Candleweird lake 7/22 / 7/24 / 7/28

I took a year off from the big lake and now ive been 3 times in a week and every trip is getting progressively worse. Trip one on the 22nd caught 18 bass in a short trip which was a great day with half the bass being green the other half brown. Then last wednesday me and Josh fished from 3pm to 9pm and it was a struggle but we did manage 3 largies and 3 smallies. Josh got his smallie on a super fluke on a 1/2 oz jig head in about 25-30 feet of water and missed a few fish on jumps. I got my 2 smallies on drop shot in 10-20 feet. Had more pan fish hitting us on the drop shot than anything. Very annoying. As we went back to the launch we caught our 3 largemouth. Last fish being the fish of the day on a black chatterbait. Wasnt a terrible day but it felt like a struggle the whole time.






Then yesterday morning alarm set for 2:30am i was on the lake for 3:30 and man i could not get a bite before 5 am. The black buzz bait that i killed them on last year this time didnt get a single blow up, black chatter nothing, black spinner with colorado blade nothing.. Then 5:00am hit and i threw a over sized white bladed spinner bait and bam fast action in 2-4 feet of water. 2 largies and 2 smallies. As fast as it started it was over. Managed to lose a smallie as i was going for the lip that was probably just over 4 lbs. Oh well. Once the sun was up i tried drop shot in my spots that normally produce and got just perch. I tried 4 new spots that i marked the night before on my gps that look amazing but held zero active fish. It was odd. From 5:15 to 10:30 when i left i didnt have another bass. Threw tubes, senko, jig, chatter, flukes, spooks... nothing! Lets just say i will be taking a break from that lake for a little while. Also doesnt help when pleasure boats are going with 30 feet of your boat all morning. Talked to 2 other boats and they caught only a few rock bass. Water temps are down to 78 on the surface after being 85 last week. Could be the fast drop thats making them inactive but i would have guessed it would have been the opposite. Live and learn.

Cossayuna Lake... trailer problems

 After waiting 8 months to finally get back to this lake we went this past Saturday for Josh's birthday trip.  3.5 hour drive to Argyle New York we were there but not without a serious problem. After launching the boat we noticed that one of the tires on my trailer was riding on the rim. Both bearings gone completely. Not sure how long we drove like that and to be honest i dont wanna know... So we went out on the lake knowing later in the day was going to be a project.. We started off fishing right by the launch and each missed a few fish pretty quickly. Working our way to the north end i get a 23 inch pike to get us started.. Fishing all around the lake with little happening we went to the hot spot from last fall and bam... fishing got hot. As soon as the fish finder read 7 feet we would get hit. We got 7 pike and 10 bass. Mostly on spinner baits. also had some great hits on some massive lures josh was throwing. A 9 inch money minnow on a 1 oz chatter bait head... got smashed twice and left some teeth marks in it that were huge. Was it a musky.. who knows. We caught 2 of our pike and 2 of our bass trolling. By 3 pm we were off the water. No pike over 28 inches.. no bass over 2.75 pounds and No musky. Also had no possible way to make it home with that trailer. We tried calling some places for parts and or service.. and had zero luck. We decided to try to drive to the next town slowly with hazard lights on only driving 20 mph until we found a body shop where the people let us leave the boat and drive to a nearby town for parts. These guys let us use any tools we needed but we didnt know what we were getting into. After 5 hours the job was complete but not done properly and we headed home stopping occasionally to let the bearings cool down even pouring water on them to help cool it down. After another 5.5 hours we were home.. dont know how we made it. Bringing the trailer to Pete at fishing factory today the bearings didnt even make the trip one town over so id say we were extremely lucky to make it home the other night.

Wading for Bluefish PB

Been spending some time this week wading for stripers and blues down in bridgeport and i have to say its pretty intense and awesome being in the water with these fish. Day 1 caught 2 schoolies and 2 small blues. Day 2 i got the fat skunk and zero hits and now Day 3 which was tonight...

Got to the water at 7pm and was in the car by 9pm. I went solo so i didn't wanna stay past dark. Fishing in waders alone is not something i like to do but tonight was an exception. I spent the first hour casting away from slug go's to swim baits to jerk baits with no action. Then right before dark my day changed with 2 cast. I hooked up with a 10-11 lb blue slowly backing out of the water during the fight trying not to step on the horse shoe crabs that were everywhere mating. Was my first time handling these fish on my own which was exciting in itself. Crazy jaw strength and holding them by the gill plate was creepy the first time. After a few photos and release i walked back out and next cast.. BAMMMM to quote roxy... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz i thought this fish was gonna spool me for a second. I knew i either had a monster blue or a giant striper. Turns out it was a blue. After at least a 10 minute fight with my arms burning i brought this 14 lb 4 oz blue to the shore. No other fisherman in sight but im sure someone heard me celebrating haha. That was my last hit but those 2 fish made for one nice drive home and im still smiling about that fight. A lot of fun on a 7 foot medium heavy rod. 

Community Lake? w/ Justin Jacobson

I text my old friend Justin this morning asking if he wanted to do some fishing. Hadn't seen him in 5 years, Answer was yes.. We took his canoe out to community lake in wallingford which if any of you have been there is tiny and gets hit my the local bucket brigades pretty hard. On the water at 7 am and fished for just 2 hours. Water was brown brown. I got a small largie on a chatter bait then Justin got a few hits on a popper and landed a 2 lber. We found the one weed bed in the small "lake" and i get slammed on my black buzz bait. Fish hit 3 feet from the boat literally splashing me with water. After a few good runs i lipped a shocking 4 lb 10 oz largie from a place i didn't expect to catch anything at all. About ten minutes later i get another blow up on the buzz bait and land a 3 lb 3 oz bass. After that the action just died. Too hot out and no where for the fish to hide. Thanks Justin for coming out fishin! Good to catch up and catch fish! 

First time salting the boat! NIGHT FRISHIN!

 So the last week i have dedicated all of my fishing time to stripers. I now know what i will be doing every single May because these fish are amazing. The hits the strength the runs... pretty much mind blowing. Last week all the fish caught were top water where this week moving from the Housy to the lower CTR the fish have all came sub surface on Dynamic Lures Dynamo LP.  Two days ago we went out with our friend Obass and Josh and I each caught one. His being 34.5 inches and mine being 34 inches. Then that was it. Had some strikes top water but never hooked up.

34.5

34

 Going back last night was exciting being my first time salting my boat and good news is the boat handled it just fine! Knowing the tides were not in our favor we still worked our butts off the first few hours throwing slug go's and houdini shads... with 5 or 6 blow ups that all whiffed and one blue fish strike that left Josh with half a slug go. Something had to give... as it started getting dark Josh made the switch back to the Dynamo LP and Bam! Hooked up pretty quickly. Fish went 35 inches and the video below is of that fight.  Then he hooked up fought one for a few minutes and it spit the hook. Not much longer he gets nailed again and brings in his new PB striper at 38 inches. I couldnt buy a hit. They wanted that LP in white and i had silver/black i tried and a brown i tried and they wouldnt touch it. Lets just say right when i got home i order 4 of them in white!  www.dynamiclures.com 

35

38

38

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfeFGd8sHQE

First Keeper bass in 18 years!

After back to back days of waking up at 3:50am and being at the launch to meet Obass for 4:30.. fishing for 3 hours and heading to work for the next 9 hours, i can honestly say that i am shot. After i write this its most likely time for a nap. Yesterday the hits started pretty quickly at our first spot. With some rolls and a few missed strikes... mike nails a 34 inch fish on a white sad shad and i proceed to set on a fish only to have my 20 lb braid with 60 lb leader snap off at the braid. So i grab my other rod and bam... again same thing happens. My drag wasnt too tight i dont think.. it was possibly the excitement of having my first top water striper ever that was forcing my hook sets to be a little on the violent side... lesson learned. I tie up again and get the line rapped in the eye of my rod and watch a sad shad go flying into the distance. I was pissed at this point. Mike caught one more around 33/34 inches and then the hits stopped just like that. 

That morning i went straight to WalMart and bought some 30 lb braid and some 50 lb braid and re spooled immediately. Stopped at a local bait shop bought some Yum Houdini Shads in Chartreuse and some Slug Go's and slug go hooks and got ready for my next trip not knowing it would be the next morning. We were fishing by 4:45 and this day me and mike switched rolls. He started with a sailing bait into the darkness and i hooked up on the first strike of the day while he was tying up another bait. It gave me an amazing fight. Pulling drag multiple times and probably took 3 minutes to get too my thumb. Fish went 33.5 inches and i suddenly was very awake. I ended up catching one more around 31-32 inches a short time later on my only other hit of the day. Mike had one fish snap him off and had 3 other explosions of fish whiffing the bait. 

So 2 days of fishing and only 4 fish caught. I had fun catching my first top water bass but i also know it can be much better than that and i will soon be on a mission to beat these days. Id say i got a little fever.. and the only prescription is more fishing! and hopefully a little bit of sleep. My last keeper i was 10 years old fishing with my Dad off the beach at hammonasett using a fresh cut of hickory shad that we caught that morning in clinton and that fish was 40 inches and 28 pounds. So i have a decent number to beat right from the start. That fish was in the paper which was pretty cool as a kid. during the fight my dad held my belt loop to keep me from being dragged in. haha good times. Ill be out tomorrow morning somewhere... if anyone see's the silver sylvan haulin bass 2 come say hey!

Thanks Mike for taking me out these last 2 days. always a blast.

Dedicated too : Fist bump Paulie