[PECo]

NWDarkcloud (aka Bob) has been spending most of his time refitting his boat, lately, so I dragged him out of his workshop to remind him why he needs to finish it. I let him decide where we went and he chose to try for a multispecies day on the Connecticut River, instead of a probable single species day on the lower Housatonic River. We headed down to Haddam Meadows State Park and launched The Other Woman, Too at 8:45 am. Low tide was at 7:23 am and high tide was at 12:53 pm. When we launched, the air temperature was already above freezing, the sky was sunny and what little wind there was blew out of the north. The weather forecast was for partly cloudy skies later in the day, air temperatures up in the 50s and winds mostly out of the north at up to 11 miles per hour. We headed downriver and cut across the channel to the Connecticut Yankee Atomic Power Plant Canal. When we entered the canal, the conditions were terrific:



The water was very murky. I could see my lure only one foot down. The water temperature was 40 degrees, but it quickly rose to 43 degrees later in the day. We didn't mark any fish with the finder, so we decided to motor up to my secret black crappie spot, where Bob would rig the two setups he brought with him and I would check to see whether the black crappie and yellow perch were still there. I threw a chartreuse two inch curlytail grub on a chartreuse 1/8 ounce round jighead. I didn't find any black crappie, but the yellow perch were still biting:



While Bob took 15 minutes to rig his setups, I started my tally and caught several yellow perch from both sides of the canal: One, Two, Three Four. . . . I think he caught one yellow perch before we motored up to the cove at the end of the canal, but he released it before I could get a photo. By the time we got to the cove, the north wind had already begun to rise. We anchored up and began throwing a variety of lures. We didn't get even a nibble. We did, however, get to watch one of a pair of nesting ospreys chase a pair of seagulls away from its nest on top of one of the power line towers next to the cove. Those seagulls were suicidal. While we were there, a lone fisherman in a Skeeter bass boat circled the cove and headed back down the canal without boating a fish. Another boat motored up and tied up to the west bank about 75 yards down the canal from us. We saw them floating bobbers and pulling up an occasional black crappie. After about 1-1/2 hours of nothing for us, I pulled up the anchor, so we could begin drifting back down the canal to where I knew the fish were. The steadily blowing wind moved us along at a brisk one mile per hour. As we passed the black crappie fishermen, they told us they were floating mummies they had left over from ice fishing about three feet down. After we drifted halfway back down the canal, I began pulling up an occasional yellow perch with the grub jig. When I thought we had finally gotten down to where the fish were, I dropped the anchor to hold us against the wind and we both began fishing for yellow perch with grub jigs. At 11:26 am, Bob let me photograph him with his second yellow perch:



I alternated between throwing the grub jig and an Emerald Pearl 2-1/2 inch Berkley Gulp! Minnow on a white 1/8 ounce round jighead. In between yellow perch, at 12:24 pm, I caught a largemouth bass:



Meanwhile, Bob kept hauling in yellow perch, including a solid 12 inch long fatty female:



When the yellow perch bite slowed, we drifted a little further down the canal and dropped anchor at the channel on the west bank that appears at high tide. At 1:13 pm, the minnow jig got me a decent 13 inch long black crappie:



At 1:36 pm, the grub jig got me a 21 inch long chain pickerel:



And at 2:10 pm, the minnow jig got me my first keeper largemouth bass of the year:



It was only 14 inches long, but Whoo Hoo! Although Bob continued to catch only yellow perch, I mixed in couple of more small largemouth bass. The weather conditions deteriorated throughout the afternoon. Big clouds rolled in and the sun disappeared. The wind rose to well over 10 miles per hour with sustained gusts over 20 miles per hour. A couple of large cumulonimbus clouds even sprinkled a little rain on us. Meteorologa$$holes! At 4:11 pm, just when I was beginning to think that Bob would end up with a single species day, he tied on a tiny Shiner Matzuo Nano Crank and caught a whole school of five small largemouth bass in 12 minutes:





Yeap, I ordered him to smile for the photo of him with his first keeper largemouth bass of the year. It's the third photo, with Bob and the 12 inch long largemouth bass, in case you couldn't tell. At 4:30 pm, we began drifting with the wind back down to the mouth of the canal. At 1-1/4 miles per hour! I tied on a small white double Colorado blade spinnerbait to throw at the bank along the way. When we got to the big laydowns, I got a hit and boated another largemouth bass:



That one was for you, TurtleKiss (aka Kira)! As we started to stow our gear for the run out of the canal and back up to the ramp at 5:30 pm, we watched waves cresting as they rolled down the river in the 15+ mile per hour north wind. Did I mention that meteorologa$$holes suck? When we put out at 5:45 pm, my hands were so dried out by the constant wind that my skin cracked and started bleeding. Ouch! Despite the lousy weather, I had a good time watching Bob catch a load from a horny male yellow perch on the back of the boat. I think that it kept his hands soft and silky smooth. Bob can't count past five, but I think he ended up with about 30 yellow perch and five largemouth bass. I got 58 yellow perch, five largemouth bass, one chain pickerel and one black crappie. Now, finish the freakin' boat already, Bob!
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Don't forget to wear sunscreen and don't litter!

[Crest Daddy]

you guys destroyed it !
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Trust me. Use waxworms !

[Michael]

Nice bass and pickerel Phil! Awesome job on the perch and bass Bob!

[NWDarkcloud]

Ya it was nice to get out for a while my steam was running low on boat refit gave me a shot in the arm to renew my efforts......

thanks again for the call Phil ........
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I Love to fish......Not a big fan of sitting in the boat alone ....the Conversation and the company make it perfect

[PECo]

I just wanted to mention that I've been using two inch, not one inch, curlytail grubs. I've corrected my original post.
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Don't forget to wear sunscreen and don't litter!