Connecticut River Fishing Report

Saturday Paddle,Hartford To Wethersfield Cove

Hit the River at 6:00,nice day overcast and light rain,launched at Charter Oak in Hartford,caught four bass within an hour(3 largemouth,1 smallmouth),should have been striper fishing first thing in the morning but I'm always a push-over for a sure thing,which the striper fishing right now is not.Got all the bass on husky jerks.After I felt like I pulled all the active bass off of the spot I was fishing I switched gears to stiper.Paddled to mid-channel,marked bait everywhere,made a couple of drifts,threw everything at em but the kitchen sink.Got a schoolie on a shadrap,paddled back upstream and anchored a couple of times,casted for a couple of hours,nothing.Decided to work my way down stream,mixed it up between working the channel for stripers and working boulders and pilings for bass,got a nice perch on a crankbait,that seemed to be it for the day,went ashore for lunch before I hit Wethersfield Cove,made some casts from shore,nothing.Paddled into the cove,started to feel like calling it a day when I got a huge hit and what felt like a really nice fish on the end of the line,had him on for about a minute and a half,yes "had being the opperative word".I made two ridiculous mistakes that cost me the best fish of the day and I'm still kicking myself over it.This fish was peeling line off of my reel like nothing and I couldn't do much about it because I had 8lb line on this reel,that was the first mistake,fishing 8lb test in flooded timber,the second mistake is so embarrassing that I hate to admit it.Believe it or not,I was reaching for the camera before I even had it in the boat!!!WT* was I thinking!?I wasn't,so sure enough while I had the rod in one hand and reaching behind me for the camera with the other,the fish made a B-line for some timber,I felt him take my line around a sunken tree and then the line went slack and he was gone....every boat in the cove heard me swearing at the top of my lungs.Ofcourse after that I was to stubborn to call it a day so I casted around for another hour before packing it in.I never saw "the one that got away" but I'm guessing a ten pound-plus pike,either that or maybe I just snagged a huge carp in the back with my crankbait,who knows?So in recap,number one,NEVER fish 8lb test in flooded timber,and second,NEVER,NEVER,EVER reach for the camera before you have the fish in the boat!Or you'll feel like a big doofus like I do now.

• Added By: carp13 on 05/03/09 10:08 AM
• Location: Connecticut River
• Report Date: 5/2/2009
• # of Hotspots: 4
• # of Photos: 4
• # of Fish Caught: 6
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