Joined: 06 Oct 2009 Posts: 5203 Location: Avon, CT
Posted: Tue Jun 18, 2013 10:31 pm Post subject: Sconsett Pond 06/17
I was dead tired in the afternoon on Monday, but didn't want to fall asleep, so I decided to check out a small pond that's in the Fisher Meadows Recreation Area in Avon. The pond is circled in orange on the map:
Unfortunately, the larger pond next to Sconsett Pond is privately owned and used for waterskiing. Sconsett Pond is only accessible from the nearest parking lot by a crude 1,000 foot trail through thick brush. The trail includes a wooden bridge that crosses over a small, marshy creek bed. I loaded El Habañero only my Feel Free Camel Kayak Cart and hauled her down the muddy trail. When I finally made it to the dock that extends into the pond, I decided that the hike was worth the effort:
That scum on the end of the dock is dried up slime weed that settled onto it after the recent flooding on the adjacent Farmington River, when the water level was three feet higher than it is now. The pond has a small island in the middle and is bordered on the west side by a small subdivision. I think that it was donated to the city by the developer as a condition of getting a permit and it also serves as a retention pond for the subdivision. When I looked over the shallow weeds along the shore from the dock, I spotted a 20 inch carp just floating motionless on top of them. There was a slight breeze from the south and the sun was blazing in the sky. I was really glad that I had put on sunscreen before I left my house. I launched in El Habañero at 2:20 pm. Here's the view back toward the dock from the water:
I decided to paddle around the whole pond to check it out. When I got to the northeast corner, I spotted a small channel with water flowing into the pond from the larger, private pond to the north:
I LOVE spots where water flows into lakes and ponds, so I immediately began throwing a wacky rigged Green Pumpkin with Red Flake five inch Gary Yamamoto Custom Baits Yamasenko (aka Senko) into the flowing water. Within the span of 11 minutes, from 2:40 pm to 2:51 pm, I boated three largemouth bass. The first was a 15 incher:
The second was a short, but the third was a 17 incher that weighed two pounds, five ounces:
The bite didn't slow too much after that. I caught small largemouth bass at 3:04 pm, 3:08 pm, 3:18 pm and 3:22 pm, before I began to move away from the channel and explore the rest of the pond. I also swapped out the Green Pumpkin with Red Flake Senko for a Black with Large Blue Flake Senko. Yes, it also caught a few largemouth bass:
At 5:00 pm, I decided to try throwing a yellow perch patterned popper. And, yes, it caught a few largemouth bass, too:
At 5:20 pm, I noticed a small channel in the southeast corner that flowed out of the pond. I switched back to the wacky Senko and caught a short largemouth bass before I noticed that the weather had completely changed. A storm front rolled across the state just north of Avon. The sky went from sunny and clear to completely overcast with gray, boiling clouds. The wind shifted from a gentle south breeze to a gusting north wind that blew at up to 20 miles per hour. It got a little bit scary out there:
I stopped fishing for a while to keep myself from getting blown into the shore and to take some videos:
After the winds began to die down, rain started to fall. I decided to paddle up to the northwest corner to get out of the worst of the wind. I wasn't the only one who had that thought:
And, yes, I know that it was a great blue heron and not an egret. At 5:43 pm, immediately after I chased off the heron, I hooked into what I thought was a really nice largemouth bass on my next cast. However, it turned out to be a chain pickerel:
The rain intensified, so I paddled the bow of my kayak up onto the shore next to the channel and waited it out underneath the shelter of the trees and bushes:
Of course, while I waited, I continued to fish the water flowing out of the channel:
By 6:08 pm, the rain stopped as the storm passed:
And 20 minutes later, it looked like the storm had never even happened:
I began tossing my wacky Senko toward the shore, because the largemouth bass began to feed toward it after the rain stopped. I caught a few more, including this 16 inch, two pound, one ouncer:
I got off of the water at 7:30 pm, because I wanted plenty of light on the trail as I made my way back to the parking lot. I had caught 17 largemouth bass and the one chain pickerel. It was hard to leave, because it was still so nice out on the pond:
The hike out wasn't too bad. Luckily, the mosquitoes left me alone. The worst part about it was brushing up against the occasional patch of puckerbrush. However, those patches were few and far between:
I'll definitely fish Sconsett Pond, again, later this Summer. The next time I go, though, I'll bring a setup with braided line, so that I can throw frogs over the weeds and jigs into them. _________________ Don't forget to wear sunscreen and don't litter!
Joined: 01 Mar 2011 Posts: 65 Location: West Hartford, CT
Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2013 8:47 am Post subject:
Funny, when I first moved to CT almost three years ago that was one of the first places I fished. At the time I didn't have a kayak, so I saw that pond on the map and hiked in there to give it a look. Didn't catch a thing from shore, but I knew that that pond held some fish.
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At 5:43 pm, immediately after I chased off the heron, I hooked into what I thought was a really nice largemouth bass on my next cast. However, it turned out to be a chain pickerel:
