[Pappy]

Up until now, I've been reluctant to fish Candlewood, because quite honestly my little 16' 7" bass boat was at times over matched by the conditions on the lake. That's all changed now with my Comanche styled Ranger VX188 which performed awesomely today on the water even in some rough conditions.

Got on the water at 7:15 and was off by 11:45. Water temp was low 70's. A good stiff breeze had a nice chop on the water which was stirred up even more by a good deal of boat traffic by 10:00 a.m. I broke the base of my ram mount while fishing up in Maine last weekend and it's replacement isn't scheduled to arrive until Tuesday so Dave V (my co-angler) also served as the fish finder and he did a great job.

We started off from Squantz which by the looks of the trailers had hosted a tourney launch prior to our arrival and went open throttle down to the ice box. I hooked into three nice largemouth in the 2 to 3# range and a short smallie on the drop shot using a smoke colored zoom finesse worm with purple fleck. Dave had a rock bass and a short. smallie using a Keitech grub. From there we headed over to Echo Bay and began fishing starting at the willow tree down toward the center of the lake. Dave threw a wide variety of baits such as topwater and a spinnerbait over the top of weeds. I was fishing just beyond the weed edge continuing to use the drop shot that had worked well at the icebox. I wound up landing the slightly larger of these two very nice smallies (they were almost twins in size) on that weed edge



He put up a great fight. But I was a little disappointed that I didn't land his grand-daddy who fought far harder and snapped the 6# test line off right at the boat.

My co-angler Dave V only landed only one keeper, which came off the weed edge using the exact same set up I was but that catch made the trip all worthwhile for Dave weighing in at 4# 12 oz.

Here's a picture that beauty.



The fish off the weed edge came from 13-15 FOW.

My last smallie came from an island as we worked our way back towards the launch (its just out around the corner coming out of Squantz). He was in 18-21 FOW.

Some quality fish for a short trip (just over 4 hours). With the boat performing so well on the big water, looks like Candlewood will be getting a lot more of my fishing time in the next few months!

[DirtyDawg10]

Nice smallies!!

[brennan]

Nice report Walt:

I have to agree that I like Candlewood much more in my new to me Ranger than I did in my 16 1/2 footer...Nice job on the catchin. Next time, let the guy in the back of the boat have a few

Brennan

[CTBASSIN]

As always, nice report Walt. Glad to hear the new boat is working well for you.
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[SkeeterJim]

Nice job Walt & Dave.
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[rickb]

nices job guys