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Author:
PECo
Date:
Mar 23, 2012
Subject:
Connecticut River - Hamburg Cove 03/23
Message:
TurtleKiss (aka Kira) and I snuck onto a private estate on Hamburg Cove before dawn this morning, so that we could put into the cove at the boat launch ramp next to the owner's yacht. :roll: Okay, so we really put in at the ramp next to the Hamburg Cove Yacht Club. :lol: The weather was beautiful when we launched. Although the sky was overcast, the air was warm and there was just a gentle breeze from the north. The water temperature was 58 degrees and the water was murky, with visibility down only a couple of feet. It was low tide. Kira pedaled The Other Woman and I paddled El Habaņero. After we launched, we headed toward the channel that leads to the outer cove. Kira's not much of a white or yellow perch fisherman, so we focused on trying to catch largemouth bass and chain pickerel. As we passed the steel seawall, I threw a white four inch curlytail grub on a 3/16 ounce shakeyhead jighead past it and, as always, I got a hit: [img:69eff91b7a]http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/2296/img1800d.jpg[/img:69eff91b7a] Well, it [b:69eff91b7a][i:69eff91b7a]wasn't[/i:69eff91b7a][/b:69eff91b7a] what I expected, but it [b:69eff91b7a][i:69eff91b7a]was[/i:69eff91b7a][/b:69eff91b7a] the first sunny that I've caught in Hamburg Cove this year. :D I switched from the grub to a white 3/8 ounce Strike King Redeye spinnerbait as I entered the channel and hooked into a 11 inch largemouth bass: [img:69eff91b7a]http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/460/img1801j.jpg[/img:69eff91b7a] Before I got out of the channel, I had a bite on the spinnerbait from a 22 inch chain pickerel, but it got off of the hook while I played it to tire it out. However, right after I got into the outer cove, the spinnerbait got me an 18 incher on the west shore: [img:69eff91b7a]http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/5465/img1804k.jpg[/img:69eff91b7a] I decided to head to the other side of the cove and trolled the grub behind me. As I paddled across, I got a hit and boated a 14 inch schoolie striper: [img:69eff91b7a]http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/4167/img1805f.jpg[/img:69eff91b7a] When I got to the east shore, I switched back to the spinnerbait and, yeap, there were pickerel there, too: [img:69eff91b7a]http://img39.imageshack.us/img39/5113/img1807y.jpg[/img:69eff91b7a] By this time, Kira had tied on a spinnerbait, too, and got a pickerel of her own: [img:69eff91b7a]http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/477/img1809h.jpg[/img:69eff91b7a] And then she got another, which turned out to be the lunker pickerel, at 27 inches and four pounds, 13 ounces: [img:69eff91b7a]http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/8131/img1810p.jpg[/img:69eff91b7a] As I went down the east shore, I got another schoolie striper, just a 10 incher this time: [img:69eff91b7a]http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/2325/img1811pb.jpg[/img:69eff91b7a] I got a couple of more pickerel and Kira got a short largemouth bass, before I decided to spend some time fishing for white perch. Kira continued down the east shore in search of largemouth bass, while I headed back across the cove to the west shore and tied on my white perch jig, which is a smelt patterned 2-1/2 inch Gulp! Minnow on a 1/16 ounce round jighead. The bite died on me for quite a while, before I finally got a hit and boated a chunky 13 inch yellow perch: [img:69eff91b7a]http://img813.imageshack.us/img813/6907/img1812h.jpg[/img:69eff91b7a] [img:69eff91b7a]http://img593.imageshack.us/img593/6894/img1813ts.jpg[/img:69eff91b7a] Although I got another tiny yellow perch, I couldn't find any white perch. Anywhere. :cry: I zigzagged up the outer cove without a single hit from a white perch. When Kira caught back up to me, she told me that the bite had died completely for her, too. I think the lack of activity coincided with the slack high tide. I decided to switch back to fishing for largemouth bass and chain pickerel, and tied the four inch grub back on. It didn't take long to boat a 24 inch pickerel on the west shore: [img:69eff91b7a]http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/7366/img1814zm.jpg[/img:69eff91b7a] After we got back to the channel that leads to the inner cove, Kira proposed a chain pickerel catching contest on the northeast shore of the outer cove. We headed over there and Kira threw a spinnerbait, while I continued to throw the grub. I didn't get a photo of the winning fish, but it was mine, not Kira's. :D After I won the contest, I tied my white perch jig back on and did another quick loop around the north end of the outer cove, while Kira fished the mouth of the channel. While I got [b:69eff91b7a]nothing[/b:69eff91b7a] :cry:, Kira boated a rock bass. While she was filling me in about her battle with Rocky, we both heard a splash on the shore near where a creek flows into the channel. Then we saw and heard another. We both thought that it was a largemouth bass feeding on the surface. I paddled over and threw my white perch jig to the spot, and got a hit. As the fish pulled down and toward the center of the channel, I yelled to Kira, "Aha! I got a [b:69eff91b7a]REAL[/b:69eff91b7a] bass!", but when I boated it, it turned out to be a white perch :shock: : [img:69eff91b7a]http://img703.imageshack.us/img703/6079/img1815ud.jpg[/img:69eff91b7a] Actually, I was more right than I knew, because white perch are a true bass, unlike largemouth bass, which are really a kind of sunfish. :wink: I went to the other side of the channel, where the grub got me another short largemouth bass: [img:69eff91b7a]http://img825.imageshack.us/img825/1535/img1816q.jpg[/img:69eff91b7a] It also got me another pickerel. :roll: When we entered the inner cove, I just had to throw the grub past the steel seawall and, whoo hoo, I caught the lunker largemouth bass, which was 15 inches long and weighed one pound, 10 ounces: [img:69eff91b7a]http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/2193/img1817s.jpg[/img:69eff91b7a] I caught a couple of more pickerel before we got off of the water at 4:15 pm. The tide was just starting to flow out and the water temperature had risen to 62 degrees. All told, I ended up catching one sunny, three largemouth bass, at least a dozen chain pickerel, two striped bass, three yellow perch and one white perch. Kira got a bunch of chain pickerel and one largemouth bass. Oh, and one rock bass! :roll: As we were coming off of the water, a fisherman was getting ready to put into the water in a canoe. He was talking with Kira as she pedaled up to the ramp. When I walked over, he turned and said, "I know you. . . from the Internet!" It turns out that he's a lurker here. Hey, Paul! :wink: Post a report. I want to know how you did on the outgoing tide! :D
Author:
DirtyDawg10
Date:
Mar 24, 2012
Message:
Fun day on the water!
Author:
bdiggy
Date:
Mar 24, 2012
Message:
That was a huge pickerel! Nice job out there guys 8)
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