TheMightyGerbil
01-03-2009, 09:20 AM
I left the house at 4:20 and was the 11th car in line. Actually 'was' is a very literal term here - when the line was moving into the park an yet-unseen SUV came flying up the street and forced it's way into said line in front of me. (Now I know not to leave a gap between cars.) I flashed my brights and honked but eh, what else can ya do? Pity I didn't get a proper look at the car so I could point it out to lake management. (Too many SUV's, lol!) Dunno if they'd have done something anyway.
ANYWAY...
I set up at the pic-a-nic table to the right of the point. Within a few minutes the shore was pretty packed which makes me uneasy since I'm not the best at consistantly straight casts, what with my bad wrist and all. That's why I never go on holidays or weekends! I got by ok with casting that day, at least. I had my first trout within 1/2 hour of sunrise, 2 lber caught on a chart powermouse. Everyone around me caught 1 or 2 within those first couple hours. Then it died and died HARD. Nobody caught a thing for hours, neither shore anglers in my area or tubers/boaters out in front of me. Right around 11 am I managed another (smaller) trout on salmon eggs. A couple more were caught around me and yep, then it died again. It stayed dead until 3 pm, too. Most folks around me packed up and left (hooray for casting room!) I varied leader lengths, cast distance and baits with no real luck. Had several short bites in that time span. The fish seemed to just be pecking at the baits, no solid bites.
I stuck it out thru the early afternoon and my persistence paid off. After 2:45 or so it picked up and I scratched a limit by 4 pm using a salmon egg/nightcrawler combo. Packed up to leave at 4:10 and realized I'd forgotten my cooler AND fillet knife at home! Had to clean my trout with a dinky lil 2 inch pocketknife, lmao. But ya know what they say; it ain't the size that matters. ;p It seems like boaters did much out in the flats 'cause I saw a lot of impressive stringers at the cleaning station, including a 5+ pound hookie. Anyway my trout ranged between 1 1/2 to 2 with one 4 lber. One of them spat out an undamaged lure for me - woot for bonuses, lol!
A rain front was moving in and might've been affecting the bite. The sun never came out and it was bitterly cold. Oh, and watch out for that hawk that lives at the lake. It's the first time I've seen him and he introduced himself by trying to snatch a trout right off someone's line. I heard he was going after unguarded stringers, too. Naughty bird!
ANYWAY...
I set up at the pic-a-nic table to the right of the point. Within a few minutes the shore was pretty packed which makes me uneasy since I'm not the best at consistantly straight casts, what with my bad wrist and all. That's why I never go on holidays or weekends! I got by ok with casting that day, at least. I had my first trout within 1/2 hour of sunrise, 2 lber caught on a chart powermouse. Everyone around me caught 1 or 2 within those first couple hours. Then it died and died HARD. Nobody caught a thing for hours, neither shore anglers in my area or tubers/boaters out in front of me. Right around 11 am I managed another (smaller) trout on salmon eggs. A couple more were caught around me and yep, then it died again. It stayed dead until 3 pm, too. Most folks around me packed up and left (hooray for casting room!) I varied leader lengths, cast distance and baits with no real luck. Had several short bites in that time span. The fish seemed to just be pecking at the baits, no solid bites.
I stuck it out thru the early afternoon and my persistence paid off. After 2:45 or so it picked up and I scratched a limit by 4 pm using a salmon egg/nightcrawler combo. Packed up to leave at 4:10 and realized I'd forgotten my cooler AND fillet knife at home! Had to clean my trout with a dinky lil 2 inch pocketknife, lmao. But ya know what they say; it ain't the size that matters. ;p It seems like boaters did much out in the flats 'cause I saw a lot of impressive stringers at the cleaning station, including a 5+ pound hookie. Anyway my trout ranged between 1 1/2 to 2 with one 4 lber. One of them spat out an undamaged lure for me - woot for bonuses, lol!
A rain front was moving in and might've been affecting the bite. The sun never came out and it was bitterly cold. Oh, and watch out for that hawk that lives at the lake. It's the first time I've seen him and he introduced himself by trying to snatch a trout right off someone's line. I heard he was going after unguarded stringers, too. Naughty bird!