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Author:
PECo
Date:
Jun 12, 2012
Subject:
Stillwater Pond 06/11
Message:
NWDarkcloud (aka Bob) and I planned to fish Burr Pond from his boat during the evening, so we headed west on Route 202 from the Farmington River Valley. On our way there, however, I learned that although Bob has fished Burr Pond for decades, he had never fished Stillwater Pond, so we changed course. The use of internal combustion motors is prohibited on Stillwater, so we left the gas line for the outboard in the truck and double checked the charge on the trolling motor. We had the only trailer in the almost empty lot and launched just before 4:00 pm. It was sunny with some clouds in the sky and there was a steady wind blowing up the pond from the south-southwest at about 10 miles per hour. The air temperature was in the low 70s. With the chop from the wind and the glare from the partly cloudy sky on the water, I could see down only a foot or so. We headed down to the west shore to just north of the dam and let the wind push us back up the pond. I started throwing a Strike King Midnight Special spinnerbait that I still had tied on from the night before, but didn't get any hits on it. I quickly switched to a Mepps Aglia Dressed inline spinnerbait with a big Number 5 blade and a Brown Bucktail, and boated the first fish on my first cast with it: [img:b4c6995eea]http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/5676/img2775lr.jpg[/img:b4c6995eea] Yeah, it was just a 12 inch largemouth bass, but I haven't been catching many of those, lately. We didn't get any more action in the shallows off of the west shore, so we decided to head across the pond and drift up the east shore. As we drifted, however, the wind kept pushing us back onto the shore. We headed up and across the pond to the shallow, wind-sheltered cove that's halfway up the west shore. Although there's plenty of cover in the water, Bob got only one short strike with a spinnerbait, and I got nothing at all with the inline spinnerbait and a weightless texas rigged Baby Bass Strike King KVD Caffeine Shad. We decided to leave the shelter of the cove and head down to the shallows on the north end, where weedbeds dot the middle of the pond. After a couple of hours with almost no action, more clouds rolled in and the wind picked up to a steady 10 to 15 miles per hour. We were drifting at a pretty good pace up the center of the pond over the weedbeds when Bob got a hit with a finesse worm on a Blade Dancer jighead and boated a 14 inch largemouth bass: [img:b4c6995eea]http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/4162/img2776i.jpg[/img:b4c6995eea] We were getting pretty close to the super shallows in the north end of the pond, so we motored back down the middle of the pond a bit and dropped the anchor to slow our drift through the weedbeds. As the sun descended in the sky, the air temperature dropped into the mid-60s and the steadily blowing wind rose to 15 to 20 miles per hour. I hate wind chill in June! :? Since the action was so slow, I decided to tie on my "catch anything" lure, which is a 1/16 ounce round jighead with a White Pearl 2-1/2 inch Gulp! Minnow. I got a couple of panfish nibbles on the edge of a weedbed before I hooked a small black crappie that spit the hook at the boat. Meanwhile, Bob tied on a popper with a big skirt on it. I questioned his plan to call fish out of the weedbeds with it, especially with the chop on the water. However, just after I clarified to Bob that I had said I didn't think it would work very well and not that it couldn't work at all, he got a hit and boated another 14 inch largemouth bass: [img:b4c6995eea]http://img535.imageshack.us/img535/3309/img2777z.jpg[/img:b4c6995eea] After only a couple of "I told you sos" from Bob :roll: :lol: , one of the little sunnies finally got the hook of my Minnow jig into its mouth: [img:b4c6995eea]http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/4486/img2778ha.jpg[/img:b4c6995eea] We soon had enough of the wind, so we headed to a spot on the west shore behind a small point that was slightly alee of the wind. I continued to throw the Minnow jig toward the shore, where it got picked up off of the bottom. I thought that I had hooked a small largemouth bass, but got a surprise, instead :shock: : [img:b4c6995eea]http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/7200/img2779u.jpg[/img:b4c6995eea] I'm not sure what kind of a catfish it was, but it was the first catfish of any type that I've caught in Connecticut. Whoo hoo! :D In the fading light, it looked gray with a white belly and had only dark barbels. I would have taken a better photo of it, but a roe sack began to protrude from its anus, so I wanted to release it quickly. As darkness fell, we headed back down to the south end of the pond against the wind. Thankfully, the wind finally began to die off and the clouds cleared from the suddenly starry sky. We fished by the dam and the south end of the west shore, but got absolutely nothing until we headed off of the water just before 11:00 pm. Although I couldn't believe how slow the action was all day, I [i:b4c6995eea][b:b4c6995eea]finally[/b:b4c6995eea][/i:b4c6995eea] caught a catfish in Connecticut. That was a pretty good highlight to a pretty relaxing, if blustery, evening on the water. Thanks, Bob! :D
Author:
SAP284
Date:
Jun 12, 2012
Message:
Hey Phil, Congrats on your first catfish!
Author:
NWDarkcloud
Date:
Jun 12, 2012
Message:
That about covers it .........only thing I could add is thanks for the good conversation and the company Phil ! :D .... P.S. I hate wind :evil:
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