CTFishTalk.com: Lower Bolton Lake 9/14 - Connecticut Bass Fishing Reports ( CT Bass Fishing Reports ) - A Community Built for Connecticut Fisherman.

Ochofish8 · Joined: 16 Nov 2012 Posts: 51

What a terrible outing at Lower Bolton. Front pushed through Saturday and we were on the water Sunday. Idk if it was the front pushing through, the shocking of the lake or both that made this tournament so miserable. There were 9 guys, 3 had no fish, 3 had 2 fish, 1 had 1 and 1 had 4. Winning weight was 5lbs, second was 3lbs and third was 2 lbs. I myself had none, but caught 3 shorts. These fish were no where to be found, they weren't shallow, weren't deep, I threw everything at them from all depths of the water column to different retrieves. Typical Bolton is there are herds of sunnys or perch and other small fish under trees or in shallow and even they were MIA. All the weeds are gone, or if they're still there in some spots they are all brown and dead. What fish I knew of were skittish at best. Had multiple hits on a rattle trap and during the fight the hooks would just come undone, no jumping, no digging to spit it, just randomly popped off. One fish I caught on the trap didn't even hook in the mouth, he had both sets of trebs in his belly. Just goes to show the lack of aggression, you'd think if he put that much effort into getting at it he'd just eat and not just smack at it and miss. On the other hand, a lot of guys didn't catch many shorts either, which is very not Bolton either, usually you get plagued with 11"ers and weed out the 12"ers for a limit. All in all, not very bolton like day. Hopefully this place bounces back.

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

I know how you feel. I fished Hopeville Pond with rmflint (aka Ryan) and we had trouble finding fish, too. The water temperature ranged from 69.5 to 73.5 degrees. We ended up with eight or nine largemouth bass in the boat, but only three or four of them were keepers. Ryan caught the two pound, five ounce lunker later in the day:

The only other species of fish we caught was a small chain pickerel. The only sign of a northern pike was a five inch baby that Ryan spotted in the water next to the boat.
_________________
Don't forget to wear sunscreen and don't litter!

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

I had a tough time getting bigger bluegills to bite at a certain spot where they've been hanging out at Twin Brooks. Other days I've landed at least 5 with 2 or more being 8" bulls. But Sunday I only landed 1 and they weren't being aggressive like they have been.

Ochofish8 · Joined: 16 Nov 2012 Posts: 51

It must have been just the front then if everyone else was struggling as well. It was a really crappy day of fishing, but I at least have the frame of mind that it wasn't the lake itself fault. I wonder how many times they can keep shocking that lake and still be able to have the fishing recover.

Ten10 · Joined: 30 Jan 2014 Posts: 21

Bolton is very Helter Skelter! I fish it about twice a year to challenge myself. If I manage 2 keeper bass 12" plus I consider it a good trip. My last fishing fishing trip was in the "quite corner" in Ct. I fished a Luckey Craft SSR Combat 3/8oz chartreuse shad 0- 1ft. Diver. The crank costs about 18 bucks but it runs true to its stated depth and has a great consistent wobble side to side that drives fish nuts. Esp on 6lb test. My trip caught 2 14.5" lmb, a 15"lmb. A 16" lmb. And a bass 25 " that shot out of the water like a cruise missle well over 6plus lmbs. Bass love an easy meal esp. If it's slow and looks crippled. I could tell this fish was not used to being hooked. It was startled and panicky by the way it slashed erratically side to side. All fish were released with full of energy. I have Picts on my phone but this site is proving its difficult to share. I've must have fished this same lure 3yrs now and only replace the trebles on it. I have only one same one like it. If you can find it on Amazon or EBay buy it!! It's worth it's weight in gold. I've caught well over 300 plus fish on this lure alone. The day was Sep. 10th. Half cloudy with a wind of about 10 to 15miles per hr. A real pain on the in the ass but I believe if the wind wasn't there things would have been a lot different "bass wise". But what do I know? My Pops is in his eighties and was a great fly fisherman. Infact he owns a rare vitatage Bamboo Payne rod among many others. I tried fly fishing but it didn't work out so I'm a self taught bass fisherman by myself and thanks to 2 old ornery fisherman by the names of Tom and Ronald who were bank fishermen at Mansfield Hollow. They have passed on now but the knowledge they passed on to me will always be cherished. Someday I hope to share their wise sage knowledge to another hungry fisherman/woman or boy or girl who is hungry to learn.

Ten10 · Joined: 30 Jan 2014 Posts: 21

Pauleye · Joined: 03 Jan 2008 Posts: 129

Bolton will be bad for a while. The lake association decided on a weed kill treatment. They also stopped catfish stocking because the brains that make up the association blame catfish stocking for an algae bloom. I'm sure the algae and excess weeds are not from the stormwater runoff containing fertilizers from the golf course like lawns you see along the shoreline. Lakefront property owners are never to blame.

Little did they know they removed all the baby/juvenile habitat from the like so future bass #'s will get worse. What irks me most is the DEEP grants a permit for a weed kill. To me those permits should not be handed out for purely aesthetic reasons. Do a lake assessment and remove the contributing factors first, then weed kill as a last resort.

Lake Associations are worst things that happened to lake water quality management.