Candlewood Lake

by Gary Menchen

On Sunday March 25th the Watershed Bassmasters opened the 2018 season with the 5th Annual Poppa J Memorial Opener on Candlewood Lake. Snow was falling as we launched our boats into the 38 degree water. Last year’s AOY Timmy Thompson had the honor of being boat #1. He and the remaining bundled-up fisherman idled past the start boat at 8AM and raced off to their starting areas.

What was to happen in the next ½ hour was amazing as Jordon Doucette, actually the last boat off, knew where he was going and what to expect. His only concern was the late start time. Wishing the takeoff time could have been an hour earlier, he knew his window of opportunity was short and he needed to catch 'em quick. He felt that because of the extremely cold water temp and that it would not be warming up significantly during the day, there would be an early bite and then things would slow down. That belief paired with some prior history this time of year served Jordon well. By 8:30 AM he had 4 quality fish in the livewell including his biggest fish over 5 lbs. Soon thereafter he had his limit. As the action slowed for the rest of the day, he culled up once 20.89 lbs. of Smallmouth. Doucette reported having 8 bites during the day and caught all of his fish on swim-baits. Blade baits & hair jigs were also thrown but could not get bit on those lures. This was Jordon's first ever Watershed B/M victory, a super win he'll never forget.

Lightning struck twice as WBM sophomore Tommy Rosato caught the pool winning lunker fish again for the second year in a row on the same lake. Tom's 5.16 lb smallmouth edged Jordon's biggest fish by a scant .02 of a pound and he walked away with money. Rosato finished in the runner-up position with a total catch of 3 smallmouth for 11.77. Fishing out of the back of Jordon’s boat, Tommy threw swimbaits and a tube for most of the day.

Timmy “the original Hammer” Thompson took third place with 2 smallmouth at 6.33 lbs, making it a CT trifecta beat down.

We would like to welcome 4 new members to Watershed this year. Johnny “Bear-Paw” Olsen, Kevin Rudolph, Tony Fortugno, and Chris Cain.

Got to give a shout out to those who made an upgrade in the boat department during the off season. Tim Thompson is now running a Skeeter FX20, Bryan Gudd with a sharp looking Triton TR21 HP and Ricky Faubert entered boater ranks with an Astro 1850. Good luck guys with your new rides.

The next club tournament is Sunday Apr 8 on Lake Lillnonah, see you all there for an 8AM start.