Joined: 06 Oct 2009 Posts: 5203 Location: Avon, CT
Posted: Tue Jun 18, 2013 1:00 am Post subject: Scoville Reservoir 06/16
When coastieyaker (aka Pete) proposed that we go kayak fishing in the morning and early afternoon on Father's Day, so that we could each spend the late afternoon and evening with our family, I thought about lakes or ponds between Trumbull, where Pete lives, and Avon, where I live. I hadn't been to Scoville Reservoir in almost three years, so I suggested it. I figured that since gasoline engines of any kind are prohibited there, the conditions on the water for kayak fishing wouldn't be bad, even if we encountered a weekend crowd. I put the word out to a few people and we ended up with a small CTFishTalk fleet. Pete got lost on his way there and showed up after the rest of us launched at the ramp at 6:30 am. I paddled my Hurricane Santee 116 Sport, El Habañero, while NWDarkcloud (aka Bob) and TurtleKiss (aka Kira) fished from Bob's boat, The Way More Better (yes, you can see that he removed the outboard engine):
Basstrapper (aka Will) paddled his Future Beach Trophy 126 DLX:
And mep21 (aka Mark) paddled his Old Town Vapor 12XT Angler:
We enjoyed a beautifully cool, mostly overcast morning. There was little to no wind. The water was stained, with visibility down about two feet. Mark had his fish finder and was able to tell me that the water temperature ranged from 67 degrees when we launched to 69 degrees during the hottest part of the day. Immediately after we launched, Will, Bob and Kira headed to the spillway dam and the west shore, Mark headed for the first island and the shallows on the east side, and I headed up toward the beach on the north end. Here's a look back over my shoulder toward the ramp and the spillway dam:
I boated my first fish almost as soon as I reached the north shore. I threw a wacky rigged Green Pumpkin with Red Flake five inch Gary Yamamoto Baits Yamasenko (aka Senko) on a Number 4 Gamakatsu Octopus Circle hook toward the shore and let it fall to the bottom about one foot down. I saw my 15 pound test P-Line Fluoroclear co-polymer fishing line "shiver" on the surface of the water and set the hook on a nice largemouth bass:
Whoo Hoo! It was 16 inches long and weighed two pounds. Of course, after catching the first largemouth bass so quickly, my expectations for a good day of fishing rose. At 7:05 am, way off in the distance, I saw someone paddle over from the ramp to The Way More Better on the west shore. I assumed that it was Pete and texted him where I was. After he said, "Hi!", to Bob and Kira, he headed up to the beach. As he rigged up to fish, I worked my way up the shore to a bed of pads around the corner from the beach. Although I got some action, my next two fish weren't really what I wanted:
Pete paddled up and boated a nice chain pickerel. Unfortunately, after he unhooked it, it squirmed out of his hands and back into the water, before I could get a picture of him with it. I was beginning to think that I'd never get a photo of Pete with a fish. We worked our way up to the culvert on the north end:
I could tell from the scum floating on the surface that, surprisingly, there was very little flow into the reservoir through the culvert. After striking out completely with a wacky Senko skipped into the culvert, I decided to paddle through it to explore the other side:
Pete followed me through and we began exploring the new water. I could see that it was shallow, perhaps two feet deep at best, and the silt-covered bottom was almost totally devoid of weeds, which is usually a bad sign. Pete, however, managed to pull another, although much smaller, chain pickerel out from under the trees that line the west shore:
There he is! We ended up spending an hour on the other side of the culvert, but had nothing to show for it, other than Pete's little chain pickerel and some rock bass sightings. After we headed back through the culvert to the reservoir, we checked out the spillway:
I decided to try fishing the deeper water near the spillway with a drop shot, since banging the shallow shore and beds of pads wasn't producing. I put an Aaron's Magic 4.5 inch Roboworm Straight Tail worm on the hook. On the very first cast, I boated another chain pickerel that was about 12 feet down. Other than that, however, I didn't get even a nibble, so I swapped out the drop shot for a wacky Senko and headed for the shallows in the east part of the reservoir. I worked my way clockwise around the shoreline, but just couldn't locate the fish. I decided to cut straight across to the shallow coves that are filled with beds of pads on the east end and began throwing a Green and Yellow 2-5/8 inch Kopper's LIVETARGET Hollow Body frog over the pads. At 12:14 pm, I got a couple of chain pickerel-type hits on the frog and followed it up with the wacky Senko:
Yeap, it was a chain pickerel, alright. Other than a couple of hits on the frog, I didn't get any more action in the shallow coves, so I resumed working my way clockwise around the shoreline. It wasn't until I got to the shallow boulders along the south shore that I began getting sunny-type hits on the wacky Senko. Although I was never able to hook one of those sunnies, I did boat a short largemouth bass. And at 1:20 pm, I boated this one:
Whoo Hoo! The big girl weighed four pounds, nine ounces. Pete texted me that he was taking off right after I boated her. I caught one more rock bass, before Mark and I started talking about going to a decent restaurant for either linner or dunch, and then hitting a different body of water Yeap, the bite was THAT s - l - o - w. We headed back to the ramp and got off of the water at 2:15 pm. When we left, we saw Bob and Kira up by the beach, still searching for a decent fish. _________________ Don't forget to wear sunscreen and don't litter!
Last edited by PECo on Wed Jun 19, 2013 9:24 pm; edited 1 time in total
Joined: 08 Jan 2013 Posts: 469 Location: Forestville
Posted: Tue Jun 18, 2013 9:44 pm Post subject:
That still sounds like a good day on the water.
I live close to Scoville and have yet to fish it.
Your pictures give a better look at the place than google maps.
I have to check that place out sometime. _________________ ...Randy...
Leeway and elbow room.There's plenty of water to fish!
avidanglingadventures.blogspot.com
"If we concentrated on the really important stuff in life,there'd be a shortage of fishing poles."
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum
It was 16 inches long and weighed two pounds. Of course, after catching the first largemouth bass so quickly, my expectations for a good day of fishing rose. At 7:05 am, way off in the distance, I saw someone paddle over from the ramp to The Way More Better on the west shore. I assumed that it was Pete and texted him where I was. After he said, "Hi!", to Bob and Kira, he headed up to the beach. As he rigged up to fish, I worked my way up the shore to a bed of pads around the corner from the beach. Although I got some action, my next two fish weren't really what I wanted:
I was beginning to think that I'd never get a photo of Pete with a fish. 
We worked our way up to the culvert on the north end:
Other than a couple of hits on the frog, I didn't get any more action in the shallow coves, so I resumed working my way clockwise around the shoreline. It wasn't until I got to the shallow boulders along the south shore that I began getting sunny-type hits on the wacky Senko. Although I was never able to hook one of those sunnies, I did boat a short largemouth bass. And at 1:20 pm, I boated this one:
We headed back to the ramp and got off of the water at 2:15 pm. When we left, we saw Bob and Kira up by the beach, still searching for a decent fish.
