CTFishTalk.com: Nod Brook WMA 03/19 - Connecticut Lake Reports ( CT Lake Reports ) - A Community Built for Connecticut Fisherman.

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

I decided to check out the ponds at Nod Brook WMA, today. I parked between the ponds and launched The Other Woman into the upper (i.e., south) pond at 11:15 am. The sky was sunny, the air was warm and there was little to no wind. The water was warmer than I expected. It started at 58 degrees, but rose to 60 degrees over the next two hours. I headed clockwise around the pond, sticking close to the shore. The water was murky. Although I could see my four inch white curlytail grub on a 1/8 ounce shakeyhead jighead four to five feet down, I could really only make out details on the bottom about three feet down. I went across the north shore, down the east shore and across the shallows on the south end without seeing any fish either in the water or on my fish finder. I got halfway up the west shore before heading out of the shallows and into deeper water. I went back down to the island with the hunting blind and threw the grub at a splash that I heard off of the north shore, when I finally got a hit from a small fish. It was a beat up 15 inch long chain pickerel that had a broken gill sticking out from under its gill plate:

I followed the deep channel up to where the creek empties into the pond without seeing any more fish, but when I headed up the creek channel in the northwest corner of the pond, I finally spooked some sunnies in the water and spotted a nine inch long largemouth bass hiding under the undercut bank of the creek. I headed back into the pond and did another clockwise lap in the deeper water, but didn't see any more fish. At 1:15 pm, I decided to haul out and put back into the lower (i.e., north) pond.

I headed counterclockwise around the lower pond, again sticking close to the shore. In addition to the four inch grub, I threw a wacky rigged five inch green pumpkin/red flake Senko, which got picked up a couple of times by small fish that I never saw in the murk. It wasn't until I got to the shallows in the northeast corner that I got a bite on the grub over the dropoff in front of the shallows. I thought that it had to be a largemouth bass, but it wasn't Rolling Eyes

:

It was a freakin' fall fish. Mad

However, I have to admit that from the way it fought, I thought it was a bass until saw it. Wink

By this time, the water temperature was 64 degrees! Shocked

I threw the grub and a blue/black rattling football head jig in the channel and headed into the shallow flat in the northeast corner of the pond. As I slowly crept into the two foot deep water, I disturbed a bunch of 18 inch carp that left cloudy trails of silt as they scattered away. I also scared schools of panfish that would jump when the grub hit the water, so I started throwing my white perch jig, which is a 2-1/2 inch pearl silver Gulp! Minnow on a 1/16 ounce round jighead. It wasn't long before I hooked into a freakin' rock bass:

And a few minutes later, I caught a small black crappie:

I caught another small black crappie before I headed into the blind canal on the east side of the pond. As I entered the canal, the water temperature rose dramatically, from 64 to 67 degrees! Shocked

I continued to throw my white perch jig and finally boated a largemouth bass:

Okay, so it wasn't much of a fish, but it still counts. Very Happy

As I headed out of the canal and back to the channel, I continued to throw the white perch jig, which got me a bunch of freakin' fall fish that ranged from 12 to 15 inches long:

I also boated a few yellow perch, including a 13 inch long fatty:

As I headed back to the culvert in the southwest corner of the pond, I continued to catch fall fish pretty much everywhere that I expected to find a largemouth bass. Rolling Eyes

I ended up catching 16 of them before I got off off the water at 4:15 pm. I'm more worried now than I was before that the flooding we had last Fall allowed all of the bigger largemouth bass to escape the ponds and large numbers of fall fish to enter, but I'll keep looking for the bass.
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fishville · Joined: 19 Oct 2008 Posts: 87

Looks like a good day on the water. That poor pickerel has led a tough life.

MarkO · Joined: 12 Nov 2007 Posts: 330

Great post and pics Phil. Looks like that perch is ready to explode with roe.

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

I talked with a shore fisherman who walked the shore of both ponds along the road that runs between them. He said that he spotted several small largemouth bass right on the shore in both ponds, but they completely ignored his Texas rigged purple curlytail worm, even when he dragged it in front of them. He also caught a big fall fish that he said he thought was a dace. I don't think that I've ever caught a dace. Although they look similar to fall fish, I understand that they tend to be smaller (e.g., up to only six inches long) and have a very distinct lateral line. Fall fish are big (e.g., 12 to 18 inches long), are shaped like trout, have big scales like carp and do not have a very distinct lateral line.

Oh, I also wanted to mention that even though the water temperature is already pretty warm, I saw absolutely NO bedding activity. The silt on the bottom of both ponds hasn't been cleared out anywhere, yet.
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DirtyDawg10 · Joined: 27 May 2009 Posts: 2238 Location: Granby, CT

You had a fun day of catching today

Michael · Joined: 28 Jan 2012 Posts: 3823 Location: Bridgeport

Awesome fishing!

hila2006 · Joined: 22 Jul 2011 Posts: 582 Location: Ellington

Hey Phil, we had tons of Dace in Mass, their are really just a big shiner. We used to hit in the Millers river up to a foot long, or over. Just huge!! They fight really well as well, almost all the small rivers in our part of mass is overrun with them. Some big pike would help that.