Small Waters
6 Ever since my childhood water has fascinated me . I have swum in it , sailed on it , lived on it and of course fished in it . Waters of all size intrigue me with their hidden secrets . So often we stand at a waters edge and peer into the clear water we are standing over and then look out across the vast mirror surface of a lake or flowing river and wonder , dream even , of what is out there …. moving beneath the surface . Fisherman are , I believe , by far the greatest dreamers . Slowly , however , with perseverance and time dreams can unfold into reality . It takes time to know just a few swims in these vast waters where even a lifetime of fishing will not be enough to know the full story or possibly even meet anything near the biggest fish . So what about the smaller waters ? The more intimate areas of just a few or tens of acres ?
This year I decided that it was time to explore the Peconic River on Long Island . The Peconic is a small river by comparison to the behemoths of the Connecticut and the St Lawrence . It flows from a point in Suffolk County and has a length of just a meager 15 miles . The river originates in bogs and wetland and so you can imagine the flow is slow and meandering . Over the years dams and weirs have been added to create shallow lakes along the way . These have given rise to great spawning areas for fish in weedy shallow sun drenched warm waters . A haven for our beloved Carp .
I had read brief reports of fish being caught and of monsters seen in the lake areas and the occasional fish being hooked by a wading bass angler twitching a worm back through the shallow stream waters . Curiosity being what it is I started to drive around the area between the highest lake area I could find and Riverhead where weirs and dams finally separate fresh and sea water . This amounted to a total mileage of about 7 miles . I started in March and went out on mild , still mornings hoping to see signs of Carp . I went to several Gun and Tackle shops who stared at me with blank faces when I asked them if they knew anything about Carp fishing in the area …” nope ” was the usual answer . I met several local anglers who were eager to share their stories of massive carp they had drifted over in the weed beds of Peconic Lake . This one section seemed to be the most discussed area next to the Peconic Park in Riverhead itself . I decided to spend more time around the Peconic Lake area which was accessible from just a few points .
Being a river flooded into a surrounding area through damming , and based on the fact that the river was just 15 miles long , you can guess that the water is shallow . Very few places achieve even 4 ft with much of this lake being 3 feet deep or less . This should mean that moving fish would be easy to spot . On the downside weed would be an issue . I am not adverse to fishing in weed . I had caught many fish in the UK by literally fishing in the center of a weed bed . It takes some practice and building of confidence but once you nail the skill it can transform your fishing . So ….. end of March almost April and all I had seen was a few bubbles …. The Carp Conference loomed and I abated the Peconic for Connecticut and the Conference .