CTFishTalk.com: Stripers on the Housy with Phil - Connecticut River Reports ( CT River Reports ) - A Community Built for Connecticut Fisherman.

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

Just want to start out by saying "Thanks Phil"! Phil took me out for my day off from work for my birthday today! Went to the housy this morning, little cold water was down when we first got there. Started out fishing white flukes on a jig head on the bottom. We caught 12-15 today, no keepers but a damn blast.
Caught my first striper ever, then went for lunch and got some awesome bbq.
Gonna try posting some pics, if I can't get it I know Phil will post properly. All in all I had a blast and learned a little to.

Thanks again Phil

John

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

Sorry guys can't figure out how to resize Embarassed

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

Nice job guys!

And John, no problems with picture size Wink

SeaDog1 · Joined: 21 Dec 2009 Posts: 2629

Hi,

Good going guys ! Thumbs Up

I am so jealous ! -> Haven't been able to get out last 8 days to do any kind of fishing since this lousy cold hit me !
Slowly getting better though.

SeaDog1 Mr. Green

Wanna Fish · Joined: 30 Jan 2012 Posts: 662 Location: Earth I Think

Nice! Living 20 min walking distance it's killing me. Working so much OT I haven't been able to get out since Nov!

Phil! Dis you head to where I suggested? Those were the locals secret spots! LOL
_________________
Don't hold your farts in! They travel up your spine to your brain and thats where shitty ideas come from.

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

Tough on shore now, I went in the rain for like 1.5 hours today and decided to go home and start ripping the front end of my car apart as I have to replace wheel hubs and do a full brake job while Im in there. Hopefully all goes well so I can get some more fishing in this weekend!
_________________
There's a fine line between fishing....

and standing on the shore like an idiot!

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

When I found out early in the week that hila2006 (aka John) was going to take the day off from work on Friday to kick off the weekend celebration of his Saturday birthday, I kept my eye on the weather forecast. It started off pretty badly, except for the wind. The night before, however, the forecast was for a 60 percent chance of rain at noon, so we figured that we'd just fish in the morning. But when I woke up on Friday, the forecast had improved to partly cloudy skies and a 30 percent chance of rain at 2:00 pm. We met up in Southington and headed for the Sunnyside Boat Launch Facility in Shelton. When we arrived, although there were a few kayaks either already in the water or preparing to launch on the ramp, we had the first trailer in the lot. When we launched at about 7:45 am, although the weather forecast was for air temperatures in the 30s all morning, it was definitely below freezing. The wind forecast was spot on, with variable winds out of the north-northwest, but less than five miles per hour. Low tide was at 6:53 am and high tide was at 11:56 am, so we caught the end of the slack low tide. The ramp was shallow; waaaay shallow. I think that I had to put the front wheels of my Jeep into the water before The Other Woman, Too came off of the trailer. And when John tried to beach her at the ramp to pick me up after I parked the Jeep and trailer, he got stuck on a sandbar 10 feet from the bank. Shocked

He ended up having to pick me quite a ways downriver. After we finally got out into the river, the fish finder marked schools of fish in the channel on the bottom in 30 to 35 feet of water, right off of the ramp, so we stopped right there. The water temperature was 32 degrees when we launched, but soon rose to 33 degrees. As I handed John one of the two setups I had rigged the night before, he informed me that he had never really used a spinning reel before. Shocked

When he was a kid, he had started off with a spincaster and went straight to a baitcaster, because that's what his dad used. To make matters worse, all of my spinning reels are set up to crank left handed and John only cranks right, if you know what mean. Laughing

His first cast was actually pretty good, but they quickly went downhill. The leather gloves he was wearing didn't help. Rolling Eyes

Watching him trying to crank pathetically with his left hand was too painful for me to watch Laughing

, so I swapped the handle on his reel to the right side. We both threw Pearl Silver four inch Gulp! Minnows on 3/8 ounce round jigheads, tied onto 12 pound test P-Line Fluoroclear leaders on 50 pound test PowerPro braid. My setup had regular PowerPro braid, while John's had PowerPro Super 8 Slick braid. However, neither type of line was immune to freezing solid in iced up rod guides:

At 8:00 am, on only my first or second cast, I got the first hit and boated the first schoolie striped bass:

And only 30 minutes later, John boated his first ever striper:

As you can see, the "PFDs At All Times Rule" is now in effect on The Other Woman, Too. I picked up a couple of self-inflating ones at Cabela's. Although they're currently on sale online only, one of the guys in the boating section wrote up a price adjustment for me, from $169.99 to $99.99. Thanks, Tom! John and I each got another schoolie just after 9:00 am:

However, we soon discovered that the schoolies were going to be super finicky and hit a lull. We began working our way up the west bank toward Two Mile Island. A fisherman in another boat yelled at us, "Hey! Did you get those PFDs at Cabela's?" It was Wayne, whom I had met on the water a few days earlier. This time, he was fishing with his buddy, John, on John's boat. It turns out that he's friends with Tom at Cabela's. Hey, guys! It wasn't until after 11:00 am, as high tide approached, that John figured out a pattern and quickly boated four more:

The pattern was to drag your jig along the bottom at a steady, excruciatingly slow pace. It took a lot of a patience, but I finally got it to work for me, too:

We talked with one of the kayakers who had heard me say that I only had 3/8 ounce jigheads and hadn't picked up any 1/2 ouncers. I guess I was talking kinda loud out there. Embarassed

He told us that we'd need more weight as the tide began to flow out and gave us a couple of chartreuse 1/2 ouncers. Thanks, buddy! John actually needed a new jig after he had a mid-cast major malfunction and catapulted his jig off into space. The heavier jig worked, because John got one more schoolie right before noon:

And then we hit another lull. Crying or Very sad

We didn't get another fish and began marking fewer and fewer fish on the fish finder for an hour. We figured out that the suspending fish we saw wouldn't hit a fluke. Only the fish we saw on the bottom were feeding. And we weren't seeing many fish on the bottom. Rolling Eyes

The good news, though, was that the air temperature had warmed up enough that our setups weren't icing up and freezing solid anymore. Very Happy

We decided to head back downriver before putting out and getting something hot to eat for lunch. We marked some fish in the channel next to the docks that are immediately downriver from the ramp. Just before 1:00 pm, on my first cast next to the docks, I finally got another schoolie:

And only three minutes later, John got one, too:

The sun never did peek out from behind the clouds, but it's amazing how catching a couple of fish warms you right up. Wink

Five minutes later, John hooked into what was obviously a larger fish and boated the lunker:

Yeap, it was five inches short of being a keeper at only 23 inches, but it put up more of a fight than any of the smaller schoolies that we caught. I called "last cast" at 1:20 pm. After I reeled in my jig, a light rain began to sprinkle down on us before I could even hook it onto my rod's hook keeper. We put out by 1:30 pm, after boating a total of 13 schoolie stripers. I hate to mention this, but when I was backing my trailer down the ramp, a few shore fishermen wouldn't move their asses and get off of the ramp. What's up with that? Rolling Eyes

Anyway, after we got off of the water, we headed over to Smoklin' with Chris in Southington for some barbecue. With apologies to my local barbecue joint, I have to say that Smokin" with Chris has the best ribs I've had in Connecticut. I think that Chris is a Vermont hippie and he doesn't smoke his meat the same way every time. I've had cherry wood smoked ribs and red oak smoked ribs there, and it's always good.

Happy Birthday, John! I hope that Jenn treats you well during your birthday weekend. When I picked up Janice from the train, she showed up from Manhattan with a cold and a hacking cough. Rolling Eyes

_________________
Don't forget to wear sunscreen and don't litter!

Crest Daddy · Joined: 20 Jan 2011 Posts: 994

You try alabama rigs out there yet??
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Trust me. Use waxworms !

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

Crest Daddy · Joined: 20 Jan 2011 Posts: 994

avidangler · Joined: 08 Jan 2013 Posts: 469 Location: Forestville

Looks like a fun day.You ever try lunker city Shakers?I've done well down there with those.(alewife or pearl)
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...Randy...

Leeway and elbow room.There's plenty of water to fish!

avidanglingadventures.blogspot.com

"If we concentrated on the really important stuff in life,there'd be a shortage of fishing poles."

avidangler · Joined: 08 Jan 2013 Posts: 469 Location: Forestville

My buddy was just telling me that a very productive method for him is to mark the schools and drop a Silver Buddy to the bottom and short-flop it as you drift through the school.About3-6inches off the bottom.
_________________
...Randy...

Leeway and elbow room.There's plenty of water to fish!

avidanglingadventures.blogspot.com

"If we concentrated on the really important stuff in life,there'd be a shortage of fishing poles."

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

Once again, thanks much Phil. It is so true about being warmer when you're catching fish Very Happy

I've also heard white/pearl sluggos are very good to use like we were fishing. We alo talked about trying a silver jigging spoon sometime. Next time we get a keeper Phil.

Wanna Fish · Joined: 30 Jan 2012 Posts: 662 Location: Earth I Think

Heres a little Rich Z Housy fishing adventure. Much can be learned from his articles.
http://www.richz.com/fishing/blog/?p=3112
_________________
Don't hold your farts in! They travel up your spine to your brain and thats where shitty ideas come from.

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