CTFishTalk.com: Mashapaug Lake 06/19 - Connecticut Lake Reports ( CT Lake Reports ) - A Community Built for Connecticut Fisherman.

PECo · Joined: 06 Oct 2009 Posts: 5203 Location: Avon, CT

Although I had been to Bigelow Hollow State Park before, I had never been past the trailhead for the trail that leads to Breakneck Pond and always wanted to check out Mashapaug Lake. When NWDarkcloud (aka Bob) told me that he and JJay (aka Jason) were going to fish it on Wednesday, I arranged to meet them there in the morning with bass tracker (aka Greg). The weather forecast was for sunny skies, air temperatures in the upper 70s and winds up to 11 miles per hour that would decrease after noon. When we arrived at the ramp, we saw that TurtleKiss (aka Kira) was there, too. We all launched at 6:30 am; Bob and Jason in Bob's boat, The Way More Better, Kira in her boat, Dinghbat, and Greg and I in Greg's boat, um, the Bass Tracker? Laughing

:

Before I boarded the boat, I checked out the rules:

When we launched, the water temperature was 68 degrees and it rose to a high of 72 degrees in the afternoon. The water was clear, with visibility down at least nine feet. Greg hadn't been to Mashapaug Lake in years, but remembered enough about it that we decided to start fishing the cove in the far southwest corner. On our way into the lake, we saw that Bob and Jason had already disappeared from view, but we quickly overtook Kira. Yes, we were motoring along at well under 10 miles per hour. Wink

Kira was just motoring along even slower than we. Laughing

When I saw that she was throwing a white Midnight Special spinnerbait, I gave her some crap about throwing it so early in the morning and told her that she should slow down a bit. But at 6:45 am, after Greg and I finally got to the cove in the southwest corner, she texted a photo to me:

Okay, you win, Kira! Laughing

However, five minutes later, I got my first fish from next to a small, shallow laydown with a wacky rigged Black with Large Blue Flake five inch Senko:

At that point, I sent a text message to Kira, Bob and Jason asking whether they wanted to have a $10 lunker pool based on digital scale weight. I've checked my Berkley digital scale against Jason's and Kira's scales, and they've all given identical weights. Before everyone responded to my challenge, Greg boated his first fish on his first cast with a black spider-type jig with a green craw trailer in six to eight feet of water:

Of course, everyone responded that they were in the lunker pool only after Greg and I had released our unweighed fish. Rolling Eyes

After Jason quickly got on the board with a one pound, two ounce largemouth bass, I told him that I really, really, really hoped that one pound, two ounces wouldn't end up winning the pool. Laughing

At 7:53 am, Bob followed it up with a one pound, four ounce smallmouth bass. At 8:07 am, Greg caught another largemouth with his jig. It was only 12-1/2 inches long, but it weighed a surprising two pounds, five ounces! Laughing

:

Okay, so maybe it didn't! Laughing

Greg and I had been fighting the seven mile per hour north wind since we got into the southwest cove and it was still a little bit chilly, so we decided to get alee of the wind behind the two bigger islands in the middle of the lake. While we fished the islands, Bob and Jason motored past us, and headed for the riprap dam wall in the northwest corner of the lake. As Greg and I worked our way around the islands, he caught another small largemouth bass with his jig and I got a tiny smallie with my Senko:

One of the consequences of being in a lunker pool is that any fish smaller than the then-current lunker becomes irrelevant. Wink

For that reason, I stopped taking photos of the smaller fish that we caught. Although we saw beds on every shallow hump in the water, they were all empty. It wasn't until later in the day that we saw some with fish on them, but they were all sunnies. Before we left the islands, Bob and Jason motored back past us, and reported that they didn't get a single bite in the vicinity of the riprap dam wall. Greg and I decided to check out the shallow cove that's 1/3 of the way up the east shore from the ramp. Although we spotted one largemouth bass that was hanging around a submerged stump in six feet of water in the middle of the cove, we didn't see much else and didn't catch anything in the more extreme shallows of the cove. At 10:09 am, Jason texted us a photo of his 1-1/4 pound largemouth bass that tied Bob. And at 10:36 am, he texted us a photo of his 1-3/4 pound largemouth bass that took the lead in the lunker pool. As Greg and I headed out of the cove and down the east shore, Greg pulled out a golden shiner patterned spinnerbait. At 10:55 am, I caught a one pound, 10 ounce largemouth bass with my wacky Senko that was two ounces shy of the lunker. Mad

While I stuck with banging the shore with the wacky Senko, Greg boated a short largemouth bass with his spinnerbait. And then he got another. And then he missed another. When we reached the bend in the shore as it turns toward the ramp, we drifted past Kira (aka LobsterGirl), who was anchored up in Dinghbat and appeared to be doing more sunning than fishing. Although she continued to throw her white Midnight Special spinnerbait, unlike Greg, she didn't get any more hits on it. Rather than head back to the ramp, Greg and I decided to head past the submerged rock pile and work our way up the east shore. At that point, the bite died for us. It's especially frustrating to not get bit when you can see that there aren't any fish through the clear, shallow water. Confused

We worked our way past the two small islands on the east shore, but got only three small largemouth bass with wacky Senkos off of a couple of laydowns near the second island. As we rounded the second island, we found a boat with a couple of fishermen in it anchored in the cove on the north side of the island and decided to cut across and up the lake to the north shore, before continuing to work our way counter-clockwise around the lake. We figured that the shallow water in the cove in the far northeast corner of the lake would be as unproductive as the shallows had been along the east shore, so we skipped it completely. As soon as we hit the north shore, I caught a tiny smallie that was sitting tight to a rock wall on the shore with my wacky Senko. When we reached the first shallow cove in the middle of the north shore at 1:00 pm, Greg asked, "Do you really want to go in there?" I said, "There are bass in there. Look, there's grass along the shore." Sure enough, when we entered the cove, I spotted the splash of a fish feeding in the grass, right up on the shore. I couldn't see the fish, but threw my Senko into the splash. Oh, yeah! I could tell right away that it was a largemouth bass and that it was big enough to take the lead in the lunker pool. After Greg netted it for me, he saw the flash of another largemouth bass swimming past the boat. He missed it on his first cast with his wacky Senko, but when he threw his second cast into some grass, he saw the fish race over and hit the Senko. He knew right away that he also had a two-plus pound largemouth bass on the line. After a long period of slow fishing, I suddenly found myself with a two-plus pound largemouth bass in one hand and the net in the other! Shocked

Here's my two pound, six ouncer:

And here's Greg's two pound, two ouncer:

Whoo Hoo!

I had taken the lead in the lunker pool by 1/4 pound! Cool

And, yeap, it was the Black Senko that was working best all day, especially the Black with Large Blue Flake. After we went around the small island that's right in the middle of the north shore, we entered another shallow cove. This one, though, looked even better than the last one. We got a few small largemouth bass out of the grass growing along the shore, before Greg got a hit on his wacky Senko from a bigger fish at 2:12 pm. A MUCH bigger fish:

Whoo Hoo!

The four pound, five ounce male largemouth bass was sitting next to a patch of grass in the shallows next to a shaded rock wall. If you take a close look at his tail, you can see that he had rubbed the base of it clean off:

Those are bones sticking out of the bloody wound! Shocked

We continued to work our way counter-clockwise around the shore of the lake and continued to pick up the occasional fish, mostly with wacky Senkos, but occasionally Greg would get one with his spinnerbait. At 2:55 pm, Greg caught the last decent fish we got with a wacky Senko, I think:

The two pound, nine ounce largemouth bass culled a one pounder and brought our five fish bag up to 12 pounds, 15 ounces. Not too shabby! Cool

We continued to work our way past the riprap dam wall and along the shore until we ran into Bob and Jason, who had jumped in front of our line along the shore to steal our fish. Razz

By that time, it was 5:00 pm, so we called it a day and headed back to the ramp. Congratulations to Greg, who won the lunker pool by a huge margin! Very Happy

I have to say that I really like Mashapaug Lake, although the next time I head out there I'll go in the late afternoon and fish into the night. There are walleye in there that I haven't met. . . yet. Wink

And, incidentally, there wasn't anyone in the booth at the entrance to Bigelow Hollow State Park to collect any fees as we entered and left the park. I guess that they only collect them during the weekend.
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angry john · Joined: 30 Jun 2012 Posts: 119

How does one get in a full day of fishing before 10:30. Laughing

Your one day ahead bro.

PECo · Joined: 06 Oct 2009 Posts: 5203 Location: Avon, CT

JJay · Joined: 23 Sep 2011 Posts: 113 Location: Farmington, CT

Thanks for posting Phil i actually posted, then removed when i saw your way better post).

Not much to add other than most of the fish were caught shallow waters and drops offs close to shore on waclky senkos and top water frogs on the the Way More Better. We did alright in the morning and late afternoon pulling in LMBs and SMBs but nothing of size compared to Greg's lunker of the day!

The bite started to die down for us around noon and we were cruising around in search of deeper structure. Didn't have much luck but it was nice to have the wind blowing on a grogeous sunny day.

PECo · Joined: 06 Oct 2009 Posts: 5203 Location: Avon, CT

Yeap, I would definitely study a bathymetric map before heading out there, again. Although we had some success banging the shallow shore, I really think that Mashapaug Lake is a drop shotting kind of place.
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chud059 · Joined: 29 Mar 2011 Posts: 413 Location: Manchester

There are no fee's during the week, that's the best time to go... going into summer time, the earlier the better, the place gets run over by swimmers and the like once you get closer to noon.. Looks like a great day! I was one click from my stupid alarm clock from going up there yesterday morning with my wife.. forgot to set the alarm Embarassed

ended up running stupid errands and spending about 2 hours at Risley and Saulters instead, no luck, gorgeous day, but no luck.

chud059 · Joined: 29 Mar 2011 Posts: 413 Location: Manchester

oh yea, walleye, my brother, a few years ago, used to troll for walleye.. did pretty well I just found trolling boring. The world record LMB was caught in Mashapaug.

PECo · Joined: 06 Oct 2009 Posts: 5203 Location: Avon, CT

chud059 · Joined: 29 Mar 2011 Posts: 413 Location: Manchester

Ha ha ha.. yea, state record... the view from the boat launch at Mashapaug is my cell phone wall paper...um.. in case anyone wanted to know...LOL