Bashan Lake is somewhat of an anomaly in the area. A deeper, noticeably more clearly than anything surrounding it for several towns, its maximum depth and average depth, coupled with the general moderation of weed growth comparatively speaking make it puzzling as to why more fish and more sizable fish aren't taken from the lake. The smallmouth bass population is almost non-existent as far as I am concerned. Unless something drastic has changed in the last 7 or 8 years, I have never personally caught a keeper smallmouth bass out of that Lake, having lived up the street from it for a decade. For comparison I have caught three keeper smallmouth bass in Moodus Reservoir.

I have landed bass in excess of five pounds out of the lake, and as younger men Cobra bait and I fished the lake a few times together, and I watched him put on quite a clinic on a few occasions using smaller worms and lighter line than I had ever fished with. At least among the people I knew he was fishing small slider style worms well before I had never thought to do so. My lone 5 pound bass out of the lake came on a bright blue bird Sky day at about 1 o'clock fishing off the largest island with a Zara puppy. It was possibly the most foolish bait I could have chosen at the time and yet landed me a beautiful fish. It was among the only fish I caught that day.

It's the kind of like you'd love to see the state actively manage, but unfortunately we are hamstrung financially and the mindset in Connecticut is not as such to do so.

However, if the Phantom stocker still exist, or if he ever existed, this would be the kind of place that could benefit from him greatly. The start would have to be a bait fish population, and then immediately after that several thousand smallmouth bass.