My last open water trip

[Tim Moore]

I headed to the Connecticut River in New Hampshire yesterday for one last kayak fishing trip with my buddy Erik. The plan was to catch whatever would bite, but we were both hoping to bring home some walleye for supper. Being 25 degrees when we left the launch I opted to wear my Ice Armor Lift Suit. The shores of the river and all of the setbacks were lined with ice and it was snowing, it felt more like an ice fishing trip than a kayak fishing trip. The temperature was not an issue though, the slow bite was. We tried everything from bottom bouncer rigs, to crank baits, to lead-head jigs tipped with worms and shiners. We did manage several fish, but we had to work for them. There was a slight breeze that opposed the river current, but the wind increasingly lessened as the day went on. By the time we left the river was like glass. We found the fish to be lazy and they rarely wanted to chase the bait upstream which meant we had to paddle against the wind and with the current much of the day. My Vexilar FLX-28 sonar flasher was a game changer in figuring out what depth the fish were at. I love the five-color display and really love the fact that you can select out the green colors for targeting bigger fish. Big yellow perch and rock bass were the only willing participants, and we had to work for every one of them. After 9.5 hours in the kayaks, and with fading daylight, we called it quits and put our 2013 kayak fishing season to bed. I will now resume my ice watch and anxiously await the day when I can get out onto first ice.

[CaptSpike]

Tim did you ever eat those rock bass? We caught quite a few in Winni and took them home to fillet. Even though the fish were decent size we barely got any meat off them so after struggling thru a few fish we tossed the other three to be raccoon bait, lol.

Spike

[Striper66]

Congrats on a good day. Your pics are awesome.

[Dylan8351]

Sweet Tim. Those walleye are tough to locate after October!

Tim did you ever eat those rock bass? We caught quite a few in Winni and took them home to fillet. Even though the fish were decent size we barely got any meat off them so after struggling thru a few fish we tossed the other three to be raccoon bait, lol.

Spike

Rockbass are good eating. I call them dessert fish because they are so sweet. The ones we get on the river have shoulders.