[PECo]

I wasn't going to post a report about my club tourney, but here it is. My tourney partner, rmflint (aka Ryan), wasn't able to make it, so I fished alone. I did just about everything wrong that I could and came in fifth place out of five boats.

We launched at the Salmon River Boat Launch and fished from 7:00 am to 3:00 pm. It was a beautifully cool day for most of the day. The water was mostly pretty clear and the water temperature ranged from 69 degrees in the morning to 74 degrees in the afternoon.

My vague plan was to quickly hit the dead-end of the Connecticut Yankee Atomic Power Plant canal and head all the way up to Pecausett Pond in Portland. As I entered the main channel of the Connecticut River from the ramp, I had to turn on my navigation lights:



Although my brain said, "Go all the way to the end of the canal and hit spots on your way back out", I didn't listen and fished my way in. Along the way, I managed to pull my Bullfrog Zoom Horny Toad away from a swipe by a small northern pike. An hour into the day, after I got 2/3 of the way to the end of the canal, my wacky-rigged five-inch Green Pumpkin/Red Flake Senko got picked up off the bottom:



Although I was encouraged by that, I shouldn't have been. When I rounded the bend and could see the dead-end of the canal, I saw that there was another boat already fishing it. Great. . . .

I lifted the Ultrex out of the water, and headed out of the canal and upriver to Pecausett Pond. After a long, fast run up the river, I put the Ultrex back into the water and motored into the narrow channel that leads to the pond. 1/3 of the way up the channel, I spotted an impassable barrier. There's a log about a foot below the surface spanning the width of the channel. Damn!

So, now I had to decide; do I head back down the river or continue upriver to the Mattabesset River? Heading upriver meant I would have to spend 20 minutes passing through the Middletown No Wake Zone. That would be stupid, right? But I did it.

To make a long story short, I caught two more 11 inch largemouth bass and one dink smallie in the Mattabesset. I went all the way up to the mouth of the Coginchaug River, before heading back out to the Connecticut. By the time I got back through the No Wake Zone and to Haddam Meadows, it was 2:00 pm. Yeap, I had spent more time boating than fishing!

I spent the last hour back in the Power Plant canal, where I caught one more 11 inch largemouth and, again, found another boat ahead of me when I rounded the last bend before the end of the canal.

This is my first year in a bass club, so I guess that I'll have to chalk this one up as a learning experience. What did I learn?

1) Pre-fish better. I should have known that I couldn't get into Pecausett Pond, so that I wouldn't have wasted my time going up there.

2) Use faster presentations when there's flow. I never did break out any spinnerbaits or chatterbaits and I was boating during most of the outgoing tide, when the river is flowing the most.

3) Fish, don't boat. It's a fishing tourney, not a boat race. And spending 40 minutes of my day in the Middletown No Wake Zone was just plain stupid.
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Don't forget to wear sunscreen and don't litter!

[RobO]

Valuable lessons right there.
Top bass pros will fish a river 2 or 3 times before a tournament to find the fish.
Some even hire local guides before the tourney.

Well now you know where not to go and what not to do..
I think you do much better next time.
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I'd rather be fishing, than sitting here in front of this computer,,,