[PECo]

rmflint (aka Ryan) told me that he wanted to fish his local pond from a kayak, so I loaded two onto my old Saab and drove down to meet him at Lakeside Park in Wallingford. When I arrived, the sun was already blazing and the air was already freaking hot (aka in the mid-90s). Ryan and I loaded up the kayaks and schlepped them 50 yards from the parking lot to the pond. I paddled El Habañero and Ryan paddled La Calabaza. When we launched in the middle of the west shore of the pond at 8:30 am, there was a slight south breeze. The water was murky, with visibility down only a foot at best. We headed clockwise around the pond, which is small. I'd guess that it's less than 40 acres. I threw a Bullfrog Zoom Horny Toad over some weeds on the north end of the west shore, but didn't get any hits. Ryan got a hit on a frog of his own, but wasn't paying attention and missed the hookset. I decided to slow things down and began throwing a wacky rigged green pumpkin/red flake five inch Senko. It wasn't long before it was picked up by a largemouth bass:



It was 15 inches long and weighed one pound, 11 ounces. 15 minutes later, as we headed down the east shore, Ryan got a hit on a wacky Senko. As he pulled the fish out from the shore, he said, "It's a big one! It's staying down! It doesn't want to come up!" When he finally horsed it up off of the bottom, we saw why:



It was a pretty good sized snapping turtle. I would have gotten a better photo of it if we hadn't spent a good 10 minutes getting the Number 4 Gamakatsu Octopus Circle Hook out of its mouth. That thing was nasty! It tried to take a chunk out of my hand several times, but I was finally able to use my little eight inch hemostat to grab the hook and twist it out. 15 minutes later, the wacky Senko got me another largemouth bass:



This one was a little smaller at 14 inches long and one pound, 13 ounces, but it was still a keeper. About 30 minutes later, Ryan finally boated a largemouth bass of his own:



And just a couple of minutes later, he got a keeper:



After we went around the south end of the pond and headed up the west shore, Ryan paddled up to a gruesome sight:



Some A-HOLE left a hoop net in the water, which killed a couple of large snapping turtles that had crawled into it and died. The stench from the rotting turtles was unbelievable. The bite slowed down quite a bit after that. 1-3/4 hours passed after Ryan's last fish, before I caught a short:



The heat was pretty much unbearable, so we headed off of the water at 12:00 pm to grab lunch and something to drink. We got back on the water at 1:45 pm. I tried trolling a couple of Rapalas up and down the pond without a hit. The bite was absolutely dead. It wasn't until 3:45 pm that I finally got a hit with a Horny Toad tossed to the base of a tree on the shore, set the hook and boated another largemouth bass:



It was a slightly bigger fish, at 16 inches long and 2-1/2 pounds. Another 1-1/4 hours passed before a wacky Senko got me another short:



But only a couple of minutes later, the wacky Senko got me the lunker largemouth bass, which was 17 inches long and two pounds, 15 ounces:



Whoo hoo! We headed off of the water 30 minutes later, at 5:30 pm. I felt severely dehydrated and was dying to find a McDonalds to get a big cup of iced tea. Thanks for showing me your local pond, Ryan. We'll hit a bigger body of water the next time.
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Don't forget to wear sunscreen and don't litter!

[rmflint]

Aside from the heat it was a great day...aside from the lost fish, heat, and stench. Haha, but thanks Phil got letting me use your yak, the senkos, and lunch! Can't wait to do it again sometime!
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You know it was a good day when your thumb is all scratched up.

[Fishin'Fireman]

Nice trip guys!
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A bad day of fishing is better then a good day at work

[hila2006]

Nice job Ryan, Phil's awesome to hang out yakking with. You'll learn some really cool stuff to. Good day out there guys.

[rxpxtx]

Hooking up to fish is one of the great things about this site. Nice day out. What a shame about that net and the turtles.
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Dave..... I can be a pain in the bass.

[rmflint]

Yeah the turtles in the net were huge I wondered if one of them was the one I caught back in mid spring...that one straightened a big shakeyhead hook. Its a shame though those turtles were probably over 100 years old.
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You know it was a good day when your thumb is all scratched up.

[jjbassfishn]

Sounds like you guys had a great day on the water! That yak fishing sure looks like fun. When my son gets a bit bigger, Where gonna get us some so we can hit some of the small spots near us. One place is definetly woodcreek in Norfork! Place is loaded with pads. And my son(frogboy) loves to frog fish.

Peco, We may ask you to show us the ropes in these yaks!
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PB LMB 9.3LBS Winchester Lake
PB SMB 5.8LBS Colebrook Res.
PB Pike 3.85LBS Winchester Lake

Can't catch em sittin on the sofa!

[rmflint]

Question for you jj you mentioned in one of your posts about these CA rigs I think it was (correct me if I'm wrong) but I was just wondering what those are.
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You know it was a good day when your thumb is all scratched up.

[jjbassfishn]

Thats actually CR, Carolina rigs. Great for deep weed flats. Weights on the bottom and the worm is usually just on top of the weeds. Can be used anywhere really. Specially when the bit is slow! I've caught some of my biggest fish with them.
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PB LMB 9.3LBS Winchester Lake
PB SMB 5.8LBS Colebrook Res.
PB Pike 3.85LBS Winchester Lake

Can't catch em sittin on the sofa!

[rmflint]

I'll have to look into it. You guys seem to always catch fish. I don't know how effective it would be from shore though.
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You know it was a good day when your thumb is all scratched up.

[jjbassfishn]

I have fished it for years(won't say how many!) and they work great from shore.
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PB LMB 9.3LBS Winchester Lake
PB SMB 5.8LBS Colebrook Res.
PB Pike 3.85LBS Winchester Lake

Can't catch em sittin on the sofa!

[rmflint]

Oh good then
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You know it was a good day when your thumb is all scratched up.