak 10 feet across the river and into the bank. I thought I might lose it in the cover on the bank and almost lost my paddle, but I managed to haul it out. It was just short of 18 inches and was 3 lb 1 oz. Fishface took a photo, so I'll post it when I get a chance. After that, I caught three more little largemouth bass. We also saw a couple of clouds of largemouth bass fry. The fry were each about an inch long and actually looked like teeny little bass. However, there was no sign of mommy or daddy nearby. We had a good day. We saw a couple of small beavers and I paddled with a big three-footer. It was swimming next to my kayak like a dolphin off the bow of a ship. I've never seen a beaver that up close and personal (well, a live one, anyway). Thanks, again, Tim. I'll be back on that stream, [i:ff4acf46de]ahem[/i:ff4acf46de], river again, soon.
Author:
PECo
Date:
Jun 11, 2010
Subject:
Reports are better with pictures!
Message:
[img:7b9da93560]http://img816.imageshack.us/img816/2000/bantamriver.jpg[/img:7b9da93560]
Author:
SkeeterJim
Date:
Jun 11, 2010
Message:
As usual awesome report Phil. If you wanted to try and catch some big bass you should have continued up and gone into Bantam Lake. Right near the mouth of the river to the right is a flat area with weeds and grass where a good portion of the lake's bass are caught. Haven't been back since the town closed the public boat launch. :cry:
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