CTFishTalk.com: Connecticut River - Bissell Bridge 03/03 - Connecticut River Reports ( CT River Reports ) - A Community Built for Connecticut Fisherman.

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

After striking out completely on the lower Connecticut River in the morning, Turtlekiss (aka Kira) chose to try the upper Connecticut at the Bissell Bridge Boat Launch in Windsor. We got there shortly before noon:

Although Windsor maintains a riverwalk with a pavilion near the boat launch, there aren't any other, ahem, facilities. The parking lot had been plowed, but there were still piles of snow scattered around the middle of the lot. It was like an obstacle course. We decided to turn around and drive back several blocks to warm up and grab a pizza for lunch at a shop that we had passed. The pizza was cheesy and hot, but just meh. As we were finishing up, one of Windsor's finest came into the shop. He was waiting for another officer to show up for lunch and we started talking. "Is that your boat? It's a nice boat." "You're going fishing? I won't go out on the water until it's 30 degrees warmer." "Although we can check for fishing licenses and can write tickets for not having them, we never do. We don't know all of the regulations." The other officer showed up as Kira and I were cleaning up and preparing to leave. We left the parking lot, did a U-turn and headed back down the road to the ramp. Two blocks past the shop, I see a police car coming up behind me with its lights flashing in the rear view mirror. Oh, sheisse! Shocked

So I pull over and step out of the car. As the officer gets out of his car, the light bulb finally comes on for me and I say, "I forgot to pay for the pizza!" Embarassed

The officer says, "You got it!" and gets back into his car. When I got back to the shop and paid for the pizza, the officer said, "I figured you got distracted when we were bullshitting around." I am the WORST pizza shop robber in the world! Laughing

Kira and I headed back to the boat launch ramp and finally launched at 12:45 pm. The ramp is concrete, but there are no docks or shelter from the current:

I didn't have any trouble, but see how it could be a tough place to launch and recover a boat. When we launched, the air temperature was still close to freezing, although our rod guides never iced up. The north wind was blowing at a fairly brisk 10 miles per hour. We checked out the bridge piers and anchored up between a couple of them for a few minutes after we marked a few scattered fish with the finder. However, the wind tunnel effect under the bridge was a little bit too much for me, so we headed upriver. There were two spots that I wanted to check out; the confluence of the Farmington and Connecticut rivers, and the 40+ foot deep hole that's downriver from a submerged wall in the Connecticut. We decided to head for the Farmington, first. Here's a photo of the island that sits in front of the mouth of the Farmington. On the left side of the island is the channel that leads up to the mouth of the Farmington and on the right is the main channel of the Connecticut:

I've been on this stretch of the river before when it was so shallow that you could wade across it. However, the water level was high enough that I never saw a depth of less than five feet. We motored to the mouth and up the Farmington about 1/8 of a mile, to just past Hobbiton:

The current was moving so fast that the trolling motor could barely make headway against it. We ended up anchoring in the middle of the river and fished our way back down to the mouth. We didn't mark any fish with the finder and didn't get any hits. After we struck out at the confluence of the rivers, we headed around the upriver side of the island and into the main channel of the Connecticut. As we headed downriver to the submerged wall, I had a lot of trouble locating it. During the Summer, the water level gets low enough that I've seen fishermen walking out into the river on the wall. However, the water level was so high that I could barely make out the turbulence the wall created on its downriver side. We headed over to the hole near the east bank of the river. It was 45 feet deep at it's deepest point. During the Summer, I've seen big schools of fish sitting in the hole. Whether they were walleye, striped bass or some other fish I don't know, because I've never been able to catch one. I was hoping to see a school of fish to which I could drop a striper jig, but we saw only a few scattered and suspended fish. And it snowed on us:

After striking out at the hole, we began drifting back down the Connecticut along the east bank. I could tell that the Vibert Road boat launch ramp in South Windsor was silted up as usual, even though the water level was very high:

We headed back to the Bissell Bridge and motored around its piers, but didn't mark a single fish with the finder, so we put out from the river at 4:00 pm. Although our day ended up being more about sightseeing than fishing, it was really nice to have checked out a couple of boat launch ramps from which neither of us had ever launched before.
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angry john · Joined: 30 Jun 2012 Posts: 119

Man that sucks for you both. I have not been having any luck either. Guess be both caught the skunk.

Crest Daddy · Joined: 20 Jan 2011 Posts: 994

get back in the housy !
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Rivernut · Joined: 22 May 2010 Posts: 42

There are some large pike in the mouth of the Farmington this time of year. You should have been tossing big spinnerbaits and jerkbaits. I thought the hole behind the wing-dam was like 25'.
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Real boats don't have propellers!
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PECo · Joined: 06 Oct 2009 Posts: 5203 Location: Avon, CT

JesseC · Joined: 26 Jan 2013 Posts: 128 Location: Cromwell

never knew there was a submerged dam on the ct river. and 40'+?! damn thats deep! i would not wanna fall in there! what's the purpose of the dam and why underwater? and is this something i'd wanna be cautious for on the water if i'm ever in that area in my little jon boat? also are there any other dams on the ct river? just wondering cause i take it dams are a good place to fish

Rivernut · Joined: 22 May 2010 Posts: 42

It is across the river from the Farmington, on the East bank. There is another one at the mouth of the Scantic. They are wing dams, not "damns". They were built to raise the flow / depth of the river at mid channel for ships and barges when the Windsor Locks were functional. Stripers and smallies love them. They funnel bait and other fish into predictable spots where they can be cornered.
_________________
Real boats don't have propellers!
-- Rivernut

JesseC · Joined: 26 Jan 2013 Posts: 128 Location: Cromwell

cool, thanks for the info rivernut Very Happy

good to know

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

Rivernut · Joined: 22 May 2010 Posts: 42

Wing dams extend out from the shore only part way into a river. The ones on the CT River are made of stones. They surface at low tide.
_________________
Real boats don't have propellers!
-- Rivernut

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

Gotcha Thanks

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

jimbojonez · Joined: 04 Feb 2012 Posts: 295 Location: Berlin/Kensington

great effort and great post. it says a lot about a man that is willing to share his candid or embarrassing moments.

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

bass tracker · Joined: 17 May 2012 Posts: 84

Nice post Phil, glad to see you are still catching fish. I'm still waiting for it to warm up a bit. Just a quick question, how long did it take you to motor up to the Farmington / dam area from the launch?

BT