Michael's Blog (23)

Been a while since I've been on the blog. I was busy with the fall striper run in CT and never got any panfish to hit locally before ice started to finally form.

Have been out on the ice 4 times since it became reliable in CT.

Jigged up a number of calicoes with a chrome blue Rapala Jigging Rap W-2 rigged with no extra bait while at Dog Pond.

Have been to a quarry in Wilton twice recently and jigged up a number of 8" bulls and a few yellows all…

Back on the Blogs Forum. Been doing mostly saltwater fishing for the past 2 months. Not much panfish action in freshwater, but have caught a few largemouths, chain pickerel, and recently did a river smallmouth day. Here's a report for my recent panfish success.

After coming from the private lake that usually catches me those monster gills and not catching anything there, I went to a local city park that I'm familiar with and has the Pequonnock River running through…

I've been more into the saltwater since mid May but have been doing some local freshwater fishing.

2 days within the past 3 weeks I took it easy close to home by going to the local river system. A Rapala Husky Jerk HJ-6 is what was getting me a number of rock bass. Those aggressive redbreasts are starting to go crazy for anything they see. Have caught a few with one being a strong 6 incher.

Still sticking mostly with saltwater for now but will still be getting…

Been a while since I've been on due to all the trout action in CT.

One day I had recently was an evening panfish bite.

Earlier this month the area had some heavy downpours that must of caused a run off from the nearest crappie lake. One evening after fishing somewhere else, I stopped by 2 areas of the river that runs through that lake but below the dam of that lake where it's all river. Redbreasts were into a Rapala Original Floater and landed 5 no bigger than…

Tuesday I hit the private lake again to find gills and seeds nesting. The lure I stuck with was a 4cm hot mustard muddler Rapala X-Rap.

While doing a slashbait retrieve with a few pauses and twitches, those bulls and pumpkinseeds were going crazy! The seeds were the ones being the most aggressive. Caught a total of 4 bulls, 3 seeds, and 1 yellow perch.

Also threw a 1/16 ounce white maribu right in front of many. Bluegills weren't too interested but those…

Sunday afternoon and evening a buddy and I hit a CT lake up his way.

What was working for me was that same 7cm firetiger Original Floater. I was carefully twitching the lure on the surface with occasional 3 second pauses. Plenty of swirls, love taps, and jumps. Caught a total of 4 pumpkinseeds, 2 bluegills, and 5 calicos.

Brought 3 calicos home and found 2 of them to be pregnant.

Wednesday I hit the private lake that caught me the PB 14 ounce bluegill.

I hit the same area that produced for me last time and had bullgills hitting a 7cm firetiger Rapala Original Floater. All were around 9" and weighed 12 and 13 ounces.

2 took the entire rear treble and all were hard fighters.

Total was 5 with 3 being pregnant females.

Tuesday I hit a small pond that is part of the brook that feeds the other 2 ponds I've been reporting about.

I saw many yellow perch cruising the shore and caught 1 with a 1/16oz white maribu. Others would just stare at it and then leave.

I switched over to a 2" double rigged soft plastic trout worm. That had the gills going! Worked the worm slowly just under the surface with a gliding walk the dog motion. Bluegills were chasing it and would hit it a lot, but…

Tuesday while I was fishing the private lake that caught caught me all of those perch last month and those nice bulls last year, I hit a nice one!

Was throwing a 4cm silver shad Rapala Jointed Shad Rap when I get a nice hit. It felt like I was reeling in a decent yellow perch that kept on getting grabbed hard by a big largemouth. I get it in and caught a new personal best bluegill! 9 1/2 inch 14 ounce bull which beat my old one by 1 ounce!…

Sunday 3/18 a buddy and I took his canoe into a CT lake. We went directly to the same area we were hitting crappie and largemouths at last year in early April, which is a shallow cove where a brook feeds in that has plenty of marshy structure.

I stuck with a 7cm firetiger Rapala Original Floater while my buddy played around with small live shiners on 1 rod and a 5cm silver Rapala Original Floater.

Topwater retrieves with the Original Floaters is what had the…

Recently hit my usual late winter early spring pond. Have been hitting it for about 2 weeks now, but on Wednesday I saw bluegills stacked up thick in shallow areas. With all the sun and warmth we've been having, those shallow water temps must have warmed up.

The lure they were paying most attention to was a 2" soft plastic trout worm that already comes rigged with 2 hooks.

Every time I'd cast that worm out there with no weight, bluegills would come shooting out…

2 weekends ago a buddy and I hit an estuary cove along the Housatonic River in CT. Threw nightcrawlers out there with no weight or bobbers and kept on hitting plenty of white perch.

We were into the whites for about 10 to 15 minutes before they'd make a trip around the cove and back 5 to 10 minutes later.

Sizes ranged from small 4" to keeper 9".

For the past month now, I've been hitting yellow perch pretty well.

With the mild winter we had in CT, I was fishing open water at local ponds in February and kept hitting yellow perch from 6" to chubby 8" all with 7cm Rapala Original Floaters. My main colors were Firetiger and any pearl silver, white, or grey instead of your usual silver black.

Also caught a nice 8.5" bluegill pumpkinseed hybrid last month.

Now that trout season has ended in CT,…

Last month a buddy and I hit a private residential pond that we hit back in September. Whole nightcrawlers with no weight on the bottom was the ticket.

Both of us together ended up with close to 20 bluegills, 4 pumpkinseeds, 5 yellow perch, and 3 largemouths.

Most of the gills were bulls. Perfect 8" to 10" chubby ones which I got good panfrying fillets from. They were fighters.…

First post on here in a while.

Recently at one of my main local fishing grounds I've been hitting the sunfish with a few yellow perch and largemouth bass mixed in.

The lure that has been getting the fish to hit has been a 7cm brown trout Rapala Jointed. Most times I can see plenty of bluegills and redbreasts of all sizes chasing it.

Recent days I've had with that one lure have been:

1 largemouth, 5 yellow perch, 5 bluegills, 2…

Friday while a buddy and I were fishing a small lake that is part of the watershed I fish, I was rewarded with a 1+ pound "slab" crappie.

I was using that Shallow Shad Rap again that caught me the 3 from my other report. The way I was using it was giving it a jerk on the surface and the letting it come back up before jerking it again. I saw that explosion and set the hook thinking I had a 2 or 3 pound largemouth on.…

Last week I hit a few areas on 2 stretches of the main river that is the watershed of my local crappie grounds. The lure of choice was a size 5 shad Rapala Shallow Shad Rap.

Caught 1 8" crappie at one stretch, with a 7" redbreast and 12" chain pickerel mixed in. I had many redbreasts and bluegills follow the lure.

Caught another 8" calico and a small 6"er at the other stretch.

On 5/29 I checked out a spot at my local crappie grounds lake where people have been catching them by the buckets with live shiners. I saw a group of 3 men there who were getting them with worms.

Seeing where the fish were and some extra space open, I dropped a 2" soft plastic down from a bridge into the weeds where the fish were. Kept on jigging it with occasional pauses like ice fishing. Caught a total of 5 crappie going 3 @ 7", 1 8", and 1 nice 10".

I also…

After all the rain we had in CT during the week of 5/15 and my local crappie fishing grounds being out fished by others, crappie and bluegill fishing were out for the 2 places I've been hitting them at mostly.

On 5/22 I was at the pond where my crappie grounds is and saw 3 nice spots were taken so I went to 1 other spot from shore where 20 yards out there a nice drop off along the edge of river current.

Stuck with digging up worms and letting them sit on the…