CTFishTalk.com: Housatonic River - Shelton 01/13 - Connecticut River Reports ( CT River Reports ) - A Community Built for Connecticut Fisherman.

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

I hadn't been fishing with mep21 (aka Mark) since last September and he had never fished for striped bass before, so we decided to fish the lower Housatonic River on Sunday. We planned to meet at a Park and Ride in Farmington before dawn at 6:30 am. Unfortunately, I ran late and didn't show up until 6:40 am. Confused

When Mark asked me what he should throw into my Jeep, I told him that he didn't need anything, because I had a setup for him to use and an extra. . . OH, CRAP! Shocked

Just then, I realized that I had forgotten to put my new inflatable PFDs into the Jeep. Mad

As Mark grabbed his PFD from his car, I mulled over my options: 1) Go without a PFD thumbs down

; 2) Drive 20 minutes back to my house to get one Confused

; or 3) Call NWDarkcloud (aka Bob), who lives only two minutes away, wake him up and borrow one from him. Embarassed

I called Bob and woke him up. Wink

Mark and I drove over to Bob's house and he got a PFD out of The Way More Better for me to use. Thanks, Bob! Very Happy

On our way to Shelton, I was telling Mark about how I had gotten my 2013 All Waters Fishing License from Dick's Sporting Goods, when I asked, "Hey, have you gotten yours?" Mark's response was, "OH, CRAP!" Laughing

Luckily, he had his 2012 Fishing License with him and was able to renew it online with his smartphone. Cool

Sunrise was at 7:17 am, low tide was at 8:40 am and high tide was at 1:40 pm. When we arrived at the Sunnyside Boat Launch Facility at about 7:30 am, the parking lot was already almost full and there was a fleet of boats out on the water. Well, actually, we could see only part of the fleet, because the river was completely shrouded in fog. The air temperature stayed in the 40s all day and the wind slowly rose throughout day, from almost nothing to five miles per hour out of the south. As we prepared to put The Other Woman, Too into the water, we were approached by another fisherman. It was madkey (aka Rich), who was preparing to launch his boat with a buddy. After we put the navigation lights onto The Other Woman, Too, Mark launched me into the river, and parked the Jeep and trailer on the side of the parking lot. We began slowly moving upriver and looking for schools of stripers with the fish finder. The water temperature fluctuated between 34 and 35 degrees all day. As we approached the cove in front of Two Mile Island, I looked over at Mark and noticed that he didn't have his PFD on. When I reminded him about The PFDs At All Times Rule, his response was, "OH, CRAP!" Laughing

He had forgotten to take it out of the Jeep. Embarassed

Along with his gloves. Rolling Eyes

After we went back to the ramp so that Mark could get his stuff, we decided that since we hadn't really marked any schools with the fish finder near the ramp and Two Mile Island, we'd head downriver to check it out. We zig-zagged slowly down the river, but didn't mark many fish until we spotted several on the bottom in about 25 feet of water, just upriver from the island off of Great River Country Club and the red navigational buoy. We dropped the trolling motor and finally began fishing:

Mark threw a five inch White Pearl Zoom Fluke on a chartreuse 1/2 ounce fishhead jighead, while I threw the same fluke on a white/red eye 3/8 ounce round jighead. It took a while for us to figure out how to get the scattered fish to hit the fluke jig. At 8:45 am, Mark discovered that a couple hard jerks and a pause after the fluke jig hit the bottom would get hits and boated the first fish:

After he boated the first striper, he quickly boated four more:

And then, for good measure, he hooked one for which I had to pull out the net:

Yeah, Baby! Very Happy

Although the 26 inch striper was two inches shy of being a keeper, we wondered whether anyone actually keeps and eats striped bass out of the Housy. Anyone? Question

I finally swapped out my 3/8 ounce jighead for a chartreuse 1/2 ounce fishhead jighead like Mark's (Thanks, again, blue kayak fisherman! Very Happy

) in order to better be able to keep it on the bottom. I soon got the hang of Mark's "Hard Jerk Technique" and boated a schoolie of my own:

I'd like to thank Bob, again, for lending me the green PFD. Thanks, Bob! Very Happy

We each caught a couple of more stripers with the Hard Jerk Technique:

Shortly after 10:00 am, we hit a lull and decided to head back upriver and see how the fleet was doing. However, before we reached the ramp, we marked some scattered fish on the bottom in the channel next to the docks with the fish finder, so we stopped to check it out:

At 10:45 am, after I lost my 1/2 ounce jighead to a decent striper right next to the boat Mad

, I retied with the 3/8 ounce jighead before we finally joined the fleet:

Joining the fleet quickly paid off with our first double:

The stripers that were schooling near the fleet were more suspended than on the bottom. I think that my lighter 3/8 ounce jig helped me keep it at the right level in the water column and I went on a mini run:

We checked out the cove and the point where the channel runs past Two Mile Island:

And we found more schoolies:

We spotted Rich and his buddy trolling their way into the cove on the downriver side of Two Mile Island and motored over to ask how they were doing:

That's Rich in the orange cap. Hey, guys! Very Happy

Rich told us that he had marked a tight school of fish at the edge of the ice shelf on the west side of the cove that he thought were probably white perch. He couldn't get close to them through the ice with his trolling rig and suggested that we check it out. I tied a Pearl Silver 2-1/2 inch Gulp! Minnow on a silver 1/16 ounce fishhead jighead onto a crappie setup and dropped the minnow jig through a crack in the ice to the fish that we marked 25 feet down on the bottom with the fish finder. I got a quick hit but missed the hookset. When I saw Mark just sitting there watching me, I told him to drop his big jig down, too, in case the fish were schoolie stripers, instead of white perch. Almost immediately, he felt a tap and set the hook on a fish:

He actually gut hooked the little white perch in the side of its belly. Shocked

Hey, Rich, you were right! Very Happy

After we left the cove, we checked out the main river channel that runs next to the island. Although we marked fish on the bottom with the fish finder, we couldn't get them to bite. So we headed to the cove on the upriver side of the island. We marked only sporadic fish with the fish finder, but decided to give it a shot. There were three other boats up there. We didn't get even a nibble. I told Mark that we'd leave after anyone in sight got a fish, but it never happened. We finally gave up and headed back to the downriver side of the island. It was almost 1:30 pm and we found that the fleet had disbanded. We saw several boats putting out at the ramp. Does everyone leave when the slack high tide hits? Question

The bite definitely slowed, although we saw some fishermen boat schoolies with umbrella rigs. However, Mark got one with his fluke jig:

Since the bite had slowed near the ramp, we decided to head back downriver to where we had started the day. On the way there, we marked only a few scattered fish in the channel off of the docks. At about 2:00 pm, we noticed that the water had begun to flow a little bit with the start of the outgoing tide. We didn't get any hits on the upriver side of what I'll call "Country Club Island", so we decided to fish the downriver side of it. Although we marked only scattered fish on the bottom with the fish finder, we quickly began boating stripers, starting with another double:

We got a few more:

And then we got another double:

I got one more:

And then the Fishing with Mark Show began:

Yeap, I snuck one in there! Rolling Eyes

Somewhere along the way, Mark lost his 1/2 ounce jighead and tied on a white/red eye 3/8 ounce round jighead like mine. However, I never could figure out what I was doing differently than he. If anything, I think that I was probably fishing too fast and not keeping my jig on the bottom. As frustrating as that was Confused

, it was fun watching Mark hook fish, after fish, after fish. Very Happy

As darkness began to fall at 4:30 pm, I called "Just One More" and finally, finally got another one:

It turned out to be my lunker, at a skinny 22 inches long. Yeap, that's definitely meh compared to Mark's fat 26 inch lunker, but it sure felt good to boat it. After I called "Last Cast", Mark showed off and got his Just One More, too:

We got off of the water at 5:00 pm, as darkness began to fall. We ended up with a total of 50 fish. Mark got 33 schoolie stripers and the white perch, and I got 16 schoolie stripers. I think that we learned a few things: 1) The stripers that we marked with the fish finder on the bottom were more willing to hit a fluke jig than the stripers that were suspending, even when they were in schools; 2) The bigger stripers were not in schools; think Lee Harvey Oswald or Lone Ranger; 3) I need to pick up some heavier jigheads! After spending the entire day on the water, we headed over to Archie Moore's Bar & Restaurant in Derby. It had the Texans-Patriots game on and we grabbed a couple of burgers at the bar. It's a great place to stop after a day of fishing on the lower Housy. Very Happy

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bass tracker · Joined: 17 May 2012 Posts: 84

Nice job Phil & Mark! 50 fish anyday is a good day, the fact it is in the middle of the winter is even better. Nice report and pictures, almost make me want to brave the cold!

BT

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

Awesome job guys!

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

Nice job Phil! I only live 2 Minutes from the Derby launch. If you ever need anything give me a holler. I'll PM you my #. I was gonna stop by the launch at 4:30 but was day dreaming and drove right by. LOL
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mep21 · Joined: 01 Mar 2011 Posts: 65 Location: West Hartford, CT

What a blast it was yesterday. As I told Phil, I usually don't do any ice fishing so I'm typically off the water from November-Marchish each year. When I saw the temperatures this weekend I figured I could get my open water fix to last me till March. I think I did quite the opposite and just made the urge to go out even stronger!. Very Happy

Perhaps that's why I kept forgetting everything today. Not used to the January fishing

When we first started we were both trying to go slow since that was the pattern Phil used the other day to catch fish. I saw a few of the other fisherman when we first started jigging a bit more strongly so that's what gave me the idea to try jerking it harder. Is this typical for stripers?

Thanks again to Phil for bringing me out and also being my cameraman for the "Fishing with Mark Show" Razz

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

Speaking of forgetting things, it wasn't until I started cropping the photos that I realized I hadn't worn my lucky fishing hat. Shocked

I need a do-over, Mark! Laughing

I guess that I never had to shield my eyes from the sun because of the fog, so I didn't really need it. Plus, it sure is nice to fish when there's very little wind. Very Happy

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

Phil, I could be wrong but it looks as if youve become a striper fisher to me!
_________________
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

You won't see me standing on the shore or in the water in waders any time soon, Wade. Laughing

Although, I have to admit that striper fishing kicks ice fishing's butt! Very Happy

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

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

Wait until spring when the big girls come back!
_________________
There's a fine line between fishing....

and standing on the shore like an idiot!

Sea Duck · Joined: 18 Nov 2012 Posts: 89 Location: Above grade

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

Nice job out there guys!

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

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

Wow great day guys. That place is awesome!!