Well, haven't fished as much as I'd like, but Kev and I got out this weekend. One of the best days of fishing for us from the yak in terms of quality...here goes....

After going through about an hour of profanity laced tirades following Kev's truck problems, we settled on hitting a spot this afternoon we hadn't visited this year, but had some decent reports over the last few days.

The wifey understood how upset we were and gave me the go to fish later than I usually do. Considering the time, we didn't expect much. Man were we wrong.

We were so wrong that we actually experienced one of the best days ever fishing from the kayak. When all was said and done - and this is no exaggeration - we scored approximately 30 fish in the 36-43 inch range, with one fish that slipped into the mix that measured out at around 33 inches. In all, 2/3 of the fish weighed over 20lbs and the ones that didn't were in the high teens - with the exception of my spook-caught 33-incher. The secret to today's success was finding the bunker that had run a bit up river. And with the side imaging, we had no problem finding them and livelining these tasty critters to A LOT of hungry bass. As the day moved on, the bunker moved out, but that didn't stop us from scoring another half dozen fish on the spooks. The fish were pounding the top water lures, which may have been more exciting than catching fish while livelining.

I am not kidding, this is only a smattering of the pictures taken today. And no, there was no rubber fish.

Kev with a cookie-cutter 37-incher... :puke: :thumb:


Kev with a nice 39-40 incher...


Kev with the biggest of the day - A 43-inch 29lb bass...


Oh Chit....another 40-incher...


Kev doing battle...


Kev landing one of many...


Kev lifting a bunker filled striper which I think weighed somewhere around 26lbs on the Boga...


And lastly, Kev was so hot he was catching fish while asleep...


Boys, we could have never imagined a day like this, especially with the way it started. What was a depressing morning, turned into a bonanza we will not forget.


Rol

WoooHooo and congratulations - I guess you missed the challenge but found bass. Nice fish and how come Kevind don't take pictures of you?

That is some sweet fish and I have seen that background before

Sorry Nils, but each time I tried to pedal over to him to take a few shots my bunker would get inhaled. Not a bad thing. Here are a few:

Just when I'm about to respond, ol' Kev comes through.

Now you're going to have to wait longer.

BASTAGE.....I'm treated like dirt.

Nice pictures Kevin, Roland lokes pumped up.

How do you like the Hobies so far?

Nils

Nils...Can't express how much we like them. What a difference!

Where is the best place to launch from up there? What was the process with the Bunker? Did they go from snagging hook to Circle or did you build up some baits first? I figured it would be easier to charter with Blaine then deal with all the traffic that has been building up there. Looks like you had the place to yourselves. The flats are holding nothing but school bass that I could find and allot more finicky than they were.

Nice report guys...good to see better fish being taken...finally....

Nice Fish!

Boy am I jealous.

I don't even catch fish like that in my dreams.

I guess you have to put your time in an pay your dues.

See you guys at the Rodeo if not sooner.

GaryG

HH:

The bunker and bass have moved along and you need to search out the bunker to find the fish. They aren't too far from the spot we hit Saturday, but still a good distance from there.

You can launch from a myriad of spots along the river, too many to mention. I'd go online and look up the CT launch locations provided by the DEP. That should help a ton. Unfortunately, by the time you read this, this fish will be much farther south. River temps last night were 70 degrees.

Rol

Looking forward to meeting you Gary.

I guess you didn't read the question. I know where the bass are, it's no secret. Just not sure where to launch from and your technique for managing the Bunker.

This post has been edited by HardHittin: Jun 5 2008, 05:29 AM

Wow,..congrats, that's just awesome!!
I would be very happy to land just 1 striper like that! I live in Saybrook and it's pretty obvious to me from the marina in the background where you were,...but my question is this (I'm actually new to striper fishing on the river),
As the water warms into the 70's and the fish pull back mainly into the sound,...can they still be found hitting the mouth of the river to feed when the conditions are right,..or is that just a waste of time after the next few weeks?

Everything south of the I95 bridge will hold fish, as long as herring or alewives and shad are entering the river there will be fish there. You will see more bluefish as the season go along but that whole area will hold striper all summer. It will be harder to get them during the dog days of summer but you can find them.

J4F: By the 2nd week of June, the action does tend to slow down, but as Nils mentioned, if the bait is present, they will hang out until they move out into the Sound. For a couple of weeks after they move out, they don't go to deep water, but rather move along the shoreline until the Sound water temps force them to go deeper. This is the absolute best time to get yourself some quality fish.

HH: You can launch from Essex or the State Launch. Somebody we met up with launched from somewhere in between, but I'm not sure of where that is. Either way, it's a short paddle to find the fish from any of the spots.

We didn't snag a bunch of bunker. There were so many, we'd snag em and drag em. We'd simply leave em out in the water because the bass were so thick, by the time you'd reel em in, there was a fish on. If you lost a bunker to a "smart bass," we'd simply snag another and let the games begin. If you want to transfer the bunker to a livelining rod, 6 feet of fluorocarbon to a Gami treble will do the job.

If you want to keep the bunker alive and alongside the yak, Jeff (Riddler) has the best idea of keeping them alive. I know there is a pic somewhere on the site recently posted that shows his contraption (something a lot of guys are using these days).

Thanks. Ya, I found that thingy Riddler had but they were fresh out. Too many moving parts to that equation. I think I will stick to Topwater.

Tight lines

If your talking about that live well.....that mission has been canned. I mean, it works, but you can really only keep one large adult poagie in a 5 gallon bucket. Hell, sometimes that's all you need.

To make it easier I am going back to the floating live well. It's a catch bag that has a large donut to stay afloat. Costs about 10-15 dollars and most marine stories will carry. Maybe King Cove might have some. It will hold about 4-6 poagies in it. You might lose one or two in it, depending on where you snag, but so what. Send it out and jig it or cut it in 1/2 and drop it. What I do is either tie the donut off to a buoy, pier etc or you can bring out a 3lb anchor with rope and put it where you see fit. Sometimes that option works the best. You can also drag it along side the kayak and there will be slow paddling or peddling. The problem with dragging it around is that it has a tendency to flip, if you close and seal the top they won't fall out. I am working on a way to keep the donut stable and drag it with a little more effectiveness.

Those are some great pics. I would love to take some pics like that instead of the dreaded lap shot. The problem is I can't find anyone locally to stand me long enough to fish with me on a trip. Hey, that feeling might be mutual. lol

http://www.boatersworld.com/product/478880537.htm



This post has been edited by The Riddler: Jun 6 2008, 04:54 PM

I'm also thinking about building a large tank made out of P.V.C. and plastic netting and station it for the season in a hot spot. Thievery is also an issue there but it might be worth the risk. The problem I am having is that the Town Of Winthrop wants me to pay a mooring fee. I didn't like that part. I might just build it, stick it out, go with my buddie and cast neck a bunch. Keep em ready to go. That would be ideal but it's gonna take some planning and money. We'll see.