Panfish and Pickerel

The weather has warmed up again here in Connecticut. Today I had a brief window of freedom in which to fish. The location ended up being one I would much rather fish from aw kayak or canoe, and probably will do just that later next week, but it does fish OK from shore. There's just so little of that that I'm allowed to fish. But today the little public shoreline gave me some very nice bluegills. I caught ten of those. My favorite had a nifty tiger stripe dress on.

The water in this lake tends to stay nice and clear, unlike some lake I fish that suffer from the wrath of fertilizer and road salt and the blue-green algae blooms it causes. There are lots of springs that the bass apparently stage on. I'm told that there may even by some brook trout here.... but that's a secret so I'm not giving up just where this is.

I got my little streamer caught on a reed and as I quickly dragged it back a splashing strike startled me. I cast again and hooked the culprit, a nice little Esox niger.

The heftiest of the day was this nice pumpkinseed.

I love throwing around simple little patterns in a pretty setting to catch colorful fish, and when the brooky streams aren't the best option (they are still quite low) panfish are just the ticket.