CTFishTalk.com: Lake Mcdonough 6/6/13 - Connecticut Lake Reports ( CT Lake Reports ) - A Community Built for Connecticut Fisherman.

sbehuniak09 · Joined: 10 Jul 2012 Posts: 229 Location: Seymour, CT

A while back Bob (NWDarkCloud) kindly offered to take me out for the first time on the Way More Better and Thursday I finally took him up on it. I had never been to MCD and Bob loves the lake so that's where we headed. Bob was proud to have us first at the gate by 9:30am for the 10am opening time. By the time we launched just after 10, there were 4-5 boats behind us in line. The weather was pretty good at the start. Overcast, mild, and slightly windy. The wind would pick up considerably throughout the day until it died down with about an hour to go. We started the day by motoring around to a couple nice fallen trees in the water that looked very promising. Bob was throwing a wacky Senko, Zoom Horny Toad, and drop shotting. I was throwing the first two as well as a spinnerbait and crankbait.

It wasn't until we got to the third tree that we finally started getting some real action. I threw the Senko at the tree and it was immediately grabbed by a fish. Turned out to be a rock bass that was the biggest I have ever caught. Not huge but still..

Bob and I each had several more hits by that tree from what seemed to be a decent sized school of Rockies but no more hook-ups.

Next we motored to the back bay and worked all the shorelines. Along the way I picked up a smallie which jumped out of my hands back into the water before I could snap a pic. Bob then got his day going with a couple decent fish.

We got to the area where a small stream of some kind feeds into the lake and were rewarded with some solid action. I grabbed another smallie and Bob got a pickerel which he unceremoniously shook off his hook rather than deal with as well as several hits.

We kept moving around the bay much to the chagrin of some other fishermen drifting along. We consistently got hits but missed a great deal of hook sets. After this the day turned frustrating for a couple hours. The wind really picked up and all the spots that Bob had been getting fish from a week ago had dried up. Just as Bob was saying how disheartening it was that we weren't even seeing any dinks, he finally found one that put a huge smile on his face! Laughing

That fish was caught in a cove on the other end of the lake in shallow water. This seemed to be the definite trend of the day. No fish were taken from more than 4-5ft of water. We moved into the next cove and the day picked up again fairly quickly. There was a large downed tree, which in addition to me getting snagged on several times, produced 4 or so nice fish.

The third fish pictured turned out to be the lunker of the day and went for an estimated 6 (3.5) lbs. We had boated 4 species between us and Bob decided that he wanted a fifth so he tied on an ultralight crankbait in the hopes of picking up one of the massive sunnies that were bedding in the cove. Though he got a couple taps, he was unsuccessful.

We decided that it was high time to head back to the back cove where we had some success earlier and on the way stopped to chat with a couple of nice guys in the middle of the lake who later reported catching a decent brown trout on a zara spook. Surprised

When we got to the back bay things took a turn for the better. we found a tiny narrow inlet that Bob threw his Horny Toad into. He immediately hooked up with a solid fish that did a number on the toad.

While he was fiddling with a new one I threw my Senko into the inlet and hooked up with a fish that picked up the Senko and immediately swam directly towards me so that I didn't know I had it until I had hooked him somewhat deeply. Got it in and Bob was able to get the hook out without much harm done!

Interestingly, when I was reeling that fish in, there were as many as 3-4 similar sized fish almost swarming it on the way in. Very cool to see. We kept working around the cove, all the while Bob was catching fish.
We went back to the spot where the stream fed into the lake and I got another decent smallmouth.

Bob got a couple more nice largies as well.

Throwing the Horny Toad Bob in one cast got a smallmouth to hit three separate times yet somehow managed to miss the fish. Then he threw the toad at the bank and had a brief hookup with what would have been the nicest fish of the day. Looked to be about a 4lb smallmouth. This near miss lit a fire in Bob and he kept trying for that fish. After a few more hits and small fish he gave up. Around the time that the kid came flying over to tell us our time was coming to an end on the lake we each got another fish or two, including my lunker of the day.

After this we headed back in and put out just as the rain really started to pick up. Overall Bob caught somewhere around 12-15 fish all being largies and a couple pickerel. I caught about 9 with and even mix of largies and smallies. Bob's persistence with the Horny Toad really paid off later in the day and turned a tough day into a rewarding one. It was a great time and thank you to Bob for taking me out!

(Sorry about the sideways pictures. I uploaded them from my gallery for the first time as opposed to from Facebook and have no idea how to get them to rotate. Use your imaginations.)
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The fishing was good; it was the catching that was bad. ~A.K. Best

Stevius86 · Joined: 12 Apr 2012 Posts: 165 Location: Ellington

That's some good action.

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

Nice! I love those areas where water flows into a lake, pond or reservoir.

You really need a fish finder to locate the fish that are holding on deeper structure. I plan to practice drop shotting at McDonough this Summer.
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NWDarkcloud · Joined: 23 Apr 2012 Posts: 474

ya we had the finder set up with us but the wind made boat control a issue for staying on the humps ...once the fish move out into deeper cover ill be following them with drop shots of my own....

thanks for the great day out Stephen
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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

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

Great report Stephan! Nice job both of you!

jjbassfishn · Joined: 17 Jun 2012 Posts: 209 Location: Northwestern CT.

Nice report and some nice looking fish. We hit it Sunday(6/9/13) and the water was up due to all the rain.
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PB LMB 9.3LBS Winchester Lake
PB SMB 5.8LBS Colebrook Res.
PB Pike 3.85LBS Winchester Lake

Can't catch em sittin on the sofa! Wink