Jay Rayner's CT Bass Blog: Bashan 6/1/14

On the Water: 5:45am - 1:00pm
Air Temperature: 41 - 74
Water Temperature: 63 - 68
Water Clarity: Clear/ Could see bottom perfectly in 8 ft of water
Skies: Clear
Wind: 0-5 mph

I met up with Jon from Cobra Bait at the launch at about 5:45. It was a chilly 41 degrees, it felt more like April 1st rather than June 1st. A cold front last night, blue bird skies today, little to no wind, and gin clear water is a recipe for a bad day of fishing. So we started off doing what anyone would do in these conditions, fish slow and low. After a while, I finally netted my first fish on a Texas rigged 7 1/2" watermelon colored worm. The next cast, I missed a fish, also on the worm. Both fish were right in a transition from 6 ft down to 12 ft.

My brother Josh showed up a few minutes later, and we made our way into one of the coves. Jon wound up with 3 bass on a green pumpkin copper flake Cobra Bait Deadbolt, all fish were up in the shallows. Josh had moved a little north of the cove and he was able to obtain a few nice largemouth on a Zoom Super Fluke, and also missed quite a few, and had a few follows. Jon had to head out, so Josh and I continued north to a rock pile that usually holds a fish or two. I threw a Rapala DT-6 Silver crankbait past the rock, and just as it bumped the boulder on the retrieve, it got crushed by a largemouth. After a few more casts at the pile, I saw a smallie follow me in a few times, but couldn't get him to hit.

Meanwhile, Josh was continuing to use the super fluke, a little bit behind me. I hear some sort of commotion back where he was, so I ask him what it was. "I just lost a rod." was his reply. He tied on a bunker snagging rig to try and hook the rod, somehow, in the process, a bass decided that the bare treble hook looked like a good meal, and he landed the fish. He never did manage to get the rod back in, but boy, what a strange turn of events.

I proceeded to head north, towards a point that has been very productive for me, but I couldn't even get a bump on anything I was throwing. After getting pushed around by massive wakes from pleasure boaters, I went and found Josh who still had a good bite going on the fluke. We were fishing some rock shelves, the bass were coming from underneath and crushing the bait. I decided to throw a drop shot rigged with a Cobra Bait 4" paddle tail on top of the rock, and let it fall down to where the shelf was, and sure enough got another bass. We started making our way back to the launch, and made one more stop, where I got another on the drop shot and Josh got a couple on the fluke.

Between the 3 of us, we totaled 20 largemouth. Josh caught a few more than Jon and I, but let's just leave it at that. The fish were surprisingly active today for the conditions, but we didn't see anything over 1.5lbs. This is pretty commonplace for Bashan. Everything that we caught was 12-13". The problem that I have with Bashan, is that it is a bass management lake. There is a protected slot limit, you cannot take fish between 12" - 16", you may take 2 fish over 16", and you can take fish under 12". My plan for today, was to cull some fish that were under 12", but the problem is, nobody caught a fish that small. Perhaps DEEP should revise the regulations, to allow some fish be taken in that protected slot limit, and NOT allow any fish over 16" to be harvested. The three times I have fished Bashan this year, everything has been about the same size, with no sign of bigger fish anywhere.