Any suggestions for some good lakes for smaller boats? Im in New Haven county, and have a 12 foot aluminum with a 3.3, so was trying to stick to the lakes with less traffic due to HP limits, etc.  I went and fished Quonnipaug in Guilford as its about 10 minutes from me on Friday after work and then again yesterday morning, both times about 4 hours each and didn't have so much as a nibble.  Water temps in the low 50's so I figured things might be slow but not that much.  Thanks for any suggestions 

Great Hollow in Monroe always delivers. You'd have to take your motor off though as it only allows non-motorized boating. Small lake full of bass, browns, bows, brookies, sunnies and perch. Bass usually runs between 1 and 3lb, trout up to 5lb. Start where the big rocks are by the parking lot and work your way down the west side of the lake down to the long bridge. About 5-6ft of shallow water from land and then a big drop. That's where the bass are. Trout usually hangs out in the deepest part of the lake (right in the middle).

Quonnipaug is a good place to wash your lures but that's about it. You need to head up rte 8 past Torrington. Lots of good, small ponds up there. Burr Pond, Lake Winchester, Stillwater ...

squantz pond, highland lake

Thanks for the suggestions guys! All added to my list. 

For a kayak: Highland or Squantz? 

 

What say you CT folks? 

 

I only get a day or two of fishing in while I visit from overseas.

 

I'm looking at a map of Highland; it looks real interesting. 

One more try: any opinions? 

Give this link a try: https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/2dafca6d765745b099f764089e72a4b0

 

It lists public ramps in CT.  Go to C-Map or Garmin's websites to see lake mapping.

On 4/28/2025 at 5:14 AM, JG233 said:

One more try: any opinions? 

 

Mt. Tom Pond in Bantam/Litchfield and nearby Lake Waramaug which I spent tons of time in a canoe on both.

On 5/11/2025 at 12:56 AM, Pumpkin Lizard said:

 

Mt. Tom Pond in Bantam/Litchfield and nearby Lake Waramaug which I spent tons of time in a canoe on both.

 

Thanks for the tips. I'll try them on my next trip. 

21 hours ago, JG233 said:

 

Thanks for the tips. I'll try them on my next trip. 

 Let me know how it goes.

A slept on lake is East Twin Lakes, its a trout lake mainly but ive caught my biggest LMB there, either off the docks or the N/NE corner of the lake for bass/pickerel and right off the peninsula for trout.

On 5/29/2025 at 9:29 PM, XanderBogaerts said:

A slept on lake is East Twin Lakes, its a trout lake mainly but ive caught my biggest LMB there, either off the docks or the N/NE corner of the lake for bass/pickerel and right off the peninsula for trout.

 

I went to school on West Twin Lake. I caught lots of bass in both. East Twin also has Kokanee Salmon. The alewife population grows the bass and the trout pretty big.

On 5/30/2025 at 11:24 PM, Pumpkin Lizard said:

 

I went to school on West Twin Lake. I caught lots of bass in both. East Twin also has Kokanee Salmon. The alewife population grows the bass and the trout pretty big.

Yeah they got some hogs there

On 6/4/2025 at 4:56 PM, XanderBogaerts said:

Yeah they got some hogs there

I think I might take my son fishing up there in August and show him where I went to school and then hit the Housy below Falls Villlage for enormous smallmouth.

@Pumpkin Lizard

 

I fished Mt. Tom Pond today from sunrise to about noon. I did ok: caught about 7 total, a bunch of small pickerel, but also landed 2 nice LMB that were 2-3 lbs. 

 

I targeted all the weed lines, which were mostly dead, but fishing this pond in the spring is probably great because there are a lot of weeds up shallow. It seemed like a very healthy pond. 

 

Next time I'll try one of the others recommended in this thread - thanks to all for the recs!

17 hours ago, JG233 said:

@Pumpkin Lizard

 

I fished Mt. Tom Pond today from sunrise to about noon. I did ok: caught about 7 total, a bunch of small pickerel, but also landed 2 nice LMB that were 2-3 lbs. 

 

I targeted all the weed lines, which were mostly dead, but fishing this pond in the spring is probably great because there are a lot of weeds up shallow. It seemed like a very healthy pond. 

 

Next time I'll try one of the others recommended in this thread - thanks to all for the recs!

 

Cool. And thanks for the update. I was there in August and I fished it in the evenings and had some similar results. Although I wish I could have had more time to fish some mornings and some of the deeper water where some of the really big fish hang out. As you saw, the water is really clear so in the spring you will see very large bass in the shallows before the weeds really grow in.  After that is over, they move out to the drop-offs.

 

I basically grew up on a street on the other side of 202 and we are members of club there that has canoes that we use.

 

What's interesting to me is that there are now Alewives in the pond and they school up like shad and come to the surface in the evening. I didn't see anything really keying or feeding on them. Other than that, it's a spring fed lake with really good water quality and there were tons of fish everywhere and it fishes the same way it did when I was a teenager.

 

I had my best luck casting into the weeds and pulling it through the drop-offs where the weeds end. And I pretty much caught everything on chatter-baits. 

 

 

1 hour ago, Pumpkin Lizard said:

 

Cool. And thanks for the update. I was there in August and I fished it in the evenings and had some similar results. Although I wish I could have had more time to fish some mornings and some of the deeper water where some of the really big fish hang out. As you saw, the water is really clear so in the spring you will see very large bass in the shallows before the weeds really grow in.  After that is over, they move out to the drop-offs.

 

I basically grew up on a street on the other side of 202 and we are members of club there that has canoes that we use.

 

What's interesting to me is that there are now Alewives in the pond and they school up like shad and come to the surface in the evening. I didn't see anything really keying or feeding on them. Other than that, it's a spring fed lake with really good water quality and there were tons of fish everywhere and it fishes the same way it did when I was a teenager.

 

I had my best luck casting into the weeds and pulling it through the drop-offs where the weeds end. And I pretty much caught everything on chatter-baits. 

 

 

 

 

The 2 bigger LMB I caught looked just like the one in your photo. And I had the same idea about fishing a bladed jig, but didn't move anything with it. All my fish came relatively shallow. 

5 hours ago, JG233 said:

 

The 2 bigger LMB I caught looked just like the one in your photo. And I had the same idea about fishing a bladed jig, but didn't move anything with it. All my fish came relatively shallow. 

 

Here's a couple more from Mt. Tom. It always seems like bass in clear water have cooler markings. The ones I catch here in Missouri are much more dull.

 

I also fished Lake Waramaug and some local private ponds. 

 

 

Thanks for the photos @Pumpkin Lizard.

 

I want to check out Lake Waramaug next time. It's a bit bigger there, any general area for me to target there? Feel free to PM me. 

 

Cheers!

3 hours ago, JG233 said:

Thanks for the photos @Pumpkin Lizard.

 

I want to check out Lake Waramaug next time. It's a bit bigger there, any general area for me to target there? Feel free to PM me. 

 

Cheers!

 

I don't know it nearly as well. Start around the park and there are lots of docks that you can hit. It has alewives as well. You can catch LMB, SMB and Brown Trout.