Manitook Lake Fishing near Salmon Brook, Connecticut

• Overview

  Manitook Lake is one of the Capitol Planning Region listings for Connecticut. Elevation runs to 203 feet. At about 56 acres, a day is enough to walk the shoreline properly. The bank runs about 1.1 miles all the way round, so one visit can cover most of it. Few waters listed in Capitol Planning Region are bigger. Nearest place of any size is Salmon Brook, 1.7 miles away. Springfield sits 14 miles out, and it is the nearest city worth the name. The county edge is within a short distance of the bank.

• Where to Fish on Manitook Lake

  No published figure covers depth, so learn it as you fish. Look for the band where the shallows give up and the bottom falls away. A soft bed grows weed late into autumn, which keeps fish shallow. Records held for Capitol Planning Region cover bluegill, pumpkinseed, yellow perch and chain pickerel. Those are county-wide records, so not every one of them will be in this water. Take Manitook Lake a stretch at a time.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Expect July near 72°F and January near 24°F on the long-run figures. Cold winters and warm summers give a wide working range. Winter locks it down, and late March brings it back. Average temperatures cross freezing around late March in spring and again near late December in autumn. The shoulder weeks of the open season are the productive ones. It holds true on Manitook Lake more years than not.

• Tackle & Baits

  Access status is simply unknown for this water. It formed naturally, so levels move with rainfall rather than with a gate. This sits inside Town Open Space (465 Meadow Brook Road,Rear), so read the reserve notices first. Largemouth respond to soft plastics tight to cover; go weedless where the growth is heavy. Parking space is the usual limit rather than the bank itself. Where the way in crosses private ground, ask first. For a change of water, Goose Pond is 2.2 miles distant. Treat access at Manitook Lake as something to verify.