Vacation in CT.

I just returned from a trip to CT. and spent 2 weeks at lake Hitchcock in Wolcott. My first 2 days it was like shooting fish in a barrel, at any time of day or night. On a thursday they put chemicals in the water to kill algae, for the sake of the residents who dont like a little green in their water. After that the fishing sucked, I have also noticed over the past few years that there are always dead fish floating around and there are no turtles, frogs or snakes. Every other water I fished nearby had these things, s*** we even have all that in NJ, I caught a 3 lb pickerel that should have weighed about 4 or 5 lbs judging by the length, but it looked like it was from Etheopia it was so skinny. It took forever to recover from almost no fight, it hit right at the boat side and was landed within seconds. The biggest bass caught was about 2 lbs, the fishing was not the same after the chemicals were added. The amount of jet skiers and wave runners were and are ludacris. The lake is and could be considered a pond by me and many others standards and people just go around and round in circles all day, I dont mind kayaks, sail boats or even pontoon boats & small boats with motors but these people are using full outboard motors going as fast as possible for a few hundred yards and going in circles GO TO THE OCEAN, A BAY OR A BIG LAKE NOT THE POND YOU CONSIDER A LAKE!!! I went over to Scoville and hit some big bass on topwater. While residents sat there and watched, I caught fish from the shore line all 3 times that I fished it. Have to love live bait fisherman "time to kill or waste". At least there were no jet skiers, I loved every moment of Scoville, the scenery and the fishing were fantastic. As for Hitchcock If my inlaws didnt own a house there I would never go back...

Last edited by gluttony32 on Thu Jul 22, 2010 7:46 pm; edited 1 time in total

That's brutal, chemicals to kill algae?
No wonder there is nothing normal in the lake.
check out there web site
http://hitchcocklake.com/default.aspx
"Preserving the natural environment of the lake and its habitats."

It may be a private lake, but still...........

Just out of curiosity I called the DEP to get some info on the situation. Hitchcock IS a "private" lake, but they are required to follow the same DEP rules/regs as any other lake, pond, etc. They also have permits required to do "stuff" of this nature. And it is administered by a reputable company. So they say.

I know that it is private, my inlaws have lived there for over 50 years and my father inlaws father lived there before him. Supposedly they started treating the lake in the 70's. It used to be an apple orchard many years ago. My concern is why the fish look sickly, why there are always dead fish floating around-maybe its the wave runners hitting them & but why are there no turtles eating the dead fish? I saw one yellow perch float around the dock for 3 days before it disapeared, algicide also heavily affects creustaceans, a few years back I caught a crayfish and assumed there where more, in 3 years I have seen only one more dead one and tons of dead snail shells floating and at the bottom. The water if you fill a glass still has filamentous algae floating around so what are they doing? Many of the nearby lakes had no such problems I took pics of several snakes, turtles and other wildlife such as birds and mammals, Hitchcock didnt have ANY of these things except for musk rats ( i think thats what they are). Here in NJ it costs millions to live on a lake unlike in CT.. People here dont care about the algae, the plants in the water or the smell of the water in the dead of summer, Im just not understanding what is going on in that particular lake its weird. Take a look at my pics and see the size of the pickerel I caught and compare it to the ones I have caught in NJ..the size and appearances are totally different.