Fishing 2024

[JimG.]

East Branch Croton River-4/22

Checked out our fleet of rowboats and trimmed up access trails to my favorite spots on the river on Sunday so figured I'd fish for trout yesterday. Beautiful spring day, sunny and bluebird. Water was clear and fast. Enticed many hits and bites on a variety of small spinners and plugs on the downstream section of Brady's bend but hooked nothing. Too sunny and the water too clear, trout were having too much time to examine my bait. So, I moved to the Borden bridge and worked the upstream and downstream pools. It was shady and cool and water was moving fast but with plenty of eddies and deep pools. And the trout seemed to love it. Landed about a dozen holdover browns and hooked as many others. Good start to fishing 2024.

 

[JimG.]

Rye Lake-4/26

Steve did some bass fishing at Rye Lake earlier this week and had good smallmouth luck so we went out again today. Got out at noon knowing that action usually dies at 4:30 or so this time of year. Still pre-spawn so the male smallies were out and about feeding up and looking for trouble. We each boated 5 decent sized bass today all about the size of the fish in the pics. No weeds yet so the action was pretty random but catching a total of 10 fish in an afternoon is a damn good day.

 

[JimG.]

Rye Lake-5/3

Great day for me. 6 bass total, 5 smallmouths and my first largemouth of the year. Pic is of my best fish, a solid 4lbs. Steve caught 1 decent bass and 2 small fish.
Luck was pretty one sided today.

 

[JimG.]

Bog Brook-5/4

Steve and I decided to try Bog Brook today. BB is best fished in April and May and is well known for big smallmouths. The fish are also known for being very picky. We caught a lot of small pan fish and small bass. Steve tied on a small #2 silver spinner and bang a nice 4lbs. smallmouth. I had a hard time believing the fish wanted that tiny little spinner, but I tied one on and cast it into every good looking spot as we headed down the shore back to the boat spot. Steve stopped rowing for a moment and threw a cast and bang, after I had thrown about 200 casts he bags another fine smallmouth on his first cast. He clearly possessed the mojo but I refused to give up and kept casting right back to the boat spot. And bang I hooked a nice smallmouth that fought hard and jumped 3 times. Lost it at the side of the boat but I was pretty happy anyway. Funny how luck ebbs and flows day to day. And how those fish made me work hard right up until the bitter end of the day.

 

[JimG.]

Rye Lake-5/7

Weather was way too nice today, blue skies and intense sun. The bass were biting very lightly and were hard to hook. We did boat 4 bass each and a few were decent sized, but nothing to photograph. Towards the end of the day a few bass were hitting on the surface and I boated my best bass of the day on a surface hit. Days like this make me appreciate when the fish are hitting with abandon.

 

[JimG.]

Bog Brook-5/19

Got out on BB with my youngest son James who graduated from Alfred University on 5/11. Early on today he got 2 lazy hits on the silver #2 vibrax spinner from big and typically picky BB smallmouths and lost both of them. And that was the last we saw of smallies for the day. Fortunately the largemouths were hitting worms today and we boated a few decent ones. The best part of bass season is upon us.

 

[JimG.]

Pepacton Reservoir-5/25

Spent a day in the Catskills at Pepacton. Conditions were not ideal as it was sunny and pretty hot. Res was 98% full and Mill creek was not running very strong. Pretty much the opposite of what I prefer. I did land a bunch of small yellow perch and bass, but nothing over 12". But I do always enjoy hiking around and casting. Beautiful place.

 

[JimG.]

Rye Lake-5/31

June is upon us, the weed beds are starting to grow in, and the bass are starting to bite aggressively. Started out with a jointed red crawdad Rapala. Caught 5 decent largemouths, 2 rock bass, a good-sized yellow perch and a pikerel. Also lost a pikerel about twice as big as the one I boated when it bit my line (which is what these pikerel usually manage to do). So much for my red crawdad Rapala, didn't have another one that color in my box.

Not to worry, the blue flake black Gary Yamamoto 5" senko took over. Continued to catch largemouths but now we started to mix in a few big smallmouths too. Action continued strong until about 7pm when the bite diminished and we headed back to our boat spot where a great white egret is nesting. Great 6 hour afternoon of fishing.

 

[JimG.]

Long Island Sound-6/6

Great day of striper and sea bass fishing on the Rock & Roll out of Clinton, CT. Captain TJ and First Mate Mitch came through with some great action. Last year we didn't even see a striper, this year we trolled for them to start and had immediate action. We all boated a good size striper, all 12lbs+ and two over 20lbs.







After the good striper action we moved spots to fish for sea bass which is my favorite eating fish. Last year we had trouble landing keeper sized sea bass but this year we each boated our limit (5 fish per person) and more. My arms were actually a little tired after reeling in all the fish!



Awesome fishing with my oldest and best friends.

 

[JimG.]

Rye Lake-6/13

Summer is upon us. It was sunny and hot today. We caught a bunch of fish but no bass over 14-15" and mostly small fish, some no longer than a cell phone. Still fun and it allows for using techniques that we usually ignore. I rigged up a deep diving Rapala and trolled deep water between bass fishing spots. And that produced a good-sized brown trout that turned out to be my best fish of the day.



The blood everywhere is not from the fish; if you look carefully you can see the treble hook from my lure buried in my bloody right thumb. Yeah, that kind of sucked. When I got the trout near the boat I could see the lure filled its' mouth and I had nowhere to grab the fish to get it onboard. Even though I know better, I tried to grab the lip of the lure and boat the fish that way. As soon as I grabbed the lure the trout shook violently and managed to unhook itself and hook my thumb in the same motion. Got the pic, then slowly clipped the lure off my line so I could manipulate the hook. It was buried beyond the barb down to the bend. I pushed down on the hook to disengage the barb and I miraculously avoided a trip to the hospital when the hook came out cleanly with no issues. Who says fishing isn't dangerous lol?

 

[JimG.]

East Branch Reservoir-6/16 (Father's Day)

My oldest and youngest sons woke me up at 5am and told me we were going fishing. I didn't argue. My first time fishing the reservoir this year. The EB used to be our go to fishing spot, but it has changed over the years. A lot more fishing pressure, the ill-advised introduction of walleyes decades ago and upstream property development have made it a lot harder to find and catch bass. We had a good day fishing from 6-11. Caught a mix of largemouths and yellow perch/white perch. Smallmouths got into the act at around 9:30 but nothing bigger than 12". Going to go back there again soon.

 

[JimG.]

Rye Lake-6/27

Summer is in full swing but today was very pleasant. Which meant that fishing was just OK. We boated a few decent smallmouths in the 14" size class. Steve caught two that were about 16". I caught a couple of 15" largemouths. That's about it, nothing pic worthy. And now the dog days are upon us. Looking at the long range forecast it looks like I will take the next few weeks off to avoid the heat.

 

[JimG.]

Rye Lake-7/18

It's been brutally hot but today was pretty nice with clouds and a nice breeze. Not too humid. I just assumed it would be an average day of fishing. And while we did not catch any pic worthy big bass, we did land a good number of decent bass, both large and smallmouths. The weed beds are just starting to grow in (kind of late this season) and the action was random as a result, but there were plenty of biting fish.

My son James joined us and he caught a few decent bass and was very happy. He started his first job on 7/22, putting his knowledge of chemistry to good use as a quality control chemist. Papa is very proud.

 

[JimG.]

Rye Lake-7/26

Another great summer day, sunny and warm with a good breeze.



Tough day of fishing. Until around 6:30 nothing but 2 tiny bass each. Last 2 hours were OK and we each boated a few decent bass. I hooked a big largemouth that put up an amazing battle. I watched it pounce on my senko from a pile of boulders and that fish was determined to get back to the cover of those rocks. Tore out drag 4 times and I could feel my line getting abraded against the rock edges each time. The fifth run broke my line. Somehow, I got my worm back, but the first 3 feet of my line were trashed. Pretty smart fish.

 

[JimG.]

Rye Lake-8/13

Another OK fishing day with a few decent bass. Action seemed to pick up as the light faded. Nothing bigger than 15". The weeds have never grown in this season and I wonder if the state has used anything in the water to retard their growth. Weedbeds at Rye Lake are typically extensive at this point in the season but they are almost absent now.

 

[JimG.]

Rye Lake-8/23

Great weather today. Caught about a dozen bass, the biggest ones about 12". Same for Steve, his biggest maybe 14". I switched from the plastic worm to a jointed Rapala today and caught all my fish on it. The worm was working for Steve; I was happy to see the fish biting on a diving plug, it means Fall fishing is near. Looking for the fishing to pick up the next few weeks and looking forward to a return to Nantucket Sept/Oct.

 

[JimG.]

East Branch Reservoir-9/3

Finally got back to the EB. Great weather today sunny but cool with a slight breeze. I rowed most of the lake and did a lot of trolling with deep divers. And caught nothing.
On the row out of the great cove I decided to switch up and fish with my 5" black senko along the shoreline. And that immediately produced fish, a few each yellow and white perch and then, moving towards sunset, a very nice largemouth bass.



Gonna try to get out again on Sunday.