CTFishTalk.com: Housatonic River - Shelton 02/25 - 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 boated a fish the last two times I was out on the water, so I headed down to Shelton and the lower Housatonic River with NWDarkcloud (aka Bob) to break the streak. We got on the water at the Sunnyside Boat Launch Facility at 8:10 am. Unusually, there was a blazing white light in the sky:

Low tide was at 6:00 am and high tide at 11:34 am, so we caught both sides of the high tide. The air temperature was close to freezing when we launched, but rose to at least 40 degrees while the sun was out. The wind that blew out of the north at about seven miles per hour gradually subsided to almost nothing at times. It was a beautiful day. After we launched, we zig-zagged upriver to the cove on the downriver side of Two Mile Island. Although we spotted scattered fish with the finder, we didn't see any schools. The ice in the cove had receded about halfway back into the cove. However, the ice that was there was fairly thick. The leading edge appeared to be three inches of solid white ice. I tried to anchor up on it with my vinyl coated ten pound mushroom anchor, but couldn't get a grip on it. I tried tossing the anchor high up into the air to break through the ice and didn't even make a dent in it. Shocked

The fishing started very slowly. I threw a Pearl White five inch Berkley Gulp! Jerk Shad on a white/red eye 3/8 ounce round jighead, while Bob threw a Pearl five inch Trigger X Aggression Minnow on a white/red eye 1/2 ounce round jighead. Neither of us could get a bite from the few fish that we spotted with the finder. After 1-1/2 hours, we decided to do some sightseeing and head upriver to O'Sullivan's Island:

Yeap, the water was really flowing over the dam! Although the sights were nice, we marked only four scattered fish with the finder. Four. Rolling Eyes

So we headed back to Two Mile Island. As we passed the island, we saw Blue Kayak Guy (aka Rich), a couple of his kayak buddies and a couple of bigger boats all fishing in the channel next to the island. We marked some small schools with the finder as we passed them and stopped to fish just downriver from them. The fish were there, but we couldn't get them to bite. And neither could anyone else that we saw. I tried swapping out the Jerk Shad for a Pearl White four inch Berkley Powerbait Minnow. I got nothing. After a while, everyone scattered to try and find more fish, Bob and I began drifting downriver with the current. Finally, at 12:15 pm, we marked some fish on the edge of the channel where it dropped in depth from 16 feet to 45 feet. I told Bob about how mep21 (aka Mark) and I had some luck while dragging our jigs from the shallow edge of the channel over fish holding in the deeper part of the channel, and told him to give it a try. Since I'm the greatest fishing guide ever, he got a hit on his first cast toward the bank and finally, finally boated a schoolie striped bass:

And on another drift down the same stretch of the channel 45 minutes later, he got another:

I, on the other hand, had caught only a stick fish Confused

, so I swapped out my jig for a Pearl five inch Trigger X Aggression Minnow like the one Bob was using, but on a white/red eye 1/2 ounce fishhead jighead. At about 1:30 pm, we finally marked a ten foot thick school of fish from 25 to 35 feet deep in the middle of the 45 foot deep channel. We anchored up (using 46 feet of my 50 foot anchor line Laughing

) and I finally kicked the skunk:

And three minutes later, I got another:

Whoo hoo!

We lost the school about 45 minutes after we found it, so we decided to pull up the anchor and head downriver to do some more sightseeing. We checked out the area around Country Club Island, but didn't mark more than one or two scattered fish with the finder. So we headed further downriver to the cove in front of Pine Rock Park. We didn't mark a single fish in the cove with the finder Confused

, but we got to watch a couple of Blackhawk helicopters do maneuvers and fly off from the helipad at Sikorsky Aircraft Headquarters:

That never gets old. Very Happy

But since we didn't find any schools of fish, we decided to head back upriver to the ramp and Two Mile Island. When we got there, the schools of fish that we saw earlier still weren't there. And neither were any of the other boats. By this time, it was 3:15 pm and I was ready to get something to eat. Bob, however, wanted to check out the cove in front of Two Mile Island one last time. When we got to the edge of the ice shelf, we found a school of fish:

It appeared to be circling around the cove. We'd see a big red wall of fish on the finder for five minutes that would disappear for 10 minutes and reappear for another five minutes. After I called "Just One More", I quickly got mine:

And less than 15 minutes later, Bob got his. But when he pulled it up to the surface from the bottom only 30 feet down, something was terribly wrong with it:

When I saw it, I thought that it must have had someone else's lure in its mouth. But Bob informed me that it was actually the little schoolie striper's swim bladder. Shocked

On that note, we headed off of the water at 4:30 pm. On the way home, we stopped for dinner in Southington at Anthony Jacks Wood Fired Grill. The space is nice, the service is professional, the wine list is fantastic and the menu is terrific. The mussels with chorizo appetizer was absolutely delicious. Unfortunately, the ribeye steaks, while nicely grilled, were a letdown after everything else. They were listed as 14 ounce steaks on the menu and we didn't realize that meant they were less than 3/4 of an inch thick. If we had been there for lunch, they would have been fine, but they were ridiculously thin for dinner. However, I'd head back to try something different from the menu, maybe a filet mignon next time. Fishing and dinner. What a great day. Very Happy

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

Thanks for the report Phil. Can't wait for the water to warm up more and be into those stripers thick!

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

Man they need to come up with a fish finder you can wave from shore to scan the water. I know they make that wrist watch but I just don't think I'd be able to Reed that if it even works. Can someone develope a smart phone app? Great job getting out there Phil.
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There's a fine line between fishing....

and standing on the shore like an idiot!

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

Nice job guys! I'm jealous!

mep21 · Joined: 01 Mar 2011 Posts: 65 Location: West Hartford, CT

Great job getting out. I keep checking the 10-Day forecast just hoping to see those temperatures start creeping up. All this cold weather fishing you guys are doing is really going to make even 45 degress feel like a warm summer day!

NWDarkcloud · Joined: 23 Apr 2012 Posts: 474

ya it was a nice day weather was sweet for a change even able to fish without gloves for a while . Warmer weathers a comeing .We will be all rockin the bass pretty soon all this rain shoud beat the ice off the lakes allmost time to clean the boats out boyz Very Happy

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I Love to fish......Not a big fan of sitting in the boat alone ....the Conversation and the company make it perfect

Crest Daddy · Joined: 20 Jan 2011 Posts: 994

next time you go up by the dam try throwing some metal for the heck of it. You might get a nice trout
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Trust me. Use waxworms !

madkey · Joined: 13 Jun 2011 Posts: 75 Location: Torrington,CT

Yet another great report, Phil, thanks
been busy with the shows and haven't been able to get out,but going to try to sneak down there this weekend

Rich
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I"ve got to be smarter than a fish!