Joined: 06 Oct 2009 Posts: 5203 Location: Avon, CT
Posted: Thu May 23, 2013 3:04 pm Post subject: Connecticut River - Salmon River 05/22
I know that everyone is still fishing for stripers, but NWDarkcloud (aka Bob) and I wanted to fish for largemouth bass, northern pike and bowfin, so we headed to the Connecticut Yankee Atomic Power Plant Canal. Well, Bob wanted to fish for largemouth bass, northern pike and bowfin. As always, I wanted to fish for whatever kind of fish was biting. I hadn't been aboard Bob's boat, The Way More Better, since her almost completed Winter refit , so I suggested to Bob that we take her out, instead of my boat. I was exhausted from a very late drive home from Manhattan the night before, so I didn't feel like messing with my boat, anyway. Bob prefers to travel upriver when fishing the Connecticut River in The Way More Better, so we launched from the Salmon River Boat Launch. When we arrived at the ramp, we saw that there were only a couple of other boat trailers in the lot and that the floating docks have finally been installed:
It's amazing how much easier docks make launching and recovering a small boat on a tidal river like the Connecticut. High tide was at 10:23 am and low tide was at 5:00 pm, so the tide was coming in when we launched at 8:05 am. The sky was completely overcast, the air temperature was in the mid-60s and there was just a very slight breeze from the south. The Way More Better has a tiller steered outboard motor, so Bob motored us up to the canal from the back of the boat:
I have to say, the front deck of The Way More Better is very comfortable :
We pulled into the canal at 8:10 am and headed about a third of the way up. The water was murky, with visibility down only about a foot or so. As usual, I began fishing as Bob took about an hour to rig one of his setups. I started throwing a white Arkie curlytail grub on a white 1/8 ounce round jighead and a Green/Yellow 2-5/8 inch LIVETARGET Hollow Body Frog, while Bob went with a white Strike King Midnight Special spinnerbait. We both casted toward the shore as we worked our way up the canal. At 8:40 am, as we approached the channel that appears on the west bank of the canal at high tide, I decided to throw the frog over the large, shallow bed of hair weed along the east bank of the canal. After my first, long cast, I heard and then felt a fish inhale the frog. I didn't want to wait for the fish to pull my line underneath the thick mats of hair weed, so I set the hook immediately and was fortunate to hook a solid 15 inch largemouth bass:
Whoo Hoo! I LOVE topwater frogs! At 9:07 am, the grub jig got me a small black crappie:
Although I had caught a couple of fish fairly quickly, the bite was s-l-o-w for most of the day. Bob didn't get even a tap on the spinnerbait. It wasn't until 10:10 am, after he rigged another setup with a wacky Watermelon/Red Flake four inch Yum Dinger, that he caught his first fish, which was a short largemouth bass:
We eventually made it all the way up to the cove at the end of the canal. At 11:16 am, the grub jig got me a 13 inch largemouth bass:
And at 11:56 am, it got me a brown bullhead:
Although I snagged up half a dozen brown bullhead in the canal earlier in the year, this was the first one that I hooked on the inside of the mouth. Whoo Hoo! At noon, the air started to warm up and the sun actually started to burn through the cloud cover. At 12:56 pm, Bob was throwing a Perch Rapala Jointed Shad Rap JSR07 around the cove and caught a rock bass:
Six minutes later, after I had broken off the white grub jig and replaced it with a chartreuse one, I hooked into another largemouth bass. As I reeled it in, Bob got a hit on a wacky rigged Watermelon/Red Flake six inch Yum Dinger and boated one, too:
Double! I'd like to point out that my 17 incher dwarfed Bob's 15 incher. After another lengthy lull in the bite, I told Bob that I'd like to motor down the canal to just past the new laydown that extends from the west bank almost all the way to the east bank of the canal. During a three minute period from 2:07 pm to 2:10 pm, I caught three black crappie off of a laydown on the west bank with a white grub jig:
Just after 2:30 pm, after I mentioned to Bob that I wanted to catch a fourth species of fish, perhaps even a sunny, he tied on one of his tiny Matzuo Nano Crank crankbaits and showed me how it's done:
At 2:48 pm, after I began throwing an Emerald Pearl 2-1/2 inch Berkley Gulp! Minnow on a white 1/8 ounce round jighead, I caught my fourth species of fish:
Rocky! Once again, the bite slowed, so Bob motored us all the way up to the cove at the end of the canal, where he wanted to end the day. At 4:05 pm, I threw a wacky rigged Green Pumpkin/Red Flake five inch Senko that got picked up by a 16 inch largemouth bass:
At 4:55 pm, I saw Bob throw a wacky Dinger into the thick weeds at the very end of the cove. I really wasn't expecting him to pull up anything but weeds. He never felt a bite, but realized that he had more than just weeds on the line after he started to retrieve the Dinger and it began to move sideways. When he yelled for me to grab the landing net, I thought that he was kidding, but he boated what turned out to be the lunker largemouth bass at 19 inches long and three pounds, 14 ounces:
Wow! Bob called "Just One More" and it wasn't long until I got another hit on the wacky Senko. I felt the sharp tug of a bite and set the hook. As I began to reel in the fish, Bob asked whether I needed him to net it for me. I said I wasn't sure, but as it neared the boat and approached the surface, it didn't leap into the air like every other largemouth that I had caught that day. Instead, it suddenly turned around and pulled down toward the bottom. Hard! As my St. Croix Mojo Bass rod bent over, I quickly loosened the drag on the reel. With the rod bent over almost double, the drag went ZZZZZZZZ! The fish turned, again, and pulled the other way. ZZZZZZZ! I didn't have a leader tied onto the 15 pound test P-Line Fluoroclear line and began praying to the fishing gods, "Please don't break me off! Please don't break me off!" By then, Bob and I both figured that the fish was probably a bowfin. I said, "I hope that we at least get to see it before it breaks me off", when "Ting!", it got a tooth on the line and broke me off. Oh, well, at least I got a good fight out of it. At 5:28 pm, Bob boated another 15 inch largemouth bass with the wacky Dinger:
At 5:35 pm, I got my "Just One More", too, when I boated an 18 incher with the wacky Senko:
I figured that it weighed close to three pounds, but Bob thought it was skinnier and weighed only 2-3/4 pounds. Unfortunately, I have to admit that Bob was exactly right. As the sun dropped lower in the sky, the air temperature suddenly dropped and the wind rose from the south, although up to only a still gentle five miles per hour. As Bob began to stow his gear, I kept on fishing. I got another hit on the wacky Senko and soon realized that I hadn't hooked a largemouth bass. The fish swam quickly toward the boat and down to deeper water, so I loosened my drag. ZZZZZZZ! As I pulled it to the surface, we saw that it was an average, maybe two foot long, northern pike. As I began begging for it to not bite me off, it somehow spit the hook, instead! At 6:15 pm, Bob fired up the big motor and we headed back down the canal:
When we put out from the river at 6:30 pm, the floating docks made it super easy to get the boat onto the trailer. Thanks, DEEP!
The largemouth bass bite was very slow all day. Except for the one that I got with the topwater frog early in the day, they picked up only very slowly presented lures. Near the end of the day, a fisherman on one of the four other boats that quickly ran up and back down the canal while we were there told us that his finder showed a surface water temperature of 76 degrees! I guess that explains why the largemouth bass we caught were all kind of skinny. The largemouth bass spawn must be mostly done in that part of the river. I won't be able to go fishing during the long Memorial Day weekend, so it was really nice to be able to spend a full day fishing. Thanks, Bob! _________________ Don't forget to wear sunscreen and don't litter!
Last edited by PECo on Thu May 23, 2013 4:05 pm; edited 2 times in total
Joined: 28 Apr 2009 Posts: 592 Location: Hartford,Ct\Springfield, MA
Posted: Thu May 23, 2013 3:43 pm Post subject:
Great report, glad your able to catch some fish. Lad to see a report from you as we'll, it had been a little while. _________________ "Come after Me, and i will make you to become fishers of men"
Joined: 05 May 2012 Posts: 851 Location: Meriden, CT
Posted: Thu May 23, 2013 3:54 pm Post subject:
Looks like you two had fun! Sure beats sitting at work! _________________ RNA - It's in my blood.
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We definately picked the right day to go . the clouds and lite breeze made for a great day to be out . I hope to get out again soon after the weekend theres a little more tinkering on the boat to do . But then again its a boat and theres allway something to do
thanks for the day out Phil
Great time as allways _________________ I Love to fish......Not a big fan of sitting in the boat alone ....the Conversation and the company make it perfect
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As always, 
I hadn't been aboard Bob's boat, The Way More Better, since her 
, so I suggested to Bob that we take her out, instead of my boat. I was exhausted from a very late drive home from Manhattan the night before, so I didn't feel like messing with my boat, anyway. Bob prefers to travel upriver when fishing the Connecticut River in The Way More Better, so we launched from the Salmon River Boat Launch. When we arrived at the ramp, we saw that there were only a couple of other boat trailers in the lot and that the floating docks have finally been installed:
High tide was at 10:23 am and low tide was at 5:00 pm, so the tide was coming in when we launched at 8:05 am. The sky was completely overcast, the air temperature was in the mid-60s and there was just a very slight breeze from the south. The Way More Better has a tiller steered outboard motor, so Bob motored us up to the canal from the back of the boat:
Bob didn't get even a tap on the spinnerbait. It wasn't until 10:10 am, after he rigged another setup with a wacky Watermelon/Red Flake four inch Yum Dinger, that he caught his first fish, which was a short largemouth bass:
I'd like to point out that my 17 incher dwarfed Bob's 15 incher. 
As my St. Croix Mojo Bass rod bent over, I quickly loosened the drag on the reel. With the rod bent over almost double, the drag went 
Oh, well, at least I got a good fight out of it. 
At 6:15 pm, Bob fired up the big motor and we headed back down the canal:
