[PECo]

After thoroughly enjoying a day of jigging up tiny fish though the ice on Monday , I just had to get out on The Other Woman, Too and fish some open water. That night, I checked the weather forecast and saw that the best day in the five day forecast was Tuesday. The air temperature was forecast to be in only the 20s, but the wind was forecast to blow up to only six miles per hour. In near or below freezing air, I usually won't venture out unless the wind isn't expected to exceed five miles per hour. Okay, so I'll stretch that to six if I'm really desperate. And although there was a 40 percent chance of snow, that meant there was a 60 percent chance of NO snow, didn't it? Of course, I called TurtleKiss (aka Kira) to see whether she wanted to go. And, of course, since there was a chance that we'd be fishing in the snow, she did. I advised Kira to spool a setup with fluorocarbon line, because freezing weather and braided line do not play well together. After we met up in Farmington at 6:30 am, she did her best to spool some on a small spinning reel that she brought with her as we headed down to Shelton in my Jeep. We arrived at the Sunnyside Boat Launch Facility before 7:30 am:



We didn't see any other boats on the water all day. In fact, I never saw more than one other car in the lot whenever I looked over there:



I prepared to launch The Other Woman, Too into the water with Kira at the helm:



My Temporary Safe Boater Certificate expired on January 22, so Kira piloted her all day. Although Kira has a Safe Boater Certificate, she had no experience piloting a bass boat. Her boat, Dinghbat, is a dinghy that's powered by only a trolling motor. Luckily, high tide was at 6:57 am and low tide was at 2:07 pm, so launching was easy:



After we launched, we zig-zagged our way across the river as we headed up to Two Mile Island and looked for fish with the crunchy, old Garmin Fishfinder 85 that's currently mounted on The Other Woman, Too. It took a disturbingly long time to spot the first fish and we didn't see many before we reached the island:



The cove on the downriver side of the island was completely covered with skim ice, but, luckily, it was the only significant ice that we saw anywhere. After we stopped to fish the area between the island and the ramp, I realized that I had forgotten my hat and the six inch Slug-Gos I wanted to try out in a bag in my Jeep. Rather than head back to get them right away, I tried throwing a Pearl Silver four inch Gulp! Minnow on a white/red eye 3/8 ounce round jighead with a spinning setup spooled with 15 pound test P-Line Fluoroclear, while Kira tried a variety of lures that she had brought with her. She quickly realized that she hadn't spooled enough fluorocarbon line on the small spinning reel she brought with her to be able to fish the bottom 30 feet down, so she reverted to a baitcaster spooled with braided line. And a steel leader. We didn't get even a nibble after we had been on the water for 45 minutes, so we headed back to the ramp and I retrieved my stuff from the Jeep. We decided to head downriver to try and find some fish. We headed down to Country Club Island, but didn't spot anything but an occasional solitary fish with the fish finder. So we headed further downriver to the cove in front of Pine Rock Park. We saw only a few fish down there, too. So we headed further downriver, past the Sikorsky Aircraft Headquarters and the Igor I. Sikorsky Memorial Bridge (aka the Route 15 or Merritt Parkway bridge), and followed the channel halfway down to the Moses Wheeler Bridge (aka the I-95 bridge). We didn't spot many fish at all with the fish finder, let alone any schools. So we headed back upriver to Pine Rock Park. We stopped to fish in the cove for a while, partly to just take a break from running up the river and warm up. Kira fired up my Mr. Heater Portable propane heater, while I fished. I tried swapping out the Gulp! Minnow on my jig for a Salt & Pepper/Phantom six inch Slug-Go. I got nothing. After 30 minutes, we decided to head back up to the area between the ramp and Two Mile Island. Although we hadn't spotted many fish up there, we had seen more there than anywhere else. At 10:45 am, I finally, finally got a hit on my jig. It felt like a big striper. A keeper! I yelled for Kira to get the net and gently horsed the fish to the surface. But when I got it to the surface, we saw that I had snag hooked a schoolie in the tail :



Damn! However, 30 minutes later, after I had swapped out the Slug-Go for a Pearl White five inch Gulp! Jerk Shad, I finally hooked into another schoolie, but, this time, in the mouth :



Whoo hoo! I had finally figured out that the finicky schoolies would pick up a jig fished extremely, no, excruciatingly slowly on the bottom. I call this method of fishing The John Method, after hila2006 (aka John). After that, the bite picked up a bit. Kira even boated her first fish of 2013, also with a Jerk Shad like mine, but on braided line. And a steel leader. :




But between 1:00 pm and 3:00 pm, the bite died. Completely! It's funny how that coincided with the slack low tide at 2:07 pm, huh? Actually, Kira almost caught her second fish of 2013 at 1:45 pm, but lost it when I was slow getting the net and she tried to lift it into the boat. This isn't the actual fish, but it's basically all that I saw:



As I had grabbed the net, my phone rang and I had to answer it, in case it was my daughter calling. But, noooo, it was just NWDarkcloud (aka Bob) calling. SO, it was Bob's fault that Kira lost her second fish of 2013 at the boat. Kira says, "Gee, thanks, Bob!" At 3:00 pm, the bite picked up, again:




Just after 4:00 pm, I called "Last Cast". Neither of us got anything, so we headed back to the ramp. As I backed the trailer down the ramp, Kira got cozy with some local ducks:



We headed home through just a bit of light snow. Now I can't wait for the next day with marginal weather conditions to go open water fishing, again!
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Don't forget to wear sunscreen and don't litter!

[Michael]

I'm sure you were happy to get back out there Phil

[fishfinder]

Glad you got out there again Phil. I fished from shore "as usual" today for 3 hours "just got home 1/2 an hour ago" after work and hot 3 spots, throwing a Pearl Zoom, a curly grub, Storm shad, SP Minnow, Sluggo, and some bucktails in assorted colors and sizes without any hits. Had to get out there though or I always feel Im missing good fishing. Cant wait until late April/May to get here for the big girls.
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There's a fine line between fishing....

and standing on the shore like an idiot!

[NWDarkcloud]

OOopps sorry Kira
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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

[angry john]

I am not a fan of steel leaders but the do have there place "aka" the power plant channel. Glad to see someone is getting some fish, as i have yet to brave the cold. I did go to a small creak and got skunked. Hard to cast in the small pool that was not frozen. Did you have any issues with your guids freezing up, as my one trip this winter was very bad about that????

[fishfinder]

Mine were freezing up yesterday but not too bad. Ive definitely had much worse!!
_________________
There's a fine line between fishing....

and standing on the shore like an idiot!

[Crest Daddy]

[fishfinder]

You be quiet you non fishing wussie!!!! LOL Mr Ive caught enough schoolies to hold me over until next spring, those are the words of a person scared of getting cold!!!!!! Hehehehe
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There's a fine line between fishing....

and standing on the shore like an idiot!

[TurtleKiss]

Yeah...my top 3 guides needed to be cleared constantly and I was making shaved ice with every retrieve. There were little cylindrical ice discs all over the boat. It was cold, but nothing that Gore-Tex and Mr. Heater couldn't handle.

I really just needed to get out and cast!!! Ohhhhh, the withdrawals!!! The cabin fever has been awful to me, so it was really nice just to test the action of some lures I've been fabricating to stay sane (can't wait to try them on the correct species.) Thank you Phil for dragging me outside again. Always a pleasure!
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Kira

*~ "Not everything about fishing is noble, reasonable and sane..." -Henry Middleton ~*

[perfect hook set]

I HAVE BEEN AT THAT LAUNCH!!!!

LoL we fished from shore one night anyway


This picture makes me think you are either
"meh another schoolie"
or
"This is too easy"


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[PECo]

Nah, that's my, "I snagged hooked it, so it doesn't count", face.
_________________
Don't forget to wear sunscreen and don't litter!