CTFishTalk.com: Pachaug Pond 7-31 - Connecticut Lake Reports ( CT Lake Reports ) - A Community Built for Connecticut Fisherman.

slim2043 · Joined: 11 Apr 2011 Posts: 446 Location: Plainville CT

I have a good friend who is a member of the Griswold Fish and Game Club so with some advanced scheduling and a little luck we make it out to one of our favorite watering holes a few times each year, good ol Pachaug Pond. If you haven't been, I highly recommend it, from my experiences visiting the pond every now and again for the last 15 years it is a place where the Bass are big and beautiful and the Pike just keep getting bigger and meaner. We set our course to ship out at 8 AM Sunday and bring enough supplies to fish til dinner. Three amigos set out, myself, my buddy Richie (GFAGC Member), and my pal Conor. Our launch is at the GFAGC which is located on the smallest cove of the pond where the weeds grow rampant providing great cover for both of the prime species of the pond. As we pulled in we talked with the club president who informed us of a HUGE 8+ LB BASS caught here last week and the carcass was left there. I found that carcass and took a picture. Looked more like a striper head than a LMB head. She was definitely a lunker but its a shame she was killed.

That's her head in the water, circled in Red.

We fished from shore for about 30 minutes before I got the itch to paddle out and work my BLACK TROPHY SCUM FROG across the lillies.

I had tied it on my new setup for bass, a 7' M Uglistick spooled up with 40lb braid and a 10lb yo-zuri hybrid fluoro leader. It was go time!

I worked the frog over the weeds and pads for about 3-4 casts before I got a hit. Next cast I also got a hit, neither bass took the bait... One more cast here before trying another section, skipped the frog over the same path as the last two casts and WHAM! A big girl comes nearly all the way out of the water and engulfs the frog. I reel the slack and whip my rod back and its on like donkey kong... She swims all through the thick of the weeds and pads and turns my kayak around and parks me on a shallow weed bed as I bring her in. This girl is a whopper IMO and this was no doubt the best strike and the best bass for me this season. She is a real thick healthy hearty bass. My buddy Conor paddles over and snaps a few photos of me with her and pulls his scale out. I was just about to land her on the scale when my thumb slipped... SPLASH! ... and a fruitless grasp at the air and another down in the pond but she was long gone. She was heavy, had to be 3+ but I couldn't say for sure. Caught her in less than 3 FoW.

After that sweet action, Conor also tied on BLACK TROPHY SCUM FROG (just happened that Richie bought one the day before). We both work the frogs over the two big beds of weeds and pads and nothing doing. Conor notices a HUGE NORTHERN PIKE under his boat and sees if it will take the frog. She completely ignores it. Conor spends the better part of the morning chasing this pike; throwing all his pike lures at it and he's convinced she is queen of the pond and she isn't taking anything that isn't live today... Lunch rolls around and we eat and get back out there. I am convinced that the one bass I got on the frog was a one in a million on this sunny day so I decide to go plastic.

I tie on a 5" Salty Trick Stick - Watermelon Red Flake (Senko Imitator) weedless and cast at a laydown behind weedbed B (pictured above) and get bite after bite after bit but keep missing it. Ok 4th time is a charm, I let it take the bait a second longer and set the hook... She wasn't very big, that's why I missed the other 3 times. I hooked her through the last V in her Gills through one side and back out the other! Arghh! After 2-3 minutes we get the hook out and return the little bass unharmed.

Meanwhile, Richie is still skunked and Conor is too. Richie starts with the BEERS and Conor decides to paddle the channel into the Pond since we spent the entire morning working the small cove. He ties on a Fat Albert Curly Tail Grub in Pumpkin Color TX rigged with a small bullet weight. He starts landing small LMB, each one incrementally bigger than the other. Here's the little one.

The fishing gets real slow for me. I try the curly tail grub myself and get a nice strike from a small LMB. He goes airborne and throws the hook. I'm not sure he was even hooked because he bit the tail off of my grub. He hit on my First cast! to this laydown ...

I start to think that I'm not gonna get anything of any size with the grub as I see Conor still pulling in the small ones on it so I tie on a 5" Senko Green Pumpkin TX Rigged with a Bullet weight and start fishing the Channel. I start casting right down the center of the channel and reeling in very slowly bouncing the senko off the bottom then I feel what might be a strike and sit on it for a few seconds and pull my rod tip up slowly and WHIZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ The drag starts burning on my reel and my rod feels HEAVY. My boat starts being dragged down the channel and then all of a sudden its slacking, she's swimming toward me, I'm reeling as fast as I can and I see her swim under my boat.... HOLY $41+ a MONSTER PIKE!!!! She spins my Boat around and then I bring her around the side and have her kind of sideways calmed down at the side of my kayak. I'm now 30 yards from where I had casted and this Pike is giving me the stink eye. Now that I see her on the side of the boat I see she's about a 3rd the size of my vessel so she's gotta be around 3 feet long! and heavy a solid 8 lbs! Now I know, she isn't HUGE FOR PIKE, but this PIKE WAS HUGE FOR ME Smile

... I wasn't quite sure how to handle her and I know she wasn't tired so I wasn't going to grab her and put her on the hull of my kayak so she could bite me so I asked Conor to give me a hand. As soon as he paddled over, she took off again and took me a couple minutes to get her back. I have her alongside the boat again and I decide I'm gonna bring her on shore and have Conor tow me in. As Soon as I try to turn the pike around in the water with my rod, she goes airborne 100% out of the water and splashes me with her tail! I'm soaked head to toe and somehow she got off the hook in the air... I am now sitting there, soaking wet, with a mangled senko dangling on my hook and my adrenaline up to 11 but I have 0 Pictures, L, or Weight of the fish. She'll forever be a fish tale with a single witness until I catch her again! We stayed for a couple more hours but there was really no fish to be caught after that. The sun was high in the sky and no fish were landed after the pike. The pike was caught in about 8-10 FoW in the only deep channel in the cove. If I was using any of my light gear when I caugh that Pike, I guarantee that something would have snapped so I am so thankful I upgraded this week before I went out this weekend because I don't think I would've wrangled in either of my lunkers today. This was only the 2nd pike I have caught aside from ice fishing. I caught both while bass fishing. One at Bantham on a Rapala Husky Jerk and one her at Pachaug on a Yamamoto Senko! Like the commercial says, "You don't work them, They work for you"

I snapped a few more scenic photos and that was it.

So today at Pachaug, as always, was about the Quality of Fish in there. I got me the two biggest fish I caught all year and I want to go back again real soon. Very Happy

_________________
Never give up!

DirtyDawg10 · Joined: 27 May 2009 Posts: 2238 Location: Granby, CT

Sounds like fun even though that pike got away...at least you know it's in there. Too bad someone had to kill that 8lber. What a shame.

slim2043 · Joined: 11 Apr 2011 Posts: 446 Location: Plainville CT

Yeah, time to invest in a lip grip scale so I know the weight of all my fish and the toothy ones don't get away Very Happy

... I don't know the real story behind why that bass carcass is there but it is sad. Lord knows that was a big fish! Sad

_________________
Never give up!

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

Nice, Tim! I've been tellling TurtleKiss that we need to fish Pachaug Pond sometime soon. Thanks for posting the report.

Oh, and next time try dragging a bullfrog colored Zoom Horny Toad on a Gamakatsu 4/0 Offset Shank Worm EWG hook rigged weightless and weedless (i.e., bury the tip of the hook into the back of the frog) over the pads. They work great. Trust me.
_________________
Don't forget to wear sunscreen and don't litter!

slim2043 · Joined: 11 Apr 2011 Posts: 446 Location: Plainville CT

I have some Rage Toads in Grn Pumpkin/pearl which I think is pretty similar but couldn't hurt to add another frog to the arsenal. I like the rage toads fat round feet, they slap the water pretty good and make some commotion. I couldn't find my other frogs yesterday, they must have been in another box/pack Embarassed

Pachaug is a bit of a trip for me but its worth it almost every time. It was well worth it this time. If you plan a trip, let me know. I think next time I might try to target some pike. I am very impressed with the yo-zuri flouro hybrid too. 10 lb test and it didn't get shredded!!! Shocked

If I go pike hunting, I'll definitely bring something tougher though.

One thing I should add is that there was a ton of boat traffic yesterday. That is one of the main reasons I spent most of my time in the small cove.

And PECo... that Sahara is wonderful! Thx for the recommendation!
_________________
Never give up!

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

I like the water slapping action of the Rage Tail Rage Toads, too. They worked great for me at Nod Brook WMA. When the weeds are wickedly thick, I think that the extra noise is helpful. However, they sink and are kind of heavy.

When I want to avoid getting hung up in heavy weeds or in lily pads, I prefer Zoom Horny Toads. Whoa, I just had a Most Interesting Man in the World moment! Keep fishing, my friends! Cool

_________________
Don't forget to wear sunscreen and don't litter!

slim2043 · Joined: 11 Apr 2011 Posts: 446 Location: Plainville CT

MarkO · Joined: 12 Nov 2007 Posts: 330

Now that is enthusiasm. Great post dude!