A bit a re-wording of a Merle Haggard CW song of years past….
I had hoped to get out on the ice yesterday, but since the ice hasn’t really stiffened up alot yet, and both Weds and yesterday were once again so very mild.
My buddy Lloyd shot me a email earlier in the week about a trip he and his neighbor had made last weekend – fishing for trout in the Lanesboro area – so rather than take a chance on questionable ice – and in need of a fishing fix, I punted and got the long rods out. There was that so called front a coming – we were hoping to get our fishing done before it came in.
I’ve known Lloyd for about 5 years now, and have found him to be pretty honest in his fish tales – when its bad he says so – when its good – he says so. He claimed that on Sat (1-6), they had landed over 200 fish. They ranged from 10-20″, with the average fish in the 14-16″ range. They got lots of rainbows, 3-4 brook trout, and a brown that was the 20″ fish. This I had to see!
We donned waders and with light spinning tackle, hit the water. The stretch of water we were on has the usual special regs: No bait, catch and release only, and barbless hooks.
The first patch of water we fished was shallow and had some small rapids – fast water. This is much differant from the small streams that I fish closer to home – where its mostly slow moving water.
I tryed a orange Rooster Tail inline spinner first off – made a couple casts, thought I had a hit – and set the hook in to a rock. Manged to shake it free – happened a couple more times – not the lure to use….
Lloyd then told me ball head jigs – 1/16 oz w/ a crappie tube – natural colors. He was upstream from me about 50′, and popped 3 trout in quick succession. About this time I stepped off the bank and in the water – and found a leak in my waders – not a pleasant sensation in 40F water.
He started working up stream – I was slower – trying to find the secret of these fish – had a couple hits – that I realized to late were hits – and then finally got my first, in a eddy behind a big rock. The fish was a 10-11″ rainbow – and its hit was just a sensation of weight.
I then got myself tangled in the brush, and that fixed – found Lloyd on the bank above me – trying to find me – he had found a spot where he hit the mother lode – 15 fish in 15 casts – it was about 70 yds upstream from where I was.
We relocated – and the first cast he threw – fish, and the 2nd, 3rd… etc, for a total of 10 casts, 10 fish before he came back empty. Un-real. These were rainbows – and in the 14″ range. I got my jig in the water – and was getting hits, I was seeing them and feeling them in some instances, but not getting them.
Lloyd moved about 50′ upstream – I stayed put – foot wet – had a large rock I could stand out out in to the stream about 6′ and could see down in to the water some. Finally got the 1st fish of this spot – then the 2nd. The trick was to throw a little upstream – then let the current sweep the line and jig down stream – then retrieve – and the fish were hitting as you would bring the line in.
I would catch a couple – Lloyd would catch 10 – the guy was on fire. He came back down by me – had his camera – so we got some pics (film sadly – not full yet). Wide variety of colors in the fish – some silver/light pink – others silver w/ bright pink – still others nearly black w/ yellow-ish bellies. Fish were in good shape – full bellies – they are eating well.
The jig bite finally slowed – no more hits on them – I switched back to my Roostertail – and nailed a 16″ – then a 2nd. Lloyd switched to a spinner – lost his in the rocks – so then he tryed a small Rapala minnow – fish on.
I found a couple spots were I was getting a fish or a strike on nearly every cast – and I could hear Lloyd having the same kind of sucess – the water was splashing regularly as they fought.
I finally burned my “spot” out – so threw more directly down stream and was right back in them.
All of these fish fought well – am guessing the bigger ones were in the 1.5-2.0# range. The inline spinner was definitely getting me fish on the bigger side. We didn’t hit any thing “big(ger)” like they did on Sat, but the numbers were there. There were some fish rising – would hear splashes on the surface and see the rings in the water. I caught a fish from one the rises – threw at the surface disturbance.
It soon was 4.00, and the air was getting cooler. We agreed to quit at 4.30 – to allow enough daylight to get back to the truck and get shed of our boots and gear.
I would say Lloyd caught 2-3X more than I did – and I lost count at 15 – am guessing I had 30+, and strikes from at least that many more. At one point while throwing my spinner, I realized my drag wasn’t slipping on the hook set (using 2/12 Power Pro), so I loosened it a bit more – and my hook percentage went up… duh! I was probably taking the jig out of the mouth of alot of those early jig fish.
We both caught fish that produced “milt” when squeezed a little to hard during hook removal. I am guessing the mild winter has got them thinking its about time to spawn.
Overall – these fish were on – it didn’t seem to matter what we threw – I at one point yelled “Buzzbait” when Lloyd said “What to throw now?” – he fired back “Got one?”. I did in my box, but it was in the truck. The way those fish were biting – I’ll bet it would have worked.
We only fished one short section of water, while on Sat they had fished several spots.
Once I got my waders off – I found the problem – two cracks in the arch portion of the sole of the boot. I’ve had these going on 25 years- so they don’t owe me nything -got my use out of them – time to go to Cabelas for a nice set of neoprene insulated ones.
This morning it was 12F when I left for work – the front came thru.
UG
Thanks for sharing. We ALL learn from each other and there was some good info in your report to learn from. Thanks.