[PECo]

I planned to fish Hamburg Cove with Fishface (aka Tim) today, but due to each of our schedules, I fished the first part of the day and he's fishing the second part of the day as I write this. When I arrived at 11:15 am, the tide was still rising. I put The Other Woman in the water at the crude ramp next to the Hamburg Cove Yacht Club in the inner cove. I ended up staying in the inner cove until I got off of the water at 2:30 pm. The sky was partly cloudy and there was a brisk north wind. It blew fairly steadily from 10 to 15 miles per hour. The air temperature went from the upper 30s to 43 degrees and the water temperature went from 42 to 44 degrees. The water appeared to be clear down to three feet or so, but with all of the wave action from the wind, it was impossible to see the bottom clearly. I started throwing a 1/16 ounce round jighead with a two inch chartreuse curlytail grub over by a barge that's tied up to the docks of Cove Landing Marine. I pulled up more than a dozen yellow perch and one pumpkinseed:




The biggest yellow perch that I boated was a 10 inch long male. I know that it was a male, because the horny little bastard had an orgasm when I grabbed it and came all over me. Hey, it's not so funny when you're wiping milt off of yourself. I tired of pulling up small yellow perch after an hour and began throwing the white Strike King Red Eye spinnerbait that I used in Keeney Cove, yesterday. On my third cast, I got a hit from a big fish. When I first saw it flash in the water, I thought that it was a three pound largemouth bass, but when I got it closer, I saw that it was longer than a bass would be. Then I started running through the possibilities: a big brown trout. . . a northern pike. . . but, ultimately, it was a fat 26 inch long chain pickerel:



I didn't have my Lipper Fish Grippers with me, so I had to tire it out and gill it. As pickerel always do, it continued to thrash and my hand slid up its gill plate until one of my fingers caught a tooth. Ouch! After that, I had a follow from another big pickerel, but I soon switched back to the grub when I located a bunch of white perch on my finder in a secret spot :





They were sitting six to eight feet down in eight to 10 feet of water, which is pretty much the deepest part of the channel in the inner cove. I don't think that they were schooling; I didn't see any schools all day. But they were sitting on some cover on the bottom of the channel in the same spot the whole time. Unfortunately, the biggest one that I boated was only nine inches long, but if I had wanted, I could have caught a limit (i.e., 30) of seven to nine inchers. After boating more than two dozen, I soon tired of it and headed across the cove to the steel seawall that's on the shore across from the ramp. I didn't mark any fish in the channel, so I threw the spinnerbait at the seawall. On my first cast, I hooked into a nice largemouth bass:



I followed the channel back to the ramp as the tide began to flow out. I didn't mark any more fish in the channel. I'm hoping that the big schools of big white perch will appear as the water continues to warm next week. I'll definitely be out there looking for them, but next time with a bucket!
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Don't forget to wear sunscreen and don't litter!

[slim2043]

Nice! Looks like a pretty good day!
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Never give up!

[hila2006]

Nice day Phil, had to be a little cold though with the wind. Supposed to be a good day for it tomorrow. Gotta do some work on the bassboat, but want to drop a yak in for a while at least. Pickerel was sweet!!

[Ryanmalloy44]

Productive day.. Congrats

[fishfinder]

Nice fishing there Phil. Would you rather catch white perch over those beasts though? If the big ones are a hitting I wouldnt be switching over to those small fish!
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There's a fine line between fishing....

and standing on the shore like an idiot!

[perfect hook set]

woo freakin hoo!!!

what part of the state is this located? far east?
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[BassRican]

Nice job Phil ! Good variety of fish in a short period of time. Hope we can get out this week.
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When in doubt, rip their lips out!

[PECo]

Just say, "When", BassRican.
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Don't forget to wear sunscreen and don't litter!

[PECo]

Hey, PHS, if I can get a limit of 10+ inch white perch, that's what I'll do. Other than walleye, sea run white perch is may favorite fish to take and eat in Connecticut.

Although I caught a decent largemouth bass near the mouth of the outer cove last year, I think that big chain pickerel are the easiest fish to catch in there all year long. And it won't be long before striped bass will be in the outer cove. Yesterday, I picked up a bunch of shakyhead jig heads and four inch curlytail grubs to troll around in it. I think that TurtleKiss (aka Kira) should throw The Babymaker around in there, too.
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Don't forget to wear sunscreen and don't litter!

[perfect hook set]

No I meant woo freakin hoo
like hurray awesome LUCKY A$$

especially because, of the chain pickerel
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[pikePERSUADER1]

Nice, i love the river, i always catch a mix!

[PECo]

Tim told me that he ended up catching a couple of yellow perch and a couple of white perch. We had both heard that some big schools of white perch appeared in the inner cove the previous evening at low tide, but I guess that they didn't show up last night.

By the way, the key to fishing for white perch with a two inch curlytail grub on a 1/16 ounce round jighead is to let it fall all the way to the bottom before bouncing it along the bottom on the retrieve. You'll get fewer bites if you don't keep it down on the bottom. At one point, I pulled up five white perch on five casts in a row.
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Don't forget to wear sunscreen and don't litter!

[DirtyDawg10]

Nice day out there!

[Michael]

AWESOME PICKEREL!!!!!! Great job!

[JJay]

Wush i could have gone - Great job !