PECo

My buddy Jason and I managed to get out on the lower, tidal portion of the Housatonic River, today. The weather forecast for Shelton, Connecticut, didn't look too bad. Although it called for sub-freezing temperatures before noon, it also called for zero wind: However, it was snowing lightly when I hooked up my boat to my Jeep: We had planned to get a late start, because I had to stop at Shelton City Hall to get a 2018 permit for the Sunnyside Boat Launch Facility and the Clerk's office doesn't open until 8:00 am. We got a later start because Jason had to drop off his daughter at daycare, first. Then, we got an even later start, because I couldn't find the registration for the Jeep and had to download and print out a copy of it from the Connecticut DMV, which gouged me $20 for the privilege of printing out a duplicate copy! We ended up fishing from 10:30 am to 2:00 pm. There were quite a few shore fishermen at Sunnyside when we finally got there. I spoke with one who was defrosting his reels in his car next to the ramp. They were catching schoolies, but I heard a few reports of keepers caught at various times over the recent few days. We got on the water in time for the last of the outgoing tide: There was a little bit of ice on the ramp and along the shore, the kind that breaks like glass when you step on it. The water wasn't too dirty and there wasn't too much ice floating around; the few sheets we hit were small and thin. We headed upriver toward the cove at Twomile Island and marked scattered schools of fish swimming mostly parallel to the shore. Although there were a couple of trailers parked at the launch, there were no other boats within sight of the ramp. When we got out of the range of any shore fishermen, I dropped the Ultrex into the water and we began fishing. I tried a few different jigs, which tells you that we struggled to figure out what the fish wanted. I figured that they probably wanted small, white, split-tail flukes, but didn't have any rigged, so I struggled along with what I already had tied on; after all, it was still below freezing! I threw a big white Hogy paddletail on a 3/4 ounce jighead, a seven inch White Ice Lunker City Fin-S Fish on a 3/4 ounce jighead and a five inch Baby Blue Shad Fin-S Fish on a 1/2 ounce jighead, Jason threw a five inch white paddletail, a Reaction Innovations Skinny Dipper, I think. We found that a slower retrieve with a pause after a light jerk was attracting some short strikes and Jason boated the first fish after 20 minutes: Phew! I'm always a little relieved when we kick the skunk off of the boat. I finally bit the bullet and tied on a Sexy Shad Skinny Dipper that was already rigged on a 3/4 ounce jighead, and caught my first Connecticut fish of 2018: Whoo hoo! Although the Skinny Dipper was getting bites, they were few and far between. We found that even moderately hard twitches of the jig would result in snagging a fish, so we tried to keep it slow and gentle, and crushed the barbs down on our hooks. After catching another little schoolie, we decided to head upriver. As we passed Twomile Island, we finally spotted several boats on the water upriver. I usually prefer to fish away from other boats, so we Spot Locked the Ultrex just upriver from the culvert across from the top of Twomile Island. Although we were marking fish, the bites were really few and far between. We caught some more small schoolies, including this 23 incher: Jason (aka Snag Boy) also snagged up a couple of keepers, including this 34 incher: Nice fish, but it still doesn't count, Snag Boy! After a long time, too long, really, I finally broke down and rigged a four inch, white, split-tail fluke on a 3/8 ounce jighead, and began catching more schoolies. I even managed to boat a fish on three casts in a row! The fish wanted an excruciatingly slow retrieve with the gentlest of occasional twitches followed by a pregnant pause. They'd pick up the jig on the bottom of the post-twitch fall. Now, when Jason and I are talking while fishing, we often (okay, always) end up talking about food, and we both began thinking about linner shortly after noon. Plus, he started to feel the cold after about 12:30 pm, and I started to shiver a little bit after 1:30 pm, so at 1:50 pm, after stopping to say, “Hi!”, to a few other fishermen in a couple of nearby boats, we headed back to the ramp in search of a hot meal. When we got to the ramp, there was a small crowd of shore fishermen there, chatting with a couple of Connecticut State Environmental Conservation Police officers. I was happy to see some enforcement going on, but why they'd be there on a freezing Tuesday, instead of on a warm weekend day, totally escapes me. It also would have been nice if they had checked our licenses; they didn’t bother asking us even a single question. I DO hope to see them more often this year than I did in 2017. Although we didn't catch many and our lunker was only 23 inches, we really enjoyed a super relaxed day on the water. I'm heading out of town, again, and hope that the weather improves a bit by the time I get back home, next week.

I bought a gray boat, in part, because I drive a gray Jeep. Coincidentally, I took a photo of them when I hooked up the boat in the snow to go fishing, this morning. I’m glad that the hull is black, because my summer wheels are black.

That’s the new plan.

I always chuckle when I meet fishermen who don't believe his reports. They can't accept that he's so much better at catching fish than they are. But he really is.

Sure was. Luckily, a charter captain I know from up on Lake Champlain spends the winter down there. Captain Mickey Maynard ( http://www.lakechamplainangler.com/ ). If you're in the area and want a good shot at catching some decent fish, you should give him a call (518-578-9273). Tell him that Phil sent you. Moderator: I hope this doesn't cross the line from a recommendation to promoting a business. If so, I apologize.

Rich is the buddy who reminded me about the hammer. He's also the one who caught the keeper. Of course.

Yesterday was the last decent day for open water fishing that we’ll get up here in Connecticut for a while, so I planned to tow my boat down and fish the lower, tidal section of the Housatonic River for striped bass. When I went to put the hitch into the receiver on my Jeep, the dogbone lock on the hitch receiver was frozen! The less than one year old, supposedly stainless steel, thoroughly WD-40ed lock: The key would turn fully, but the pin wouldn’t disengage and pop out from the end of the lock. I tried giving it a fresh shot of WD-40 and jiggling the pin with the key, but the tip of that just broke off in the lock: Yes, I probably shouldn't have yanked on it with pliers. Now, how would you remove a broken hitch receiver lock? Cut it with a reciprocating saw, a grinder or a torch? That's what I was thinking, until after lunch, when a buddy reminded me that I have a 45 ounce deadblow hammer. It took only a couple of minutes to figure out the right angle to hit the lock, but, when I did, it popped right off : When that hammer was given to me, I thought that The Mighty Mjolnir was a little bit too much for me. Now, I feel kinda manly, or godly, even. I really wish that my wife weren't out of town on a business trip! Of course, I woke up, this morning, to the sound of snowplows clearing snow from the road in front of my house: And a couple of buddies who actually made it out onto the river, yesterday, boated almost 100 fish, including one keeper! Stupid lock. . . .

I was down in the Orlando area and fished one day on the Harris Chain. My first largemouth bass of the year weighed six pounds, two ounces:

I don’t want to scare you off the Triton, but my 179 TrX has a 91 inch beam and is 98 inches wide on the trailer. However, I just saw that the Falcon F195 has a 93-1/2 inch beam, but is only 95-1/2 inches wide on the trailer, so some boats are packaged more compactly on the trailer.

I bought a Triton 179 TrX, last year, and it was tough finding specs from anyone but a dealer. This is another example of the failure of a boat builder to put itself in the shoes of a customer. Your best bet is probably to visit a dealer and see both boats in person. Bring a tape measure! I’m sorry that I couldn’t answer your questions, but I can tell you that I’m very satisfied with my Triton boat.

Some ramps are steep AND slippery. I'd never choose to launch or recover a boat with anything other than a four-wheel drive vehicle.

I had a Terrova on my deep-vee, but I traded the deep-vee in for a glass bass boat with an Ultrex. Although the Terrova worked fine, the mount isn't nearly as robust or easy to use as the mount on the Ultrex. The Ultrex mount is basically the same as the tried-and-true Fortrex mount, I suggest that you take a close look at an Ultrex, too. Regarding the Riptide, using a freshwater Minn Kota in the salt voids the warranty. If there's even a chance you'll use it in the salt or even brackish waters, get the Riptide.

http://www.heritageboat.com/

Those wires control your power trim. When I found them in my first boat, I shorted the wires two at a time to see what would happen. I ended up rigging a remote trim switch on the bow.

I know it's best to give them a good soak, but it's hard to fight the urge to play with them.

Yeap.

I do that with the seat on my Hobie i9s, but USCG-approved flotation cushions are a little big for my Hurricane Santee Sport 116.

The first thing I would try is more padding on the bottom of the seat. A cheap solution is to use a foam gardener’s knee pad. Ocean State Job Lot sells them for less than $2.00. A more expensive option is a gel seat pad. I use one from Purple: https://onpurple.com/seatcushions/buy?type=Everywhere it works for me.

Always wear flotation device when aboard!

You’ll be able to tell when you shouldn’t be out on the water.

Soft plastic babies just don’t have the same action as the live ones. . . .

On my flight back to Connecticut, yesterday, I found a new way to rig babies for night fishing: Apparently, you'd have to use a different rig for babies that are 35 pounds and up. Has anyone tried it? I found a different way to rig babies for night fishing a couple of years ago: It didn't work for me, but a friend pointed out that there's a leader at the top of the rig, so we think that it's a trolling rig. I didn't try trolling it and lost a lot of babies. I lost so many that I ran out during the one night I tried it and never tried it, again.

If you have a Hot Foot, check that linkage, too.

Check to see whether the throttle cable has slipped.

Nope.