I was throwing a junebug spiderjig and had a couple light hits around submerged rocks in 6-8 ft of water, but nothing would stay on. Brian was throwing a candy corn colored senko type bait made by bass pro shops. With no success in the deeper water we decided to try something a little more shallow.

On our way to the north end of the lake brian saw some rocks in 4 ft of water we had never seen before (the lake is down 2 ft). We stopped and brian threw his candy corn stick bait at the rocks. He instantly hooked into something big. His rod doubled up and the fight was on. After 10 seconds it was over and we never saw the fish.

After a brief cursing session brian threw right back in the place he had hooked up, and instantly the fight was on again. This time he landed it. It was about 24 inches and 6.5 lbs. Sometimes things just work out I guess.

We kept fishing for another hour, but the wind had picked up and the temp dropped. In all we landed one smallmouth and 4 largemouth. Not a bad first trip if I say so myself!

Just for you Brian, here is the profile.

Yesterday Brian and I joined Greg, a lifetime saltwater fisherman in Mystic for a shot at the sounds triple crown, blackfish, bluefish and stripers. We got on the water around 7am and headed out of Mystic on Greg’s 26 foot fishing machine looking for early morning stripers and blues on topwater. Before we even made it past the boats in the marinas we saw some birds working and a few splashes under them. As we got there the birds flew off and the action stopped, but we still threw some plugs and poppers, which didn’t produce a single hit.

Not seeing anything else working the surface we fished a reef near Watch Hill using umbrella rigs, tube and worm, and topwater plugs with not even a single hit. Greg assured us this was on of his top spots for catching big bass and blues, and that the fish should be here at some point in the day. After a few passes trolling we decided to reel up and head to the deeper water out at the Race. On our way out we saw hundreds of birds working so we shot over to try some more topwater, but just couldn’t get a hit, no matter what we threw at them, or what we trolled by them. Frustrated we continued on to the Race.

We trolled around Valiant Rock with umbrella rigs, and finally got a hit (a 5lb bluefish). Trolling some more resulted in nothing despite a large flock of birds working the entire area. Watching the depth finder I noticed a few fish holding tight to the bottom and no visible bait balls anywhere on the screen, so we decided to discontinue the futile trolling effort and start three-waying some bucktails.

I tied one on and dropped it down and as soon as it hit the bottom I had a fish on. Greg saw me hook up and switched to a bucktail and almost immediately hooked up too. We had a double on our first drop. Brian was using a diamond jig with no luck, so we hooked him up with a bucktail, and he hooked up with a nice blue shortly after we released ours. We bucktailed for another 30 minutes and landed a few more blues before the slack went tide and our drift turned into a crawl.

Deciding fishing would be slow for a bit we moved into Fisher’s Island Sound to try our hand at some blackfishing. We anchored up in 20 ft of water on the edge of a small submerged rock pile, and rigged up some halved green crabs. I started out using a lighter spinning rod that I had used previously blackfishing, and Greg says to me “You sure that pole is meaty enough for blackfish?” Just as I am saying yeah I have fished with it before with no problems, I get a hit and the drag goes screaming. Before I could tighten it up the fish had me in the rocks. It came out once and immediately found another hiding spot and broke me off. I switched to a heavy duty rod after that!

We were fishing off the back of the boat and Brian and I were nailing fish after fish including a few porgies and cunners, with the blackfish mixed in. Greg tried everything but just couldn’t land one that day. We even let him switch spots with Brian and still nothing… Brian did catch a few Tautogs in his spot though

We only had 3 dozen green crabs with us and the fish were biting so we ran out of bait quick. In total we landed about 10 blackfish and 5 were keepers with the biggest being around 4 lbs. When we ran out of crabs Brian and I tried some of the Berkeley Gulp sandworms and actually caught a few blackfish and porgies on them to my surprise.

After Blackfishing we decided to troll around Greg’s favorite reef by Watch Hill again, but unfortunately the swells were still ripping and the fish were no where to be found. Bucktailing that area also produced nothing but a small black sea bass.

Wanting to find that elusive striped bass to complete our triple crown, we thought about heading back out to the Race, but since we wouldn’t have much time to fish once we got out there we decided to save the gas for another time, and headed in to clean our blackfish and get on the road.

Overall we had a great time and it was really nice fishing with Greg, he really knows those fishing grounds… even though he couldn’t land a blackfish … He did invite us back out on Sunday to try again, but maybe we turn down the offer so he can catch a few this time.

I couldn’t think of a better way to spend a late October day, I even got a little bit of a tan since it was mid 60′s with bright sunshine.

I got on the water around 1:30 and fished some black and blue fleck hula grubs on a 1/4 ounce jighead on the East side of the lake, with no luck in the first 30 minutes. I then decided to switch gears and hit the West shoreline since I figured the water would be a few degrees warmer from the strong morning sun.  On the way over I hit some of the submerged rock piles with no luck.

Once on the other side of the lake I started throwing watermelon cabin creek spider jigs and texas rigged senkos around my favorite deeper water docks (which aren’t so deep anymore now that the lake is down over 2 feet).  I got a strike on my third cast and landed a 2 lb largemouth bass on a jig. Hoping I had found a pattern I kept fishing the sunny side of docks on the West shore.  20 minutes went by and finally another hit, again off a deep water dock, and another 2lb largemouth.

I didn’t find any other fish on the West side, but did catch a couple smallmouth on the North shore fishing some submerged rock piles in 6 feet of water.  Senkos produced nothing no matter what color, size or presentation I threw… One of the smallmouth I caught was so dark it look black.  As I was reeling it in I actually thought it was the first freshwater tautog (a.k.a. blackfish for those who don’t know what a tautog is).

I fished for another 45 minutes on the East shore with not as much as a hit, and then I called it a day around 4:30… It wasn’t a great day but with a cold front coming through this week, lowered water levels, and cold fall water, at least I caught something.

Hopefully I will be able to get out at least one more time this year on the lake, but it may not happen if the weather continues to get colder and the lake gets more shallow.

We got out on the water around 7:30am and started fishing shallow structure with everything from texas rigged senkos to spinnerbaits with no luck. After finding nothing in the shallows we went across the lake to fish deeper water and structure. Brian stuck with a senko and I switched over to a black and blue spider grub (technically it was the chompers hula grub). We both fished around the docks and pontoon boats (the ones that are still in the water) with minimal luck.

We both persevered with our respective baits and fished for about an hour with nothing more than a couple nibbles, until we got to some deeper docks on the north west shore of the lake. Just as I was commenting that I should be getting fish on spider grubs this time of year, I hooked up with a 2 pound largemouth. The next cast resulted in a 2.5lb largemouth. Having thought I found a pattern we continued fishing the deep water docks, and managed to find another 6 or seven fish including 2 smallmouth. Brian ended up landing only a smallmouth and 1 largemouth on the senko, despite his 5 hours of hard work casting and skipping his bait under the docks.

Largest fish of the day was only about 3lbs, and they were few and far between, but hopefully once our weather pattern settles down and the rain stops we will see some better fall fishing. If anyone is having success with other baits this time of the year let me know via the comments section below!

Number 4: Yozuri Banana Boat

I have found that the Yozuri banana boat is one of the best lures to use when fish are active and you are looking to cover alot of water in a little amount of time. The following features and characteristics are what set this bait apart from the rest and make it a must have in any bass angler’s tackle box.

• Castability – The banana boat is very aerodynamic and casts like a bullet. Being able to cast this bait a long way makes it a better choice over a conventional popper or topwater walking bait. Make a nice long cast parallel to structure and start working the bait back and forth and the fish won’t be able to resist striking.
• Unique Action – Like most other floating topwater baits, the banana boat is fished with a “walk the dog” presentation, however the action produced while “walking” the banana boat is very unique and that is what will trigger more hard hitting strikes over a conventional topwater bait.
• Fast Retrieve – Since a banana boat is best used when fishing for active fish feeding on the surface, a fast retrieve becomes a plus for this bait since you can cover alot of water very quickly.  This is helpful in finding fish, as well developing a pattern for the rest of the day.
• Treble Hooks – With 6 treble hooks on a small bait like the banana boat, you will notice a good ratio of strikes to hookups versus a bait that only has a single hook or 3 treble hooks.  The design of the bait also allows for the bait to sit upright in the water in between twitches, which increases the chances of hooking up.

Now that we have seen the positives of this bait, I would like to touch on some of the negatives that come along with the banana boat, and most topwater baits in general.

The first negative is the amount of work expended walking this bait. A constant twitch retrieve is required for maximum action on this bait, and a few hours of this can really be a workout… The good news is that you don’t notice how much your arms hurt when you get a bunch of explosive strikes.

The second negative is that many times after a cast or during the retrieve your line will get caught on the front treble hook, or even on both sets of hooks, which costs valuable time in the strike zone.  Although this happens with the banana boat, it tends to happen more so with other similar topwater baits, and mostly with poppers in my experience.

The third negative has to do seasonality. This bait only produces fish when the conditions are right.  The bass must be actively feeding and willing to chase a bait.  This limits how many fish you can catch on a banana boat, and is ultimately why this bait is near the end of our top 5 list.

The baits come in 7 different colors, including: Blue/Silver, Clown, Gold/Black, Trout, Tennessee Shad, Black/Redhead, Red Head. My personal favorite is the Tennessee Shad.

So the next time the fish are chasing bait, try the Yozuri Banana Boat, you won’t be disappointed!

Up Next is the Wiggle Wart Crankbait Coming Soon

Previous Segments:

Number 1: The Senko

Number 2: The Spinnerbait

Number 3: The Spider Grub

Date: 9/21/08

Since the season was winding down on Cedar Lake we decided to take the boat out of the water last weekend and make a trip to the sounds for some striper, bluefish, and porgy fishing before we dropped the boat off at the marina to be winterized. We launched out of the Baldwin Bridge launch in Old Saybrook aroun 5:30AM, but didn’t make it out into open water until 6:45AM since the fog was in thick and visibility was only about 5 feet!

At one point a 50 foot boat crossed in front of us about 10 feet off our bow and we barely saw it.  Thank god for GPS otherwise we would have never made it to the sound… As soon as the sun came up the fog burned off and we were able to open it up and head out to the eastern rip.  We three way’d eels on two rods and and fresh bunker chunks on one rod from 30-50 feet.  Almost immediately we hooked up with a nice bluefish that gave a pretty good fight and weighted about 12 lbs on the boga grips.

Here is a shot of my friend Robbie with his catch:

We had 2 or three more big hits on the eels, but nothing else was boated on the rip. The fresh bunker was left untouched the whole day. After an hour of drifting we moved to Long Sand Shoal to try our luck, but nothing was biting there either.

A short trip to Outer Hatchetts Reef and we were drifting live eels and bunker chuck with no success again.  At this point the tide went slack and we decided to switch into porgy mode catching 20-30 porgies and about the same number of small black sea bass using clams and squid. It was coming up on lunch time so we decided to tube and worm with t-man custom tackle tubes and sandworms up the shoreline back to the dock and dine, but never had a strike on those either. We ate lunch and headed back out to the eastern rip and tried our luck with our last couple eels.

We hooked up pretty quick when we got back to the rip, but it turned out to be a skate.

It was getting late and the sun, water, and fishing had beat us up all day, and we still needed to scrub down the boat and drop it off at the marina, so we headed back to the launch.

Overall we had a fun day, even though we didn’t have the best luck…

On my third cast with the swimming senko, I landed a 2.5lb largemouth off of a marker buoy. I was fishing it just like I would a regular senko for the most part, but would give it some swimming action around structure. This swimming action seemed to be the key since senko fishing had been slow the last few times I went out. Over the 45 minutes of fishing I landed 7 keepers (largest was about 3lbs), and I missed 3-4 good strikes.

If your senko fishing has slowed down this time of year I would recommend trying the swimming senko by yamamoto baits or kinami. I was using the 4 inch watermelon with red flake for those who were wondering, and the water was moderately stained last night.

I also threw a spinnerbait for a while with no success, so I guess it is back to slow and low for a while until the fall bite turns on…

Nothing was real big last night but it sure was fun to have some hard-hittin’ topwater spinnerbait action!

I threw everything I had in my bag including senkos (wacky rigged and texas rigged), spinnerbaits, topwater, and jigs, but for 2.5 hours of fishing we only landed 5 fish, of which only 1 was a “keeper”.  Total tally was 1 on a wacky rigged senko, 1 on a texas rigged senko, and 3 on a spinnerbait retrieved quickly across the surface. All fish were largemouth bass.

Overall we had fun even though the fish didn’t cooperate, and Sally enjoyed barking at everyone on the lake!