CTFishTalk.com: Empty Lake Bass club - Haddam Meadows CT River Tourney 6-7 - Connecticut Fishing Tournaments ( CT Fishing Tournaments ) - A Community Built for Connecticut Fisherman.

slimecoat · Joined: 09 Nov 2007 Posts: 1576 Location: Newington, CT.

I don't have the exact weights, because I thought Emptylakebassman would have posted the results by now, so I'll give it a shot with my own interpretation.

Foggy as hell for the first hour or so, then sunny and hot
Day started about 60 degrees and ended up at about 85
Water temps were 64 to 68 degrees in Hamburg cove
Morning started out almost dead low tide at Haddam

The tournament started at 6am, with unreal fog at idle to 20 mph in areas. We had planned to make a stop on our way to Hamburg Cove in the am, but with the unbelieveably foggy conditions we could not run full out and make our first spot with water still moving. So we decided to pull into Seldon cove, and fish there until the fog broke.

I picked up our first fish, a 12 oz smallmouth at 12 1/4 inches on a topwater bait. We then ran down to Hamburg cove where I proceded to land 2 monster toothy critters,1 pike and 1 pickeral, both over 25 inches, on a topwater bait over some submerged weeds.

Pointing dog then proceds to miss 2 fish on the jig, 1 over 3 lbs. easy. She hit it hard then swam at high speed at the boat, and he couldn't get a hook set on her. Then I break of a small fish at the boat from under a dock, bad knot I think. So a rough morning to say the least, and it gets worse.

We go through a small culvert and it opens up into a small pond like area, it all looks good with trees in the water, and pads here and there. So we fish around with no luck on 1 side, when I look way ahead, and notice a really fishy looking area with submerged pads and some on top, half in the shade and half in the sun. I make a super long cast with the same topwater bait, twitch it 3 times, and smash a 2+ largemouth explodes on my bait. I get a good hookset on her, and half way back through the pads she hangs me in one of the pads and comes unbuttoned.

Now we've lost 4 fish for 7lbs. between us, and its 10am. We still only have 1 tiny smallmouth in the box, and Pointing dog is muttering words of utter disgust and hatred of the river and how he can't stand this place, and a few other comments that I can't repeat here.

So we exit the pond area, and pointing dog throws his jig at a floating swim platform with some isolated submerged pads in front of it, and he gets bit again hard, and he again swings and misses. He cowers in the front of the boat, I think I started to see tears from his eyes, when he says to me, no he yells to me, "she didn't get the hook, get something in there, she's big, throw anything, hurry", so I put down my topwater rod, and pick up my tube rod double quick and pitch it at the swim platform. I let it hit bottom, hop it about 4 or 5 feet, and I say" you must have stung or spooked her, because she's not there" when all of a sudden I weigh my line, and it feels heavy, so I instinctively set the hook hard, and the fight is on, a nice healthy 3lb even largemouth.

Now we have 2 fish, all from weeds/pads, and docks. The only half ass pattern we had, so we went with it at the marina that was right next to the floating swim platform, and we managed to pickup our next 3 fsh all in the 1 to 1.5 lb class on senkos and tubes, nothing special.

Now it's close to noon and time is running short, so we fish our way out of Hamburg Cove with time for a couple quick stops up river, when at our first stop pointing dog catches 2 small fish that don't measure, and I get an 11 inch largeie, then he gets a 12 1/4 inch largemouth from a small log jam, enought to cull out the tiny smallmouth from the early am. We run to another spot to get a short largie, and 2 more small slimedarts. We then make the run back to the launch with10 minutes to spare.

The whole day we are saying to each other, that with the small fish we have we are going to get creamed at the weigh in. We load the boat after the huge CF at the launch with all the idiots, which I'm not going to get into now, and head to the lot. We bag the fish and pointing dog tells 1 team has a 2 lb average, and I know we are gonna get beaten really badly. He tells me to stay with the boat as they are weighing in down a little way from where we are parked, so I tidy up lock all the lockers, and head down because the suspense is killing me. I pick up the clip board and find that all boats but 1 are weighed in, and we are currently in first place with 8-8. I'm shocked, so shocked I thought I was reading it wrong. We end up winnig it, as the last boat had 4 fish for 6 lbs. The next closest weight was 3 ounces behind us, that little 12 ounce smallmouth almost cost us 1st place, pointing dog saved the day. All in all a fun day, but we struggled and fished hard, as Iconnelli would say "never give up", you never know if the rest of the field is struggling worse than you.

The other weights I have no clue.

Watch out guys, were at Coventry in 2 weeks. I smell a home lake advantage.........
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Tmac · Joined: 20 Dec 2008 Posts: 254 Location: Meriden

good job man ,thats right never give up,some times you just have to grind it out

Just4fun · Joined: 08 May 2007 Posts: 1389 Location: Saybrook

Congrats on the win,...sounds like you really had to work for it,..so great job!! You guys entered in the Reynolds tourney now that you're obviously the team to beat on the river?!! Cool

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BoSox46GSR · Joined: 29 Mar 2009 Posts: 388 Location: Chester

Awesome report! Nice job on the win. I'm glad those lost fish didn't cost you, but it still would've been nice to land them. But, a win's a win! WTG!
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Pointingdog · Joined: 06 Dec 2007 Posts: 113

chuckc · Forum Police Joined: 06 May 2007 Posts: 1440

Nice job guys!

slimecoat · Joined: 09 Nov 2007 Posts: 1576 Location: Newington, CT.

Thanks for the congrats guys, and yes, a win is a win no matter how ugly it happens.

I forgot to mention the lunker for the day belonged to Ron, with a 4+ largemouth caught in the last 1/2 hour of the day, thank god it was his only fish.
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Justin Tralli · Joined: 05 May 2007 Posts: 656 Location: Glastonbury, CT