CTFishTalk.com: Connecticut River - Haddam Meadows 05/02 - Connecticut River Reports ( CT River Reports ) - A Community Built for Connecticut Fisherman.

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

I wasn't able to go fishing on Wednesday, so I sabotaged the plans that NWDarkcloud (aka Bob) had to be productive on Thursday and made him go fishing with me, instead. I think that I finally convinced him to go with the early weather forecast for East Haddam:

No wind at all before 9:00 am?!?! Shocked

We decided to check out Salmon Cove to see whether the big catfish that he and Angry John (aka John) had found there last Spring were back, before heading into the Connecticut Yankee Atomic Power Plant Canal. When we arrived at Haddam Meadows State Park, there were only a few other boat trailers and a couple of cars in the parking lot:

I launched The Other Woman, Too into the Connecticut River with Bob at the helm. When I walked back to the ramp after parking my Jeep, I caught him doing donuts off of the ramp Laughing

:

When we launched just before 8:00 am, the water temperature was 56 degrees and the tide was going out:

We headed downriver to the Salmon Cove Boat Launch and turned into the channel that leads to Salmon Cove. The wasn't any wind at all and the water was like glass:

We switched to the trolling motor after we reached the first bend in the channel on the southwest side of the cove. As usual, while I started fishing, Bob began his two hour process of rigging up Laughing

:

The water was murky, but in the full sun and glass calm water, I could see the bottom about 1-1/2 feet down. I tried throwing a Shad Storm Kickin' Shad (aka Storm Shad) into the shallow cove off of the southwest corner of the main cove.

I have to explain something about the Storm Shad. During a couple of our many trips to Cabela's, Bob, TurtleKiss (aka Kira), JJay (aka Jason) and I each bought one from a CLEARANCE bin for two dollars. We decided to bet that the first one of us to catch a fish with it, any fish, would win a white Strike King Midnight Special Spinnerbait from each of the losers (aka the Storm Shad Bet).

The first couple of times that I threw the Storm Shad, I was at Batterson Park Pond and didn't see much "Live Kickin''' action. And since it's a sinking lure and I threw it in fairly shallow, weedy waters, I hated it. Although there's still very little new green weed growth in the cove, most of it is pretty shallow. It's like a giant shallow sandbar. And I found that I still hated throwing the Storm Shad, so I broke out a wacky rigged Green Pumpkin/Red Flake five inch Gary Yamamoto Yamasenko (aka Senko), instead. As Bob continued to rig up, I motored us toward one of the typical small laydowns in the cove, which was just a big multi-limbed tree branch that hung up on the edge of the channel. Bob finally got all set up with a wacky rigged Senko, too, and we began working the small laydown. After we each took a dozen casts at it, just as I was ready to give up and move on, I felt a "tap, tap" on the Senko and set the hook on a small keeper largemouth bass:

Whoo hoo!

It was, apparently, the only fish in the laydown, so we continued along the channel to a rocky point. in the shade of the point, I got another light hit and boated a short smallmouth bass:

Not to be outdone, Bob boated his first fish off of the rocky point, too:

It's amazing how the pleasure and pride show on his face, isn't it? Laughing

We tried going into the shallow cove off of the southeast side of the main cove, but it was waaay too shallow for The Other Woman, Too, so we headed up the east shore of the cove. The water level dropped fast with the outgoing tide. As we made our way up the channel, I casted my wacky Senko into the crotch of a small laydown at the water's edge and caught a slightly nicer keeper largemouth bass:

We made our way up the east shore of the cove to where the Moodus River enters the cove next to Machimoodus State Park. In addition to the wacky Senko and Storm Shad, I tried throwing a Green Scum Frog BIGFOOT frog, a white and chartreuse double Colorado blade spinnerbait, a white two inch curlytail grub on a white 1/8 ounce round jighead, an Emerald Pearl 2-1/2 inch Berkley Gulp! Minnow on a white 1/8 ounce round jighead, a small yellow perch patterned jointed hard swimbait and an Olive Green Craw Rapala Rippin' Rap RPR06, while Bob threw the wacky Senko, his Storm Shad and a small white buzzbait. We didn't get any hits before I realized that the water level had gotten very low, so we began heading back out of the cove. We tried fishing our way out, but got nothing during our slow drift back to the rocky point, so we decided to just stow the trolling motor, fire up the big motor and run over to the canal. Unfortunately, I was unable to stay in the channel due to the glare on the water from the sun, the rising south wind and the inability of the Navionics app on my iPhone to get a GPS fix on us. It wasn't long before we ran aground on a sandbar, sucked some old hair weed into the big motor's intakes and had to shut her down due to an overheating warning. After I cleared the intakes and rediscovered the channel, we got the heck out of the shallow nightmare that Salmon Cove always seems to be for me and headed up to the canal.

When we entered the canal at about noon, the water level was very low. The water was murky, with only a foot or so of visibility, and the temperature ranged from 64 degrees to, get this, almost 69 degrees! Shocked

We decided to head past the big laydowns near the mouth to get out of the chop that the south wind was blowing into it. The banks of the canal were more alive with activity than I've ever seen. Small fish were splashing at the water's edge next to every laydown. I tried throwing a white grub jig and a minnow jig, but they didn't seem to be feeding. They were only interested in doing the dance of love (i.e., spawning). Bob threw mostly a wacky Senko and soon pulled a short largemouth bass off of a small laydown with it:

Five minutes later, I got one with a minnow jig:

The bite was verrry slow. As we worked our way up the canal, we spotted another boat. It was Tmac (aka Tim), who was fishing with his little boy. Hey, Tim! Very Happy

Tim was flipping laydowns and the sparse weeds at the edge of the deeper part of the channel off of the bank with a black and blue craw jig, and reported that he had caught very little, too. After we passed Tim, we went all the way up into the cove at the end of the canal. By this time, it had been more than a couple of hours since we had boated a fish. At about 2:20 pm, Bob told me that he had gotten a tap on his Storm Shad while swimming it along the bottom of the canal toward the cove. I pulled mine out and, sonofagun, I got a tap on it, too. Shocked

In fact, I got taps on three out of five casts, before I snag hooked a brown bullhead through the belly:

Ouch!

For some reason, I've been snagging brown bullhead in the canal fairly often this Spring. Unfortunately, snagging a fish with the Storm Shad was expressly prohibited in the fine print of the Storm Shad Bet rules. Mad

After Bob and I figured out what the Storm Shad tapping fish were Rolling Eyes

, I put mine away and began throwing a white grub jig, again. 45 minutes later, after I threw it to the water's edge on the west bank of the canal and quickly snagged up. I said, "I snagged up on something deep. Oops, I think it might be a fish. Nope, it's a snag. I can't pull it up. Why's it moving from side to side like that? Is that a fish? It's a fish!" Shocked

Whatever it was, it was huge. I couldn't move it up off of the bottom. At all. Then it started swimming around the canal. I had been throwing the grub jig with my daughter's setup, which is a seven foot Medium Light St. Croix Legend spinning rod with a small 2500 Daiwa Takara spinning reel and 10 pound test P-Line Fluoroclear, so I loosened up the drag to play it very gently and just let the fish run. Bob said, "Follow it!", so I got on the trolling motor and kept the rod bent as we chased it around the canal. I could not get it off of the bottom. 10 minutes passed before I finally got it close enough to the surface for us to see that I had snag hooked a huge carp just above its tail! It made a couple of small runs, but it mostly just pulled us around the cove with steady pressure for another 10 minutes, before I finally got it close enough to the surface for Bob to reach down deep into the murky water with the net and get it over the head of the fish:

Whoo Freakin' Hoo! Very Happy

Ever since I watched a 30+ pound carp that Fishface (aka Tim) had snag hooked in front of its dorsal fin pull him around Batterson Park Pond like a water skier 1-1/2 years ago, I've hoped that, someday, I would snag hook one, too. Although I wasn't in a kayak, a 20 minute fight while gently trying to pull a freely swimming giant to the surface definitely qualified as meeting that stupid fishing goal. I'll probably never be a carper, but I definitely appreciate why carpers do what they do. Giant carp are an absolute blast! Very Happy

I measured the carp with my four foot aluminum ruler and weighed it in the detachable head of my telescoping EGO rubberized net. It was 38 inches long and weighed 29 pounds. The fishing slowed for about an hour and we began drifting back down the canal. Bob finally tied on one of his tiny Matzuo Nano Cranks to see whether he could catch one of the mystery spawning fish. It didn't work for that, but it did get him a black crappie:

40 minutes later, I spotted some monofilament or fluorocarbon fishing line that was snagged in some thorny puckerbrush on the bank, but extended diagonally into the water. I decided to motor over and clean it up. I said, "I wonder whether there's a fish on the end of the line. . . ." Although I never really expected that there would be one, there was Shocked

:

If there were such a thing as a zombie brown bullhead, I think that's what it would look like. I released the half dead fish, but Bob pointed out that it was still half alive. Don't leave tackle in the water! I have to admit that the white round jighead I found in the bullhead's mouth was exactly the same kind that I use and lose frequently, so I can only hope that it wasn't one of mine. Embarassed

As the sun began to drop lower in the sky and the air began to cool, we worked our way back down the canal. Bob stubbornly continued to throw the Storm Shad, because he's, well, stubborn. Laughing

I threw a minnow jig and was rewarded with a couple of black crappie:

When we got to the channel on the west bank of the canal that's dry at low tide and fills up with water at high tide, it was full of water, since the high tide was only an hour away. When Bob said that he got a hit on his Storm Shad, I thought that he was kidding. He wasn't Surprised

:

The 15 inch, 1.85 pound largemouth bass was probably our lunker largemouth bass for the day. And it won Bob three white Strike King Midnight Special spinnerbaits, one each from Kira, Jason and me. Congratulations, Bob! The five plus hours of stubbornly throwing that Storm Shad finally paid off! Laughing

We made one more run back up to the end of the canal and drifted back down. Bob began throwing a Perch Rapala Jointed Shad Rap JSR07 and caught another keeper largemouth bass, but the battery on my iPhone was completely drained, by then, so I didn't get a photo of it. As the sun dropped to the horizon and some clouds rolled in, the air temperature quickly dropped. It got cold! Confused

After I called "Just One More", Bob began the lengthy process of stowing his gear. I tied on a Perch Rapala Shallow Shad Rap SSR07, but it kept fouling up with my line before it hit the water. After two or three consecutive fouled casts, I told Bob that one more foul up would be a sign from the fishing gods that we should head back to the ramp and, sure enough, the lure fouled. We ended up putting out at about 8:15 pm, after spending almost 12 hours on the water. I gotta say that I slept very well last night. But, now, I can't wait to get back out on the water. Very Happy

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

Nice work on the carp! Sounds like fun!

NorthEastFisherman · Joined: 27 May 2012 Posts: 582

I figured out of all people you would be catching the most/weirdest/and biggest fish this year. With all that time you put into fishing you never know what you'll get. Congrats on the carp, i still havent caught a little one and its on my bucket list. I guess ill just throw some big lures with big hooks Very Happy

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

iversonbaby · Joined: 22 May 2012 Posts: 100

I'm very surprised you didn't bother with any stripers in that stretch of the river nice carp btw now ya gotta actually " hook one ". Lol

SAP284 · Joined: 07 Jun 2011 Posts: 655 Location: Central, CT

Great report Phil! That Carp is a big one! Hitting the river this Sunday haven't decided which area yet!
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Steve

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

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

Nice fishing Phil! Congrats on the carp!

bass tracker · Joined: 17 May 2012 Posts: 84

Nice carp Phil, your arms must have been tired after playing the fish for so long!

BT

NWDarkcloud · Joined: 23 Apr 2012 Posts: 474

I thought for sure the Carp would spooled him and if He wasnt in a boat he would of stood little chance with it . But the fight was epic Phils clicker on his spool just ticking of the feet him doing the comon fish prayer of us all (hook stay in just a little longer Shocked

) and after 10+ minutes of us chaseing it around like the crew in wicked tuna it slowly came up for me to net . Nope 1 look at the net back to the bottom it went this happen a few more times. Another 10-15 min of this before Phil finaly got to hug his slimey catch.
I must say It was a blast ..........got to give Phil Thumbs Up

on this 1

P.s kickin storm shad worked (I Win) Laughing

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atk211 · Joined: 01 May 2013 Posts: 5

Nice report as usual from you. And nice Carp. I must have been a hell of a fight.

rastaMONark · Joined: 03 Sep 2012 Posts: 9 Location: middletown

Holy carp I wonder if you could actually snag them purposley by draggin a treble hook across the bottom of the canal?
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TAKE WHAT YA NEED LET THE REST SWIM FREE

Tmac · Joined: 20 Dec 2008 Posts: 254 Location: Meriden

Nice Report Phil, you kill it on the river man, great multi species day, after I talked to you I ended up getting a couple good ones in there my best 5 were just over 13lbs all caught on plastics flipped on a 1/4 and 3/16 jigheads.