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Winchester From: Jon Pski (192.249.47.11), Connecticut
David, Winchester Lake was once well known for its very large bass. That became an issue when the meat hunters showed up. Catch and Release for some reason has never caught on too well at this lake. Years ago the state drained a pond in Sharon and took 500 under 12" bass to Winchester. Word quickly got out about the state stocking Winchester with bass which opened the door to a perceived notion that the place was a "put and take" fishery. I have witnessed ice fisherman taking their limit of 6 bass nearly every weekend but only keeping their 6 biggest. What an ugly sight to see 4 to 6 pounders lying on the ice. The other issue going on there is not enough large predators, hence the pike stocking. Without enough predators, the panfish and other smaller fish start taking over leaving not enough food for the young of the year bass fry. Not to mention the baby bass are now a major food source. The pike MAY cut into the panfish population eventually allowing greater small bass survival. As the bass population has never been great in Winchester, I welcome the pike being stocked. Of course Winchester is almost in my back yard so I'm slightly prejudiced to having a good pike fishery so close to home. I can't agree about the pike From: RichZ (24.151.38.84), Connecticut Pike simply do not do well in small waterbodies. I will be very surprised if the pike experiemnt in Winchester has any beneficial effect. They should have put in Tigers, so they could be sure of having absolute control over the numbers. If you think a lake overrun with stunted bass is bad, consider how bad it would be overrun with stunted northerns. As far as the bass fishery in Winchester, it used to be an awesome big bass fishery. My largest bass from CT (9-5) came from Winchester, and there was one fall when they had the water level down about 6 feet for dam repairs that I caught at least one fish over 6 every single time I went. Back in those days, it was rare to get bit more than 5 or 6 times in a day there, but it was very predictable that at least one of hte bites would be from a fish that would make the trip worthwhile if you could get it out of the forest. Ah, but that was like 18 years ago, and a few generations of bass have come and gone since then. The last two times I fished it, I caught a load of small bass, and nothing satisfying. I haven't been back in two years. |
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