CTFishTalk.com: Connecticut River - Charter Oak Landing 03/13 - Connecticut River Reports ( CT River Reports ) - A Community Built for Connecticut Fisherman.

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

When I saw the weather forecast for Wednesday, I decided to swap out my damaged propeller for the new one on The Other Woman, Too, and get on the water somewhere to try it out and do some fishing. The forecast was for air temperatures up to 50 degrees, mostly sunny skies and west-northwest winds up to only nine miles per hour. TurtleKiss (aka Kira) had to be in Hartford in the morning, so we arranged to meet at Charter Oak Landing sometime after 10:00 am. That gave me time to swap the propellers in the morning. I didn't remove the damaged propeller until after I had already purchased the new one. I determined which propeller I had by reading Yamaha Performance Bulletins for similar G3 boats with the same motor (i.e., F60TLR) and seeing which propeller they used. I figured I had a 10-3/8" diameter x 13" pitch propeller, because G3 had used it on a boat that was similar to mine with the same motor and similar performance. When I removed the damaged propeller, I discovered that it's actually a 10" diameter x 15" pitch propeller. Embarassed

Although I worried that the new propeller would reduce the speed of the boat because it has less pitch, it sure looks good to me:

Anyway, Kira and I met up on the ramp at 11:05 am. We were the only boat in the parking lot and were quickly on the water. Low tide was at 12:17 pm and high tide was at 4:38 pm, but even with the low tide only an hour away, the water was still much higher than it was at high tide only a couple of weeks ago. The docks on either side of the ramp were completely submerged. After we launched, we made a full power run down the river. The Other Woman, Too got up on plane and to full speed just fine with the new propeller, and, surprisingly, her top end is a couple of miles per hour faster than it was with the old propeller. Cool

Kira had failed to dress appropriately for the wind, so after I chilled her down with the 36 mile per hour run down the river, we motored back up to the power plant. Although the forecast was for winds up to only nine miles per hour, they were blowing straight down the river at well over 10 miles per hour, so we tucked in downriver and downwind from the tower:

I threw a Smelt five inch Berley Powerbait Ripple Shad on a Pearl 1/2 ounce Strike King Sexy Squadron fishhead jighead and immediately hooked up with a rail on the steel seawall. Embarassed

After I motored over and freed it, we anchored up six feet from the bank in three feet of water. I dragged my jig on the bottom in every direction, but didn't feel any hits until I threw it toward the tower. I set the hook and nothing was there. For a second, I thought I must have been imagining things, but then I noticed that I had caught something, after all:

Yeap, that's a giant fish scale. My jig must have hit one of the carp that jimbojonez mentioned in his report the other day. However, the visibility in the water when Kira and I were there was only 1-1/2 to two feet at best, so we never saw anything in the water. Now, when you drag a heavy jig on the bottom next to the power plant, it's likely that you'll lose it, sooner or later. I soon snagged mine on an immovable object and had to break it off Confused

, so I decided to throw an Emerald Shiner 2-1/2 inch Berkley Gulp! Minnow on an unpainted 1/16 ounce fishhead jighead to try to catch one of the panfish that jimbojonez had also mentioned. I threw it toward a laydown that was on the bank just downriver from where we were anchored and dragged it on the bottom, and actually got a couple of tugs that felt like sunnies grabbing the tail of the minnow. But then I caught a glimpse of a fish rising between the boat and the bank out of the corner of my eye, and it looked like a little schoolie striped bass! Shocked

I threw the minnow jig right at the bank, really expecting to catch a black crappie more than anything else, but, sure enough, I caught a schoolie, instead:

The schoolie looked healthy and unblemished, but it had an aquatic hitchhiker on its side:

Does anyone know what that thing was? Question

It looked and moved like a segmented slug. Anyway, catching a schoolie always makes me want to catch more schoolies, so we left the shelter of the tower and headed into the blustery wind blowing down the cove in front of the power plant. Unfortunately, we marked only widely scattered and mostly suspended fish with the finder as we motored up into the cove. There weren't any schools of fish on the bottom. Confused

Here's a panoramic photo of the stone seawall that separates the main channel of the river from the cove at 1:17 pm, only an hour after low tide:

I began throwing a Pearl five inch Berley Powerbait Ripple Shad on a white/red eye 1/2 ounce round jighead that was so banged up it was mostly unpainted. I dragged it over the bottom as we drifted down and out of the cove, but didn't get any hits. Here's the stone seawall at 1:42 pm, after we had drifted back out of the cove:

Normally, the river doesn't overflow that wall, even at high tide, so, yeap, the water level is waaay high, right now. As we continued our drift down the west bank of the river, I continued to drag my striper jig over the bottom. Once again, I got a hit tight to the bank and boated another schoolie:

We drifted downriver over the wide, shallow channel for about a mile, before deciding to motor down and into Wethersfield Cove. The parking area and ramps were flooded:

We motored up to the north end of the cove and did a quick drift down the northeast side to the channel. The trees were totally flooded:

We motored past the parking lot and ramps, and slowly up the southwest side, where we stopped to talk with a couple of guys who were just sitting in a powered aluminum rowboat. They weren't drinking, smoking or fishing, just sitting. They told us that they were simply enjoying the sunshine and weren't fishing because the water was too dirty. At 3:30 pm, I told Kira to take over piloting the boat, since Wethersfield Cove is her home cove. She motored us up to the northwest side and we both began throwing spinnerbaits into the flooded trees. Sticking with my theme of only mostly white lures, I threw a White 3/8 ounce Strike King Redeye Special spinnerbait, while Kira threw a couple of different colors. At 3:45 pm, I got a big hit right next to the boat. My first thought was, "Northern pike!", but when I saw it flash in the murky water, I could tell that it was a striped bass. It mangled my spinnerbait, but I boated it:

Whoo hoo!

It was still a schoolie, but it was the best one that I've gotten in a while. We continued to work our way clockwise around the cove. I soon lost the skirt off of the mangled spinnerbait, so I began throwing the striper jig, again. I'm a little worried about what the weed situation will be like this Summer in the cove, because I pulled a lot of bright green slime weed off of the bottom:

It was almost 5:30 pm when we got back into the channel:

After we drifted through the channel, we motored back up to Charter Oak Landing. We had to pick our way through a bunch of crew teams and chase boats, and put out at the ramp at 5:45 pm:

Unfortunately, Kira declined to go with the mostly white lures and experimented, instead, with an assortment of non-white lures all day. Rolling Eyes

Oh, well, I guess we'll have to just try, again, sometime soon. Very Happy

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Adimauro1988 · Joined: 11 Mar 2013 Posts: 14

That's a nice boat, I got the same one but only with a 25 hp Yamaha on it, gets me to the fish so I can't complain.

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

Mase2020 · Joined: 15 Jun 2012 Posts: 228

Great report. That's great to see the striped bass are here, I want to target them this year in the river from my yak. Phil I ended up buying the Humminbird 561 and I just got the right transducer in the mail today. I looked at what I got in the mail and what you gave me and it turns out everything I need came in the box or in the mail. So I took a closer look at what you gave me and learned it was for an Ocean Kayak Ultra which has a different scupper set up. Thanks again for giving it to me, but I can't use it so I will have to meet up with you to give it back and maybe you can find someone whose boat or kayak it will fit. Thanks again and look forward to going out in the yaks with you.

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

Nice bass! It's good to see you had a productive trip there.
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jimbojonez · Joined: 04 Feb 2012 Posts: 295 Location: Berlin/Kensington

the bug looks like a leech that hasn't fed. They remain transparent until they consume blood.
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i'm a castaway with no fishing pole, and the fishing hole is just a cast away

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

Redneckangler · Joined: 05 May 2012 Posts: 851 Location: Meriden, CT

Nice report. Got my fingers crossed for this weekend.
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PECo · Joined: 06 Oct 2009 Posts: 5203 Location: Avon, CT

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

i tie up parallel to the wall on the outside of both sides of the tower. There are an incredible amount of species in that area because of the warm water from the turbine plant.
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i'm a castaway with no fishing pole, and the fishing hole is just a cast away

NWDarkcloud · Joined: 23 Apr 2012 Posts: 474

nice to see the bigger 1s are moveing in Very Happy

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

Nice striper Phil!

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

Phil another great report. That's good news about the prop.
You are not supposed to go up past those signs though i have seen boats up in there only to get run out by the guys working there.
When the water is high enough you can climb up the highest part of the steel wall and look down into the outflow pipe and see gigantic carp in there, floating like golden logs. I have fished over the wall but you need a log net. Got some big strippers.
Hoping to get on the water this weekend.
Rich
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DirtyDawg10 · Joined: 27 May 2009 Posts: 2238 Location: Granby, CT

Nice job out there Phil! Did you have to pay extra for the "vanity" boat registration number Wink

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