CTFishTalk.com: Farmington River - Nod Brook WMA to 1 Mile South of Route 44 - Connecticut River Reports ( CT River Reports ) - A Community Built for Connecticut Fisherman.

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

I had a couple of hours to fish this afternoon, so I decided to check out the stretch of the Farmington River upstream (aka south) from Nod Brook WMA. I took my little kayak and planned to mostly check out the river but also fish along the way. However, I ended up paddling and fishing from 2:15 PM to 7:30 PM. My daughter missed her karate class, today.

It was a perfect overcast day for paddling and fishing. The sun didn't peek out even once and the weather didn't even start to turn to rain until after I was off the water. I launched from where the ponds at Nod Brook empty into the Farmington and headed upstream. The water was clear, but stained. I pitched a wacky Senko at some laydowns after I launched, but soon realized that the water was too shallow and devoid of plant life to provide much cover for bass. The bottom of the river is mostly sand. I paddled upstream, searching for deeper water.

SkeeterJim's recent post has inspired me to disclose an embarrassing, ahem, event that occurred while I was on the water. I have two kids who are now ages 16 and 12, but I'm still a stickler for "Go potty before we leave the house!" However, shortly after I launched, I had a painfully sharp and urgent bout of gastric distress. Without going into detail or adding a poll to this topic, I'll just pose the question: What would you do, ease your pain in the kayak or on the nearest piece of sandy shoreline? As Forrest Gump would say, "That's all I'm gonna say about that."

I hit a very shallow rocky stretch of river about halfway to the Route 44 bridge. If I were smarter, I would have gotten out of my kayak and waded it up to deeper water. Since I'm not smarter, I paddled like a tasmanian devil over 30 to 40 feet of rocks, grounding my paddle on almost every stroke. It was after I finally made it to deeper, calmer water, that I decided my daughter would have to miss her karate class.

In the deeper water next to the golf course along the river and N of Route 44, I finally got a bite. I pulled what I thought was a trout to within 3 feet of the kayak before it let go of the Senko. The fish was about 15 inches long, but for reasons that will become apparent, I now think that it was a fall fish and not a trout. Later, I got a good hit from a panfish of some sort, but it, too, let go of the Senko about 3 feet from the kayak. I was getting a little frustrated with the hookless bites on the wacky Senko, but finally hooked up with the tiniest smallie I've ever landed:

As I crossed underneath a golf cart bridge and headed toward the Route 44 bridge, I spotted a 10-point buck heading south underneath the bridge on the W shore. He paused underneath the bridge and stared me down before heading up the bank on the other side of the bridge. It was a real "The Hartford" moment.

Anyway, I pulled into a little pool on the E side of the river just N of the Route 44 bridge. I was fed up with the hookless bites, so I switched to a little white spinnerbait. After 10 minutes of hookless hits on the skirt, I decided to switch to a swimbait with a single treble hook and landed an 8 inch smallie. After several unproductive casts and nearly losing the swimbait in an overhanging tree, I decided to tie on a Texas-rigged 10-1/2 inch worm. I got nothing, nada, zippo on the worm. So, to prevent any more missed hooksets, I tied on a little white lipless crankbait with 2 treble hooks. That was the ticket. Underneath the Route 44 bridge, I landed a 10 inch smallie and a 12 inch smallie .

As I headed upstream from the Route 44 bridge, I decided to troll the crankbait behind me. Just before I reached Alsop Meadow in Avon, I got a big hit and grabbed the rod. I gave the reel a couple of cranks and a smallie jumped about three feet into the air. It was 13 inches long and weighed only 14 ounces, but it fought like a marlin:

I paddled another mile upstream from Alsop Meadow, but didn't get a single bite along the way. I could have waded the whole mile on the sandy bottom. However, what I thought were trout were rising to eat bugs all over the place. I trolled the crankbait back to the Route 44 bridge without a bite. After I passed underneath the bridge, I pulled back into the pool on the E side to do a little casting. I threw the crankbait downstream across the river and landed a big 14 inch fall fish. And, yes, it was a fall fish and not a dace. The first time I ever caught a fall fish, I had no idea what it was, so I sent a photo to the DEP. A wildlife biologist identified it for me, so I know what they look like. They look like this:

A few casts later, I hooked into but failed to land a 12 inch yellow perch. However, a few more casts later, I landed a 10 incher:

At this point, the weather started to turn. Although I could still see some blue sky through the clouds to the S, it got colder and darker to the N. I paddled downstream intending to head straight back to Nod Brook, but as I passed by the golf course, fish were rising everywhere, so I just had to get in a few more casts. On my first cast across the river, I caught the biggest fall fish I've ever seen, which was a full 16 inches long:

It's at this point that I began to think that the trout that bit my Senko and the trout that were rising everywhere might not have been trout. Hey, RobO? Perhaps you could head down there and check it out for me. I also think that fall fish have a defense mechanism where they bleed from their tails and splatter everything with their blood when they're caught and pulled from the water. Yuck! Anyway, after getting bled on by the fall fish, it was getting pretty dark and I double-timed it to Nod Brook. Along the way, I got completely hung up on the rocky shallows that I powered through on my way upstream, but I was able to push myself into a slightly deeper part of the river with my paddle.

I don't think I'll head back to this stretch of the Farmington River any time soon, but I really had a blast catching everything but a largemouth bass. Really, I did.
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DirtyDawg10 · Joined: 27 May 2009 Posts: 2238 Location: Granby, CT

Nice report Phil. Those fallfish (at least the bigger ones) are decent fish to catch. I caught a 14" last weekend and it gave a decent fight for a big minnow. Definitely better than the skunk.

Fishface · Joined: 02 Jan 2008 Posts: 308 Location: New Britain

Nice report Phil. You add a nice bit of humor to the site.

Tim

OldeFriend · Joined: 10 Aug 2010 Posts: 4

I fished that stretch as a youngster from and old pram we found in a barn.
Rowing up and drifting back down the river.

Olde

SkeeterJim · Joined: 08 May 2007 Posts: 2219 Location: Newington, CT

So I hope the bilge pump was working OK, Phil??? Wink

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

OldeFriend - You could probably wheel the pram up most of that stretch of the river now. It has silted in pretty badly. It looks a lot like a beach at low tide.

SkeeterJim - The smile on my face in that first photo wasn't there because I caught that tiny little smallie! Embarassed

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TurtleKiss · Joined: 09 Mar 2010 Posts: 1200 Location: central CT

Nice report as usual Phil. Regarding your "gastric distress" issue - I've never had this problem while fishing, but I still keep a roll of TP in my tackle bag. If there's shoreline available, then use it! Another good reason to fish under the cover of darkness. I have no idea what I'd do if I was on someone else's boat though - probably cry, jump in the water, and swim to the launch without explanation.
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Bluegill Terminator · Joined: 03 May 2007 Posts: 538 Location: Plainville

10 pointer hope he goes into the woods of Nepaug this fall Laughing

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

Pete

I couldn't help myself when I saw the deer. I said "Whoa!" pretty loudly and that's when he stopped, turned and stared me down. I'd swear that there was velvet on his antlers.

Phil
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Flipper · Joined: 21 May 2010 Posts: 347 Location: Enfield

Those fallfish look like perfect pike bait to me! I may have to head over that way. I've been golfing at that course before and wondered what the river held. It did look shallow last time I was there.
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