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Mansfield Hollow Lake Fishing Report

Updated Fri, Oct 23, 2026 from live gauge and weather data

Mansfield Hollow Lake: a Corps flood-control lake where the Natchaug, Fenton and Mount Hope rivers meet, managed by CT DEEP as a bass and northern pike lake.

2/5
Slow. Work for them.Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.
Flow
15 cfs
Air / High
58 / 59 F
Wind
N 6 mph

Sources: USGS gauge 01121000, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.

Satellite view
Friday
23
October 2026

Today's Fishing Report

Generated this morning from live readings: gauge, weather model, sun and moon. A fresh report is published here every morning.

2/5Slow. Work for them.Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.

Mansfield Hollow Lake offers the kind of conditions this water was made for. The main inflow is running 15 cfs, falling. Today brings clear skies, wind N around 6 mph, rising pressure near 1027 hPa and a high of 59. Water sits around 74 F for the season (estimated). With the waxing gibbous, the solunar majors run 9:22 AM-11:22 AM and 9:51 PM-11:51 PM: the windows to build the day around.

The plan, species by species

Rainbow troutExcellent

The top of this band is already stressful. In rivers fish mornings and evenings; in lakes WDFW notes rainbows turn sluggish and go deeper, so troll or suspend bait near the bottom.

Brown troutExcellent

Upper end of the range: fish dawn, dusk, night or cloudy days, with terrestrial flies along the banks and streamers through the deeper runs.

Largemouth bassGood

The main feeding season after the spawn: work moving baits along weed edges, points and wood, and follow up with a soft plastic where a fish swirls.

Smallmouth bassGood

Post-spawn and summer feeding: cover rock, wood and current breaks with crankbaits, jigs and tubes, and use live crayfish, minnows or hellgrammites where bait is the plan.

Northern pikeGood

Work weed lines and vegetation in shallow water with spoons, spinners and live bait; pike bite well in daylight.

Yellow perchGood

Michigan DNR gives 66-70Β°F as the water perch prefer, so this band is the heart of the open-water season: drift or slowly work weed edges and flats with small baits near the bottom until a school turns up.

CrappieFair

Early in this band crappie are spawning in protected coves; afterward they move to docks, brush piles and standing timber near deeper water.

Tomorrow: Similar at 59 F. The solunar majors shift about 50 minutes later.Next report: Sat, Oct 24, 6:30 AMHow this report is made β†’

Before you go

Connecticut requires a fishing licence from age 16, from $28.00 for residents. What a Connecticut licence costs and where to buy it β†’

Chasing largemouth bass here? Check the size and bag limits with CT DEEP before you keep anything. The season dates for Connecticut, read off the agency, are on the Connecticut seasons page.

Water and weather

Live readings from Mount Hope River near Warrenville (inflow).

Flow, last 30 days

USGS gauge 01121000.

14365715 cfs09/2310/0310/1310/23

Right now

Latest readings

Air temp58 F
High / Low59 / 39 F
WindN 6-14 mph
Pressure1027.3 hPa, rising
Sky / Rain0% cloud, 0%
Sunrise / Sunset07:10 / 17:55
MoonWaxing Gibbous, 91%
Water temp (seasonal)~74 F est.

Bite planner

Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today. Tap a bar to see why.

5 AM8 AM11 AM2 PM5 PM8 PMsunrisesunset

Which day to fish Mansfield Hollow Lake this week

The best day on Mansfield Hollow Lake this week looks like Thursday Oct 29, at 5 out of 5, against 2 today.

Best day this week: Thursday, Oct 29 β€” excellent at 5/5, falling pressure, usually the best window of a week.

Today, Oct 23 β€” Tough

Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.

Solunar majors
9:22 AM-11:22 AM and 9:51 PM-11:51 PM
Minor period
3:43 AM-4:43 AM
Sun
07:10 to 17:55
Moon
Waxing Gibbous, 91% lit
Sky and wind
Clear, 9 mph
Rain chance
0%

Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out: how the score is built.

Species guide

The species that matter on Mansfield Hollow Lake: seasons, structure and how to fish each one. Today's ratings live in the report above.

Largemouth bass illustration

Largemouth bass

Best: the spring pre-spawn and the fall feed

A warm-water sunfish of lakes, reservoirs, ponds and slow river backwaters that holds tight to cover: weeds, logs, rock ledges and docks. In Texas, TPWD surveys rank it "by far" the freshwater fish anglers most want to catch. The main feeding season after the spawn: work moving baits along weed edges, points and wood, and follow up with a soft plastic where a fish swirls.

Crappie illustration

Crappie

Best: the spring spawn; summer around docks, brush and the thermocline

Two slab-sided panfish, the white crappie and the black crappie, that gather around submerged timber, brush piles, docks and bridge pilings in lakes, reservoirs and slow river backwaters. Texas Parks and Wildlife counts crappie as the state's most popular panfish. Early in this band crappie are spawning in protected coves; afterward they move to docks, brush piles and standing timber near deeper water.

Smallmouth bass illustration

Smallmouth bass

Best: spring and fall, when bigger fish come shallow

A bronze-brown black bass of clear, cool streams and rocky lakes, with dark vertical bars instead of a side stripe. Michigan DNR says its southeastern coast, from Port Huron to Lake Erie, is known nationally for both the size and the number of its smallmouth. Post-spawn and summer feeding: cover rock, wood and current breaks with crankbaits, jigs and tubes, and use live crayfish, minnows or hellgrammites where bait is the plan.

Northern pike illustration

Northern pike

Best: cool water, from ice-out through spring, in fall and under the ice

A long, duck-billed predator of weedy lakes, slow rivers and backwaters that ambushes fish from vegetation. Wisconsin DNR points out that, unlike most of the state's common game fish, pike do their best feeding in cool water. Work weed lines and vegetation in shallow water with spoons, spinners and live bait; pike bite well in daylight.

Yellow perch illustration

Yellow perch

Caught all year, including under the ice through winter

Yellow perch are schooling panfish of the Great Lakes and northern lakes, and Michigan DNR calls them the game fish most often caught in that state. Michigan DNR gives 66-70Β°F as the water perch prefer, so this band is the heart of the open-water season: drift or slowly work weed edges and flats with small baits near the bottom until a school turns up.

Rainbow trout illustration

Rainbow trout

Spring and fall in most lakes; rivers fish year-round while the water stays cool

A cold-water trout native to Pacific drainages from Alaska to Baja California, now stocked in most states and fished in rivers, tailwaters and lakes. The top of this band is already stressful. In rivers fish mornings and evenings; in lakes WDFW notes rainbows turn sluggish and go deeper, so troll or suspend bait near the bottom.

Brown trout illustration

Brown trout

Spring along Great Lakes shorelines; low light and overcast days in rivers; fall spawning runs

A European trout first stocked in the US in 1883 and now fished in rivers and lakes nationwide; it tolerates warmer water than other trout, and mature stream fish feed mostly at night. Upper end of the range: fish dawn, dusk, night or cloudy days, with terrestrial flies along the banks and streamers through the deeper runs.

When to come: the Mansfield Hollow Lake calendar

Activity by species and month, and how the water warms through the year. Tap any cell.

Species activity by month

1 = slow, 5 = peak. Current month highlighted.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Largemouth bass
Crappie
Smallmouth bass
Northern pike
Yellow perch
Rainbow trout
Brown trout
SlowPeak

Water temperature through the year

Typical surface temperature for this water type; today is around 74 F (estimated, not a reading).

5060708090JanMarMayJulSepNovOct, ~74 F now

Angler reports

Real reports from real anglers, reviewed before publishing. The water log below tracks each day automatically.

No angler reports yet this weekBe the first: your report helps every angler who checks Mansfield Hollow Lake today, and we feature the best catch of the week.

Water log, last days

Auto-logged from live data
Thu, Oct 22

4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Largemouth bass led the card at excellent. High of 67 F, wind to 12 mph.

Wed, Oct 21

4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Largemouth bass led the card at excellent. High of 59 F, wind to 13 mph.

Tue, Oct 20

4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Largemouth bass led the card at excellent. High of 67 F, wind to 15 mph.

Where roughly, what depth, what bait. Skip anything you want to keep secret.
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Before you go

License

Connecticut requires a valid fishing license for adults. Buy online from the state agency; one-day options exist for visitors.

Regulations

Connecticut fishing license. DEEP rules for Mansfield Hollow Reservoir: open year-round; bass 12-16 inch protected slot, 6 a day with only 2 at 16 inches or more; trout catch and release March 1 to 6 a.m. on the second Saturday in April, 5 a day otherwise; 8 mph speed limit; swimming prohibited.

Access

Mansfield Hollow Lake boat launch (owned by the Corps, listed by DEEP) on Bassetts Bridge Road: trailered, year-round, concrete plank ramp, no docks, no water-skiing. State park open daily 8 a.m. to sunset.

About this water

A Corps of Engineers flood-control lake of about 450-460 acres in Mansfield (Tolland County) and Windham and Chaplin (Windham County), Connecticut; dam completed in May 1952.

Fishing Mansfield Hollow Lake: the full guide

Dam and lake

The Corps of Engineers built Mansfield Hollow Dam at the confluence of the Natchaug, Fenton and Mount Hope rivers in Mansfield between 1949 and May 1952, as one of six flood-control dams in the Thames River basin. The Corps puts the normal lake at over 450 acres in Mansfield, Windham and Chaplin, with a maximum depth of 16.5 feet; CT DEEP's boat launch page and fishing regulations list 460 acres. The Corps owns 2,472 acres there and leases about 2,300 to DEEP, which runs Mansfield Hollow State Park.

Fish and records

The Corps lists black crappie, pumpkinseed and bluegill, largemouth and smallmouth bass, yellow perch, brown bullhead, chain pickerel, American eel, carp, and rainbow, brook and brown trout, and says northern pike were reintroduced in 1992. DEEP manages the reservoir as a Bass Management Lake and a Northern Pike Lake, a category it stocks with yearling pike each spring. Connecticut's state-record rainbow trout, 14 lb 10 oz, came from Mansfield Hollow Reservoir in 1998.

Feeder rivers

DEEP designates the entire Fenton River in Willington and Mansfield as a Class 3 Wild Trout Management Area, and the entire Natchaug River, including the Trout Park in Natchaug State Forest, as a Trophy Trout Area. Streamflow on this page comes from USGS gauge 01121000 on the Mount Hope River near Warrenville, upstream of the lake.

Common questions

Are there northern pike in Mansfield Hollow?

Yes. The Corps says pike were reintroduced in 1992, and DEEP lists the reservoir as a Northern Pike Lake, a category it stocks with yearling pike each spring.

What is the bass rule?

DEEP's Bass Management Lake rule: bass from 12 to 16 inches must be released, the limit is six, and only two may be 16 inches or longer.

Can I water-ski or swim?

No. DEEP sets an 8 mph limit with no water-skiing, and swimming is prohibited.

Is fishing good at Mansfield Hollow Lake right now?

Check the daily report at the top of this page: it is regenerated every morning from live data. Today's read: Slow. Work for them. Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.

Nearby waters

Coventry Lake8 miGardner Lake17 miThames River26 miWebster Lake27 miFlat River Reservoir27 miWood River29 mi

Where this page's numbers come from

River and reservoir readings
USGS 01121000 β€” Mount Hope River near Warrenville (inflow)
Read from the USGS Water Data API (api.waterdata.usgs.gov). Latest value timestamped 2026-10-23 at 19:15 UTC.
Weather and pressure
Open-Meteo forecast model
Queried at 41.7510, -72.1773 in this water's own timezone. A model, not an observation.
Moon and solunar windows
Calculated on this site
Astronomical calculation from these coordinates and the date, not a third-party feed. How much weight it deserves.
Pages checked
The facts in the written guide were checked against these pages, from the agencies and operators that manage the water, on October 8, 2026. Anything we could not verify was taken out.
The written guide on this page
Pablo Ruiz Quintero
How this page was made. The daily report is computed by our scoring engine from live readings; nobody types it. The written text was drafted with AI assistance from the official pages listed above, and its facts were checked against those pages by automated verification on October 8, 2026; anything that could not be verified was taken out. Pablo Ruiz Quintero sets every guideline, the data-verification system and the minimum standards a page must meet to be published, reviews page structure and approves what goes live; the responsibility is his, and the AI carries out the work. We work this way because it is how one person can keep every page current with named sources. Errors are published in the verification log; the full policy is in the editorial policy.

Readings refresh on a 30-minute window. The full method, with every figure and its source, is on how our reports are made. Something wrong here? Tell us and it goes in the log with the date.