A Quick Fishing Fix

With limited time in the next month or two available for fishing, I decided to make a quick trip to my local stream on my Friday off for a quick fishing fix and early solstice celebration. On the stream by about 6 am. Found 48 in the first hole, 32 more in the rest of the 1/4-mile stretch of stream. On the smaller side compared to recent years, maybe 30 percent in the 9 to 10 inch ranges, the rest were smaller. Fished the double psycho under the indicator, size 12 top and 16 or 18 on bottom. Off the river before 10 am.

A nice 10-inch rainbow

The floods from last winter have scoured the riverbed and turned most of the stretch I normally fish into a broad, shallow channel with no holes or structure. The first hole is the only spot where a reasonably good run remains. That's what happens when you contain a stream to a small channel with dikes/levees to keep it from spreading out. But it will develop better structure in future years as it has in the past. And 70 fish to hand in a short morning is a pretty good day. Happy fishing!

First Outing of the Spring

Met a friend and his dad at a favorite springtime basin lake to see how many we could find. This lake is worth the short hike just for the scenery, the fact that you can enjoy the scenery while kicking around in a float tube and finding fish makes it all the better.

It was a calm, beautiful morning, and we had the lake to ourselves for the first couple hours, and just a couple shore anglers and a couple tubers after that. Starting from shore, I had three fish to hand in quick succession on Tom's chewy chironomid, then nothing more. It's hard to fish from shore, with brush having filled in the edge of the lake out to the depth where we used to catch the cruising fish in the spring. So I hopped in my tube and started kicking around the shoreline around to the point across from the launch. Trolling a green simi-leech on a somewhat sinking line, I had three more hits and one to hand. 

Beautiful rainbow from a beautiful lake

When I got by the point, the hits became more regular, but still kind of slow, so I switched back to the chironomids and put a size 16 psycho prince on the bottom. Fish started coming to hand more frequently, and I got dialed in on them at the 17-ft depth line (my $35 portable fish finder from China isn't much use for finding fish, but it is accurate at finding the depth). For the next hour I slowly kicked back and forth along the point at the 17-ft depth line and didn't go more than two minutes without a takedown, every one on the psycho. I brought a couple dozen to hand, all about 15 to 16-inches like the one above. My friend and his dad had remained along the cliffs on the other side finding some fish (including a 20-inch tiger trout), but came over to the point and found similar success with a size 16 micro-leech. The bite started slowing, and it was already past the time I told my wife I'd probably be home (a nearly 2-hr drive), so I left my friends to catch a few more. With the fishing done, I could look more closely at the tiny prairie stars, buttercups, and other wildflowers lining the trail as I made the steep climb back to the car. What a beautiful place to start this year's fishing adventures!