Air Temperature: 63-72
Water Temperature: 74-78
Water Clarity: Clear/ 6ft Visibility
Skies: Mostly Cloudy
Wind: 3-9 mph NNW
Barometric Pressure: 30.17-30.20
After checking the CT DEEP Tournament Schedule, I decided try the lake I attempted to go to last Sunday. It is a rather deep lake, so I figured my best bet was to try to locate the thermocline, and eliminate as much water as possible. I paddled out to my first spot, a grassy point, and immediately my Humminbird started marking fish. Most fish were between 12-16 feet, so I turned the gain all the way up, and noticed a distinct black line, at about 16 ft. This is the first time (I think) I have successfully marked the thermocline with my rather limiting electronics. I found an area on the point with a weedline stopping at about 11 ft, and it dropped off to 16. I dropped a couple marker buoys, and started fishing. I missed a few fish on a wacky rigged deadbolt, and a couple more on a super fluke. I stayed on this spot for a while and threw a little bit of everything, but failed to muster any more bites. I picked up and decided to fish some docks, and that landed me a small largemouth on a Zoom super fluke.
After catching my first bass fairly shallow (5 FOW), I decided to change my approach a little bit. I tied on a Booyah pad crasher and moved up to some lily pads with some matted milfoil on the outer edge. That first bass must have been a "fluke" (get it?), because I didn't see any sign of bass in shallow water. I fished a dead section of water for way too long before I decided to relocate.
I found my way to a nice point, that extends maybe 100 ft off the land, it was 4 ft at it's peak, and dropped off to 22ft. I wound up catching two bass off of this spot, one about 1.5 -1.75, and the other less than a pound. I caught them dragging a Texas rigged Yum watermelon seed ribbon tail worm, and hopping it every now and then.
The wind started to pick up, and the pleasure boaters started to make their presence known, so I moved to a protected area between 2 islands, and fished the outside weed edge, and "dropped" a fish on the dropshot. I went back to the ribbon tail worm, and it got hit as it was falling to the bottom. I set the hook, and I knew right away it wasn't a bass, and for a second, I thought I lost it, as it wasn't doing anything. I was surprised when I got it to the boat, it was a large crappie, that weighed in at 1.89 lbs. I think this is my personal best, I honestly don't think I've ever weighed a crappie before. So for arguments sake, we will call it my PB. I cast out into the same spot, and felt a "tic" on the line, and I set the hook, and this felt like a good fish, as it was taking a hard run down to the depths. I got it close to the boat and then realized it was just a pickerel. There isn't a more disappointing feeling than thinking you've got a good bass, and it winds up being a pickerel. Lo and behold, on the very next cast, the same exact thing, a pickerel, almost of identical size.
Generally, when I fish a lake for the first time, I don't really expect much in the way of results. For some reason, today was different. I was confident leaving the house this morning that I would have at least caught a limit. I'm not sure why, but I have a tough time figuring out these alewife lakes. The three that I've fished this year have not been good to me, whether I find the schools of bait or not. Maybe I get too caught up trying to mimic the forage, that I lose sight of the basics, I'm not really sure. But I think tomorrow evening will have to be a confidence building trip.
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