i have a club tourney coming up on candlewood the 6th. any tips about the lake?

the hydrilla should be growing nicely by now so work the outside edge with whatever you do well and dropshot steep dropoffs near rocky shorelines for smallies.  keep your eyes open for deep weedlines in 12' water here too.

Another technique thats famous here is dropshotting deep humps for big bags.   Also there are long deep points here too.  The top of the humps may be 30' deep.  work each hump for 10 min until you find the 4lb smallies, they will be on one of them or scan for bait balls on the humps.

good luck

By the way, I know why you have to fish in CT and I think its a dumb rule that NJ can't have tournaments before June 15th.

Are there any other states that have this rule??

im not sure. i dont mind really because it gets us out of NJ and on to bigger better water. my last 2 T's were in MD. potomac and NE river.

In VT we can't have a tournament until the regular bass season opens on the 2nd Saturday of June, the 13th this year.  Our club had two paper tournaments this spring, and it was a real good time.

our bass season is all year and when lakes have slot limits, we have an exemption form from the DEP

NJ how did the Tourney turn out?  I was out on Sat. as well.it is just amazing how pounded that lake gets!  I have been spending a lot of time on Candlewood the last few years...i find it to be pretty difficult -- especially in the summer

I wish I had a boat to go on Candlewood lake.  Since I don't have a boat, I usually go over to the Saugatuck Reservoir.  The fishing has been pretty good over at the Saugatuck.