CTFishTalk.com: Colebrook River Lake 07/28 - Connecticut Lake Reports ( CT Lake Reports ) - A Community Built for Connecticut Fisherman.

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

Neither mep21 (aka Mark) nor I had ever been to Colebrook River Lake before, so headed up there on Sunday, despite the weather forecast of possible rain in the afternoon. The place is even more beautiful than it looks from Route 8:

The lake is managed by the US.Army Corps of Engineers and is used primarily for flood control on the Farmington River and electrical power generation. It's open to the public for recreational use from dawn to dusk. It extends up into Massachusetts and either a Connecticut or a Massachusetts fishing license is required to fish there. Although Connecticut fishing regulations apply to the portion of the lake up to the Old Route 8 steel bridge, which is the much larger part of the lake, Massachusetts fishing regulations apply north of the bridge.

We launched in The Other Woman, Too at the long, looooooong ramp at 7:30 am:

We decided to start fishing in the coves that are slightly north of and across from the ramp. When we got there, we could see why the ramp is so long. The horizontal line on the trees shows just how low the water level is from where it has been in the past Shocked

:

The water was tea-stained, but we could see down to the bottom at least seven feet, even in the glare of the totally overcast sky. The surface water temperature held steady all day at 78 degrees. There are no weeds or algae in the lake. What little green weed I pulled up with my drop shot rig wasn't enough to dress a hamburger. Laughing

I made Mark take the front deck and manage the trolling motor, while I lounged in the back. He began throwing a small white buzzbait over the shallows in the first cove we hit before I had even tied on my drop shot rig. At 7:38 am, while I was still futzing with my tackle, I heard and then saw the splash of a fish chasing bait fish up onto the shore behind me and pointed it out to Mark. He threw his buzzbait to the spot and was rewarded with the first fish of the day:

The 14 inch keeper smallmouth bass was feistier than a largemouth bass twice its size. As happy as we were to see it, we couldn't help but wonder whether it was a good or a bad omen for our day. 10 minutes later, after I finally got an Emerald Pearl 2-1/2 Berkley Gulp! Minnow onto my drop shot rig, I boated my first fish:

Are rock bass a bad omen? Laughing

Things weren't all bad, though, because the setting was beautiful and I caught a couple of short, but feisty, smallies before 8:30 am:

We worked our way around the coves and back into the main body of the lake, before pulling the trolling motor, starting the big motor and heading further up the lake. The transducer for my fish finder is malfunctioning, and only provides the surface water temperature and the depth when not moving more than a few miles per hour, so we mostly fished toward the shore on one side of the boat and drop shotted the deeper water on the other. After it became apparent that there was no topwater bite Sad

, despite Mark having caught the first fish of the day with a buzzbait, he began throwing a Texas rigged Zoom Baby Brush Hog and, eventually, a drop shot like mine. We caught the occasional short smallmouth bass as we made our way to the shallows on the north end of the lake. At 12:30 pm, we reached the point where Colebrook River enters the lake:

We never did spot the Old Route 8 steel bridge. Rolling Eyes

As we began working our way back down into the lake, I tied on a small rainbow trout stick bait. At 12:44 pm, I boated the smallest smallie that I've ever caught Shocked

:

One minute later, Mark's Baby Brush Hog got him what turned out to be our only largemouth bass:

At 1:10 pm, despite each catching smallies pretty much all day, we finally got a double:

And at 1:16 pm, I caught my third species of fish, which was a sunny:

Shortly after, we pulled the trolling motor, started the big motor and made a run down to the rock cliffs that tower over the submerged roadbed that's just south of the boat launch. The drop shot quickly got us more than a dozen smallies in seven to 15 feet of water, but nothing more than 12 inches long. Unfortunately, the south wind began to rise and blow at more than 10 miles per hour. We decided to motor down to the dam to get out of the worst of the wind and work our way up the east shore from the water intake tower:

We continued to catch short smallies along the shore until 4:30 pm, when we decided to get off the water, head up Route 8 and have dinner at The New Boston Inn in Standisfield, MA. I guess whether you consider the first fish to have been a good or a bad omen depends on whether you consider catching dozens of short smallies to be fun. In the end, I'd have to say that it was a very good omen. Very Happy

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hoppy · Joined: 20 May 2007 Posts: 393 Location: congamuck

some of the biggest smallmouth I have ever seen personally and have caught myself have been from there. There are some brusers in there although your day is pretty standard for that place. lots of little fish but believe me there are some biggins in there. That place only gets better as it gets colder.

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

avidangler · Joined: 08 Jan 2013 Posts: 469 Location: Forestville

I'm suprised no pickrel or trout.There are also pike in there.
Last summer the water level was so low that it was about 3feet below the old route 8 bridge.The water level in your pictures shows it atleast 50 or more feet higher than it was then.The old route 8 looked underwater.If that was so then,the bridge was definitely submerged around 50 ft.
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PECo · Joined: 06 Oct 2009 Posts: 5203 Location: Avon, CT

mep21 · Joined: 01 Mar 2011 Posts: 65 Location: West Hartford, CT

I really loved this body of water. It reminded me of some of the resevorirs I used to fish when I was in TN. I'm sure at the right time of the year you could kill it with some crank baits.

Wanna Fish · Joined: 30 Jan 2012 Posts: 662 Location: Earth I Think

Hey Phil! I forgot to tell ya. That 8lb P-Line Flouro has been working awesome. That's all I've been using and with proper drag set, I haven't snapped off a fish yet. I love when I know I fished for a day and there are no fish swimming around with my hooks.

I'm moving towards swim jigs after my butt kicking Friday night on Candy. I think if I had a Sad color Friday I may have fared better with all the Alewives schooling in the bays and off the points. I just picked up 15lb P-Line Flouro.

Seems like the pattern has switched from Dock Fishing to locating schooling fish.
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