Castle Rock Lake Report – 3rd times a charm!

Sticktoitiveness. Described a couple ways as ‘dogged perseverance & resolute tenacity.’ Big adjectives for fishing terms, but best suited for Bret & myself on our latest trip to Castle Rock.

I woke up at 4:45am and sat at the end of my bed wondering "Do I really wanna do this again…?" That question was a direct result of having been out there with Bret twice already, both times yielding mediocre results, at best…. With a big sigh, I pulled myself up and proceeded to put on my cold weather clothing and loaded the truck. Off to Sparta I went, to meet Bret and and his good friend Dave. After a quick loading of gear into Dave’s truck, we were on our way east for another adventure.

We arrived at our first spot shortly after 7am and immediately proceeded to drill a series of holes in the area of the 3 waypoints I have marked on my Lowrance handheld unit. A quick survey down through the ice with our Marcum flashers showed fish working through the area.

For the next hour or so we hopped from hole to hole looking for active fish. After an hour or so, and only a couple White Bass and a nice Crappie to show for our efforts we were beginning to think this was another carbon copy trip. About that time, IDO member Justin ‘walleyehunter’ showed up to see how things were progressing. After a little bit of conversation, we decided to make tracks and try some of the other waypoints I have on my handheld.

Our second stop was on a brush pile in about 10ft of water. The last time we were here, I caught one very nice Bluegill and lost another solid fish. Other people fishing the structure were doing well on that day catching Crappies. Today was a complete 180. We weren’t able to mark any fish.

Justin said he knew of a hole just east of our location and believed it held some brush. He was off and within no time at all, we received a call from him saying he’d iced a some White Bass and was pulling steady marks from the holes he’d drilled. Well, that was all the invite we needed.

Shortly thereafter, we’d all found comfort in our selected holes, pulling solid marks up from the bottom. Not all were takers, but the ones that were showed themselves to be eater-sized White Bass.

The best baits for me all came from Custom Jigs & Spins. The 3 best were Slender Spoons in Gold w/ Chart., Silver w/ Blue and a Lightning Spoon in Blue w/ Silver Foil. All of these baits produced best in 11-13ft of water, fished anywhere from 6 inches to 4ft off the bottom. Every once in a while a high riding mark would come through, most times those were dandy Crappies like the one pictured with Bret.

All in all, after Justin found the honey hole, we put on a clinic, catching a pile of White Bass. Most of which are headed for a pickling brine starting tomorrow. It was the best day we’ve had on Castle Rock so far. While the Crappies were largely absent, the scrappy White Bass provided hours of entertainment.

I was great to get back out on the ice again. I’d like to personally thank Justin for making a great day out of it. His ‘Sticktoitiveness’ was the deciding factor today. Even without any kind of electronics, he knew where he was and knew that by drilling a series of holes he’d find what he was looking for. Good job Justin, it was great meeting you today.

Thanks to Bret & Dave for allowing me to share the day with them as well. As always, I look forward to doing it again real soon.