Midweek the weather channel predicted a return to winter with a frigid blast of arctic air pushing its way southward into the central part of the country. It was expected to settle in about the first week of February, so there’s still a little time left to enjoy at least above-average temperatures.
There may be places where the ice is safe in the northern tiers of Connecticut and Rhode Island, but after all the warm days and heavy rains there are not many people out trying their luck and risking their lives to pull a few fish through holes in the ice. I wouldn’t bother until it’s been below freezing for at least a week.
In the 1980s, when most of the winters were like it is right now – warm, with a few cold days and occasional snows that melt off or are rained away in a few days – we used to find a pond with open water somewhere along the coast and fish for panfish, bass, trout and, at that time, pickerel, instead of the pike we’d probably seek today.
Open-water fishing during the winter seemed to be most productive when I got into a small, shallow lake because those sorts of places warm up more rapidly after rains than do deeper bodies of water. They also chill more quickly at night.
The key to catching fish in the winter in open-water ponds is to fish very slowly with spinnerbaits, Blue Fox inline spinners, tube jigs and soft plastics for bass, pike and pickerel. If panfish is the target species, a small jig baited with an inch-long piece of worm on top of a Fin-S or small Slug-Go teaser is the best all-round rig. This small setup will also catch smaller bass. Or simply fish with a live shiner – they will catch fish any time of year.
In Rhode Island, Chapman and Worden ponds are often ice-free when temps are balmy. Across the border into Connecticut, look to Pattagansett Lake to open up during midwinter thaws and after heavy rains. Trout fishermen may find some action in Gardner and Rogers lakes. We haven’t heard anything from walleye fishermen in a long time from Gardner. The cold winters of the past three years allowed ice fishermen to hammer the once-solid walleye population in this lake down to near nothing. I haven’t talked to anyone who caught more than a tiny marble-eye from this once-productive lake since the ice melted last spring.
Remember there is now a two-fish per day, 18-inch minimum length limit on walleyes, so with this level of protection, provided the small fish don’t die from gut-hooking all winter long, this place should begin producing midteen fish within a couple of years. Beach Pond, Mashapaug Lake and Coventry Lake all have keeper walleyes now, so some of the pressure should be taken off of Gardner Lake and hopefully it will have a chance to recover after years of abuse.
Back in January the Connecticut DEP stocked 500 broodstock brown trout into a dozen lakes across the state for anglers to catch through the ice. There may or may not be safe ice on any of the places where they were stocked. If they happen to be free of ice, it may be worth launching a small boat and trolling or bait-fishing for these big trout. Otherwise wait for the next deep freeze, which is coming soon to a lake near you. The lakes that were stocked with these big Seeforellen-strain browns include Crystal Lake (Ellington), Mashapaug Lake (Union), Beach Pond (Voluntown), Cedar Lake (Chester), Quonnipaug Lake (Guilford), Black Pond (Meriden), West Hill Pond (one of the best trout lakes in the region, Barkhamsted), Mt. Tom Pond (Morris), Tyler Lake (Goshen), Stillwater Pond (Torrington), Mohawk Pond (Cornwall) and West Side Pond (Goshen).
There haven’t been any reports yet, but breaks in the winter any time from now through April may bring sea-run brown-trout activity to the upper portion of the Niantic River, where Latimer Brook empties in at the Golden Spur Bridge, or where Whitford Brook meets the Mystic River and on downriver to the I-95 bridge crossing. Live mummichogs or even Arkansas shiners are the best baits to catch big sea-runs. Flies, jigs and small swimming plugs will also catch fish, but the big guys always seem to prefer live meat fished on the lightest rig you own.
Broodstock salmon fishing has dropped off to nothing in both the Naugatuck and Shetucket rivers. The last word we had of any catches was below the Derby Dam on the Housatonic River back in December, when striper fishermen were occasionally taking Atlantic salmon on Crocodile Spoons.
Of course the old standby, the Thames River, is always a good fishing option, but since the last report, the recent heavy rains seem to have spread the fish out and turned the action down a few notches. Catches have dropped off from multiple reports of a hundred or more fish a trip to catches ranging from 10 to 50, with perhaps a boat’s average catch lately of 20 to 30 fish per trip. Fish are typically less than 22 inches, but even when it’s slow, fishing the Thames is a pretty good place to spend a winter afternoon.
If weather conditions get to stabilize again before temperatures become too cold, there may still be anywhere from one to three, maybe four, weeks of potentially productive fishing left before the action in the Thames drops off to a typical late-winter “pick.” But even a slow pick on the Thames is better than a good day in about any other place there is to fish this time of year.
While you are there, keep an eye peeled to the skies. Last Saturday there was a pair of bald eagles flying around the area near the casino.
