Submitted by Pski's Angling Adventures (ip 69.177.204.138)

Date Fished: 6/30/2005
Water Temperature: 76
Water Clarity: 4 feet or greater

Hit Candlewood at about 7:30am and ran to my "A" spot. A small weed bed in 8 - 13' bordering deep water. It wasn't but a few casts and my client hooked up. Inexperience allowed the fish caught on a watermelon red flake Brush Hog, to dig back into the weeds and we never saw the fish again. Being asked to fish but reluctant in the hopes that my guest would wack a good one, I ended hooking my first of the day. And wouldn't you know it? A fat 4.5 pounder. She ended up missing another bite that I saw but a bad hook set just pulled the bait away.

Oh well, the morning bite was going good. Ran to spot two. A little larger weed bed bordering deep water. Again, with directions to cast, the Brush Hog put another fish into the boat, an average two pounder. This was Sarahs first fish on any soft plastic. I was again asked to fish for a bit so that she could see the instructions I was trying to give on how to work a creature bait in the milfoil. I quietly moved the bait away from a few bites, wanting my guest to catch some more. I switched up to a 3" Baby Lake Fork on a 1/4 oz and threw it over the deeper edge. For the last couple weeks, they've been hitting on the sink pretty good while suspended slightly away from the grass edge, Sure enough, after falling only about 5 feet, I saw the twich and the line start moving faster. Cranked down and pop him and we put the first smallie of the day into the boat. A little guy at only about 14" Sarah was working hard to get her bites but, as with most newcomers to fishing jig baits in the grass, she found the bites hard to detect. Certaintly, as the morning wore on, the bites seemed to become very light "nudges" rather than any type of tap. And of course, as many big bass do, they gave you no bite at all but just slowly moved away with the bait.

I took that small creature in green pumpkin and threw it into about 9 foot in the middle of the grass while I watched Sarahs line when, I feel tension on my line. Set the hook and loaded up on what I thought was a bunch of grass, until, I saw the 5 pounder role up. I called her attention to watch this big fish come in. She was totally excited to see such a nice bass. I ought to give this technique more attention during tournaments because, while with a client, not paying a lot of attention, and definetly not fishing hard, I tend to hook up with big fish.

We moved out to Vaughnns Neck to see if the smallies have moved in and sure enough, there was some nice gray arches on the bottom. Unforunatly, there wasn't any bait around neither. And again, sure enough we couldn't coax the smallies off the bottom. It seems with a bait ball around, they'll get much more excited. I got one short deadsticking a copper green tube and had a nice 2 pounder chase the tube up. My guest probably wasn't of the patiance level to start messing with different baits and techniques so we moved up to New Milford to hit another grass area in 11 to 15 feet. Last Sunday I got 5 smallmouth from the spot on the creature baits. I positioned the boat so Sarah could get the best shot at the deep tip while I threw the 3" creature out deeper water. Tat-tap, I swing a 10" smallie in. This small bass piques her interest but, after many casts, nothing happens. I again threw the little bait out, and while not paying attention, I notice the line moving off. Swing! Dang it! now a 4.1 smallie comes into the boat while Sarah just has her one largemouth. She fishes thru the whole edge of the weeds and back again with maybe another dropped fish. 20 minutes go by and I pick up the rod again, now only to have another big smallie chase the bait back to the boat. ENOUGH OF THIS! I've got three fish for 13 lbs while my client keeps dropping her fish. As she was learning a baitcaster, I got her to winging around a 3/8 oz spinnerbait on a 7 foot casting rod pretty good. As there was very little wind, this was helping. Finally, FLASH! and then down into the weeds only to have yet another fish come off.

The rest of the day was a little more of the same with me catching an occasional fish and Sarah dropping only a couple more. The sun had popped out pretty good in the afternoon, and with no chop on the water, the bite slowed down some. Wrapped up the day at Driftwood Point where she lost the last of the day and sat down. This morning could have been a twenty pound bag for a few good fishermen. Candlewood has been fishing well ever since the season opened. Now, rolling into summer, the milfoil is growing as nice as it ever has. And the bass are just loving it. Within days now, there should be big schools of smallies showing up around the humps ambushing the Alewifes.

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