Fishing Reports Central > River Reports | Menu
Last | Next

Author:
PECo
Date:
Jul 30, 2011
Subject:
Farmington River - Tunxis Mead 07/30
Message:
DirtyDawg10 (aka Derek) and I decided to fish the Tunxis Mead section of the Farmington River in Farmington this morning. We met up at the canoe launch ramp in the park on Wannowmassa Lane at 5:30 am, and launched into the pool that's upriver from the ramp and the pedestrian bridge that crosses the river. The air was cool and there was very little wind. I was glad to see that trout were rising everywhere, because I had sent a couple of fishermen who were in search of some trout there a couple of days ago. Neither Derek nor I had any trout gear with us, so seeing the trout rising was very frustrating. I started throwing a big Mepps Number 5 bucktail inline spinner and a weighted Texas rigged soft plastic crawfish. I had one little trout follow the inline spinner back to my kayak, but that was it. It wasn't long before I cut it off and tied on a wacky rigged five inch green pumpkin/red flake Senko. Neither Derek nor I got any hits after paddling upriver to where the rapids began and back to the ramp. However, the scenery was very nice: [img:c9a7560714]http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/3185/img0866cropped.jpg[/img:c9a7560714] [img:c9a7560714]http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/4332/img0867cropped.jpg[/img:c9a7560714] At 6:45 am, we decided to shoot the rapids underneath the pedestrian bridge and headed downriver. I paddled straight for the shadows on the east bank because that's where I'd be if I were a largemouth bass. It wasn't long before bass began to pick up the wacky Senko, and I boated a 14 incher, a 12 incher and another 14 incher: [img:c9a7560714]http://img824.imageshack.us/img824/1960/img0869hu.jpg[/img:c9a7560714] [img:c9a7560714]http://img585.imageshack.us/img585/5496/img0870m.jpg[/img:c9a7560714] [img:c9a7560714]http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/2668/img0871c.jpg[/img:c9a7560714] Then I got a yellow perch: [img:c9a7560714]http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/5571/img0872bm.jpg[/img:c9a7560714] It took a while, but Derek finally got the skunk off with a bluegill: [img:c9a7560714]http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/1723/img0873uw.jpg[/img:c9a7560714] Shortly after, Derek also boated a yellow perch. While he continued down the east bank, I headed across the river to the sunny west bank. I landed a 13 inch largemouth bass, a rock bass, a 14 inch largemouth bass and then another rock bass: [img:c9a7560714]http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/6196/img0874y.jpg[/img:c9a7560714] [img:c9a7560714]http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/9194/img0876ej.jpg[/img:c9a7560714] [img:c9a7560714]http://img833.imageshack.us/img833/1144/img0877ry.jpg[/img:c9a7560714] [img:c9a7560714]http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/3585/img0878ya.jpg[/img:c9a7560714] We entered a cove off of the east bank, where I boated a short largemouth bass: [img:c9a7560714]http://img36.imageshack.us/img36/6213/img0879wx.jpg[/img:c9a7560714] As we worked our way around the cove, Derek boated a nice 12 inch black crappie: [img:c9a7560714]http://img841.imageshack.us/img841/5461/img0882y.jpg[/img:c9a7560714] He decided to put it on a stringer, which changed our normal "catch and release" routine into a "catch dinner" routine. As the wind began to rise out of the west, I boated another small largemouth bass with the wacky Senko: [img:c9a7560714]http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/7504/img0883b.jpg[/img:c9a7560714] By this time, Derek was tired of catching everything [i:c9a7560714][b:c9a7560714]but[/b:c9a7560714][/i:c9a7560714] a largemouth bass and tied on a wacky Senko of his own. And it wasn't long before it paid off: [img:c9a7560714]http://img855.imageshack.us/img855/9744/img0884cropped.jpg[/img:c9a7560714] The largemouth bass had swallowed the hook, so Derek released it immediately after finally getting the hook out of its gut. It was about 17 inches long and 2-1/2 pounds, and ended up being the lunker for the day. After, that, Derek landed the last largemouth bass that we got with a trolled white crankbait. But the most fun we had all day was when Derek discovered there were tons of white perch in the cove that liked to hit the trolled white crankbait. He caught five before we decided to start keeping them. I tried trolling a small perch patterned Rapala Original Floater, but didn't get any hits on it, so I tied on a Strike King KVD crankbait. Luckily, the white perch didn't care whether the crankbait was white or yellow: [img:c9a7560714]http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/3715/img0885jh.jpg[/img:c9a7560714] [img:c9a7560714]http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/8710/img0886qe.jpg[/img:c9a7560714] We ended up boating at least a couple of dozen white perch and kept 12 of them. On our way out of the cove, Derek boated another 12 inch crappie and we kept that, too. On our way back to the ramp, we paddled against a stiff headwind. The trolled crankbaits got us a few more yellow perch along the way. I think that we each boated a total of four on the day. Here's a photo of Derek with our stringer of fish: [img:c9a7560714]http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/1615/img0887corrected.jpg[/img:c9a7560714] We had a blast exploring a new section of the Farmington (new to us, at least). Derek ended up boating six different species of fish and I got four. And guess what each of us is having for dinner. :D
Author:
metalfish
Date:
Jul 30, 2011
Message:
Congrats. Looks Like a slam jamin day on the water!!
Author:
slim2043
Date:
Jul 30, 2011
Message:
Nice job out there! My grandfather helped clear the land for Meade. My mom told me about this just the other day. Enjoy dinner!!! :D
Last | Next
Home | Topics | Menu