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.

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!

After minimal success we decided to try the docks on the west side of the lake since we hadn’t fished them in quite some time, and it turned out to be a good move. We landed another 10 fish on senkos from under the docks… The fishing wasn’t easy though since the fish were suspended way under the docks and pontoons boats requiring an accurately skipped bait under the docks. The recent rain made this even more difficult since the water levels were up a foot or so from last week.

Most fish that we landed were decent quality in the 2+ lb range and one monster topping out at around 6lbs.

Here’s a few shots of this chunky hog.

That is one fat bass… Especially for the end of summer!

Hopefully this pattern will hold up until the next time I have a few hours to spend on the lake. It has been cold at night lately so I would imagine the fish won’t stay on the docks for too long. If you are fishing this weekend, give the docks a try and you might very well land yourself a trophy! In case you were wondering, this fish was released unharmed to fight another day.

On Friday a cold front swept through and contributed to the poor fishing. The guys managed to land 7 blue sharks, but the target species (makos and threshers) eluded them. All was not lost however since there were reports that no other boats had landed a mako or thresher either on the first day.

Here are a few pics of the guys fishing on the first day:

Brian fighting a blue shark

Buddy fighting a blue shark

Blue Shark being released at the boat

A blue shark with its mouth open

DAY 2

The second day of fishing proved to be even worse than the first, with 7 foot seas cresting to 10+ft at times, the trip out was rough to say the least. Once the sun came up the seas calmed but the sharks still did not cooperate. The guys only managed to land one large blue shark. The weather was not the only thing keeper the sharks from biting however.

At one point during the day there was a huge shark with “square shaped fins” (estimated 15 feet long) swimming around the boat. As soon as it showed up the other sharks disappeared. Buddy did manage to snap a photo but it isn’t clear enough to identify the fish… Best guesses were a basking shark or a great white shark.

Here is the shot:

Basking or great white, the world may never know!

Trolling into port, the guys did manage to catch a mahi mahi…

[email_link]

Besides all the throwing up, the guys said they had fun and they look forward to fishing in the tournament again next year! Hopefully I will be able to go to…

Here are the rules for the tournament, if anyone is interested in fishing it next year…

2008 Thames River Shark Tournament (TRST)
Rules and Regulations
Any breach of any of TRST rules will result in
disqualification. Decisions of TRST committee are final.
Tournament Dates: July 25t-July 27t (Fishing: Friday, Saturday, and Sunday). Choose two out
of three. Fishing starts each day at 7:00 a.m. No lines or chum are to be in the water prior to
that time. Return for weigh in by 5:00 p.m.
Lay Day: A member of the boats crew must determine a lay day at the Captains Meeting by
8:00 p.m. on July 24 or by phone the morning of departure before 5:00 a.m. The phone number
to call in a lay day is 860.614.2733.
Captains Meeting: The Captains Meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday July 24th, at
Crockers Boat Yard (CBY). All forms must be completed and submitted prior to the start of the
meeting. At this meeting, participants will be informed of the tournament procedures and
receive their captain’s bags and rules. This will also be the opportunity for participants to raise
questions.
Dockage: Boats are responsible for making their own arrangements. TRST encourages that
boats arrange necessary accommodations with CBY. Slips are on a first come. first serve
basis. Boats may leave to fish from their own marinas and are not required to leave CBY.
Fishing Regulation:
1. All sharks must adhere to federal regulations to qualify for this tournament.
2. Only Mako and Thresher sharks are eligible.
3. Anglers are encouraged to hook, fight, and bring the fish to gaff unaided by another person
(excluding gaff and leader person). Handoffs will not disqualify fish.
4. This is a rod-and-reel, hook-and-line tournament. Use of hand lines, rope, nets, harpoons or
any other means of fish capture other than rod and reel are prohibited. Harpoon darts are
acceptable for landing fish in lieu of flying gaff.
5. All fish must be hooked during designated fishing hours.
Prizes:
1. Prize money checks are payable to the person indicated on entry forms.
2. All prizes are awarded to winning boats, not individual anglers.
3. Prize amount to be determined and published at the Captains Meeting.
4. Winners are responsible for paying applicable taxes. Completion of a W-9 form will be
required upon award.
5. Any prizes over $600 will be accompanied by an IRS form 1099.
Tackle Specification:
1. The Thames River Shark Tournament will not follow IGFA rules. Other rules must be
followed and are specified herein.
2. It is encouraged that anglers do not utilize gunnel rod holders after the initial hookup. This
shall not, however, be cause for disqualification.
3. The use of firearms or bang sticks is prohibited.
4. Tackle inspection may be required at the time of weigh-in.
Weigh-in:
1. All TRST boats must weigh fish in at the official weight station at CBY.
2. Boats weighing fish must be north of the Coast Guard Dock, New London,
by 5:00 p.m. each fishing day. Late arrivals will be disqualified.
3. All eligible sharks will be judged at one point per pound. The most points
wins.
4. Any and all protests must be filed in writing with the judges within one hour
after the conclusion of the weigh-in each day.
5. After the weigh master releases a fish, its disposal is at the discretion of participants.
6. If anyone wants to have a fish reweighed, it must be done while the fish is still hanging.
After it is removed from the scale, the weight stands.
7. No mutilated fish shall be eligible for competition. Mutilation shall be defined as damage
which would impair the fighting ability of the fish.
8. The weigh master reserves the right to retain any fish deemed questionable. If retention is
refused, the fish is automatically disqualified.
9. The weigh master and the committee reserve the right to cut open any fish for inspection for
weight altering. Insertion of weights, ice, water, etc is not permitted and disqualifies the
team from further competition and forfeiture of entry fees.
Boats:
1. All boats must have the ability to fish without any outside help.
2. Fish cannot be transferred between vessels.
3. Fish must be hooked, fought, and landed from the same boat.
4. Crew size and composition is at the discretion of the captain(s).
5. One qualifying shark may be weighed per boat per day.
6. There shall be no use of aircraft of any kind for spotting or baiting fish.
7. There shall be no use of outside assistance for landing or acquiring fish.
8. Boats are to respect fellow competitors at all times. Reasonable distance should be kept
from all boats fighting fish and working an active chum slick. If a boat in the process of
fishing requests another to stay clear, the non-fishing vessel must comply.
General Tournament Conduct:
1. The official clock of the tournament will be kept on GPS time EDT.
2. Official radio announcements will be made over channel 69.
3. The Thames River Shark Tournament assumes no responsibility for the conduct or safety of
any boats or entrants. All boats are responsible for making decisions regarding weather.
Participants enter the tournament at their own risk.
4. All participants and their crews, friends, and family shall be respectful of the tournament
hosts (i.e. CBY) as well as its staff and residents.
5. Any participant whose action causes the Thames River Shark Tournaments, directors,
sponsors, employees, volunteers, or participants to incur expenses shall be held responsible
and shall reimburse said persons or entities for financial damages.
6. A majority vote of captains present at the meeting on July 24 will determine if TRST is to
proceed.
7. If TRST is cancelled due to any circumstance or in the instance that no qualifying fish are
caught, prize money to be raffled.

Brian called me about an hour before I got out of work saying he had the night off and asked if I wanted to fish the last couple hours of daylight. He twisted my arm (not too hard) and I agreed to go.

We got on the lake around 630pm and started fishing some grass mats close to my backyard. We landed 5 quick fish on texas rigged senkos and wacky rigged senkos, but then the boat traffic really started to kick up so we had to move. We fished the eastern shoreline looking for shallow water hits and under the docks for fish looking for shade. We landed a couple bass, but nothing really noteworthy.

Once we got to the north shore of the lake we fished the large area of submerged vegetation with our senkos, and caught another 4 or 5 largemouth with the biggest being about 2 lbs. I tried throwing a topwater banana boat, but since I was bringing it over 3 foot cresting waves from all the boat traffic, it turned out to be fruitless. We had to leave the weeded area since the pontoon brigade decided it was time to run a train right through our fishing grounds. We have now dubbed that area pontoon road since everyone on a pontoon boat feels that have to drive directly through the weed beds as close to shore as possible.

We moved on to the area of the lake where the weeds have breached the surface of the water, where I had caught a 4-4.5lb largemouth on a stanley ribbit frog. I started throwing my frog again and had a hit on my 3rd cast right near the boat. The fish let go while fighting it in the weeds. Brian put on a sizmic toad and fished it across the top of the weeds, but managed only to catch said weeds. He did have a couple swirls, but no definitive hits. Just as I was about to give up on my frog I got an explosive hit and the fight was on.

The fish went deep into the weeds and I had to horse it out. I got it to the boat and it was a 4-4.5lb largemouth (quite possibly the one I had caught in that area on a frog two days prior). We snapped a quick photo and released the fish.

Reserved for photo if Brian ever sends it to me.

On the way back to my house we caught a few fish on spinnerbaits, including a few smallmouth,
and also found ourselves going over 4ft breakers sent out from the ski boats that feel the need to go as fast as they can as close to you as they can.

As the sun was shedding its last rays of light on the lake, the skiiers all went in, and the lake went as calm as glass. Too bad we were already putting our gear away, maybe we could have had some topwater action!

The fishing started off very slow, we only landed one fish in the first hour, but it picked up once we got to the grass mats along the northern shoreline, and we landed 6 or 7 bass.  We then moved into a shallow cove on the northeast tip of the lake, which yielded my mom a couple of largemouths off of grass mats.  Fishing the knocked down trees in the cove produced no fish, which was quite uncommon.  After that we decided to fish around the docks on the north shore, and I caught a 3lb largemouth on a texas rigged senko, but nothing else was noteworthy.

After minimal success on the docks, we moved back over the weed beds, I switched to a topwater banana boat, not expecting to catch anything since it was now noon time, and on my first cast I caught a 2lb largemouth. Thinking I was on to something I threw it for the next 10 minutes with no hits.  I looked through my bag and found some “Ribbit” frogs that I had bought on clearance and decided to give them a try over some weeds that had breached the surface.  The Ribbit frog rig is interesting, it comes with a bleeding red hook with a corkscrew on the top that goes into the head of the bait, and the hook goes in texas style with a slot on the back of the frog.  The action of the two legs on the back of the bait is pretty impressive as it swims across the top of the water.

I had never fished a frog on cedar lake because there are no lilly pads, but I figured since the fishing was slow I would give it a shot.  On my third cast, to my surprise I caught a 2lb largemouth.  I figured I might as well keep trying since I had a strong hit, and the fish got the hook on the first try…  2 casts later I had an explosive hit over the weed beds and the fight was on.

After a strong fight in heavy cover I got the fish to the boat.  I couldn’t tell how large it was until I went to lip it. I reached down, lipped the fish and brought it into the boat along with a pound of weeds. The result was a nice 4 to 4.5lb largemouth.

We stayed and fished that area for another 15 minutes with no luck before heading home.  In order to take advantage of the nice weather and my day off, I went home had lunch and then went out waterskiing with Erik and Randy.  We called it a day around 330P and I had to mow the lawn, be an electrician, and go grocery shopping.  Needless to say I was pretty tired around 9pm and fell asleep the second I hit the bed!

Two weeks ago we were in the midst of a heatwave and there was not a cloud in the sky, but today the fog was so thick we only had about 20 feet of visibility when we launched the boat (see photos below). The last time we fished together all of our fish were found on structure and in shaded areas, but today there was not much to be found on structure or under docks (we went 1 for 6 on the fish we had hooked up).  I decided to fish the same weed beds that we fished last night with my parents and Erik, and it turned out to be a very good choice.

We immediately started catching fish off the grass.  After catching 4 or 5 smaller fish in a couple minutes, Brian got a strong hit and a nice bass came flipping out of the water. I put my pole down to give him a hand landing the fish.  This bass was strong and Brian could barely budge it in the weeds, he jumped 3 more times over the next 2 minutes and I finally got a hand on him and brought it into the boat. It weighed roughly 5lbs and was about 22.5 inches. We snapped a pic with Brian’s cell and released her to fight another day.

Check out that hog in the fog… (Click To Enlarge)

The fun didn’t stop there though.  Right after Brian caught that fish, the area lit up with bass busting on schools of bait all around us.  Everytime we cast to a school of baitfish we caught a bass sitting under them.  This went on for about 30 minutes, and it didn’t matter what we were throwing.  We got them on senkos (texas and wacky rigged), yozuri banana boats, and spinnerbaits. We landed about 20 keepers, including one smallmouth, and then they turned off just as quick as they turned on.

We fished until about 1130a and then a rain storm came through so we went back to my house to play some mariokart wii. We went back out around 230p and fished for another 90 minutes before a nasty super cell went over the lake dropping the temp 15 degrees and bringing torrential downpours prompting us to call it a night. We did manage another 8-10 fish before the rains came, but nothing overly note worthy, but i did catch a huge red eyed rockbass.

MEATY LITTLE GUY (Click to enlarge)

Despite the weather we had a great time, and its always fun spending some time on the water with friends (it sure beats working)… Looking forward to doing it again soon…

Conditions:

Foggy, rainy, windy, water temp 74 degrees

We started the day working a few shaded rock piles and some treefilled shoreline with wacky rigged and texas rigged senkos, with nothing more than a few nibbles. Being that it was our first time fishing the AM this season I decided that spinnerbaits would be worth a shot since the senko approaxh was not producing. Brian took the initiative to rig up a 1/4 ounce double bladed white spinnerbait with a blue head, and got a fish on his second or third cast. He then caught a few more quick fish, which prompted me to make the change. I tried a white spinnerbait similar to his with exception of it having a yellow head. This produced nothing! A savvy switch to his identical spinnerbait style landed me 4 or 5 bass. Color was key yesterday…

Once the shade receeded and the water warmed up a few more degrees, the spinnerbait bite ended quickly. The slow down in strikes put us back into senko mode. Our focus now shifted to casting, flipping and skipping our plastic offerings under docks, pontoon boats, and anything else we could find that provided shade from the searing rays of the already toasty sun. This pattern turned out to be the key to success yesterday.

All in all we landed 40-50 fish with many over 2lbs, one in the 5+lb range:

and one topping out over 7lbs!!!

Of note we also had numerous long distance releases and 2 breakoffs. All in all a great day of fishing, and we even got a little tan!