CTFishTalk.com: Candlewood Lake 06/01 - Connecticut Lake Reports ( CT Lake Reports ) - A Community Built for Connecticut Fisherman.

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

On Friday, rmflint (aka Ryan) and I fished in the Empty Lake Bassmasters tourney at Candlewood Lake out of Lattins Cove. We had a great AND terrible time.

I had pre-fished the lake on Monday and Thursday, and had a plan. We executed the plan and caught more than enough good fish to win the tourney.

Here's the "but", though. I screwed up and left the livewell pumps in my boat off, so our fish died. With the penalty for having dead fish, we finished next to last in the tourney. If I hadn’t screwed up, our five-fish mixed bag of largemouth and smallies would have been at least 13-1/2 pounds, which is really good on a tough, post-spawn day. The winner had 12 pounds, 11 ounces. We had that weight only halfway through the day. ARRRGH!

I’m still kicking myself for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, so let me know if you want the gory details. Here are several thousand words, though:

A couple of keepers caught with Dan1 (aka Dan) while pre-fishing on Memorial Day:

A couple of keepers caught with JJay (aka Jason) while pre-fishing on Thursday, when we ended up with a 16 pound, one ounce bag:

I normally don’t take photos during a tourney, but after Ryan and I discovered that all five fish in the livewell were dead, we started fishing just for fun. Here’s our three pound, three ounce, lunker smallie that lived because we couldn’t cull:

I caught a sunny, too!

Ryan actually DID catch some bass. Here’s his lunker:

Just kidding. Here he is at the weigh-in with two of our dead fish that he caught:

I’m sorry about screwing up our tourney, Ryan.
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3WatersBassin · Joined: 24 Sep 2018 Posts: 1

The way I see it is that you killed fish that will take years to regenerate. How can you not see that your live well isn't running as you add more fish to the livewell? There should be more than a weight penalty for dead fish especially around the spawn.

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

Nice first post, Richard. Did you join this dead site just for that?

Not that it would matter to a vegan like you, but I ate all five of the fish that died in my livewell, plus one that died in the livewell of another fisherman. They were delicious.
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Don't forget to wear sunscreen and don't litter!