Mojave River Angler
07-21-2009, 10:31 AM
June 28-July2: Virginia Lakes
We made the drive up in about 6 hours 30 minutes. We camped about ¾ of a mile in from 395. This was Tim’s first multi day fishing trip that would have him stuck on a boat all day for 3 days. I wasn’t sure how a 7 year old was going to handle that. In the end he did great and made his dad proud. I took a 13’ whitewater raft with a trolling motor for the occasion.
Day 1. Little Virginia Lake
Weather: Perfect day…cool in the morning and great the rest of the day with occasional clouds.
Things started slow but we were getting bites in a couple of places on the lake. We finally settled on a spot around midday that we fished for the rest of the day.
Total for the day: 7 Trout (rainbows and bookies) up to about 1.25 lbs.
Bait: Mostly Sherbert Powerbait dipped in green garlic sauce.
Day 2. Little Virginia Lake
Weather: Cloudy in the morning with light rain in the midmorning then nice the rest of the day.
Tim woke up and the first thing out of his mouth is that we are going to have a 10 fish day.
We fished the same place on the lake in the morning until the rain started. We made a quick trip to shore to get some gear for rain. I put Tim in my rain suit and I grabbed an umbrella to hide under. Back to the same spot to hook up on a 2.25 lber. after the Alper truck planted. Glad we toughed out the rain. Just as Tim said…we had a 10 fish day with his best being about 1.25. We were having the time of our lives.
Bait: Mostly Sherbert Powerbait dipped in green garlic sauce.
We limited out early so we took a second challenge for the day…climb to the rock column. I guess that thing is at about 10,500 ft. It took us about an hour to climb up there and 20 min. down. I was worn out by the time we got back to the lake…and I still had 10 fish to clean and dinner to make.
Day 3. Virginia Lake
Weather: Perfect day…cool in the morning and great the rest of the day with occasional clouds.
We wanted to try out the larger and deeper lake for a change, so we headed to Virginia Lake for this round. We headed toward the south end of the lake for the early morning to find mostly small rainbows and bookies that we released.
Moved around to several places on the lake just trying to get a feel for where they were. We did manage to get some rainbows on the stringer and by later in the afternoon I was tired of sitting on spots. So I pulled the anchor and we mounted some powerbait worms. We trolled around to get a couple more and it was about time to head out. Tim wasn’t satisfied with a 9 fish stringer so I offered to let him fish from shore while I cleaned the boat. I baited up a line and cast it out for him. I leaned his pole on a rock and headed over to clean the boat. When he got over to his pole he said he had a fish on…which I found a little hard to believe, but I went back over there and sure enough…and had that 10th fish…about a pound…in just a few seconds. He was dancing a jig all around with that fish.
We experimented with a bunch of colors of power bait, but they really liked the sherbert with garlic sauce. We threw worms out a couple of times but they just didn’t really create much action.
A great trip and definitely a place we will return to next year.
Highlights of the trip would include Tim’s new PB on Trout at about 1.25 lbs and his first Brook Trout.
We made the drive up in about 6 hours 30 minutes. We camped about ¾ of a mile in from 395. This was Tim’s first multi day fishing trip that would have him stuck on a boat all day for 3 days. I wasn’t sure how a 7 year old was going to handle that. In the end he did great and made his dad proud. I took a 13’ whitewater raft with a trolling motor for the occasion.
Day 1. Little Virginia Lake
Weather: Perfect day…cool in the morning and great the rest of the day with occasional clouds.
Things started slow but we were getting bites in a couple of places on the lake. We finally settled on a spot around midday that we fished for the rest of the day.
Total for the day: 7 Trout (rainbows and bookies) up to about 1.25 lbs.
Bait: Mostly Sherbert Powerbait dipped in green garlic sauce.
Day 2. Little Virginia Lake
Weather: Cloudy in the morning with light rain in the midmorning then nice the rest of the day.
Tim woke up and the first thing out of his mouth is that we are going to have a 10 fish day.
We fished the same place on the lake in the morning until the rain started. We made a quick trip to shore to get some gear for rain. I put Tim in my rain suit and I grabbed an umbrella to hide under. Back to the same spot to hook up on a 2.25 lber. after the Alper truck planted. Glad we toughed out the rain. Just as Tim said…we had a 10 fish day with his best being about 1.25. We were having the time of our lives.
Bait: Mostly Sherbert Powerbait dipped in green garlic sauce.
We limited out early so we took a second challenge for the day…climb to the rock column. I guess that thing is at about 10,500 ft. It took us about an hour to climb up there and 20 min. down. I was worn out by the time we got back to the lake…and I still had 10 fish to clean and dinner to make.
Day 3. Virginia Lake
Weather: Perfect day…cool in the morning and great the rest of the day with occasional clouds.
We wanted to try out the larger and deeper lake for a change, so we headed to Virginia Lake for this round. We headed toward the south end of the lake for the early morning to find mostly small rainbows and bookies that we released.
Moved around to several places on the lake just trying to get a feel for where they were. We did manage to get some rainbows on the stringer and by later in the afternoon I was tired of sitting on spots. So I pulled the anchor and we mounted some powerbait worms. We trolled around to get a couple more and it was about time to head out. Tim wasn’t satisfied with a 9 fish stringer so I offered to let him fish from shore while I cleaned the boat. I baited up a line and cast it out for him. I leaned his pole on a rock and headed over to clean the boat. When he got over to his pole he said he had a fish on…which I found a little hard to believe, but I went back over there and sure enough…and had that 10th fish…about a pound…in just a few seconds. He was dancing a jig all around with that fish.
We experimented with a bunch of colors of power bait, but they really liked the sherbert with garlic sauce. We threw worms out a couple of times but they just didn’t really create much action.
A great trip and definitely a place we will return to next year.
Highlights of the trip would include Tim’s new PB on Trout at about 1.25 lbs and his first Brook Trout.