CTFishTalk.com: Connecticut River - Hamburg Cove 04/18 - Connecticut River Reports ( CT River Reports ) - A Community Built for Connecticut Fisherman.

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

My daughter bailed on me, so I drove down to Hamburg Cove alone this morning. However, she made me a fancy new "Fishing" sign for my Jeep:

She missed out on a beautifully sunny day:

When I launched in The Other Woman at 10:15 am, the air temperature was in the mid-50s and there was a light north wind. The lack of flow through the culvert under Cove Road told me that I had caught the slack high tide. The water temperature was 60 degrees, but it was murky. Crying or Very sad

Even in the full sun, I could see my white lures down only a couple of feet. I threw a 2-1/2 inch Pearl White Gulp! Minnow on a 1/16 ounce round jighead and a four inch white curlytail grub on a 3/8 ounce shakeyhead jighead. I took a quick look around the inner cove. I pedaled over to the new dock at Cove Landing Marine. I didn't get any bites, didn't mark any fish on my fish finder and didn't see any fish in the water. So I headed across the inner cove to the steel seawall. For the first time this year, I didn't get any bites near it. I headed into the channel that leads to the outer cove. Again, I got nothing, although I was teased by the occasional sound of a fish breaking the surface of the water. I headed down the west shore of the outer cove for 50 yards without a bite. And to make things worse, whenever I let my jig get too close to the bottom, it would pick up green slime algae. After nearly an hour without even a bite, I decided to zig across to the northeast shore, where I hoped to get away from the green slime and catch a chain pickerel. Thankfully, the grub jig got me what I had hoped to get:

Yeap, it was only an 18 incher, but it was a start. Very Happy

I zagged back to the west shore and less than 20 minutes later, the grub jig got me a fatty largemouth bass:

It was only 15 inches long, but weighed two pounds, five ounces. I zigged back to the east shore and threw the minnow jig in search of white perch, but only managed to catch this tiny yellow perch:

I caught more pickerel than anything else today, especially along the east shore. I boated another 18 incher with the grub jig before I caught the lunker 24 incher:

After another 18 incher, the wind rose from the south at a steady 10+ miles per hour. I zagged back across to the west shore, where the grub jig got me a 13 inch largemouth bass:

I let the south wind blow me up the west shore of the outer cove and back into the channel to the inner cove. As I approached the steel seawall, I hooked into another two foot pickerel with the grub jig, but it was able to bite through my braided line before I boated it. I tied on a 1/4 ounce white spinnerbait and threw it around the steel seawall. I got nothing. Crying or Very sad

I decided to head back to the ramp, but as I headed across the inner cove, I saw that the outgoing tide was drawing a lot of water through the culvert under Cove Road. I threw the spinnerbait toward the culvert and retrieved it back with the current. When I paused my retrieve near my boat, I got a solid hit. When I saw the fish flash in the water, I thought that I had hooked a really, really nice largemouth bass. I would have sworn that it had flashed gold but, apparently, it hadn't:

Of all the fish I could have caught by the ramp in the inner cove, I never would have expected it to be a 20 inch striped bass. After that, I stuck around for another 45 minutes. Another schoolie of about the same size nearly ripped my rod out of my hand near the culvert when I wasn't paying attention, but I missed the hookset. I also hooked up with a short largemouth bass near the Hamburg Cove Yacht Club dock, but lost it when it jumped. I got off of the water at 3:15 pm. During the day, the water temperature had risen from 60 to 65 degrees, but had dropped back to 64 degrees at the end. From the flow of the water through the culvert, it was approaching slack low tide. After my schoolie surprise, I can't wait to get back out there and finally get a keeper.
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BassRican · Joined: 21 Mar 2011 Posts: 116 Location: Meriden

After a rough start, the day ended up pretty darn good! Nice fat bass and nice striper! My last outing to Hamburg in March was okay. Dad and I landed a mixed bag (yellows, pumpkins, LMB, pickeral, catfish, whites, and striper). Most of the fish were caught while trolling, which was new to me. We never troll in our aluminum boat. I was truely (?) disappointed with the white perch this year. I liked the Gulp Minnows! I think they were in the cove early this year. Like February! I would like to get there again for some striper action! I will call you sometime. Congrats!
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When in doubt, rip their lips out!

perfect hook set · Joined: 24 Feb 2008 Posts: 1069 Location: Danbury

LoL CT River fish catching machine =P

Maybe your pickerel and my crappie are cousins or some thing (hump backs)

Nice largemouth Fatty!
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DirtyDawg10 · Joined: 27 May 2009 Posts: 2238 Location: Granby, CT

Nice job, Phil! I like the new sign too.

chuckc · Forum Police Joined: 06 May 2007 Posts: 1440

Nice river report as always!
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jellyfish12 · Joined: 05 Jul 2011 Posts: 24 Location: Canton CT

We missed you on the water yesterday, looks like your kid missed a good day on the water, nice report.

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

Nice work Phil! I have yet to get a striper this year.
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Steve