Bantam Pike w/ Larry MONSTERS!

Decided to go to Bantam today with Joey because of the forecast for clouds early figuring we could leave if the bite was slow,needless to say,we stayed and the bite was far better than we could have ever dreamed.Joe started off the day with a solid smallie on a black buzzbait,about 10 minutes into the morning. Then there was a brief lull, and we decided to change locations and toss some spinnerbaits for Pike. Our personal bests for pike before today were me, at 26" (I've lost many)and Joey on a rod and reel 31" .

Around 10 minutes after we made our move, all this changed. Joey ,rolling a spinnerbait outside a weed line, gets slammed and boats his new personal best at 33", not knowing that this would soon be eclipsed....he went on to catch three more to my zero. I was sobbing with joy when he offered one of his bigger spinnerbaits for me to use! Within a few casts , I had one in the boat,28". Right after this Joe and I failed to hook up 8 times with a very large pike. This fish was smashing the water after our spinner baits and within a few more casts,I had her 38" and thick. All this time we are visibly shaking and in disbelief. Joes very next cast,he hooks up with another large fish,pulling line making hard runs. In the boat at 37". By now we've handled more big pike than I could imagine in one day. 

Just when we though it couldn't get better, we proceed to get two double hook ups!! One being twin 32 "ers, and the next two being two 35" ers! I must add here that it is hard to boat two pike in a 14' boat at once without some cuts. (none severe thankfully) This action lasted three hours,and slowed the higher the sun got. Joe started throwing a chatterbait, and got two more, and a firetiger spinner bait worked for a couple more for me. Closing out one of the best fishing trips ever. We ended the day with

Joey:

- 10 Northern Pike 37",35.25",34.5",34",33",32",31",30.5",30",28"
- 1 Smallmouth
- 1 Pickerel

Larry:

- 9 Northern Pike 38",37",35",33",32.25",32",32",31.5",27".

No weights because we measured photoed and released as fast as possible. No fish we caught rolled over, and none were bad bleeders all swam away healthy.

A day like this may never happen again in our lives. Hope you enjoy the pictures. Me and Joe's new personal best are the ones at the bottom. 

Written by Larry Johnson.

Massive Fish Kill.. ( Carp )

Last weekend me and josh were fishing up in the North West corner of CT for bass and we stumbled upon one of the worst things ive ever witnessed on a fishing trip. First we smelled what we figured to be a dead fish.. as we got closer we saw what looked like a bone yard. Every rock had between one and 4 dead carp for about a 50 yard stretch. There were some that were still alive but just barely with there eyes burnt from the sun and wounds from the vultures all over there bodies.

To our left was a small waterfall that fish cant get past so when the water level came up they tried to go around to the right and when the water went back down they all got trapped. We found one pool no bigger than 4x5 feet that had 6 dead fish in it and one that looked very alive and somewhat healthy. There were maggets all over the place and the smell was terrible but i felt like it was my duty to save this fish. As i tried to grab its tail it would shake me off. Still had alot of strength which made me want to try that much more because i knew this fish had a chance to survive.

This carp was about 16-18 lbs maybe a bit more and trying to grab him from that nasty water was proving almost impossible. I snagged his lip with my grub just to keep him in front of me but that didnt work and he broke the line. By then i was getting pissed and i just reached in and flipped him onto the rocks.  With fish in hand i started walking back to the river and josh started to film it.  The fish probably wouldnt have made it another day so i think we were just in time. As i got him to the nice cool running water he swam right away down river.  I hope he makes it but i guess only time will tell.

Josh went back up to film some of the devastation. I know that carp is some what of a junk fish but its sad to see that with any kind of fish. There were literally around 100 dead carp and in that small river that could easily be more than half the population in that section. Makes me wish we were there a few days sooner. Maybe we could have saved some more.  I will post the video once its uploaded.