Fishing on Ashford Lake

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2025 Fish Count:

Bass 6

Bullhead 2

Perch 13

Sun Fish 

Crappie 1

Northern Pike 1

Trout 2

Snapping Turtle  

Total: 25

Days fishing: 29

Approx Hours 54.5

I fished the bridge on the Big A Low twice this weekend.  Cold both days!  I did manage to pull out a 14" Rainbow.  He hit my Mealy worm with green Power bait.

Checked out the Mt. Hope today.  No bites, tried about a 100yd stretch.  Very rocky! Lost three rigs.  Went home warmed up with a coffee and hit the Big.  Was fishing the bridge and had two chase it back but no bites.  Then a guy shows up and fishes from the bridge.  Tells me he caught about 160 fish already!  Lol!

The Mt. Hope and the Fenton have also been stock.  I will be trying the Big A Low after work tonight with the 3wt fly rod.  Going to try sinking flies by the bridge.

I fished the Big A Low this morning and caught a nice Rainbow.  Tried both spin and fly.  Caught the fish on the spinning rod with a jig head Red Lavree creature and a power bait nugget.

Tried fishing the damn with Melissa today, but no luck.  I tried live shiners on the new 8ft bait caster.  Rod will need more weight to cast better.  Also fished the ole reliable 7ft St. Croix. lined with 20lb Pro Power, then a 4 foot Furo 8lb leader.  

Fished the Still river this am, no bites.  I will try again tomorrow.

The Still and Bungee in Eastford have been stocked.  I will be hitting them tomorrow.  I have the five-footer all set up.  It will be windy, so fly fishing is out.

The stocking of trout in the area has started!!  Hopefully I will be fly fishing this weekend!

Grabbed a dozen minnows and hit the ice around lunch time.  Caught three fish, one perch and two bullheads.  Very surprised to see the bullheads.  One was very good size and had the reel singing.  Almost spooled me before I got to the tip-up!

All trout gear is set up and ready to go.  I can't wait to hit my new spot on the Mt. Hope river.  This will be my first year fishing the Hope.

Ice is not safe at this point.  Ice fishing is over for the year.  I brought in my kayak to clean and add a phone mount.  I did not know that a mouse had made it, it's home!  Good thing it could not get out of it!  Brought it back outside and took care of the mouse.  I added a phone mount, so now I can use my Oxmaps to fish the lake.

Slow day on the ice today, only one Bass.  Top of the ice is melting.  I think today will be the last day of ice fishing season.  By tomorrow there will be water on top of the ice.  Time for fly fishing for trout!

Another stellar day on the ice.  Big Pickerel on the tip-up.  He hit it before I was finished setting up.  Then three perch and a nice bass.  Kept two of the perch and I am having the roes for dinner.

Perfect day on the lake today.  Nice Bass and a big Crappie.  Cooking the crappie and its roe in butter for dinner.  Haven't had crappie in 20 years!  Both were caught o the jigging pole with shinners.  I left the jigging pole unattended to help my 75-year-old neighbor drill some holes, came back to it in the hole!  No fish on it.  But something pulled it in.

Caught two perch today and learned a lesson.  Always use enough leader.  I have never caught or seen a bass on the lake bigger than three pounds.  Today I hooked into a 4-5 pounder.  Got it to the hole, it took a look at me snapped the line and swam away....

Spent two and a half hours on the ice.  An hour of that time was playing cat and mouse with a nice size bass.  It ate two shiners off the hook, then chew the crap out of the third.   I finally figured him out one the fourth shiner and got him!  Hand drilling through 18" of ice is making my arms like Popeyes! Lol!

Getting ready to head out to the ice.  Hardly any wind today!  Just got back from the JT's with my shiners.

Spent a cold three hours on the lake today, got one bite.  The wind never stopped all day!  I will hit it again tomorrow.

Good morning on the lake!  Caught three lost one at the hole and fed a bunch!

The weather is looking good for ice fishing this morning.  I will be on the ice for 8am, let's see what the storm pressure does to the fish.  Hoping for some perch to eat.

Starting to get the fly-fishing gear ready.  Found a nice spot on the Mt. Hope River to try.  First out will be the three weight.  The 6 weight is also ready for the bass on the lake.

Spent two hours on my spot, no bites.  Time to move a little farther out.  I have been staying on the right side of the spring in about 16 feet of water.

Good day on the lake!  Got in 4 1/2 hours of fishing.  Caught a nice bass and two perch.

Very cold on the lake this morning.  Spent three hours with no bites.  I packed my lunch cooler with hand warmers and two hot turkey burger and fried egg sandwiches to eat to keep warm.

Good start to the year!  This year I am going for an all-type fishing Grand Slam.  Ice fishing, Fly fishing, Spin fishing, Surf fishing and finally Deep Sea fishing.  Going to be a good year of fishing!

Cash to Date: $12.02

Yesterday I went down to the stone wall by the damn.  Found some bullets and a lot of barb wire.  Ground was still frozen in some areas.  Shotgun willy looked like it came from the ice age.

I didn't go to the cellar hole, but I did go out on the rock wall behind the house.  I had the sensitivity set to 8, real chatty!  I backed it down to 6 and it smoothed out.  Had one good signal and that ended up being a blob of lead from a fire.

If it is warm enough this weekend I will try to hit this cellar hole with the big coil.  Hoping to find some relics!

Found a new cellar hole today.  Can't wait to hit it in the spring!

Hit the park again yesterday for another .63 cents.  I am at the point now I can pick out a penny in a pile of pull tabs.  Today Melissa has a craft show, so I will have six hours of no supervision!  Time to hit the farm hard!  E. Spaulding here I come!

Decided to do the town park again yesterday.  The wet ground is carrying signal nicely.  I got out a $1.04 in about an hour.  Very little junk this trip.  Mainly stayed on the soccer field and by the pavilion. 

Went out in the wind to the town park.  I managed to pull out .27 cents.  Then came home!

Hit the farm yesterday for a couple hours.  Nothing good, except two old ox shoes.

I am getting much better at hearing the right tones for coins over the junk chatter.  I was able to cherry pick six pennies out of the red neck treasure triangle yesterday.  Plus one Ore from Denmark.

Hit the new spot on the farm yesterday.  Mostly found ammo.  Including one live 30-06 shell.

Hit the town park yesterday, scored a single penny.  I did get lots of the wire used on the chain link fences.

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2025 Fish Count:

Porky's: 

Sea Bass: 

Flounder:

Robin's: 

Mackerel: 

Total: 

Spent four days at Hamonassett beach.  Fished a bunch but no luck.

Fished at Hamonasset Beach for the day.  I was fishing of the jetty.  No luck, but I didi catch a nice sun burn. 

Fished Stoning point yesterday.  Didn't catch anything.  Got one bit on the Fishbites squid.  The new Ugly stick worked great.  125 yard cast are easy with this pole.  Can't wait till the couple days down at the beach!

Watching the weather, hoping to go out on the Hellcat on 6/24.  First boat trip of the year!

Found a nice place in Groton to fish.  Has grass, shade, and big rocks to fish from.  Melissa enjoyed sitting in the sun and taking pictures of the boats and ships.

Heading out today to Stonington Point to do some surf fishing.  It has been over 12 years since I have fished like this.  Hoping to catch some schoolies.