The action remained steady for the next hour or so with some fish boiing and rolling on the lure several times before striking while others just appeared out of nowhere and smashed the swimmers with no warning. There were a couple of smaller fish boated but there were also some nicer fish taken. Tom had the hot lure, they really liked the yellow.

The highlight of the day was watching a juvenile bald eagle swoop down several times attempting to grab the surface swimmers. At one point he dove down with his feet out in front and talons extended only to turn away within a foot of the plug. It was incredible to watch. I snapped a few pictures. Everytime i reached for the video camera, he would fly off and sit in a tree watching us. As soon as we would turn our backs to resume fishing he would sneak up again and dive bomb the lures again. Eventually he figured that the plugs were not worth the effort and disappeared down the river.  

There was a decent amount of bait around, the fish had to be there with them… I decided to change things up and fish deeper. I cut the Revo Shad off in favor of a Bass Harasser and started bouncing the bottom in 7 feet of water. A few minutes later I thumped hard and set the hook. It was a mid 30 inch fish that fought great in the current. Unfortunately, it came off right at the back of the boat. We thought maybe we were on to something by fishing deeper with the bright sun. In the next 3 drifts, I put 3 keepers in the boat. Fishing the lures so slow allowed the stripers to really smake them. Two of the fish completely inhaled the lures, they were not coming off…

Tom eventually ran out of time and I headed back to the ramp to drop him off. I still had plenty of time and thought I could do some more damage so I headed right back out again. The fish were still holding deep when I returned and I went back to throwing the Bass Harasser again. In the next 3 hours, I managed to put 3 more in the boat and lost 2 others after lengthy battles. I also missed a handfull of hits. A few times as I bounced the lure along the bottom, I felt light bumps and the lure came back with herring scales on the hook and eventually I ended up snagging one. I couldn’t resist laying the fish next to some of my top producing lures for a quick photo. It’s easy to see why these lure fool so many bass…

Another awesome morning on the CT River. Back to work tomorrow but I may try sneaking out for a run and gun trip in the afternoon…
Here are a few more pics from the morning on the water, enjoy!
 

Jimmy and I launched in Rocky Hill at 5am. It was 50, gray and flat calm. There were a couple of boats launching just ahead of us. We waited to see which way they went and went the opposite direction. The idea was to hit a few shallow flats with top waters, plastics and swimmers. The first couple of stops yielded nothing, but as soon as we shut down at the third spot it was game on. I had a couple of blow ups on the big Magnum Spook but couldn’t hook up. Within a few casts of switching over to a Revo Shad, I was on. I actually watched this fish come up in 7 feet of water to crash on the lure 10 feet off the back of the boat. Finally… My first keeper of the new season in the river!

It was a gorgeous morning on the river. The trees were alive with birds singing, turkeys were fighting in the meadows, bald eagles flying overhead and wood ducks flying along the banks. Jimmy had a few hits on the Houdini Shad and eventually hooked up with a keeper of his own. The tide was moving out pretty good, so the fish were putting up a pretty good fight in the shallow water. We each kept our first fish for dinner tonight. Mine is marinating as I type…

We stayed in that area for a few hours and had a slow but steady pick of fish. The number one producer was the Revolution Shads. I used a new color and was very happy with the results. Here is a good pic of the smelt color that did the damage today

We always see a bald eagle or two when on the river but this morning they seemed to be everywhere. I didn’t see any juveniles, all were adults. Most were sitting patiently waiting for signs of herring along the shoreline. The best spots had a few birds perched, all waiting to eat…  

  It never stopped raining for the 2 hours we were out but the Frabill Stormsuits kept us bone dry. We tried a couple of different areas. The first spot was 8-10 feet deep over an area that usually holds some herring. They were there… So were the bass. I started off throwing a Live Target Blue Back Herring and hooked up with just a few casts of shutting the motor down. Nice start…

From there we moved out a little deeper and tried some soft plastics on jig heads. Pat Renna of T-Man Custom Tackle gave me a few prototypes of a new soft plastic he is working on. They looked great and I was anxious to try them out. I put one on a 1/2oz head and began bouncing bottome in 12 feet of water. It didn’t long at all to get thumped hard.  As I was fighting mine, Mike hooked up with a 7″ Limetruese Slug-Go on a jig head as well. Both were nice fat keepers. 

I also managed one more decent fish on a Bass Harasser. This was back in 10 feet of water and I was just bouncing the lure along the bottom when the bass nearly ripped the rod out of my hands. We were back at the ramp around 5:30, not a bad two hours. It makes me feel a lot better about tomorrow’s charter!

It’s been the same thing every morning with the stripers… They are there but not in big numbers and they are not real aggressive. We see multiple fish on every drift and then it dies by 7 or so. Once things slowed, we went out a bit deeper and threw 6″ Salt Shakers on 1/2oz jigs in 20 feet of water. Still slow but we put a few more in the boat before pulling the plug around 9. T-Man Super Swimmers got the big fish of the day again…

On our way to another spot, we came across a hen wood duck with a ton of young. I counted 24 in this picture. I wanted to get closer for a better pic but she wasn’t happy and I didn’t want to separate any of them from momma.

Mike and I found a few fish right off the bat. The clarity was much better and the fish were willing to come up. We doubled up on keepers in the first 5 minutes or so.

We did OK for the remainder of the morning… We had another 3 keepers and a bunch of smaller fish. We had hits on just about everything we threw. The Sebile Stick Shadd was a blast. We used both the floating and suspending versions and caught on both. Houdini’s in Arkansas Shiner did well as did the Magnum Super Spooks. We caught fish in up to 12 feet of water but most were in the 4-6 foot range. I’ll be back out on Thursday and Friday, hopefully things continue to improve!

After closing up Conneticut Outfitters for the day, Mike swung by and picked me up at 6:30 and we headed out for the night bite. The river was barely launchable where we were, but we managed to get the boat in the river. We headed straight to the mouth of a creek that has a decent run of alewives. There the water was much cleaner and warmer than the main river. We immediately saw signs of life. I tied on a 9″ Reaction Strike Revolution Shad and began fan casting the area. On the second cast, I had a big wake come up behind the lure and follow it for 20 feet back to the boat. This happened several times without getting a hit. We weren’t worried, the lures were the perfect immitation of an alewife, we just needed it to get a bit darker out. As it began to get dark, we could see and hear stripers smashing bait on top… It was only a matter of time…

I have no idea what time, but it was good and dark out, we began getting hits. It was just a slow and steady retrieve with an occassional twitch. The hits were vicious! We threw lots of different lures from soft plastics to wood… Bombers, pencils, spooks, Slug-Go’s, Houdini’s and danny’s but in the end, all of our fish came on the big Revo Shads.

It was a great night on the water, no wind at all and no bugs (yet). It got chilly towards the end but we were dressed for it. Here are a couple of pics of the two largest fish for the night.

I had a decent fish roll on my Revo Shad on my very first cast but he never came back again. There were plenty of alewives around, I actually snagged one as he was trying to mate with the lure on the retrieve.

I played with a couple of other lures and sizes as it got darker but finally tied on a black and purple Bomber… That’s what the wanted. I only got one fish to the bank but dropped another and missed 3 other fish. It sure felt good to get the dust off the rod. It only gets better from here!