CTFishTalk.com: Lake McDonough 04/30 - Connecticut Lake Reports ( CT Lake Reports ) - A Community Built for Connecticut Fisherman.

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

I had thought about heading down to Hamburg Cove on Monday, but got caught up doing housework. Just when I was in danger of wasting a beautiful day for fishing, slim2043 (aka Tim) told me that he was going to Lake McDonough after it opened at 10:00 am. Hallelujah! He stopped by my house and we carpooled to the lake. I didn't get any photos of it, but the recent renovations to the boat launch area are nice. The temporary boathouse trailer is gone. The old boathouse looks brand new, both inside and out. There's also a new fence between the parking lot and the road. At the boathouse, we paid $6.00 for parking and $5.00 each to launch our non-power boats. We had boat ticket numbers 00007 and 00008. One of the kids who works for the MDC came down to the ramp to ask whether either of our boats had been in any other waters in the last four weeks. That was the extent of the pre-launch inspection. Rolling Eyes

We got on the water at 10:45 am. I pedaled The Other Woman and Tim paddled his Trophy 126. The air was already warm and the sun blazed overhead. What little wind there was blew out of the south. The water was clear down to about 10 feet and was 55 degrees. While Tim hit the shoreline immediately to the north of the ramp, I pedaled all the way up to the north end of the lake. On my way up, I saw a couple of 1-1/2 to two pound largemouth bass cruise past me in the clear, shallow water. Here are photos of the spillway and the upriver dam:

While I was standing up to take the panoramic photo of the dam, I left a Yellow Perch patterned Rapala Shallow Shad Rap SSR5 floating in the water behind my boat. When I sat down after taking the photo, I saw that my line was being slowly pulled out, so I picked up the rod, reeled in the slack and set the hook on what I could feel was a little fish. Well, it turned out to be a kinda big little fish:

Now, I'd never weighed a sunny before, but thought that Michael might want to know that it was 10 inches long and weighed 12 ounces. Very Happy

Tim eventually paddled up and we spent some time near the beaver lodge on the west side of the cove near the dam. In addition to the Yellow Perch Rapala, I threw a big bluegill patterned spinnerbait. Neither of us got any hits, so we headed back down and out of the cove. At that point, Tim set off on a mission to reach the downriver dam and I followed slowly behind him. I swapped out my spinnerbait for a big 1/2 ounce Mepps Dressed Aglia inline spinnerbait with a #5 Rainbow Trout blade and a brown bucktail that was more suitable for trolling. I also swapped out the little Yellow Perch Rapala for a bigger Brown Trout patterned Rapala Original Floating F09. We went down the west shore for a while. I occasionally stopped along the way to throw the inline spinnerbait at laydowns, which got me the first rock bass of the day:

And at the next reedbed on the water's edge, the inline spinnerbait got me the first largemouth bass:

I got a tap on the inline spinnerbait from another fish at the reedbed, but headed across the lake to the east shore to try and keep up with Tim, who was getting away from me. I didn't catch up with him until 1:30 pm, when he finally got his first fish off of one of the rare laydowns in the lake:

And on his next cast, he got his second:

The chain pickerel hooked itself pretty well on Tim's lure. While he was futzing with it, I drifted over the laydown and marked a bunch of fish holding underneath it on my fish finder. I dragged the inline spinnerbait past it and boated another small largemouth bass:

I headed down the shoreline and into a cove with a single laydown in it. Through the flat water and under full sun, I could see dozens of sunnies and small largemouth bass in the water. After catching a short largemouth with the big inline spinnerbait, I decided to swap it out for a wacky rigged light green pumpkin/small red flake five inch Senko. I was able to keep it away from the smaller fish as I watched it sink to the bottom next to the laydown, where a bigger largemouth bass slowly floated out and picked it up:

It was 17 inches long and weighed two pounds, 10 ounces. Finally, a step in the right direction! Very Happy

Meanwhile, Tim sent me a text message with a photo of a dropshot rock bass that he caught near the downriver dam:

After a couple of small largemouth bass, the wacky Senko was picked up by a 19 inch, three pound, 10 ounce largemouth bass:

Whoo hoo!

I hoped to lure an even bigger largemouth bass out of the laydown, but didn't see one. After a couple of rock bass and a 14 inch largemouth bass, I headed out of the small cove and down the shoreline into another cove. This one had another beaver lodge in it. Through the flat and now 60 degree water, I could see dozens of sunnies, largemouth bass and chain pickerel. I tried to drop the wacky Senko in front of one of the bigger largemouth bass, but it got picked up by a chain pickerel, instead:

A few minutes later, I got a largemouth bass, but it was only a 14 incher. And then I got another small chain pickerel. Meanwhile, Tim boated a 15 inch long largemouth bass near the dam:

By the time I finally decided to head over to the dam, Tim had already started heading back up the east shore, but he paddled over when he saw me. When I got to the spillway, I could see that the water level wa Shocked

s about four feet low:

I swapped out the wacky Senko for the big bluegill patterned spinnerbait and dragged it parallel to the dam wall. I didn't get any hits, but saw small splashes in the flat water all around me, so I tied on a Pearl White Gulp! 2-1/2 inch Minnow on a 1/16 ounce round jighead and soon boated the first of more than a dozen black crappie:

While I was fishing for black crappie, I dragged around a heavily weighted drop shot with a wacky rigged five inch Senko about 20 feet down. The drop shot got me a 16 inch largemouth bass and yet another small chain pickerel. Here's the largemouth bass:

The black crappie fishing was fun. It didn't take long to find the secret spot:

Unfortunately, though, none of the black crappie were bigger than 11 inches long. In the same corner of the lake by the downriver dam, I found a spot on my fish finder that was 47 feet deep and loaded with fish from 30 to 45 feet down. I think that there was a strong thermocline at about 30 feet. Tim and I threw everything we could think of down there in hopes that the suspended fish were smallmouth bass, but we couldn't get any hits. After a long, frustrating time, I finally let my minnow jig fall down to the depths and pulled up a small black crappie. After I released it, I dropped the minnow jig back down, but noticed that the black crappie I had released was floating on the surface. Apparently, its swim bladder had blown up when I pulled it out of the depths. Shocked

Just then, I hooked into another. Oops! Embarassed

Luckily, there were a couple of shore fishermen who were keeping fish nearby, so I gave the two injured black crappie to them. We started back to the ramp at around 5:45 pm. By that time, the water temperature had fallen to 56 degrees from a high of 60 degrees just after noon. The wind began to rise out of the south as clouds drifted over. The sky soon became totally overcast. As we headed back up the lake, we stopped at the laydown in the small cove where I had caught the lunker largemouth bass. Tim threw a big weighted green pumpkin/red flake brush hog at the laydown, but couldn't entice a big largemouth out of it. The tiny minnow jig got me a couple of rock bass and the wacky Senko got me another 14 inch largemouth bass. We headed out of the cove and up the west shore. We stopped at the small laydown where Tim had gotten his first two fish, but nobody was home. We headed across the lake and let the wind push us up the west shore. Tim had to work pretty hard with the paddle, but The Other Woman is equipped with a sail:

Whoo hoo!

We were probably the last two boats off of the water at 6:45 pm. I ended up boating the one sunny, six rock bass, four chain pickerel, a dozen largemouth bass and more than a dozen black crappie. I'd love to head back out there, again. The next time, I'm going to bring some spider jigs or crawfish jigs; I really need to learn how to fish deep. Wink

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

Awesome day guys, wish I were with ya. That's one of the spots I'm dying to hit soon. Now we have to deal with the moving thing, but we'll be much happier at Beseck for sure. So it's worth all the packing(again), luckily a lot of our stuff is still packed in boxes. Nice job Phil and Tim that's a good day of fishing.

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

WTG guys!

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

Thanks for posting, Phil! My arms are still burning from all the paddling and fishing! Thanks for letting me use that paddle too. I would still be out there if I didn't have that light paddle. The only con of that day was no bronzebacks! Where the heck are they??? We fished the whole lake :O

Hila, you're moving again? Let me know when you get there, I'll fish Besek any day.
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DirtyDawg10 · Joined: 27 May 2009 Posts: 2238 Location: Granby, CT

Nice job guys! Great report.

pikePERSUADER1 · Joined: 07 Dec 2010 Posts: 521

Nice, sounds like a pretty good day!

Carpfishin860 · Joined: 14 Apr 2012 Posts: 55 Location: East Hartford

awesome report

hoppy · Joined: 20 May 2007 Posts: 393 Location: congamuck

great report peco. My favorite lake in CT right there. A few years back on opening day i came across a laydown that had crappie the size of dinner plates under it. couldnt get them to tke anything but they were freeking monster crappie. I have caught quite a few monster pearch there early in the year. The panfish just seem to run BIG there. Its a dam shame we cant ice fish it.

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

Hoppy, what's the magic trick to get Smallies instead of Rock Bass on the DS?
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CT_BASSman · Joined: 23 May 2011 Posts: 349

Awesome job! I always look forward to reading your reports!

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

I fished Lake McDonough with NWDarkcloud (aka Bob), again, today. I'll post a report.
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NWDarkcloud · Joined: 23 Apr 2012 Posts: 474

AAA what a day so many cast ...so many..fish...and i still say I caught the bigest stick fish ....and the snail you caught from the dock dont count I was loading the boat back on trailer no points for that 1....even if it was on a jig ....lol

Thanks for a greay day out Phil...

hoppy · Joined: 20 May 2007 Posts: 393 Location: congamuck

never really had a problem with catching lots of rockbass there. My tip throw something thats to big for a rockbass to eat.

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

Hey Tim, we'll be there for June 1st at the latest. I'll post and when we get there, can't wait to start lake living again dude

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