Hawgs Near Home

[WalligatorGetter]

I’ve been playing around fishing walleyes in the Stonington area this year and am pretty impressed by what I’ve seen. I would always prefer to fish for big walleyes rather than the little dinks in the upper bay whenever possible. However, I don’t always have the time to make the 45 minute boat ride in a 16 footer out of the Ford River.

When I don’t have the time to make it down to the Ford, I’ve been launching out of the Esky harbor and heading across to the Stonington side. I usually fish quite a ways out from the shore and the first break. I guess you could say that the area I fish is the north most part of the Shoals. It really is the same reef. It’s just further north than most people talk about -- usually between Deepwater Point and Eleven Foot Shoal. It is a good place for people like myself who only have access to a small boat. It is just a very quick skip across the bay -- less than five miles most times.

Anyway, I pretty much just cruse around in 20-30 FOW until I mark some bait balls. I don’t always mark the actual fish, mainly if they are suspended up from the bottom which is usually the case. However, if there are bait balls, there should be fish nearby.

Once I locate the area, I just begin trolling with as many lines as I can legally run. Spinners and deep-diving cranks both work well. However, I always prefer to use the cranks whenever possible because, with the fish that widely scattered, you need to cover lots of water, and I tend to troll twice as fast with cranks.

Deep Tail Dancers and Down Deep Huskies are my baits of choice. If the fish are on the bottom, the Tail Dancers 90 feet back nail um. If they are suspended, the Huskies 80-110 feet back get most of the action.

As for the fish, you don’t get many, but they are about as big as they come. The other day, we caught two fish that were 23 and 28 inches and lost one that looked like an honest 30 right in back of the boat. Yesterday I fished for a couple hours before the storms came through and caught two fish that were 26 and 28 inches, and that’s with only three lines out.

Anyway, good fishing to all!

[Chris78]

Do you fish down towards Deepwater point at nite or during the day?????

[Chris78]

And where is 11' shoal from deepwater point???

[WalligatorGetter]

Well, to answer your question, I have fished there both at night and in the daytime. However, this year I haven’t tried the night fishing yet. I have been pretty much going out at around 6:00 and fishing until dark. However, most fish are caught on cloudy, dark days, or right before dark. I’m still dumbfounded by the way that the tournament guys can go out this time of year in the middle of the afternoon on a flat calm sunny day and catch those hawgs. I’m going to have to enter some tourneys as a co-angler or something so I can see what they do! Anyway, as I said, it is the spot that I go to when I don’t have much time, or the water is rough. If I have the time to fish after dark, and the conditions are good, I’ll usually go out of the Ford instead. I catch a lot more fish down there, just not quite as big.

I have fished there at night and did so-so. It is spotty. One night you will get skunked and the next you might get five. I simply move up and troll the Stonington shoreline in about 6-10 FOW with shallow running cranks instead of the deeper water that I fish in the day. Also, average size of the fish in that shallow water after dark goes down considerably when compared to the daytime, deepwater bite. I still get some fish in the 26-27 inch area, which is nice, but just an average fish in the deep water, but most will run 18-24.

Also, 11 foot shoal is almost exactly five miles straight south of Deepwater Point, but I rarely find it necessary to fish south of Peninsula Point.

If you do fish this area, keep in mind that the fishing IS spotty. I get totally skunked quite often, especially if I quit at dark. After dark seems to be a little more consistent, but still no guarantees. However, if you want to pull a 28-30 incher from within the constraints of LBDN, this is probably about as good as it gets.

Hope this helps.

Let us know how you do if you give it a try.

[acesario]

Thanks for the detailed information!