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Author:
Phish
Date:
Sep 09, 2010
Subject:
Connecticut River 9/9
Message:
Nice afternoon on the river with PECO Location: From Wethersfield Cove to Keeney Cove Water temp: 71-73 Clarity: 2-3 feet Tide: Incoming to high tide Weather: 70 degrees, overcast, windy as heck (NW 15-20) Phil and I launched from Wethersfield Cove at 2PM and went straight to Keeney Cove. Strong incoming tide ripping through and lower water levels than I have seen in my few times in there. Lots of weedy mats so it didn't take me long to put down the spinnerbait and buzzbait and start throwing the frog (Spro, black with yellow). Not long after switching to the frog I got hammered and landed a hard-pulling 19" LMB in about a foot and a half of water. One scale read 3-13 and the other was more like 4 pounds. My PB on a frog, my PB on the Connecticut River, and I think that is my biggest CT largie as well. She blasted through the mat and I didn't have to wait on the hookset because the Diawa procyon 7'6" was already bowed on contact. Nice fish. Phil's got the photos. I missed a couple of smaller blowups then landed another 13" LMB on the frog. We both threw spinnerbaits and various other things at times but not much else worked. Moved into the main river between Keeney and Wethersfield and worked the western shore grass beds. While it looked like smallie heaven, the best I could get was a follow on a crank. Phil was able to get his first Northern Pike hookup on a black spinnerbait. It came off literally on the side of the boat. Palm Beach release. Counts for me. Congrats, Phil. We'll get a bigger one next time and get that photo. We moved into Wethersfield Cove and worked east to north shore. I picked up a healthy 1.5 lb. largie on a Lobina Rico popper in albino. Awesome popper, by the way. I have never not caught fish on that thing.
Author:
slimecoat
Date:
Sep 10, 2010
Message:
Nice report Phish, sound like a fun outing on the river. You did ok, because the river has been a tough bite from Hartford south the last few weeks.
Author:
PECo
Date:
Sep 10, 2010
Message:
It was a blustery afternoon. The sky was overcast and the air temperature hovered around 70 degrees, but the NNW wind made it feel chilly. I kept my PFD on the whole time we were out on the water; not for floatation, but for warmth. It didn't take long after we were in Keeney Cove for Jed to hook up with the lunker largemouth bass. We were in the channel, which was bordered by a narrow strip of weeds and scum along the shore on the E side of the cove and a larger field of weeds and scum on the W side. Jed was throwing his frog at a log in the weeds on the W side. He didn't hesitate at all before setting the hook; the fish hit the frog pretty hard. When the fish emerged from the weeds into the channel, I caught a glimpse of it and thought that it was maybe a 16 incher, but after Jed fought it out from under the boat and hauled it over the side, I would have sworn that it was over 4 pounds. I was surprised when it was only 19 inches long and my Berkley digital scale said that it was only 3 pounds 13 ounces, because it was an NFL lineman of a fish: [img:1336813676]http://img696.imageshack.us/img696/8379/2010090919inch3lb13ozla.jpg[/img:1336813676] It looked bigger to me than the 21 inch, 3 pound 13 ounce largemouth bass that Fishface (aka Tim) pulled out of Bantam River last weekend. But I guess that's the difference between an active Connecticut River fish and a lazy Bantam River fish. Other than when a fish turned my 10-1/2 inch Texas-rigged worm into a 7 incher, I had no action in Keeney Cove. The fish wanted nothing to do with my green and yellow Spro frog, but I think that I might have been fishing it too fast. Jed said that a 5 count after his black and yellow Spro frog hit the water seemed to help. The cool thing about the 13 incher he also landed in the cove is that he had missed it earlier and went back to get it. After we left Keeney Cove, we spent a few minutes pitching lures at the E piling of the Route 3 bridge. Jed threw a crankbait and I dragged a jig over the bottom. We didn't get any hits and the wind made fishing difficult in the middle of the river, so we didn't stick around long. I finally got several hits on a black spinnerbait while pitching it into the clear water along the W bank of the river and dragging it across the weedbed that runs parallel to the bank. I hooked up with a fish that I dragged through the weeds to the boat. As it got closer, I yelled to Jed, "Is that an eel?", but when the wriggling fish threw the weeds off and banged against the side of the boat, I saw that it was a small northern pike, maybe 14 inches long. But, somehow, it threw the hook. I must have hooked it just on the spinnerbait's trailer hook. Hey, Turtlekiss, I [b:1336813676][i:1336813676]almost[/i:1336813676][/b:1336813676] landed my first pike! :? When we got back into Wethersfield Cove, we fished the very shallow waters (i.e., mostly around 2 feet). I didn't get anything, but Jed's largemouth bass absolutely swallowed his popper. The entire thing was in it's mouth and it was hooked with [b:1336813676]both[/b:1336813676] trebles. Without forceps, we would have had to rip its gills out. It swam away with just a little bit of bleeding from it's gills, but if there were any pike in the area, I'm sure that it was a goner. We got off the water as it began to get dark, around 7 PM. I've never been a topwater guy, but I'm definitely going to pick up one of those black and yellow Spro frogs.
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