Bantam 9/08 and 9/11 Custom Spinnerbaits by Josh Rayner

In the weeks following Joe and Larry's epic day at Bantam Lake, Joe and I have re-visited the "hot spot" a handful of times in an effort to duplicate the experience with little success. Granted the pike are just starting to actively feed after a long summer, we've been anxious to get on some big fish even if it turns out to be a slow day.




Saturday we hit the water around 11. It was a short-lived outing, but before the monsoon we would soon endure, we each boated 2 pike and I got a bonus smallmouth on the way up to the north side of the lake which was way too windy to fish effectively. All 4 pike were taken by way of the 9/16oz. Booyah Top Secret spinnerbait in 4 feet or less in South Bay. I was throwing a sort of firetiger rendition with a chartreuse blade which seemed to be great with clear skies above. Joe was throwing his modified one with a hot pink blade and some red added to the skirt (details/photos below), which seemed to work well when the weather moved in. Both of the smaller pike we caught short struck and within a second hit again. The rogue smallie liked a white super fluke, who must have been suspending off of the sudden drop off Joe had noticed on the Humminbird. It was incredibly windy on the north end, and the rain chased us off not to mention soaked us to the bone.





The water was still very stained from the weed kill, but improved upon since our last visit. This however forced us to make some changes to our gear. As far as we could tell, gold and silver willow leaf blades and natural colored spinnerbait skirts were simply not cutting the mustard. We had to adapt. We took matters into our own hands and made quite possibly the ugliest spinnerbaits imaginable. Prior to these outings, I had purchased a War Eagle spinnerbait with white willow leaf blades. The glow that those blades put off is nothing short of shocking. It almost gives off a glow around the entire bait. We figured the brighter and more obnoxious the color of the blade, the more "glow" it will give off, especially in murky water on overcast days. So we purchased some hot pink and chartreuse spraypaint along with some gaudy replacement skirts and we had at it. We also threw a few trollers and jerkbaits into the mix. Using a Sharpie we added some subtle detail to our blades, and Dip-n-Glo markers to add some extra ugly to the skirts. I personally like a treble trailer hook on my pike spinnerbaits. Joe prefers a single. A spinnerbait is a very modifiable lure and the possibilities are endless.












a few of my bright ideas haha



Joe's spinnerbaits are already missing paint from teeth



Back to the lake again today, this time in our waders along the banks of South Bay, rigged up with more terrible looking spinnerbaits. I started off with this clown colored thing, then after about 3 casts I quickly realized that the water clarity had improved even more since Saturday. So I decided to throw a different spinner, with only half of the big willow painted chartreuse with polka dots, a white/chartreuse skirt and a chartreuse fluke trailer. I believe Joe was throwing white/chartreuse as well. In any event, we each missed a few strikes, Joe lost a nice one at his feet by the Morris launch, and I ended up landing one around 30".







Our success has been minimal but consistent, and any action from pike is exhilarating even if its just the flash of a short strike or a glimpse of a giant follower. As we learn more of the lake, it can only give us more options for times when there aren't 20 trophy sized pike stacked on one shallow flat. I'm still kicking myself for wanting to sleep in that day. - Josh

Pike Fishing 2012.. Recap / Lures / Technics / Weather Patterns

This year Josh and I decided  that we were going to spend more time pike fishing because one, they are CT's biggest freshwater game fish and two, there strikes and power can get your adrenaline going more that any fish we have ever caught. I would even put them against blue fish and with a mouth like that there teeth  are even scarier.  This year has brought us to new waters and even new states, but one thing is a constant... these fish are all fun to catch.  Last year we caught less than 20 combined and this season we have 69 and counting all on lures. 

Josh's Pike

 The spring started off with the pre spawn pike which we got plenty of in the CT River, but they were mostly males and fish on the smaller side. That was strictly a jerk bait bite which is one of josh's strong points for sure. We couldn't get them to hit anything else. That then shut down to a zero bite for a few weeks and then post spawn we picked up a few fish in the 20 to 30 inch range. Fish were located on points and rocky areas in 4-8 feet of water. During the summer months as the water got warmer the pike started to go back down into the deeper water and our action nearly died. Then it was a random pike while bass fishing. Caught on tubes, spinner baits, swim jigs,  and a few on even hair jigs. 

 That all changed at Lake Champlain in June when i managed 12 Northerns on Spinner baits, buzz baits, and chatter baits. The water temps were the same as here in CT but these fish reacted completely different. All in 3-6 feet of water hunting in the weed lines. It was pretty much unreal with pike hitting top water and coming 2 feet out for your lures. These fish did what all pike books and articles i read say they pretty much wont do. Mind you none of these 12 were over 31 inches, so most likely the big girls were doing what they should be doing and hiding down in the depths of cooler water.  When i got back to CT none of the things i learned translated here until august.

 Me and Larry Johnson had a day on Bantam where we caught 19 Pike all between 27-38 inches with 6 being over 35.  All these fish were caught in 1 - 4 feet  which is seemed some what odd until we did some research and realized what had happened that day and why.  This is where it gets interesting.  The night before we went fishing was the first night of the summer where the temps got into the 50's which brought the water temp down 5 degrees.  The wind was blowing towards one shore line and the weather was slight showers and completely overcast. All these factors brought these fish out of the deep water and up to the shore to hunt. With non stop action for nearly three hours it was something i had never seen.

 This is where your lure choice can also be a huge factor. The water we were fishing was brown like mud and i was throwing a 9/16 oz. white and chartreuse spinner bait and Larry only had a 3/8 oz. spinner and he didn't have a single hit until i gave him one of the bigger ones. Then he went on to catch the 9 biggest pike of his life.  Me and Josh have now been back to Bantam twice in the last 2 weeks since then and i can say our results have been nothing short of poor. With probably 12 hours on the lake we have only managed 1 pike. The conditions have been pretty much blue bird sky's with water temps around 75 to 79 degrees.  We are finding out that the rainy colder days absolutely have the best results. Good news is.... the best pike fishing of the year should be on the horizon and this year has been fantastic so far. With things we have learned and continue to learn im looking forward to hopefully each breaking our personal best and maybe making a run someday at that state record of 29 lbs. ( wishful thinking )

We recently bought some 1 oz. spinner baits that are massive and we got a few short strikes on them this weekend which gives us some confidence for our next trips. Another thing is Piketoberfest is coming up in October and its time to get out on the CT River and start to break down the patterns of these under water mythical beast.  You can read all you want but the best tool you can have is your experience on the water. 

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.

Winchester Lake w/ Larry & Josh

Larry gave us a call on friday night asking if we wanted to go check out Winchester in the morning and having never fished it before we said yea why not.. We were on the water by 6:30am.  Having read reports from fellow members and talking to a few people it seems like one of those places that can be very very slow so our expectations weren't very high. We tossed spinner baits, bass jigs, chatter baits, rubber worms, double paddle tail grubs, osmo's, buzz baits and the buzz baits were the only one to not catch a fish.

The weather was perfect, completely overcast with water temps of 75..We had pretty solid action most of the day around the stumps fishing water from 6 to 11 feet deep. Larry started off with the hot hand having landed 4 fish before me or josh had one. Larry also got one small pike on the bass jig right at the side of the boat. Josh started getting slammed when he put the rubber worm on and then i finally started getting some hits all on the chartreuse spinner bait. 

Josh hooked into something very large on the osmo and after a quick fight and screaming drag the fish shook the hook. Was most likely a solid northern. Shit happens but by the end of the day we caught a combined 18 largemouth with a handful around 2 - 2.5 pounds. Nothing huge but all fun, 1 Northern, 4 slim darts, a giant rock bass, and one yellow perch. The dark clouds and thunder chased us off the water around 1:30pm.

Its a very cool lake and very different from anywhere ive ever fished. Can also be extremely dangerous with most the stumps being right there sub surface.. Larry did a great job of navigating us around safely but i could easily see someone going there for the first time and ripping your motor right off your boat so anyone going there.. take it slow.  Was hoping for some more action from the pike. But it is mid summer and i dont know how many pike are even in there.

Delayed Champlain Report 07/15-07/16

Got an invite from fellow CTF member Obass to take a 2 day trip to what most call the 6th Great Lake. Lake Champlain is nothing short of massive and by far the biggest body of fresh water i've ever had the opportunity to fish.  It is home to over 80 species of fish and its conditions change constantly.  We left at 4am Saturday morning for Ticonderoga and were on the water by 9am.  The action began immediately with white chatter baits and spinner baits.  We were tossing through some of the heaviest weeds i had ever fished but hey the fish were there so you do what you have to do.  My first fish of the trip   was a northern which i was pretty happy about seeing how it was my first pike anywhere other than CT. At the time i didnt know that would be 1 of 12 that i would catch on the trip.

Mike's DRUM

We caught 44 fish on day one with most of those being LMB with a handful of them in the 4lb range. Our best quality bass were caught on buzz baits which is probably the greatest most fun bass lure to fish. When that was working its hard to throw anything else. The hits are violent and even mid summer the pike somehow were all about crushing them even breaking us off on some hits that sent them 2 feet out of the water.  Was like nothing i had ever seen locally.  Highlight of day one was Mike getting a Drum. What a fight and was a fish that i had never seen before. So that was awesome.   That night we got back to our hotel and there was zero power which was a huge bummer but the disappointment didn't last..

Day 2 was the day that ill never forget, our arms were sore by noon but we fished till 8pm. Combined we caught 111 fish with our best largemouth coming on spinner baits and chatter baits. We caught probably 30 pickerel  another 15 pike and then just a ton of bass with almost all of them in the keeper range. Lake Champlain's water clarity literally is different at ever spot we fished. From muddy to gray to some what clear but the bait that produced the most fish even in the darkest water was the white chatter bait with gold blades and a fluke trailer. We had probably 6 or 7 double hook ups and times where you caught fish on 5 out of 6 cast.

This was a trip that i wont soon forget and i just wanna thank Mike for taking me and once i have a bigger boat i will be making trips up there monthly. =)  

senko