CTFishTalk.com: Connecticut River and Farmington River - South Windsor 09/22 - Connecticut River Reports ( CT River Reports ) - A Community Built for Connecticut Fisherman.

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

We kicked off DirtyDawg10's (aka Derek's) Birthday Weekend Fishing Bash on Saturday by fishing the Connecticut River and the Farmington River. mep21 (aka Mark) and I met Derek at the Vibert Road boat launch ramp in South Windsor. The very muddy Vibert Road boat launch ramp in South Windsor. Rolling Eyes

We got on the water at 6:45 am. I pedaled The Other Woman, Mark paddled his Old Town Vapor 12XT Angler and Derek paddled El Fuego. The air temperature was only 50 degrees when we launched, but there was very little wind. It was a misty morning on the water:

Quite frankly, I don't recall the water temperature, but think it was around 62 degrees. The water was extremely clear; I could see the bottom four feet down, even in the half light of the morning and the whiteout glare from the clouds. We hit the laydowns just downriver from the ramp first. It took only 15 minutes for Derek to boat the first fish of the day with one of his trusty little crankbaits:

No, Derek, it still looks like a six inch smallie when you hold it waaay out in front of you. Laughing

15 minutes later, I caught a walleye Shocked

with a Perch Rapala Jointed Shad Rap JSR07 that I retrieved from the laydowns and paused at the boat:

As is usual for me, it was only 17 inches long, one inch shy of being a keeper. Mad

Now, at this point, we were thinking that we might have a pretty good day of fishing. Unfortunately, though, the fishing ended up being s - l - o - w all day. Confused

We headed upriver to the submerged wall:

Although we saw the occasional splash of a feeding fish in the water, some of which were northern pike sized, none of us got a single bite. I marked a huge school of fish on my finder 15 to 20 feet down in 35 feet of water on the downriver side of the wall, but jigs, wacky Senkos, drop shotted finesse worms and a 1/16 ounce round jighead paired with various plastics didn't get even a nibble. Mark focused on the pike sized splashes in the shallows along the east bank, but didn't get anything, either. Needless to say, it was quite frustrating. Confused

Eventually, we conceded defeat and headed acoss the river to the south end of the channel between the west bank and the island in front of the mouth of the Farmington River. While Mark and i slowly worked our way up the channel, Derek paddled ahead to the mouth of the Farmington. Although neither Mark nor I boated any fish, I saw a chunky 30+ inch northern pike sitting on the bottom facing downriver. When I pulled out one of my setups to throw a lure at it, it spooked and took off down the bank. By the time that Mark and I caught up with Derek, he had boated a little nine inch smallie but, otherwise, hadn't gotten much action. At 10:30 am, I threw my perch patterned five inch slow sinking Sebile Magic Swimmer toward the super shallow shaded water along the bank. As I retrieved it, I saw a big swirl in the water behind it and paused my retrieve, when it was hit by a 24 inch northern pike:

As we continued up the very shallow Farmington River, Derek boated a 12 inch largemouth bass shortly before we reached Bart's, where we took a break and had lunch:

We didn't get much action on the way back down the Farmington, although Derek and I both saw a big 30+ inch northern pike on the bottom of the river. It flipped us the fin before heading slowly downriver along the bottom. When we got next to the athletic fields of the Loomis Chaffee School, Derek boated a 12 inch smallie with a wacky rigged five inch Senko. Unfortunately, he gut hooked it. He spent five minutes trying to revive it:

However, it didn't survive, although I heard that it made a delicious, if small, birthday dinner for Derek. Wink

None of us caught anything else before we got off of the water. Well, unless tiny molluscs count Rolling Eyes

:

Derek left first at 3:00 pm, because he had to get to his son's soccer game. Mark and I got off of the water just after 4:30 pm. Although the fishing was slow, we had a heck of a nice day on the water. Very Happy

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

It was a nice trip. I really think that 6" smallie looks more like 7.5" when I hold it out like that Laughing

The bite was definitely tough. Here's a few pics of my fish Smallies 6", 9" and 12" and my 12" LMB. None of the fish were bloody just the hue from El Fuego Very Happy

The 12" smallie didn't make it as Phil mentioned, but it didn't go to waste. Smallmouth turns out to be the best tasting freshwater fish I have tried to date.

I also threw my crankbait out in front of Barts before we went in for lunch and a pike had my crankbait for lunch. I ended up with some chewed up fishing line. Mad

All my fish were caught on a square bill bomber silver crankbait until the pike swallowed it. After that there were no more fish on the crankbait. Just the 12" smallie on a 5" senko.

Here's a pic of Phil's walleye

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

Nice report guys!
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Michael · Joined: 28 Jan 2012 Posts: 3823 Location: Bridgeport

Nice pics and report!

DCAJ · Joined: 04 Jun 2012 Posts: 76 Location: Berlin, CT

Great report.
It's good to see a walleye coming out of the river.