Presidents Day At Bantam

[Penn920]

Rolled out of bed at 3:30 this morning and took off to Bantam. Got there around 5 am and just sat in my truck watching the snow fall. My plan was to park near Point Folly then walk all the way to the incoming Bantam river. I took a drive to see where North Shore road brought me and I ended up finding the Litchfeild boat launch and parked there. I am glad that I didn't walk from the other side of Point Folly to there because it was packed! I was set up at 6 am and then another guy comes in and sets up about 50 yards away, then another guy on a quad sets up between us. Go the whole lake and has to go within 10 feet of our tip ups. Nice sunrise though

Then around 7:30 picked up a chain pickerel. I left North Bay around 9 am when it just became a zoo and went down to south bay. Glad I did too. Got set up in south bay around 10 am then caught a nice pickerel around 10:30. Ended up to be a smart move because I had never had so many flags at Bantam in my 5 years of fishing there. I ended up with 9 flags and 7 fish. 4 chain pickerel up to 22 inches, 2 pike 22 inches and 28 inches, and a bullhead haha. South Bay was a ghost town as well. Only about 3 groups out there. I figured it would suck to because of the derby the day before but the fish were hungry there today. Heres the bullhead about 13"

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22 inch pike/chain pickerel. Looked just like a chain pickerel but had the jaws of a pike:

The 28 inch pike view:


Most action I have ever had there in my life. The amount of flags I got today usually takes me about 4 weeks to get in the past at Bantam. Fished from 5:30 am till 5:50 pm.

[deanman3]

good job penn hopefully the fishin is like that for me tomorrow

[Rotnik]

Nice pike/pickeral hybrid. I haven't seen one of those guys up there in a two or three years.

[FoxyCleo]

Beauty. Looks like a good day didn't look too windy, i may be back there the last week of feb., i couldn't catch a calm day at that place.

[Penn920]

Ya it was windy in the morning with the snow but then a front came through and the sun came out. It was real nice towards the end when I caught that pike/pickerel hybrid. No wind at all

[P.Dona]

Nice outing!  That's a  Chunky 28"er !   

[Penn920]

28  Ment 38. Had to be around 18 pounds because the gut was almost the width of the 10 inch hole

[calicohunter]

nice outing...are you sure you measure that pike right...geez that looks bigger than 28"...your pike is 22"...I don't know but it looks like a lot more than 6" between those two fish! Look at those photos!

[Penn920]

For scale I am 6ft 4

[camoatv]

nice fish  i never had a day like that bantam  

[metalfish]

Congrats 
Awesome fish
Same general area where I got my first pike. What a fight.  I will be up there this weekend some time.

[atvjumpers]

  WOW nice fish man

[saxmatt]

Nice pike! That thing needs to join weight watchers. I think the smaller one is also a pike. I have seen a bunch of smaller pike with bands and as they get bigger the bands break apart and the spot patterns develop. I've seen several like that in Hamilton Res and Budd Lake down here in Jersey. Looks like the bands have already started breaking apart. Might be a hybrid though, either way it's a cool looking fish!

[Penn920]

Ya I almost had a heart attack when that flag went up too. No wind, fishing with a 14 inch dead sucker, could only be one thing... A MONSTER!

[FondoFishin]

Heck of a pike!

[chadroc]

thats a sick fish that pike.  nicely done.  the smaller fish picture is really cool too.  did it have the pickeral black tear drop under the eye?  can pike cross with pickerel?  anyone know for sure.....i have never heard of it with chain pickerel.  

[Penn920]

I wonder what will happen if a chain pickerel, muskie, and pike combine into one. Just think of the strength, size, and aggresiveness. Also I could tell it wasn't a true pike because it didn't run. Just slowly took line and moved about 10 feet and ate the shiner. Didn't thrash until it got to the hole just like a normal chain pickerel, and it hit after sunset which is also what chain pickerel do.

[Kierran]

Nicely done, Pete!  Hard work eventually pays off.  That's a great fish.

[Jessox80]

Those are some VERY healthy looking pike, very well fed. That's a great day, congrats : )
I've seen some of those "pike-rel" in the Shetuckett. I thought my buddy caught a pickerel on steriods until we looked at the pictures very closely.

[mungo544]

28  Ment 38. Had to be around 18 pounds because the gut was almost the width of the 10 inch hole

Thought it looked bigger than 28, nice job! I've always wanted to target bullhead, how deep was the water,  what bait etc? Anyone else out there know about winter bullhead?

[Penn920]

Thanks everyone trying to figure out the weight now. Defiantly heavier than a 15 pound dumbell and almost the same as a 20 pound dumbell. I think she was eating left over bait from Sundays tournement and couldn't resist a huge but dead sucker. As for bullhead I catch them all the time at Bantam and Bantam only through the ice. I was fishing from 2 ft to 4 ft thats how south bay is, and my shiners varied from 4 inches to 7 inches, and deadbait was from 6 to 15 inches. The bullhead hit a live shiner about 4 inches long.

[pettinicchis]

Hows the parking at south bay.

[eiderz]

Just a thought-the 22" fish looks like several posted in the NY forums, lots of discussion about their lineage. The consensus seems to be that it is a pike that still has it's juvenile markings, white oblique bars from the belly up. On the other hand some experienced guys disagree, so maybe a cross. A neat looking fish regardless.

[deerslayer1]

Hows the parking at south bay.

Plenty of parking. Park at the old state ramp or in the parking lot off 209 right next to South Bay.

[Penn920]

Ya thats were I parked. Although sometimes it doesn't get plowed so you might wanna take a 4x4 vehicle for the weekend. If Litchfield got 10 inches plus.