"Through Hartford, flows one of the best bass fisheries in the Northeast - the Connecticut River, wrote Frank McKane, Jr. in Bass Fishing Magazine. This river runs for 410 miles from its headwaters in Canada down to Long Island Sound. The last 60 miles of river has built a special reputation as a superb largemouth and smallmouth bass fishery.

William Hyatt of the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection’s Bureau of Fisheries agrees. The combination of abundant smallmouth and largemouth bass, and variety in habitat and scenery, make the Connecticut River one of the region’s best bass fisheries, Hyatt says. The best fishing for largemouths is found in the coves and backwaters from Hartford downstream to the mouth of the river. Smallmouth fishing is truly exceptional in sections of the river north of Hartford to the Massachusetts state line.

Navigation north of Hartford, however, can be hazardous because of rocks and sandbars. Boaters should exercise both caution and patience when traveling north of the railroad bridge in Hartford.

The average size of tournament-caught largemouth bass is 14.3 (range 12-22) with bass up to 18 being common. Smallmouth bass average 14.1 (range 12-20) with fish up to 17 being common.

Growth rates of bass are fast due to the high abundance of forage (crayfish and baitfish) found in the river. It takes largemouths only 2.7 years to grow to 12 and smallmouths just 3.1 years - compared to state averages of 3.4 years and 4.7 years, respectively.

Crayfish are the primary food source in the spring and early summer, when rains wash the little crustaceans out of their hiding places in the rocks along the river. Shad and herring swim up river from the sea to spawn in late spring. By mid-summer a new generation of shad and herring has grown to 1 to 2 long - perfect eating size for the bass.

Bass Fishing Magazine also noted the river’s amazing array of bass habitat. There are numerous small back creeks and bays that are lined with boat docks and fallen trees. The main river itself offers deep ledges, gravel bars, ancient wharf pilings, islands, weedbeds, and current eddies.

In advance of a professional bass fishing tournament on the Connecticut River, The Bassmaster Tour offered this advice to competitors: The bass will normally face the current and, where possible, seek refuge from the strong tidal flow. Lure presentations should be tailored to those conditions.

Riverfront Recapture has produced top-level professional bass fishing tournaments on the river and offers a weekly tournament for amateur anglers. All of these competitions are catch and release, to help maintain the river’s bass population.

Connecticut River anglers are not limited to bass fishing. The river’s rich diversity of fish includes Northern pike, catfish, striped bass, perch, bluegill, walleye, and carp.

For Connecticut fishing regulations and license information, visit www.dep.state.ct.us.

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At the end of the last ice age, about 11,000 years ago, the present-day Connecticut River came into existence. Since that time humans have lived along its shores. The first people to inhabit the Connecticut River Valley were Native Americans (Paleo-Indians) who hunted caribou, mammoth, and other cold-adapted animals. Native American populations flourished in the valley as the climate became progressively milder and more temperate.

In 1614, the first Europeans entered the Connecticut River estuary, and by the 1630’s, fur trading posts extended into Massachusetts. In the following century, English colonists moved farther and farther up river into Vermont and New Hampshire, displacing the Native Americans. 

Leaves and wood enter the river from the flood plain forest and the woodlands along the river’s tributaries. The majority of this plant material moves into the river either in the fall or during periods of high water, when the river floods into the riparian forests and masses of dead leaves, fallen branches, logs, and even whole trees float out into the mainstem. Eventually these plant materials become water-logged and sink. As the sunken leaves, branches, logs and trees tumble along the river bottom with the current, they are shredded into smaller and smaller pieces. These pieces are colonized by microbes, which convert this material into high quality food for the filter feeders.

Thus, the origin of the organic detritus in the river is ultimately the trees, shrubs and herbs of the nearby forests. These plants synthesize leaves and woody tissues from CO2, using the sun’s energy (light); this process is called photosynthesis, and it occurs in the green leaves (and green stems) of the flood plain plants. Therefore, an understanding of the Connecticut River’s ecology must start with an appreciation of the chemistry of photosynthesis.

For more information please visit: www.bio.umass.edu/biology/conn.river/

The Connecticut River, like any large river, is home to a wide variety of both vertebrate and invertebrate animals.