My ex-wife had the kids for the first time in awhile last night, so I took the opportunity to run over to Spring Pond for an hour or two and see if I could connect with some fish. We’ve had a fairly warm week in Connecticut, with yesterday in the mid-70’s, so I hoped that I’d find some activity.
It was my first trip to Spring Pond in 2023, and I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect. Usually around this time of year, there’s a decent chance the pond is flooded and the northern portion inaccessible unless you have waders. That wasn’t the case yesterday, and honestly I’d doubt it becomes the situation ever this year given what a mild winter we had.
What’s New?
Having been going to this pond for years, there usually isn’t any big change aside from the parking lot and the presence or lack of a dastardly “goose blocker” placed right here canoes launch by well-meaning town officials who forgot birds have wings. This year, however, was different.
Apparently, a school in Avon is going to use Spring Pond for their Crew practice or meets this year. There’s a large boat trailer stacked up, and a brand new floating dock on the northern shore. This should provide some decent cover and shade for fish as the year goes on, though it’ll likely be a magnet for anglers as well, so get there early.
They’ve also placed a handy porta-potty near the dock, which is great as we’ll no longer have to judge just how long it was since we last saw a runner before finding a tree.
My Catch
I arrived just in time for a light drizzle to come, which might be the reason I didn’t see a single other angler out there. I only had an hour or so before dark, so I didn’t bother poking around the southern shore and made my way straight north, not stopping until I got to the spawning bay and cut.
There were many signs of life in the northwest bay as the water was perfectly calm when I arrived and every breach by a carp would scatter smaller fish. You’ll note that in the northern hemisphere, the northwest bay is what will warm first in the spring and here in Spring Pond, this is aided by it also being a spawning bay near a cut.
I managed to catch 8 largemouth bass, all keepers but none especially large. The biggest one, pictured above, might have been pushing about 2lbs if I’d guess. All were caught on a random brown football head jig with a green zoom super chunk trailer on short little casts around known structure and cover. Having fished here for years, I’m very comfortable with my knowledge of where the drop offs and hidden ambush points are, and the fish were where I expected.
A Good First Trip
It was nice to get out there finally. The divorce has been tough on me and I’m glad I got a chance to go out and fish. The weather was lovely, I had the place to myself, and the fish cooperated. I’ll never complain about that trio!
Thanks for reading,
John Paxton
