Schoolies and Hypothermia

That's about all I had to show for my night out on the CT River Saturday and early Sunday. The game plan was straight forward. Fish the outgoing tide from Hartford down to Haddam, catch a few hours of sleep in the truck, and then get back out before dawn to fish Haddam down towards the mouth. I put in around 5:30 pm and worked up with the incoming tide through Middletown. The banks were lined with folks building fires and getting set for a night of soaking worms. I caught a few small schoolies near the powerplant, but wasn't seeing much action, so I continued north. While the banks were dotted most of the way up, not too many boats until north of the Rocky Hill launch. Pretty soon I came across half a dozen anchored up and fishing the bends. I saw a few hook-ups, including one decent keeper, but I just don't like to sit still. I wanted more action, and was willing to poke around more. Just south of the Rt. 3 Glastonbury bridge, things started to improve. Bait was popping all over the surface, and I was marking schools below. A couple of soft plastics on Kalin lead heads yielded a few quick schoolies. Now, I wouldn't normally leave biting fish, but this was also a scouting trip, so I decided to push on up to Hartford. I must admit, I rarely fish up here, and the move was a mistake because I went as far north as the rail bridge without finding another hot spot. I also noted the temperature was rapidly dropping. At this point, let me give a shout out to the folks at weather.com, because once again, you were so far from right. I was expecting a low still in the 40's, and it was already getting down there by ten or so. I was not relishing a night run all the way back down to Haddam, as it is impossible to hunker down behind the windscreen and still see anything other than the reflection of gauges. In the winter I wear a mask and goggles, which were of course at home. At this point, I just wanted off the water. I had to switch fuel tanks around the Pratt dock, meaning I didn't really have enough to fish in the a.m. without refueling. By the time I reached Salmon Cove, I was miserable. I pulled the boat, threw stuff in the truck, and crawled into my weekend fishing season accommodations (the bed with a shell). I'd left my damn sleeping bag in the garage! I chose the air mattress and stadium blanket over the drivers seat and heat. I managed a few hours of shut-eye. I did a walk around before pulling out of the lot, noticing that ice had formed on my decks. My entire body shaking from cold convinced me to turn north on Rt. 9 and a nice warm bed instead of south to the Baldwin Bridge launch. The temperature on the bank at the intersection of Rt. 154 and Rt. 82 in Haddam read 32 degrees as I drove past at 4 a.m.. Could we PLEASE just have some warmer weather?


A beautiful sunset south of Wethersfield, CT. This is when I should have called it quits.