[PECo]

*** Man, I was tired last night. Hamburg Cove is off of the Connecticut, not the Farmington! ***

DIrtyDawg10 (aka Derek) and I fished Hamburg Cove from 7:30 am to 2:00 pm. I pedaled The Other Woman and he paddled La Calabaza. The day started of very cool. The air temperature was in the upper 40s, but it ended very warm, probably around 80 degrees. There was full sun and very little wind, except at the mouth of the main cove, where the wind blew in from the west at five to 10 miles per hour. The water was murky and there was a lot of floating debris in the water. We weren't sure what we'd find in the cove at this time of year, but we both started off throwing swimming lures after we launched next to the Hamburg Cove Yacht Club in the small cove. I threw a black spinnerbait with Colorado blades as we headed to the channel that leads to the main cove. Right before we left the small cove, the spinnerbait got me the first fish, which was a 14 inch largemouth bass:



We headed through the channel to the main cove. I got into it first. Behind me, Derek got a short largemouth. I continued to throw the spinnerbait over the weeds in the shallows at the northeast end of the main cove and tried throwing a wacky rigged five inch Senko at the shady shoreline, but got nothing. Unfortunately, neither did Derek, although he had a large chain pickerel follow his chartreuse spinnerbait back to the boat, so I swapped out my black spinnerbait for a chartreuse and brown spinnerbait with Colorado blades. After we had gone down the shady side of the cove for a while, we decided to head across to the sunny side of the cove. On the way across the cove, we stopped to fish a laydown where a drifting tree that had grounded on a shallow spot in the middle. I threw my spinnerbait beyond the laydown and as I retrieved it past the laydown, I got a 13 inch largemouth:



We continued across to the sunny side of the cove and down the shoreline, but didn't get any hits. As we went around the point where the cove turns directly west, we headed into the wind blowing straight into the cove from the west. We decided to head into the shallow cove on the north side of the mouth of the main cove. Derek headed to the sunny side and I headed for the shade. I was fishing a wacky Senko very slowly and tightly to the shore when I felt some weight on the line. And then the fish started to pull drag and turn The Other Woman around. When I finally got it up, I saw that it was a nice largemouth:



it was 18 inches long and weighed three pounds, 13 ounces. As we continued to work around the shallow cove, I boated a few short largemouth and Derek got a pickerel. When we headed out of the shallow cove, Derek got a good hit at the mouth, but lost the fish before he was able to see what it was in the murky water. I tied on a 1/2 ounce bluegill patterned Persuader Imaged Blade spinnerbait to throw over the shallow flats. I hooked a decent largemouth with it, probably a two pounder, but lost it at the boat. I couldn't believe that it had spit the hook and when I reeled in my line, I saw that it hadn't. The spinnerbait wire had broken, leaving me with the blades, and the fish with the skirt and hook. Derek found out that yellow perch didn't get the day off from school on Columbus Day, as he pulled up a whole class of them with a shad colored Bomber crankbait. Meanwhile, I tied on a Gold Shiner patterned 3/4 ounce War Eagle Screamin Eagle spinnerbait and then we headed across the mouth of the cove to the south side. We tried working the shoreline for a while, but then I decided to try throwing my spinnerbait over the shallow flats next to the buoy-marked main channel through the cove. I got a few hits on the spinnerbait on the retrieve and caught a glimpse of a two foot long pickerel or northern pike at the boat. I yelled to Derek to head out from the shore with his crankbait and he soon got a short largemouth. And then I got a 17 inch pickerel with the spinnerbait:



We headed back into the main cove and made the turn back to the northeast. Derek trolled the crankbait, I think, and I trolled a silver Rapala Clackin' Rap crankbait. Fishface (aka Tim) sent me a text message on my cellphone asking for a status update and when I stopped pedaling The Other Woman to respond, a 20 inch pickerel hit my crankbait, which must have been slowly floating back up to the surface:



It doesn't show very well in this photo, but the pickerel had a very dark leopard spot pattern on its back. We pedaled/paddled all the way back to the Hamburg Cove Yacht Club without another hit. All in all, we had a pretty nice day out on the water.
_________________
Don't forget to wear sunscreen and don't litter!

[pikePERSUADER1]

nice fish, that pickerel is really oddly dark looking!

[slim2043]

Catch that Lunker on Friday/Sat/Sun and it'll be 4+... nice job nice day nice fish
_________________
Never give up!

[DirtyDawg10]

It was a beautiful day out there yesterday. As Phil mentioned we spent a good part of the day throwing swimming baits. My first fish was an 11" LMB caught on a rattletrap. Unfortunately it was also my biggest LMB of the day.


I also caught a 8" LMB on a senko and another 8" on a shad pattern bomber crank. I also landed a 19 or 20" pickerel on a senko. I had what appeared to be a 25"+ pickerel hit my spinnerbait near the boat but missed the hook and swam off. I also had a large fish which I'm guessing was either a pike or a large pickerel take my shad crank near the mouth of the river over some weeds. I faught it for about 15 to 20 yards back to the boat but it spit the trebles before I could see what it was

I cast a few more times in the area to see if I could get it to bite again but instead I got into a yellow perch bite and ended up landing a half-dozen or more in a couple of minutes on the shad crank. Just about one on every cast. Nothing big for me but still a fun outing.

Here's some pics of Phil and his lunkers.



I'm guessing this guy likes to quietly troll Hamburg Cove for white perch

[hila2006]

Troll for white perch. Where the heck is Hamburg Cove? That pickerel Phil likes like some kind of hybrid, with the weird markings.

[SAP284]

Phil - Where is the Yacht Club? I usually launch in Saybrook and head there but that spot must be closer...

[PECo]

The address of the Hamburg Cove Yacht Club is 13 Cove Road in Old Lyme. There's a crude ramp down to the water between it and the bridge on Cove Road, and a little bit of public parking across the street, next to the yacht club's parking lot. Derek and I had to unhitch my trailer and park it next to my car, though.
_________________
Don't forget to wear sunscreen and don't litter!

[SeaDog1]

Hey Phil!

Yikes! That boat with the 4 huge Yamaha's.
No tow bar on the stern, so I'm assuming it's a rum runner LOL

Glad you guys had a good day in HC!

Least the size of the fish your catching there are definitly bigger than the usual dinks you catch and photograph elsewhere!

I killed the spawning Brown Trout on the upper Farmington yesterday fly fishing with floating black beetle -> Caught and released a dozen fish, some nice size ones -> 2 where definitly footballs pushing between 3-4 lbs.

Going up to Vermont/NH weekend after next and hope to get a little fishing in on some of the rivers/streams there.

Best regards,
SeaDog1

[DirtyDawg10]

Yeah...a 24' to 25' boat with 4 Yamaha 350hp V8 5.3L motors. The only thing I could think of that would need that setup is if they were looking to take it up and over niagra falls during the height of the spring thaw.