[NWDarkcloud]

Went out Sunday with Jjay (jason) to meet up on the river with Basstracker (Greg) and Peco (Phil) for a day of fishing. Turned out to be a beautiful morning air temp about 45 and on the climb with light 0-5 mph winds from the south and clear skys.
We pulled in right around 7:30 ish just as Peco was starting to power up for his run down to Chapmans cove , we chatted abit about our plans and off he went.
Jason and I decided to head north the breeze was starting to pick up so we headed for the cover of trees in the old yankee power plant canal. There was very little boat action on the river even with the tourney out of Hadam medows, we passed a couple boats near the entrance on the way in but except for the deer peekng over the burm at us it was all ours.
Water temp was 44 and calm high tide was just starting to peak when Jason tied on a spinner and a waky-rigged senco I went for a spinner as well . We fish for a bit takeing a light tap every once and a while trying a few differet things but still nothing hapening. So we sipped our coffees and chatted the time away, the tide was just starting to change when BANG! first real bite of the day...


Took a while to untangle the hooks and line from the net so I wasnt thinking much about weighing it just getting it back in as soon as I could so we snapped a few quick pic's and sent it home. I keep forgetting jason carrys a digital scale on his vest that I wount have to dig in my lockers for. Peco later informed me that the unwritten fishing law dictates without a weight from a scale its max is 3.5 lbs Well its a fat 3.5 lber anyway
We sent a text to Phil to see how he was doing south to find out he was allready heading in our direction short whle later we heard him motoring his way up the canal .

Sortly after that Jason mentoin he had a hook up as well..

One sweet rainbow colored lure the thing is a huge pike jointed minnow 8-9 inches long and about 1.5 inches thick with killer action the pic dosn't do it justice (nice hook-up Jason ) .
Phil and Greg hung out for a while but the bite was real slow so they started there drift down the canal we followed shortly after . After doing some lure shopping from the local trees for free gear jason made himself a Calaco rig and hooked a fatty 14 inches easy fat chunky fish aswell

he hooked into a school of them all around the same size

Pass the bigger ones over to a couple guys fishing crappys for dinner and headed of down the canal by now sun was getting low and the temps where starting to drop as well passed Passed Phil & Greg on the way out they had some luck of there own so we headed for the launch.

FYI :
At the mouth of the canal we found out that the latest high water from the storm shifted the sand bar at the entrance and at dead low tide you now need to keep real tight to the rocks , I didnt and scipted my motor off the hump thank god its sand .

Another geat day Jason thanks for the company ... Peco & Basstracker allway a good time to fish with you as well
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I Love to fish......Not a big fan of sitting in the boat alone ....the Conversation and the company make it perfect

[Redneckangler]

Nice fish. Hope to get out there this weekend.
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[DCAJ]

Nice pike.
Wanted to go there on Sunday but only had a few hours, maybe next week.

[JJay]

Thanks Bob for taking the time out and offering front seat on the Way More Better!

I haven't gone fishing in about 5 weeks so it was a great day to get in some fish time and catch up with Bob, see Phil, meet Greg.

The morning bite was slow and my luck with the pike proved uneventful. With Bob's monster catch i couldn't compete and opted for smaller action. I tied on a bobber rig with 2 minnows on weighted jigheads and went after the crappies. They turned out not so crappie! The half dozen or so "not-so-crappies" i caught were the biggest ones i've ever boated.

Nice boat Phil!

It was an GREAT day out once the sun came out and warmed up. As the sun was setting, temperatures dropped like a rock and we decided to head in.

[pikePERSUADER1]

You just found a good one!!! That lure is a Mike Shaw's double-jointed Slammer ! Valued at roughly 50$ that is a top-notch hand made lure! Use it but dont lose it! Nice day even with the pike tourny going on! -Dan

[pikePERSUADER1]

That lure is actually for lmbs Is that the 7inch or 9inch version? Either way thats a great lure, that paint job is the Rainbow Trout color scheme, I have never thrown mine for pike, yet!http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Mike_Shaw_X2_Double_Jointed_Slammer/descpage-MS.html

[JJay]

Ahh Thanks Dan for the info! I had no idea who made this lure, but it definatlly is well made.

I believe it's 9" as the website (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Mike_Shaw_X2_Double_Jointed_Slammer/descpage-MS.html) says the 7" version only features one hook.

[Crest Daddy]

Throw some VMC's on that plug and use it for stripers !
Nice pike !
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[Michael]

Nice pike! Great job on the calicos Jay!

[rmflint]

The Mike Shaw X2 Double Jointed Slammer swimbaits are also really good for lunker largemouths.
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You know it was a good day when your thumb is all scratched up.

[rmflint]

You ought to see the pictures of the fish this guy caught in Mass. He was loves those darn things. I guess he knows the guy who makes the things which would be nice because they cost a pretty penny.

pikePERSUADER1 you didnt find out about this lure from the same site as me did you? Heres a clue it has college in the name.
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You know it was a good day when your thumb is all scratched up.

[pikePERSUADER1]

[PECo]

As Bob said, Greg and I headed down to Chapman Pond right after we launched. The tide table said that high tide would hit East Haddam at 9:11 am, so we wanted to fish there as the water flowed into it. There were already several boats in the pond. I got one nibble over the shallows on a white five inch slow sinking Sebile Magic Swimmer, but that was it. Greg didn't even get a nibble. But that didn't keep us from enjoying a beautiful morning:



At 9:30 am, we gave up on the pond and began working our way out of it. We had hoped to find some fish holding in the channel, but the water was barely flowing through it and we didn't get anything. I got a text message from Jason that Bob had caught a tiny northern pike in the Connecticut Yankee Atomic Power Plant Canal just as we started to head up there. I gotta say, motoring up to the canal from the pond was a lot easier and faster than pedaling. Anyway, Greg and I continued our spectacular failure to attract the attention of any fish in the canal. Greg tried throwing a bunch of different things that he had in his tackle bag, while I stuck with the Magic Swimmer. When I finally decided to try something else, it was my crappie rig, which is a 2-1/2 inch Silver Pearl Gulp! Minnow on a round jighead. It wasn't until 12:30 pm that it was finally picked up by a black crappie:



Whoo hoo! And five minutes later, it was picked up by another:



Greg and I headed to the laydowns near the mouth of the canal. While he was working one of the laydowns with a jig, I tied on an Olive Green Craw Rapala Rippin' Rap, which is a lipless crankbait, and threw it down the center of the channel. As I slowly retrieved it, I felt some resistance on the line. It took a second before I was sure that it was a fish and not a snag. I had tied the Rippin' Rap onto my setup that's spooled with 15 pound test P-Line Fluoroclear, so I loosened up my drag as I reeled it in. I told Greg that I wasn't sure what kind of fish it was until it made a long run and my drag started singing. Once I knew it was a northen pike, I was very gentle with it and prayed that I had hooked it on the lip, so it wouldn't be able to get a tooth on the line. Greg grabbed the net and we finally got the pike into it:





Whoo hoo! It was 33 inches long and weighed seven pounds, seven ounces. When I tried to get the hook out of its lip, the Rippin' Rap fell right out of its mouth. The split ring that held the hook on the lure had straightened out almost completely and came off of the hook. If I had hooked the pike on my setup that's spooled with braid, I probably would have tried to horse it into the net and lost it. Phew! We continued to fish the laydowns for a while, but a brisk south wind rose up and forced us back up into the shelter of the canal. We headed all the way back up the canal to the cove at the end, but didn't get anything else before we decided to head back to the boat launch ramp at 3:45 pm. But we didn't get out of the canal without first finding Bob's sandbar. Thankfully, he and Jason were still at the ramp, because I really needed help getting my boat securely onto it. Thanks, guys!
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[Michael]

Look at how Rapala caught you the lunker Phil!

[NWDarkcloud]

Wow that was a nice 1 Phil !
Im glad you got a chance to post the pic looks like the fish are starting to get a little bigger, they both look alot fatter than the 1s we got earlyer this year...
Ill be looking to get back out soon, as long as temps hold above the freeze mark.
The crappie fishing looked like fun so when Jason and I got home I checked the shop and found out I had a brand new crappie rod in my storage tube one of those reels ya gave me fit like a glove. Will definatly be adding it to the locker.
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I Love to fish......Not a big fan of sitting in the boat alone ....the Conversation and the company make it perfect