[imsafanct]

After last Sunday's cold, windy exploratory outing to Rainbow Reservoir which resulted in only one small largie, Bill and I were keen to get back to more familiar water for yesterday's trip.

We decided to hit the same stretch of the CT River in Rocky Hill that brought us pike success 3 weeks ago. But this time we put in at the new Glastonbury boathouse launch and began our drift South, making it almost to the Rocky Hill ferry before my 11:30 AM curfue.

Yesterday morning was the calmest day we've ever had on the river. No wind at all. The water was probably the clearest we've seen as well. The morning started cloudy and somewhere around 40 degress and we finished under mostly sunny skies with temps well into the 50s. A very pleasant day to be fishing.

With the water level as low as it is, we worked lots of wood/deadfall and rip-rap spots on the drift down, starting on the deeper Eastern shore then switching to the shallower Western shore about halfway down. The Eastern shore didn't produce anything but when we jumped to the other side, I was the first to get hit on my Williams Trophy 2. Now we were after pike more or less, so I was pleasantly surprised to get into a scrap with this awesome smallie, a new personal best for me.



I thought it was a snag at first, then once I realized it was a fish, I was psyched to have hooked what I thought was a nice largemouth. The fish gave a great fight and came out of the water at least twice. It was only until I had the fish right at the boat that I realized it was a smallie and then I started to really get excited. I got her in the boat and according to the Boga, she weighed 5lbs. even. The fish dosn't quite look 5 pounds; more like 4, but she felt quite heavy and Bill recalls her being fat and chunky.

As we continued our drift down the Western shore into the section of the river we had good pike luck with 3 weeks ago, Pike Specialist Bill didn't waste any time finding another set of teeth to tangle with. He was throwing a chartreuse and white spinnerbait with double willowleaf blades tipped with some sort of Yamamoto neon green trailer. His spinnerbait got hammered by this 28" pike. Yes, Bill, I'm jealous, but I'm always happy for you.



This guy is a pike magnet!

We worked this area for a bit longer and I had two exciting pike follows on my Mepps Double Blade Musky Marabou, but the fish just wouldn't committ. One of the fish was pretty big, but thats just the way it goes.

By then it was 11:30 and we began our trip back up to the Glastonbury launch then hit Starbucks for a coffee. Ya it was only a two fish day, but I'll take these two fish any day.

That MAY do it for us this year...but MAYBE not, right Bill? If this was our last trip on the boat for 2014, I'm a happy camper. When I bought my first rod/reel back in late March, I could have never imagined I'd land two largemouths 5 pounds or better and 3 more over 3 lbs., a 5 lb. bowfin, a 14 lb. pike and a 5ish lb. smallie. What a year!

-Eric

[Michael]

Awesome smallie Eric!

Nice job Bill!

[bdiggy]

Nice couple of fish guys!