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Author:
PECo
Date:
May 01, 2012
Subject:
Farmington River - Tarriffville 04/29
Message:
Thanks to the crappy weather, today, I finally have a chance to type up a report about the kayak fishing trip on the Farmington River that I took with DirtyDawg10 (aka Derek) and JJay (aka Jason) on Sunday. Both Derek and Jason could only fish during the morning, so we hit the river at 6:45 am from Tarriffville Memorial Park: [img:516233f969]http://img824.imageshack.us/img824/9630/img2098cropped.jpg[/img:516233f969] The air temperature was a cold 35 degrees, but there was very little wind and the sky was mostly sunny. The water was stained and slightly murky (smurky? :lol:) and visibility was about three feet. The water level looked to me to be a foot or two lower than what I think is normal for the Farmington. The current also appeared to be relatively gentle, especially compared to the high, raging waters that we seemed to have during most of last season. We saw what I think were trout rising to the surface of the flat water. I paddled El Habaņero, Derek paddled La Calabaza and Jason paddled his own Trophy 126. We paddled around the bend in the river at the park for 30 minutes before heading into the shallows of Pickerel Cove. I wanted to see whether there was any largemouth bass bedding activity in there, yet. Derek threw a crankbait and a spinnerbait as we entered the cove, while I threw only a big bluegill patterned spinnerbait. Derek hadn't been out of the water in a while and celebrated the occasion by coodinating his outfit with La Calabaza :lol:: [img:516233f969]http://img685.imageshack.us/img685/8628/img2099cropped.jpg[/img:516233f969] We didn't get any hits in the extreme shallows just inside of the entrance to the cove, so we headed through the also shallow channel to the relatively deeper water in the southwest corner of the cove. Meanwhile, Jason stayed near the entrance. Neither Derek nor I got any hits or even saw any fish in the deeper water, either, so I downsized and began throwing a Pearl Silver Gulp! 2-1/2 inch Minnow. Still nothing. :sad: But at 7:45 am, Jason sent me a text message that he had boated two small largemouth bass and a chain pickerel with a white two inch curlytail grub on a 1/16 ounce round jighead on a slow retrieve. Here's the photo he sent me of one of the largemouth bass: [img:516233f969]http://img576.imageshack.us/img576/6315/slargemouthbasscropped.jpg[/img:516233f969] When I got the text, Derek was throwing his spinnerbait. Based on what Jason had told me, I advised Derek to slow his retrieve. He was mid-retrieve when he slowed it and, [b:516233f969][i:516233f969]BAM![/i:516233f969][/b:516233f969], he immediately got a hit from a small largemouth bass. I thought that he was about to get what would be only his second spinnerbait fish ever when it jumped off of the spinnerbait at the boat! Someone had failed to set the hook. :roll: Meanwhile, Jason sent me another text message with a photo of a black crappie: [img:516233f969]http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/8813/sblackcrappiecorrected.jpg[/img:516233f969] Jason paddled over to the southwest corner of the cove and joined us a little while later. I had forgotten to put my curlytail grubs in my boat, so I got a white two inch curlytail grub from him. It wasn't long before I boated a black crappie of my own: [img:516233f969]http://img696.imageshack.us/img696/8708/img2100by.jpg[/img:516233f969] And then a sunny: [img:516233f969]http://img651.imageshack.us/img651/1302/img2101es.jpg[/img:516233f969] And then a yellow perch: [img:516233f969]http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/9130/img2102cq.jpg[/img:516233f969] I paddled over to the laydown out of which Derek had pulled the largemouth bass that he lost on the spinnerbait and told him that I was going to catch his fish. On the first cast, the grub jig got me a 13 inch largemouth bass: [img:516233f969]http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/6471/img2103ds.jpg[/img:516233f969] We stayed in the cove for quite a while before heading out into the main channel of the river and paddling upriver a couple of hundred yards. I decided to tie on a wacky rigged Senko to throw into laydowns on the bank. The green pumpkin/red flake five inch Senko got me a little smallmouth bass: [img:516233f969]http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/4318/img2107cropped.jpg[/img:516233f969] It was my first wacky fish of the year. Whoo hoo! Meanwhile, the crankbait had gotten Derek a decent yellow perch out of another laydown. By the time that we headed off of the river at 11:45 am, the wind had risen out of the south a bit, but the air had warmed up to the mid-50s. I didn't see any largemouth bass bedding activity in the shallows of Pickerel Cove, so I'd guess that the water is still too cold for it. I also didn't see much greenery in the water. Hopefully, we'll get a warm spell and things will heat up, soon.
Author:
CT_BASSman
Date:
May 01, 2012
Message:
Awesome report as always! I plan to get out here within the next week or so. Hopefully this warm spell comes thru that they're talking about and things heat up!
Author:
rmflint
Date:
May 01, 2012
Message:
Wacky rigs have been the only thing producing lately along with pop-r's and floating frogs
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