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I made my first visit to Lake Winnemaug near Watertown, CT over Memorial Day weekend and I absolutely love it. A+

After spending the day here, I can confidently say it is one of my favorite places to kayak fish in Connecticut. The size, features, depth, and quality of fish are all fantastic - at 113 acres and a max depth of 17-20 feet, with clear water and plenty of coves, islands, structure, and both largemouth and smallmouth bass, this place checks all the boxes.

Online reviews say Lake Winnemaug can get really choked up with weeds in the summer, but for my visit in late May, everything was perfect. For others planning a trip here and looking for recommendations on tackle, I'd say that my most productive lures were a standard crankbait for open water and a topwater bait near cover, structure, or shorelines. I didn't use many other baits, but I feel like a 5" Senko worm, weedless swim bait, or weedless jig presentation would also be fantastic options.

Tackle List:

Nikko 4" Hellgrammite

6th Sense Crush 50 crankbait

LIKBF Elite Series #2 at Swinging Bridge Reservoir was a beatdown, in all the ways. From the start of the day, nothing really went well and I couldn’t seem to put the pieces together throughout the day to catch a limit. Although I did find some success early with a 12.25” and a great 18.75” smallmouth, once the morning bite died and the weather heated up my fishing game cooled down big time. The fish likely left the shallows and were staging in deeper water where I couldn’t find them, so the majority of my day was spent covering water with plenty of crappie and tiny bass, but unfortunately nothing big enough to help me get a limit. 

I ended the day in 2nd place for Big Bass and in 17th place overall, which will definitely knock me out of Top 10 for Angler of the Year and make it that much harder in later tournaments to play catch-up. 

In all honesty, making it to the top of the leaderboard for Angler of the Year was never really my expectation for this season. So many of the guys in this league are way more skilled than I am. But I’m staying positive, learning new things and fishing new water, and hoping I can squeak into the Top 10 at the end of the season to fish the New York State Championship on October 3rd at Lake Champlain. To me, that would be the dream scenario for this year. 

Based on tournament rules, the Elite Series has 7 total events but only 5 events count toward qualifying, so I’m definitely still in the race but it won’t be easy.   

Gear List From Today’s Tournament:

Kayak: Sea Eagle 385 Fast Track Angler

Rods:

St. Croix Bass X Rod, 6’8” MXF

KastKing Assegai, 6’9” MLF Finesse Spin

Reels:

Shimano Miravel 2500 Spinning Reel

Shimano Nascii FC 2500 Spinning Reel

Tackle:

Storm 3” WildEye Swim Shad

Zman TRD Neg Rig style bait

Gary Yamamoto 5” Senko - Green Pumpkin with Black Flake (wacky)

Mepps Size 3 Aglia spinner

Today's video is all about the preparation and practice that I do before tournament fishing. The footage from this video was recorded during my first trip to Swinging Bridge Reservoir near Monticello, New York and my goal with the VO was to provide some additional context into how I prep and plan my pre-tournament fishing routine on a new body of water.

The tl;dr is essentially to research everything you can about a new location, from DEC or state websites to YouTube videos posted by other anglers, and really just consume as much content as possible about the water to help make an informed decision when you arrive that might work with your preferred style of fishing.

The caveat to the previously mentioned tl;dr is that, unfortunately, no amount of research will be the golden ticket or silver bullet to being successful. There are just too many variations and permutations when it comes to fishing, and trying to find perfection is somewhat of a fool's errand.

At least for me, I try and go into these situations with an open mind, iterate when things aren't working, fall back on using confidence baits when I struggle, and chalk everything up to a learning experience.

In today's video I walkthrough a looooong list of gear and equipment I use for kayak fishing, including my Sea Eagle 385 Fast Track Angler inflatable kayak, rods, reels, tackle, accessories, and everything I use on the water for both recreational fishing and adjustments specific to kayak fishing tournaments.

Below is a gear list of everything from today's video.

Gear List:

Kayak: Sea Eagle 385 Fast Track Angler Paddles come with kayak

Cart: Bonnlo Heavy Duty Universal Kayak Trolley

Transom/Motor Mount: Sea Eagle Motor Mount

Trolling Motor: Watersnake Tracer 44lb. Thrust Freshwater Motor

Battery: LiTime 100ah 12v Lithium Battery

Battery Box: MinnKota Trolling Motor Power Center

Seat: AquaGlide Aluminum Mesh Seat Remember to use pool noodles to wrap your seat legs

Crate: YakAttack Blackpak Pro Net: Frabill Teardrop Floating Trout Net

Anchor: Generic 5.5lb. Kayak Anchor

Flag: YakAttack VISIPole II with Flag and 360 LED Light

Ruler: Ketch 26” Karbonate Measuring Board Ketch ID for tournament fishing

PFD: NRS Chinook My version must be discontinued, but this is pretty similar

Rods: St. Croix Bass X Rod, 6’8” MXF KastKing Assegai, 6’9” MLF Finesse Spin Remaining rods are all discontinued KastKing models Resolute 6’6” MF Resolute 6’6” MHF

Reels: Shimano Miravel 2500 Spinning Reel Shimano Nascii FC 2500 Spinning Reel KastKing Spartacus II Baitcasting Reel

Gear: What I throw 85% of the time

Zman TRD Ticklerz - Optional Rattle-Snaker Rattle Tool Gary Yamamoto 5” Senko - Green Pumpkin with Black Flake Mepps Size 3 or 4 spinners (Aglia, Bronze Slammer, Comet Combo)

Tackle Bags: Ozark Trail Lunch Bag Cooler LIV Fishing EZ Tackle Bag Tackle Boxes: Plano Double-Sided StowAway 3400 Ozark Trail Tackle Boxes via Ozark Trail Tackle Bag Plano Waterproof StowAway 3400 Utility Box

A cold day ended up creating a cold bite, but I was able to hit a limit at the first kayak bass fishing tournament of the season on Candlewood Lake and crack the top 10 against a field of 30 other anglers.

Although my inflatable kayak took a beating in the wind and I couldn't control my drift or sit on a spot long enough to use a lot of my go-to finesse rigs, I did have a lot of luck early with a size 3 Mepps Bronze Slammer which kept me going.

Next stop on the tournament circuit: Swinging Bridge Reservoir near Monticello, NY. I've never fished Swinging Bridge Reservoir before, so if you have any tips for me I'd love to hear them!

Another cold and windy day in Connecticut, but I needed to get some practice in for an upcoming kayak fishing tournament, so I headed out on Candlewood Lake to see what I could scrounge up.

Luckily, I was able to get a few spots figured out and the smallies were biting where I thought they might be hiding, so I may have a chance to make an impact in tomorrow's big tournament.

Today's bait of choice for the smallmouth bass was a size 3 Mepps Bronze Slammer running at medium retrieve about two feet below the surface. Thanks for watching!

Spring weather means more wind and more struggles trying to dial in my gear before the first tournament of the season, but finally starting to push into more pockets of largemouth and smallmouth bass on Lake Lillinonah.

The bite here is usually hit or miss, but the bass are starting to show up more frequently and I'm excited for the chilly spring weather to finally start warming up!

If you are the type of fisherman who enjoys quantity over quality, Lake Mamanasco in Ridgefield, Connecticut is the perfect spot.

In this video, I spent about two hours after work fighting my way through 50+ of the tiniest largemouth bass who were fired up and biting anything and everything I could throw. For anyone interested in trying this spot yourself, the only thing you need to bring is a pack of 5" green pumpkin Gary Yamamoto Senko worms.

You won't catch any lunkers, but it's the perfect spot to fish if you've been on a cold streak and want to just catch a ton of bass and have fun! If anyone watching has fished Lake Mamanasco in the past, I'm very curious to hear what size your largest bass was because I just could not find anything bigger than maybe 12" on this trip.

Spring fishing for bass on Messerschmidt Pond in eastern Connecticut. An overcast windy day and lots of junk fishing, but also a lot of fun on a pond I'd only been to once before back in 2024. Ended with a couple decent bass and a broken heart after losing a bait I was just getting confident using :(

An unusually warm spring day led to some really fun fishing on Lake Kenosia in Danbury, Connecticut. With wind gusts up to 20mph it wasn't easy to keep the inflatable kayak stable, but I was able to catch a nice selection of largemouth bass and even a few decent crappie during this session.

The fun part was finding success with a Berkley bluegill swimbait I've had for almost three years and getting some confidence with lures I typically don't use when I'm fishing. Hoping it wasn't a fluke and I'll be able to keep using it during future sessions!

With wind gusts over 30mph and water temperatures below 40 degrees, it was a really difficult morning for kayak fishing. On this trip, I launched from the car top canoe/kayak launch at White Memorial Bridge and paddled down to where Bantam River empties into Bantam Lake in hopes of fishing my way back up to the launch.

Unfortunately, high winds and a slow bite created a lackluster time on the water, but I was able to catch a few different variety of trout, a perch, and a largemouth bass.

A cold water, cold weather day of multi-species fishing on Huntington Pond near Redding, Connecticut. This pond gets heavy fishing action and the bite can be really tough, but I was able to squeak out a few fish during this two-hour session.

Gear used during the trip:

• Kayak: SeaEagle 385 FTA inflatable kayak

• Rods: KastKing Speed Demon 6'10" ML/F Finesse Tube rod

• Reels: KastKing Zephyr 1000 ultralight reel

• Tackle: Zman 1/8oz. Ned Rig

• Line: 8lb. Berkley Vanish fluorocarbon line