Not friendly toward anglers.
It always seemed like the people working at the O'Hara's Marina disliked fishermen (badmouthing bass tournaments, etc). Well, after today, their hatred toward anglers is very obvious.
I arrived just after 8am, no one around, but a guy came out of the shop to take the $15 launch fee. Fee was $10 for years, but went up 5 bucks this year. Rumor has it that the fee will increase another $5 next year.
OK, I don't like paying the fee, but the launch at O'Hara's is a decent launch, my boat comes off easy, even with the drought we've had in Connecticut this summer & fall. I was by myself, so Twin lakes was the perfect place to launch today for me. Only three hours out on the water, the wind was stronger than the forecast had said, so I had to pack it in just after 11am.
Back to the launch, two guys from the marina were working on boats on both sides of the launch (leaving the middle open). Since I was in a jon boat, powered by a trolling motor, there was no way I could get my boat back on the my trailer. I asked one of the guys if he was planning to pull out, and informed him of my situation, that I couldn't power my boat onto my trailer with just my trolling motor. He understood, said to give him a minute because he was doing an oil change on the boat he was working on.
I was fine with waiting (had to go put my waders on anyway), but the guy on the other boat chimed in with a sarcastic remark -- "can't isn't a word around here". I just smiled and tried to make small talk with this jerk, as I sat in my boat. I told him I was able to launch here by myself, which was great, but I wanted to let him know that the $15 launch fee is a serious stretch (as far as I know, it's the highest in Connecticut, most places are public, and therefore free).
The guy got belligerent at that point, asking me if I ever fished at Lake George and how much that would cost me. Hey, I've fished in at least a dozen states (AZ, AL, TN, FL, KY, TX, MD, PA, ME, NY, NH, and NJ), every state has different rules, fees, etc. Sure maybe Lake George will cost you 60 bucks to launch, like this jerk proclaims, but from my experience, $15 is still high to launch a boat.
The jerk basically laughed at me and joked to his friend that the launch fee should be $25 next year. I retorted back with, "how do you expect a typical working man like myself to pay that every time he wants to fish here ?" Again, the jerk laughed and said I could go to the public launch. Yeah, the public launch is not a launch at all -- blocked by huge rocks, no parking to speak off. If you want to launch a boat on a trailer at Twin lakes, you must deal with O'Hara's Marina.
The whole thing doesn't sound kosher to me. The state stocks trout and salmon in Twin lakes, the taxpayers fund that program, while O'Hara's marina keeps increasing the launching fees ? And the public launch to this 600 acre sized lake is only accessible to kayakers ?
I was willing to pay the $15 to launch, but I'm not willing to put up with the rudeness. I launched at Twin lakes 3 times this season, next year it will be less. And if the launch fee goes up, it will be not at all, I'm sure of that.
I'm also sure that the jerk at the launch doesn't give a crap. He had another offhanded remark for me during our conversation -- "hey, it's the weekend and you're fishing, we're working". Dude, I work 9.5 hour days on the streets of New Haven during the week, you couldn't do my job.
There are plenty of good places to fish in Connecticut, if there are any anglers who would like to contact me, feel free to message me and we'll talk fishing. read more