I'm never sure what to expect when I fish with Andrew so generally I come ready for anything... It is a good thing. I've really come to look forward to Mondays and Tuesdays on the water, we've been having a ball on the river lately.
Yesterday started with us pulling up to the ramp in Haddam only to find it blocked by a 50 foot log
Andrew suggested we try the Salmon River ramp. Sure, we could do that but what fun would that be??? I unhooked the boat and grabbed my tow strap and hauled the log up to the grass area above the parking lot. I actually got the log up to 35
There were a couple of older ladies walking in the area and they got a real kick out of the scene. One of their husbands had come home the day before and stated how no one would be launching from that ramp for a while... Andrew explained to them the whole "Beyond addicted" thing and they were on their way again...
From there we headed south in search of pondies, crappie and pike in no particular order. Along the way we dropped a couple of traps for crappie bait. We figured we'd let them soak for a couple of hours and pick them up when we were ready for some crappie action. We set them along the mouth of a creek in about 3 feet of water and continued on our way.
The first spot was nice and quiet, we thought for sure we'd see some pondie action, but after working the area without so much as a sniff, I decided to thow for some pike. A few casts with the Rapala I got smacked. I thought for sure I had a nice pike but nooooooo.
After that, we moved on to the next area and found what we were looking for. Andrew used a sabiki and I threw a micro jig, both were tipped with spikes. We quickly loaded up with enough pondies to last us a couple of days of pike fishing. We had plenty of bait but the pike just weren't interested in anything we showed them. After an hour or so, we decided to pull the plug and find some crappie. That hasn't been much of a problem lately so hopes were high. We flew back up river and grabbed the traps, they were loaded with spots and bluegill. 5 minutes later we were in a nice sheltered cove and into fish. In between crappie and perch, I managed to land a 22" pike on a small jig. He whacked it pretty hard, not sure how he didn't cut me off. For a little while it was a crappie on almost every cast.
Andrew and I discussed how much fun it would be to ice fish the cove for pike and somehow the conversation turned to floating tip ups in open water... Hmmmmmmmm.... A dim little light bulb went off in my head, I'd be stopping off at Lowe's on my way home
We fished until about 2 when Georgie called Andrew. He was driving around scouting some spots so we offered to pick him up at the ramp. We had all the gear he'd need and he said he had a heavy jacket so...
We met him and were back in the cove in no time. The wind had really picked up by then and boat control was tough. We all managed a few more but as the clouds moved in and the sun dipped lower, it started to get pretty nippy on the river. We packed it and were back on the trailer just before 4... A great day on the water!
When we got home I checked the forecast and decided that the wind was not going to make it easy back in the cove for today. The on line guages showed that the river was up about 3 feet in the Hartford area so White Oaks was looking pretty good, especially with a NW wind all day.
We met at 7:30 at Wethersfield with the livewells still full of spots and pondies. It was a chilly but quick ride down to the cove and getting in was no problem at all.
Today we tried something different. With all this cold weather I can't stop thinking about first ice... Well, the hell with it... Who needs ice?
I picked up some 3/4" pipe insulation and cut the pieces to fit. What a hoot! We set up a few tip ups and just dropped them over the side on the northern end of the cove and let the wind push them all the way across the cove. We kept them within sight with the bino's
When a flag finally popped we'd reel up the crappie jigs and fire up the boat and chase the flag down at 30 MPH, it was an absolute riot!
The first flag was turning slowly when we got to it, it had been up for about a minute so I thought it would be best to stick the fish right away... d**n!!!! I felt some serious weight but she popped off. No doubt a pike judging by the shredded pondie...
A little while later another flag goes up so we give chase. As we head towards the tip up I can see the T spinning through the binoculars and it's SMOKING
We roll up on the flag, pop it into nuetral and grab the tip up as we drift by it. This time we stuck the fish. Not very heavy but fiesty. It didn't feel like a pike... That's because it wasn't
That was the last flag of the day. In between rounding up the flotilla and repositioning them up wind, we jigged up a few crappie. It was a tough day. The cribs I like to fish were on the windy side of the cove today and boat control even with the trolling motor was impossible. Just for the heck of it we drove passed the cribs with the side imaging and they were loaded with crappie, we just couldn't fish it effectively with 1/16oz jigs and 20 MPH wind. We still managed a slow but steady pick on the north bank.
All in all it was a great couple of days on the river. Next Monday can't come soon enough!
