My first smallie over 5 ponds came out of there many moons ago. Not that many years ago it had good numbers of both smallmouth and largemouth in the 1 1/4 to 2 pound class. But about 10 years ago, I think it was, they started a weed killing program and it hasn't been the same since. My opinion, no weed cover, no ambush cover for bass to feed on the forage in the lake, and thereby slow growth rate? Who knows, with the lake being down the growth of native weed may be good, and there may be a number of good years as long as the lake association doesn't kill them again. Then again it may be a couple of years before we can get in there again.
Water level is coming up and it looks like the locals were using the lake at some point this past summer, based on the hazard buoy shown in the attached photo. (Sorry for the orientation. My phone is screwing with it lately)
Looks like we might get to use the state launch there next spring, if we get decent rain/snow before then.
View is from half way from the launch to where the access channel reaches the lake.
Really? I have always had good luck there. Many 20+ fish days and even a couple of tournament bags over 12 pounds. Even dragged my Kayak out to what water remained last year and caught three in an hour of time. Talk about not having any structure, it was so low only the big bowl with no character was left.
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.
many years ago the state stocked the lake with shad for a couple of years there were schools of thousands of them. It appears that they just didn't take hold.
Funny just had a discussion on bait fish in bashan how it needs an alewive population. If the lake levels are back up it should fish really good. In my mind the low water gave those fish some prime spawning grounds and relief from fishing pressure. Also less water same amount of fish would pin them in smaller areas, almost a fish free for all i would think they hopefully would have had some good spawns. We will see.
My cousin said he took a ride there last week. Water is about a foot deep in the channel, probably okay for a kayak, or canoe, but is still too shallow for a larger boat. Looks like it's going to be another year without Bashan, unless we get some serious rain.