Posted: Wed Mar 02, 2011 8:30 am Post subject: North Farms today
Will post later what me and Phil get... Im actually looking for the crappie.... woulndt mind a cow.... Anyone looking to go will be out on the ice straight out from either right side near bird island or left side straight out from dam...
Joined: 06 Oct 2009 Posts: 5203 Location: Avon, CT
Posted: Wed Mar 02, 2011 7:53 pm Post subject: Bad News
asinafisher (aka Billy) and I got to North Farms Reservoir at 10:00 am. It was sunny and windy, but not particularly cold. It started out as a beautiful day:
The ice got softer and softer throughout the day. It got so soft that Billy couldn't skate on it. We set our tip-ups to the southeast of the big island in the middle of the reservoir just after 10:30 am. When we started jigging in the area of our tip-ups, we couldn't find more than two and a half feet of water under the ice. We began prospecting for deeper water by drilling holes all over the place. The ice was at least 16 inches thick almost everywhere, although there were some old ice fishing holes that had expanded to 18 inches in diameter and frozen over, and spots where weeds or debris had caused thinner ice. We headed counter-clockwise around the island from our tip-ups. When we rounded the island, we headed toward the spillway in the southeast corner of the reservoir. This is what we found:
Interestingly, after we finally realized that the reservoir is dead, we packed up and all of the shiners that we had on our tip-ups were dead.
TurtleKiss (aka Kira) told me that I should report the fish kill to the DEP, so I called it in. A fisheries biologist called me back. He said that the DEP was considering issuing a winter fish kill bulletin. He mentioned that fish kills were reported at a small pond in Danbury and at Mono Pond in Cambridge. Unfortunately, he also confirmed our suspicion that since so many small sunnies had recently died, the bigger fish in the reservoir probably died a while ago. Billy and I got off the ice by 12:30 pm. You can cross North Farms off your list of fishing spots to check out this year. _________________ Don't forget to wear sunscreen and don't litter!
Last edited by PECo on Wed Mar 02, 2011 8:06 pm; edited 1 time in total
Posted: Wed Mar 02, 2011 8:03 pm Post subject: Re: Bad News
Will be very very upset if everything is dead. They got crappie, yellow perch, bullhead, bass, carp in this place with sunnies as you seen. What a waste if this is true everything died. Found over 20 dead sunnies different sizes also. Im still gonna give it faith cause this place has brought me many many good times after work and alot of fish that are way over 6lbs...
Joined: 09 Mar 2010 Posts: 1200 Location: central CT
Posted: Wed Mar 02, 2011 8:28 pm Post subject:
According to my bathymetry, North Farms has a max depth of 5 feet with an average of 3 ft...Has anyone looked at 1860 Reservoir lately? Same situation....supershallow with heavy vegetation. Mono Pond is in Colombia, BTW. Sorry Billy. _________________ Kira
*~ "Not everything about fishing is noble, reasonable and sane..." -Henry Middleton ~*
the 1860 has one deep hole where the fish can winter, but i've noticed there always seems to be dead fish in the spring there? usually crappie and sunnies
Joined: 09 Mar 2010 Posts: 1200 Location: central CT
Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 4:52 am Post subject:
The dead panfish were in late April last year. I thought it might be pesticides too but the weeds just kept getting worse. Never found a deep hole...I probably got sick of cleaning slime off my prop before I reached it. This place is minutes from home and looks so promising, but I'd actually rather go to Batterson because it's less disgusting. _________________ Kira
*~ "Not everything about fishing is noble, reasonable and sane..." -Henry Middleton ~*
Figures, the only place I pitched a shut out (NF) was last week after work got out for an hour and never marked a fish or got a bite. Now after seeing your video I know why.
I have seen 100's of dead sunfish there before in April, figured it's just the nature of the 3 fow and temps that fluctuate quicky one way or the other.
Seems like in this case the oxygen levels are WAYYYYY down. Should be interesting how this pond fishes in open water. Shallow water, weed choked in the summer and I'm sure it gets it's fair share of fertelizer run off. It's amazing the fish survie all the goose crap too. Too bad the state can't do something better with this shallow pond. I refer to it as the "local toilet". _________________ Bite on my line.
Joined: 06 Oct 2009 Posts: 5203 Location: Avon, CT
Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 7:56 am Post subject:
JohnS - Was that you who drilled those holes in the vicinity of the southwest corner of the reservoir? Did you set tip-ups with shiners, too? Billy actually said, "I wonder whether our shiners are still alive.", before we checked and found that they were all dead.
Kira - I can't believe that YOU put this in writing:
Quote:
I'd actually rather go to Batterson. . . .
Your insomnia must be getting to you. You obviously need more sleep. _________________ Don't forget to wear sunscreen and don't litter!
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