Joined: 06 Oct 2009 Posts: 5203 Location: Avon, CT
Posted: Sat Mar 30, 2013 11:41 am Post subject: Connecticut River - Haddam Meadows 03/29
I planned to go fishing with my daughter on Friday, but she made other plans, so TurtleKiss (aka Kira) offered to let me be her daddy for the day and take her fishing, instead. She hadn't caught a largemouth bass, yet, this year, so our goal was to get her one. Since I'm a good daddy, I decided to let her take responsibility for reaching the goal. I let her choose where we'd go and let her pilot the boat. She chose the Connecticut River and the Connecticut Yankee Atomic Power Plant Canal. When we arrived at Haddam Meadows State Park, there were already four boat trailers in the parking lot. That's three more than I'd seen on any other day this year. We actually had to wait a couple of minutes to launch The Other Woman, Too, but were on the water by 8:00 am. Low tide was at 8:56 am and high tide was at 2:20 pm. The weather forecast was for air temperatures in the mid 50s, sunny skies in the morning giving way to partly cloudy skies in the afternoon and winds up to only nine miles per hour. We headed directly downriver and into the canal, and found a few other boats already in there. The water temperature was 40 degrees in the morning, but rose to 45-1/2 degrees by the end of the afternoon. I told Kira to motor us up to my secret black crappie spot and we started fishing. I threw a chartreuse two inch curlytail grub on a chartreuse 1/8 ounce round jighead and immediately caught a yellow perch at 8:15 am:
I began my yellow perch tally: One. At 8:20 am, I followed it up with a black crappie:
Now, Kira and I have completely different philosophies about fishing. She's more like a tournament fisherman; she likes to target certain species and avoid bycatch (i.e., non target species). I'm a recreational fisherman; I enjoy catching anything and everything that's biting. Since the goal for the day was for her to catch her first largemouth bass of the year, she didn't want to stay by my secret black crappie spot and motored us up to the new laydown that almost reaches from the west bank of the canal to the east bank. She said that it looked "bassier" to her. She threw a spinnerbait and other typically largemouth bass sized lures, while I threw the grub jig and an Emerald Pearl 2-1/2 inch Berkley Gulp! Minnow on a white 1/8 ounce round jighead. We didn't get anything near the laydown, well, other than a yellow perch that I caught. Three. At 9:30 am, after we confirmed my previous experience that most of the fish in the canal hadn't made it more than halfway up the canal, Kira still decided that she wanted to work her way up to the cove at the end of the canal. Despite her daddy's often expressed misgivings about this course of action , off we went. I actually caught a couple of more black crappie and yellow perch along the way. Unlike my previous trips to the canal, my ratio of yellow perch to black crappie was a respectable three to three at 9:45 am. As we traveled up the canal, we noticed more and more dead fish floating on the water. We saw a couple of dead black crappie, several dead sunnies and a bigger fish that I thought looked like a dead shad:
When we reached the cove at the end of the canal at 10:30 am, we anchored and began fishing 360 degrees around the boat. The water in the canal was still very murky. Even in full sun and calm water, we could see down only a foot. We spotted a small dark sunny suspending just under the surface and a few larger fish that would slowly swim up out of the murk, before slowly disappearing back down into it. I didn't have sunglasses on, but I thought they looked like shad, while Kira hoped they were largemouth bass. I finally confirmed that at least one of them was a shad, when I netted one that swam lazily past us:
It was a dying gizzard shad. It was extremely lethargic and covered by slightly milky slime. If it had been on ice at a fishmonger, I would have said that it looked like it had already begun to spoil. It swam slowly away when I released it, but it soon began swimming upside down:
When we finally left the cove at 12:30 pm, we saw it floating unmoving up against the riprap bank of the cove. During the two hours that Kira experimented with different lures in the cove, we hooked only one fish. Kira threw a spinnerbait toward the riprap bank at the very end of the canal and said, "There was a splash up there." I said, "Wasn't that your spinnerbait?" and she replied, "No, my spinnerbait is two feet to the left of it." I was on the back of the boat and the bow was pointed toward the end of the canal, so I threw my grub jig over Kira's right shoulder and it hit the water three feet to the right of the splash. It immediately felt like the grub had landed in a load of hair weed. There was resistance in the line as I retrieved it, but it was light and steady. After I had retrieved it about 15 feet away from the bank, it began to sink as I continued my retrieve. It was only then that I knew I had a fish on. And it was a big one! I yelled for Kira to grab the net as I pulled it toward the boat. When it was next to the boat, a bunch of bubbles rose out of the murk, followed by a bowfin! It was at least 24 inches long and dark brown on top, but golden along the bottom around its pale belly. I don't think it realized that it had been hooked until Kira put the tip of the net into the water. And, as Forrest Gump would say, "That's all I'm going to say about that." We mostly let the wind push us as we drifted back down the canal. It wasn't until we approached the new laydown at 1:00 pm that I finally caught another typically fat female yellow perch:
After we passed the laydown, daddy finally put his foot down and told Kira where we would fish. We anchored just up the canal from the mouth of the channel on the west bank that's only there at high tide. As I continued to tally yellow perch, at 1:40 pm, Kira finally boated a fish:
Unfortunately, it was just a black crappie that she had snag hooked with a Northern Yellow Perch Lucky Craft Live Pointer jerkbait. I told Kira to pull up the anchor, let us drift down the canal and drop the anchor in front of the mouth of the channel. At 1:48 pm, she finally got her first largemouth bass of the year with the Live Pointer:
Whoo Hoo! And at 2:30 pm, she caught her first keeper largemouth bass with a brightly colored yellow perch patterned spinnerbait:
It was only 14 inches long, but Whoo Hoo! In order to remind Kira that I was still her daddy, I caught a little largemouth bass of my own with the grub jig four minutes later:
I followed that up with a chain pickerel at 3:12 pm:
Meanwhile, I continued to catch yellow perch. . . .39, 40. At 4:30 pm, we took some time to admire a bald eagle that flew overhead:
Almost immediately after the eagle flew away, the sun disappeared behind mostly gray clouds and the wind rose. At 4:39 pm, I caught the lunker largemouth bass with the minnow jig:
At 5:30 pm, we pulled the anchor and began drifting out of the canal. Along the way, I threw the minnow jig. At that point, I was only one yellow perch away from my goal of 50. At 5:48 pm, I got a hit and thought that I had achieved my yellow perch goal, but quickly realized that I had hooked into a much larger fish. It pulled away from the bank toward the center of the canal and got under the boat, before I got it to the surface and Kira actually got the net under it :
Whoo Hoo! . I improved the lunker and set my new personal best for the year with the 17 inch long, two pound, 15 ounce largemouth bass. After that, I switched back to the grub jig, because I was only one shy of my 50 yellow perch goal. No, I didn't take a photo of the skinny little male yellow perch that I caught, but I achieved the goal! After we passed the big laydowns at the mouth of the canal, we stowed our gear and ran back to the ramp. We put out and were off of the water by 6:25 pm. I caught 50 yellow perch, three black crappie, three largemouth bass and one chain pickerel. Kira ended up catching not only her first, but her second largemouth bass of the year and a keeper, at that, so we achieved our goal. Who's your daddy, Kira? _________________ Don't forget to wear sunscreen and don't litter!
Last edited by PECo on Tue Apr 02, 2013 1:25 pm; edited 1 time in total
Joined: 04 Feb 2012 Posts: 295 Location: Berlin/Kensington
Posted: Sat Mar 30, 2013 4:14 pm Post subject:
thanks for the report! can't wait to get back there and hunt my fins! _________________ i'm a castaway with no fishing pole, and the fishing hole is just a cast away
Good stuff Peco! Any yet to snap a pic of a bowfin they pulled out of the river? _________________ A bad day of fishing is better then a good day at work
Joined: 05 May 2012 Posts: 851 Location: Meriden, CT
Posted: Sun Mar 31, 2013 9:14 am Post subject:
I saw a load of dead fish in there yesterday. Was thinking it was likely the result of lots of fishing over the past several days. I know I released one slab of a crappie that I had to take the hook out through the gills and was bleeding. Probably floating today. _________________ RNA - It's in my blood.
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Joined: 06 Oct 2009 Posts: 5203 Location: Avon, CT
Posted: Mon Apr 01, 2013 12:51 pm Post subject:
jimfire85 wrote:
glad to see you guys hooked up, I hollered from the road on my way home (black escort) after getting off shift.
Welcome aboard, jimfire85! Hey, public access to the road you were on and the parking area at the end of it by the mouth of the canal is restricted, right? _________________ Don't forget to wear sunscreen and don't litter!
Joined: 06 Oct 2009 Posts: 5203 Location: Avon, CT
Posted: Tue Apr 02, 2013 1:26 pm Post subject:
I just wanted to mention that I've been using two inch, not one inch, curlytail grubs. I've corrected my original post. _________________ Don't forget to wear sunscreen and don't litter!
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She hadn't caught a largemouth bass, yet, this year, so our goal was to get her one. Since I'm a good daddy, I decided to let her take responsibility for reaching the goal. I let her choose where we'd go and let her pilot the boat. She chose the Connecticut River and the Connecticut Yankee Atomic Power Plant Canal. When we arrived at Haddam Meadows State Park, there were already four boat trailers in the parking lot. That's three more than I'd seen on any other day this year. We actually had to wait a couple of minutes to launch The Other Woman, Too, but were on the water by 8:00 am. Low tide was at 8:56 am and high tide was at 2:20 pm. The weather forecast was for air temperatures in the mid 50s, sunny skies in the morning giving way to partly cloudy skies in the afternoon and winds up to only nine miles per hour. We headed directly downriver and into the canal, and found a few other boats already in there. The water temperature was 40 degrees in the morning, but rose to 45-1/2 degrees by the end of the afternoon. I told Kira to motor us up to my secret black crappie spot and we started fishing. I threw a chartreuse 
She threw a spinnerbait and other typically largemouth bass sized lures, while I threw the grub jig and an Emerald Pearl 2-1/2 inch Berkley Gulp! Minnow on a white 1/8 ounce round jighead. We didn't get anything near the laydown, well, other than a yellow perch that I caught. 
Three. At 9:30 am, after we confirmed my previous experience that most of the fish in the canal hadn't made it more than halfway up the canal, Kira still decided that she wanted to work her way up to the cove at the end of the canal. Despite her daddy's often expressed misgivings about this course of action 
As we traveled up the canal, we noticed more and more dead fish floating on the water. We saw a couple of dead black crappie, several dead sunnies and a bigger fish that I thought looked like a dead shad:
It was only then that I knew I had a fish on. And it was a big one! 
It was at least 24 inches long and dark brown on top, but golden along the bottom around its pale belly. I don't think it realized that it had been hooked until Kira put the tip of the net into the water. And, as Forrest Gump would say, "That's all I'm going to say about that." 
We mostly let the wind push us as we drifted back down the canal. It wasn't until we approached the new laydown at 1:00 pm that I finally caught another typically fat female yellow perch:
