CTFishTalk.com: 1860 Reservoir - 04/04 - Connecticut Lake Reports ( CT Lake Reports ) - A Community Built for Connecticut Fisherman.

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

This morning, TurtleKiss (aka Kira) told me that she was waiting for someone to unlock the gate for her at 1860 Reservoir. I had never been there before, so I headed over as soon as I could. the sky was totally clear and the air temperature was in the low 50s. However, there was already a steady wind out of the northwest and the forecast was for worse. I saw that Kira and Dinghbat were already on the water in the northeast corner of the pond. I launched in El Habañero from the cleared but otherwise unimproved launching area on the south shore at 9:30 am. I had two setups with me; one with a Natural Shad patterned soft plastic Sebile Magic Swimmer and the other with a white 3/8 ounce Strike King Redeye spinnerbait. Rather than head toward Kira, I decided to head clockwise around the shore. The water was slightly murky, with visibility down only about two feet. Kira headed over to join me on the south shore. After fighting the wind for a while, however, I decided to paddle up to the north shore to shelter from the wind, while Kira stayed in the southwest corner of the pond:

I got alee of the wind off of the center of the north shore and tied on a Texas rigged green pumpkin/red flake Zoom Baby Brush Hog. I used just a light weight to keep the lure on the bottom as the wind pulled on the line. However, as I went counterclockwise toward the northwest corner, I found that the water was only a couple of feet deep at the most. And although some green lily pads were starting to grow, there was also quite a bit of that bright green slimy algae:

Kira soon headed to the northeast corner of the reservoir, which was the most sheltered from the wind. I took a quick look at the southeast corner before heading back to the shelter of the north shore and worked my way toward Kira. I have to admit that by this time I was just hoping to even just spot a fish in the water. To that point, I had seen only waterfowl, painted turtles and a snapping turtle. And. no, I hadn't gotten even a nibble on anything. Crying or Very sad

I swapped out the Baby Brush Hog for my white perch jig, which is a 2-1/2 inch Gulp! Minnow on a 1/16 ounce round jighead, and tied a wacky rigged 5-1/2 inch green pumpkin/red flake Senko on my other setup. I told Kira that I was throwing the jig that will catch anything, from a striped bass to a sunny. And it took only a few casts before a sunny tugged on the jig. When I yelled to Kira that I actually had a nibble, she yelled back that she had one, too, and hers felt "bassy". So I paddled toward the middle where she was anchored and the jig got me the first fish, which was a black crappie or, for Kira's sake, a calico bass:

Over the next 1-1/2 hours, the jig got me 18 crappie that ranged from eight to 11 inches long. In case you ever wondered why they're also called papermouth bass, take a look at my jig through this one's mouth:

The jig also got me a couple of sunnies:

Kira finally gave up her pursuit of a "real" bass and we got off of the water at 1:30 pm. The next time we head out, we're going to fish in a river, instead. Rolling Eyes

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

It's been looking like an early crappie bite this spring!

fishfinder · Joined: 19 Jun 2011 Posts: 1672 Location: Naugatuck, Ct.

So your saying it was a crappy....... I mean crappie day all in all? LOL
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There's a fine line between fishing....

and standing on the shore like an idiot!

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

Crappy LOL, good one. Hey Phil, a bit windy out there eh? I went out a last Sunday and had to paddle my #$% off just to get to the other end of the lake to be able to fish with the wind. It's a lot tougher in the yak for sure. Got 4 days off after today, gonna hit em big time.