Seeing Stripes & RAIN!

I just took a glance at the weekend forecast and the initial consensus is that we should expect to see some rain this weekend!  It's about damn time is all I can say.  On my recon trips to the Shetucket/Thames river last weekend, the Salmon river fish ladder and Mashamoodus park in Moodus, and the CT river all are incredibly low.  Looking at the train bridge south of the Arrigoni in Portland/Middletown speaks volumes of how low the water in the CT river actually is as the steel boat/debris bumper plates to protect the pilings are nearly 5'-6' out of the water.  Friday and Saturday should produce a good bite with a warmer air low pressure system moving into the area as it should hold-off the cold front descending from Canada.  By Sunday we should see the temps dip down a bit moving us into somewhat "normal" temperatures Sunday-on, but all of this is dependent on the track of the low-pressure system.  If that system moves more to the East we will not see as much rain.

Ok I'm done pretending to be a weatherman, not that it really matters, my guess and yours is as good as theirs.  If we do get this rain, and we absolutely need it, we should see the mass of bait that has been accumulating outside the river mouths begin their intended run.  Which means... STRIPED BASS!  Yes, there are reports floating around out there that keeper sized bass are being caught in the rivers, most consistently out of the Hartford area.  Eels, sandworm, and the usual imitations are all working, so I've heard.  This past Saturday I fished out of Wethersfield cove to the south on the CT river from 5:00am-12:00 without a bump, I did see carp, trout, and some unidentified fish leaping from the water which was the one thing I was clinging to for hope of a bite.

If you are not into Striped bass, the small ponds that remain open year round are producing well for bass, pickeral, etc.   Tuesday night from 6:30-10:30 my fishing partner Evan and I scored about 50 fish, from crappie, sunfish, LMB, and pickeral.  I coaxed 6 bass around 2.5-3lbs to take a sweetbeaver in green pumpkin and watermelon and meet me in the boat.  (I will spare the pictures because I had my camera set up for night shots and they were all overexposed)  After sunset disaster struck for both of us, first around ten o'clock my partner lost a large bass to his fly tippet breaking.  As he slumped down in the boat with his head resting in his hands with grief, the bass who was well-stuck with a popper tried repeatedly to remove the bait by crashing the top of the water.  Based on the size of the splashes this was a huge bass.  My turn came about 20 minutes later when after changing rod setups to a surface popper myself I set the hook on a bass around the same size only to have my braided line completely turn around the spool on my Stradic.  I lost the fish due to an ineffective hook-set and lack of tension on the fish since I couldn't do so.  Some fishermen we are.  After I got home, I took all the line off down to the knot on the spool and taped it in so that doesn't happen the next time.