Pre-trip post

[Tokyo Tony]

Going to Crystal Lake in Ellington, CT tomorrow with fishizzle. It's a deep, clear, rocky lake. I've heard the bite is usually pretty tough out there, but that there are a lot of smallmouth. There's a ton of boat traffic out there in the summer, but there probably won't be more than a boat or two out there tomorrow, unless there's such a thing as suicide water skiing. We plan on fishing 8 am to 4 pm.

I'm calling a bunch of Chatterbait and dropshot fish, for the record  8-)

After this post, I really hope I have some pics after the trip tomorrow, otherwise I'll have to delete the post and pretend it never happened  ;D

[Daniel My Brother]

I've been on this board long enough to notice that nothing dooms a fishing trip like a pre-trip post...

Here's hoping you're the exception to the rule!

[fishizzle]

TT, I'll save you the embarrassment

TT got skunked

I got 3 bass

[Tokyo Tony]

You're forgetting about my two pickerel. I caught negative two fish.

Daniel - you're right. I'll never do a pre-trip post again  

[fishizzle]

Crystal lake is also stocked with breeder Salmon, 10-20lbs

they started it last year when the rivers were too low to release them there and they did it this year too because people were supportive of the program

it cool to see a huge salmon jump for no reason

It was a tough day of fishing so the acrobatics was entertaining

[Paul Roberts]

Everyone has a "pre-trip post", at least in their head. Stuff your ego , and tell us what happened, what you saw, what you might have done different.

[Tokyo Tony]

Well, it was a chilly, overcast day, and the wind picked up in the afternoon. Water temp right around 55. We started fishing the steepest drop in the lake, from 12 ft to 40 feet. We threw jerkbaits shallow, I slow-rolled chatterbaits in 10 to 20 feet, and we threw the dropshot for a long time. I even rigged a triple dropshot rig with three different color Roboworms...to no avail.

The bass fishizzle caught came on a small jerkbait, two near shore, one out on a grassy/gravel flat in about 10 feet. We were hoping to run into some cruising smallmouth on the flat, but nothing. We fished a little rockpile in 18 feet where I got a bite on a dropshot, but I think it was a bluegill because the worm was gone and it was very slight.

The lake is as deep as about 50 feet, shaped like a bowl, with steep drops on one end, gradual drops on the other. We threw a few casts at some docks with no luck. Basically we moved around quite a bit, except when fishing the ledge and the rockpile. We were trying to run into something with search baits, but it just never happened.

We know there are fish in there, but it was just a matter of finding good offshore structure, which we weren't able to do. I think that would have been the only way to have a good day - to find some good structure in 25+ feet.

The pickerel were caught in a weedy bay.

Going on that, any suggestions you all have?

[Paul Roberts]

Well sight unseen I'd break the lake down into fishable regions. Choose an area that has potential and try shallow thru deep on good structure/cover. Pretty much what you guys did. I'd also like to know what the forage base is: smelt, alewives, shad, perch, bluegills, crayfish... That might help me narrow things a bit in location and bait.

You hit some fish relatively shallow. I'd check that out further (which I assume you did). Assuming these were smallmouth I'd even do this if they were smaller fish bc sm are more apt to be in mixed size groups (although I don't know if this continues into winter). And I'd expand from there, checking nearby.

I'd probably go with a presentation that can be fished slowly but triggers well: Jerks (shallow), a bladebait deeper. I'd also have a hair jig with pork strip trailer as a follow up -that is I wouldn't leave a promising without trying this.

If there are largemouth, I'd slow-roll a heavy SB between good green vegetation clumps on flats out to the outer edge ("Crystal" lake probably has a fairly deep weedline). Ditto the hair jig follow-up. I'd sure look for hard areas within or nearby -rock.

That would be my pre-trip plan. There, I said it!

Even better, I'd like to hear from the other northern, esp NEers who regularly fish these waters this late in the game.