CTFishTalk.com: Rainbow Reservoir 08/24 - Connecticut Lake Reports ( CT Lake Reports ) - A Community Built for Connecticut Fisherman.

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

I fished Rainbow Reservoir with justinmorse (aka Justin) today. He paddled La Calabaza and I paddled El Habañero. We were the first car in the lot at the boat launch ramp. It was nice and cool even though the sun was glaring. There was only a slight west wind when we launched just after 8:00 am. I had never fished near the new dam before, so we headed east down the shore. While I futzed around with my gear (I accidentally spilled my coffee in my kayak when I launched Confused

), Justin fished a big laydown that's immediately adjacent to the ramp. He threw an unweighted Texas rigged seven inch Midnight Fire (aka black with red tail) Powerbait Power Worm and got a hit on the retireve. I asked whether it was a good fish and, yeah, it was. At first, Justin thought that it was a largemouth bass, but from the way that it was pulling, I knew that it was a smallmouth bass. When he got it to the surface, we could see that it was barely hooked through the inside of its upper lip and I was glad when he was finally able to lip it:

The glare was obviously too much for my iPhone's camera. Sorry about that, Justin! Confused

The smallie was 18 inches long and weighed two pounds, two ounces. We joked about catching the lunker on the first cast and, unfortunately, that ended up being the case. We caught several small fish on the sunny north shore and in the shady coves:

My first four fish were a 10 inch smallie, another 10 inch smallie, a 12 inch smallie and a six inch smallie. Justin got a sunny on a roostertail and some little smallies. When we got to the buoys in front of the dam, we headed to the shady south shore. We had high hopes for it, but it just didn't seem to hold many fish. Justin got a small largemouth bass on the Power Worm. As the day went on, the wind rose until it blew at 10+ miles per hour. We decided to paddle west against the wind and toward the old dam. Along the way, I got a little smallie on a trolled silver Rapala Original Floater F07 and Justin got a yellow perch on the roostertail. But it seemed that the further west we went, the deader the bite became. We let the wind blow us back to the new dam from the old, where I boated a short largemouth bass with a wacky rigged five inch Senko. We headed off the water at about 3:00 pm. I don't know why, but they always seem to hold water in the reservoir when I'm there. There's never any flow. Today, suspended debris didn't seem to move at all, well, except when a powerboat blew by us or the wind caught it. Rolling Eyes

I think that the lack of current is what killed the bite.
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justinmorse · Joined: 12 Aug 2011 Posts: 17 Location: Simsbury

Definitely a good day on the water. Thanks again, Phil.
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Fishface · Joined: 02 Jan 2008 Posts: 308 Location: New Britain

Nice job guys.

Tim

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

That place can be tough. At least you guys were catching some. Nice fish Justin!

SAP284 · Joined: 07 Jun 2011 Posts: 655 Location: Central, CT

That place can definitely be tough....glad there was a nice size SMB caught. Theres a handful of Smallies in there...big ones few and far between.

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

A woman in a green Wave Walker pontoon-style kayak with a fishfinder said that the smallies were holding near the bottom where it dropped from 11 feet deep to 25 feet deep on the north bank to the west of the boat launch ramp. I tried drop shotting with a 2-1/2 inch Gulp minnow for a while, but didn't get any hits.
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hoppy · Joined: 20 May 2007 Posts: 393 Location: congamuck

There are good smallies in there for sure. A few weeks ago i was with a buddy whom fishes live bait and was fishing live crawfish. It was rediculous to the point he was pulling up 2lb to 3lb smallies on every rehook all while anchored and fishing nomore the 10' from the boat. I fished a DS for three hours and got skunked. If you like fishing live bait get some live crawfish and go to town.

The lady you saw is "Roxy" and she fishes rainbow alot and does very well there. She can fish and knows her stuff. She lives not to far from me and is a memeber of the other site i believe or was soe time ago.

Rainbow can be tough for sure and current seems to turn the bite on abit. There are fish in there but it can be frustrating. go there and handfull of times a year mainly when im dragged there by buddys whom want to go there. not my favorite place to fish but it could be worse.

Hookset7073 · Joined: 09 May 2011 Posts: 29 Location: Northern CT

Caught my biggest Smallie of my life in there. 61/2 pounds on a Rainbow Trout Husky Jerk. That was March of 08. Place has giant fish in there, just gotta throw the right baits for them and not get discouraged because it can definitely be slow.
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