New England Toothy Critters!

[CCMD]

Took a day off work yesterday to fish the Connecticut River. Target species was pike, and boy was it a great day. Cold front blew in over the weekend with temps dropping down into the low 20s overnight Saturday and Sunday. Monday brought a warming trend, and by yesterday (Wednesday), it was a perfect day to fish. Lucky, since I had blocked my work schedule about 6 weeks in advance and just prayed for good weather.

 

Water temps were in the 54-55 degree range when we put in at 9am. By 2, they were up to 57 degrees in most of the water we were fishing. We were concentrating on shallow water 3-12' deep with access to a deeper drop in the vicinity. Remaining beds of small leaf pond weed were a big plus. We caught  several smaller pike in 6' feet of water over weedbeds, including the 32" pictured below. The 2 big fish were actually caught on shallow flats near drops in areas of wood and scattered rock, no weeds in sight.

 

We also caught a bundle of smallmouth while fishing for the pike. Let me tell you, those C-River smallies are footballs. All but 2 of the smallies we caught were 2.5-3.5 lbs. For whatever reason, we wound find scattered brownbacks up in the shallows while fishing for pike. They didn't seem to mind the wire leader or 50 lb fluoro, despite good water clarity. Though we weren't sure why they weren't down in 25-40 feet of water, we sure didn't mind flipping 'em in the boat.

 

A lot of the fish (including several pike) were caught off 6-7" paddle tail swimbaits fished on a 3/8 to 1/2 ounce gold underspin jighead.

 

Full disclosure, the 2 big pike pictured were not caught on swimbaits. They were caught on 1/2 ounce brown spinnerbaits with big tandem gold and/or copper blades. For whatever reason, that pattern was the one that was producing the hottest. I know they weren't caught on swimbaits, but considering they were 40" and 43", I felt compelled to include pictures. World class fish are hard to leave off a post. Best guess is that they were eating young smallmouth, chasing a big flashy brown bait.

 

I did manage to hook up a pike on an Evergreen Esflat, a bait which also put a couple of football brownbacks in the boat. Chucked a Deps 175 for a while, but no follows and no takers. Needed something that was moving faster yesterday. Bummer, that.

 

The 2 monsters pictured below both hit in shallow < 6' of water. The air was brisk and the sun was up with just a little breeze to chop the water. Both of the monsters came within 5 minutes of pulling up on a new spot. With good water clarity, you could see the huge flash as they smashed the bait. ZZZ, splash, crank, crank - FLASH BANG BOOM! Then, all hell would break loose as the other 2 guys quickly reeled up and the fisherman hooked up ran circles around the boat for about 15 minutes trying to keep the pike out of the motor, trolling motor, out of the rocks/wood, etc. Meanwhile, the other 2 guys would be shouting and dodging, calling for more drag or less drag, different rod angle, KEEP THE TENSIONS!!! Basic arm-chair quarterback stuff. It was awesome. Each of the big boys was hand-landed as they were too big for the net. All fish carefully released to swim back and eat just about anything they dang well please, at that size.

 

Who needs Canada? World class pike are right here! Highlights below.

 

[bigpoppabass]

Beauties, great report looks like a a fly in canadian trip. Yeah, sm are rarely leader shy.

[CCMD]

Moved up here recently. Couldn't believe I could drive less than 2 hours and catch pike like that. Always figured I'd need to pay a boat-load of money to do a fly-in Canadian trip (like you said) to catch pike like that. Now I know all I need is gas money and time off. That's a pretty sweet revelation.

[bassbass]

Nice

[FishDr]

Great write-up and gorgeous pike!

[MarkH024]

Nice gators! Congrats!

[flaswimbaiter]

Great pikes. Would love to tangle with those

[waynem]

Seems like every year there are more pike in the Ct River. I'm trying to catch 3-5# smallies and so are they. Nice fish!

[northeast_trev]

have lost two good size pike this season, my own error both times but cant wait to boat one! Nice fish!

[CCMD]

Got hosed by the weatherman this week. Was a planning a trip to the same area yesterday, but Wednesday night the forecast called for sustained winds 20-30 mph by 10 AM with gusts to 50 mph. Me and my buddy decided to cancel. He went to work the next day (and he's the one with the boat), only for us both to discover that the front got held up and and the weather was perfect. Temps in the high 50s to 60s with low winds. The bad weather didn't blow in until after 3pm! But, he was already on the clock and couldn't leave.

 

Dang meteorologists. Cost me another shot at some gators. The day would've set up perfect: low winds and good temps with sun until the late afternoon, when a big front blew in. Think the fish would've been biting on the leading edge of that front??

 

Oh well, my frustrations get a little better looking back at the pictures from last week. And I know those gators aren't going anywhere. I'll be back for 'em.

 

Trev, if you haven't looked up the Eric Aske leader video on youtube, it's worth it. I rigged up that way with some 60 lb crimps and 50 lb fluoro and had no trouble. Didn't affect the action on the bigger swimbaits and glidebaits either. Definitely a nice way to go when fishing for toothy critters.