CTFishTalk.com: Gills & Topwater - Connecticut Lake Reports ( CT Lake Reports ) - A Community Built for Connecticut Fisherman.

Michael · Joined: 28 Jan 2012 Posts: 3823 Location: Bridgeport

Original plan was to hit Seaside Park Friday, but once I found out about the shut down to fishing and Bridgeport Police blocking access to Seaside, I hit Twin Brooks Park. Arrived around 2:30pm.

First stop was certain sections of the upper pond. In 1 spot is where I would see 2 largemouths around 2 pounds occasionally come up before going back down in the murky water. Tried throwing a Berkley Havoc Sick Fish Jr but didn't have any luck. Decided to play with the panfish by throwing the weightless rigged Strike King Mr Crappie Lightning Shad, which caught me a chunky 7.5" pumpkinseed that slammed the soft plastic.

Headed over to the area that caught me the bullgills last time. This time the schools of bluegills weren't as aggressive and gave up sooner. Did catch a total of 5 with 2 being bulls around 8". Saw a school of small alewives or herring circling just under the surface which had me pumped hoping largemouths, pickerel, yellow, and/or crappie would get active. The bait eventually left the area before hearing some splashing by an area I sometimes find bass and pickerel. Headed over there with the Sick Fish Jr to find a few bass swimming around but weren't interested in anything I threw.

Made a number of other stops before getting back into fish. 2 certain spots at the main pond had yellows active with the Lightning Shad. Retrieve was giving it a jerk every other second that had some perch come shooting up from the bottom. Caught 3 yellows and a dinky bass. 1 yellow was edible and when I cleaned it at home I saw the remains of a partially digested crayfish in its tummy.

Once the perch bite turned off and saw it was just before 6pm, I hit usual spots at the bigger pond. 3 certain lures I played with were the Lightning Shad, fire shad SW-8, and purple nurple FLR-8. Smaller bluegills would occasionally hit the Lightning Shad but saw no signs of aggressive bulls, yellows, monster seeds, crappie, or cookie cutters. The FLR-8 caught me a chunky 9" bullgill that fought like a 1 1/2 pound largemouth. Right near sunset is when I get to a spot that had an evening topwater bite going with the SW-8. Total was landed a 14" cookie cutter, lost a cookie cutter, had 3 explosions right in front of me, and lost a suspicious fish farther out.

Hit the road just before 7:30pm

The suspicious fish I lost on the SW-8 seemed to have sucked the lure down from the surface because I saw no swirls or water splash before noticing the lure wasn't on the surface anymore. That's when I start to feel heavy weight tugging with wide head shaking. I loosened the drag a bit but as it kept putting tension on the line it wasn't taking any out. 2 fish I was thinking about were a largemouth bass anywhere from 4 to 7 pounds or the possibility of a big trout. I could tell it wasn't a snapping turtle due to lack of weight and there being head shaking. One other fish I can't rule out is a carp because I saw them swirling on the surface around sunset.

Michael · Joined: 28 Jan 2012 Posts: 3823 Location: Bridgeport

Went back to the same spots today starting just before 1:30pm. Found the bluegills to be slow this time and only landed 1 which was a bull. I tried throwing all types of soft plastics but they weren't turned on much. I guess it was the high pressure.

Played with many lures in the area where I caught the perch last time but only had 1 hit on a brown trout FLR-6.

Nothing happened with the purple nurple FLR-8 at the larger pond this time, but did get into some topwater with the SW-8 again. Landed 2 cookie cutters with 1 other explosion.

I tried a variety of speeds and techniques with the SW-8 and found 1 certain technique had the fish going. It was something I recently started experimenting with, which is giving a walk-the-dog lure anywhere from 3 to 6 twitches across the surface before pausing for 2 to 4 seconds. Makes lots of spitting, rattling, and splashing to attract the fish and then they hit it on the pause.