Marley
02-12-2011, 09:49 PM
I liked it a lot better when I could say "I haven't brought home less than a limit in (insert number here) trips." But it had been six or eight outings since I had managed five (or more, C&R) fish in a trip when I decided to hit up Corona Lake this fine and sunny Saturday.
I had my game plan chosen: rent the boat, straight to Marley's Secret Spot, tear 'em up, home before 1:00 after stopping at Tom's for fresh veggies. In my mind, it worked. At the lake, well, not so much. I loaded the boat and decided I needed to troll.
Around the bend, across tha flats and up towards the inlet channel and all of a sudden my SC Shiner in pink got annihilated by something really big. Bigger, even, than those flooded dead tree trunks I leave so much hardware on out there. But the heavy headshakes put to rest the tree possibility, as well as life of my lure. The fourth or fifth big thump broke the 6-lb. Ande I was trolling with just as the fish started to take some drag. Someone (hopefully) will get a bonus in their trophy when they find that pink jewelry hanging off of that fish.
I anchored up where I had seen a lot of fish caught several weeks ago (and where the staff indicated they were still being caught) for nothing but a front-row seat to a group of float tubers putting on a catching clinic. I bet I watched 20 fish come to net for the half dozen guys in the half hour I was parked. Nice job!
But I had come to catch and not watch, so I decided to hit up the Secret Spot.
Had to wiggle my way between boats and stick my nose in a little tighter than I wanted but I was able to present my baits without hampering anyone's efforts of their own.
I sat in the spot for almost an hour, thinking about going the rest of my life without ever catching another limit, how I had lost whatever "it" was and was never going to catch another trout as long as I lived and wondering just how much I could sell my tackle for on ebay. I mean, if they're not biting 'crawlers, they're not biting, right?
Well, not so. I decided to change out one bait to the designer blown-up mealworm. I had found some 1/32 oz sliding sinkers that, when pinned in place with a size BB split shot, will neither jerk off the worm when it hits the water, nor knock the air out of it and allow it to sink instead of float.
Instant hookup on the bigger grade 2.5-lb trout, followed closely by a second. A third soon came from under a bobber, and the limit was complete by 11:30. Whew!
All of my fish today came on mealworms, four blown up and floating off the bottom, one six feet under the slip bobber. No love on artificials, no love on Power Bait, and nothing on my beloved half-'crawler.
What I saw around me, other than the float tube flurry in the flats, was a slow pick bite with a lot of boats catching fish, just not a numbers bite for most. Most of those fish came on Power Bait in orange or green, or on Power Worms in red or green.
Looks like when I want a limit, I need to go to Corona Lake!
I had my game plan chosen: rent the boat, straight to Marley's Secret Spot, tear 'em up, home before 1:00 after stopping at Tom's for fresh veggies. In my mind, it worked. At the lake, well, not so much. I loaded the boat and decided I needed to troll.
Around the bend, across tha flats and up towards the inlet channel and all of a sudden my SC Shiner in pink got annihilated by something really big. Bigger, even, than those flooded dead tree trunks I leave so much hardware on out there. But the heavy headshakes put to rest the tree possibility, as well as life of my lure. The fourth or fifth big thump broke the 6-lb. Ande I was trolling with just as the fish started to take some drag. Someone (hopefully) will get a bonus in their trophy when they find that pink jewelry hanging off of that fish.
I anchored up where I had seen a lot of fish caught several weeks ago (and where the staff indicated they were still being caught) for nothing but a front-row seat to a group of float tubers putting on a catching clinic. I bet I watched 20 fish come to net for the half dozen guys in the half hour I was parked. Nice job!
But I had come to catch and not watch, so I decided to hit up the Secret Spot.
Had to wiggle my way between boats and stick my nose in a little tighter than I wanted but I was able to present my baits without hampering anyone's efforts of their own.
I sat in the spot for almost an hour, thinking about going the rest of my life without ever catching another limit, how I had lost whatever "it" was and was never going to catch another trout as long as I lived and wondering just how much I could sell my tackle for on ebay. I mean, if they're not biting 'crawlers, they're not biting, right?
Well, not so. I decided to change out one bait to the designer blown-up mealworm. I had found some 1/32 oz sliding sinkers that, when pinned in place with a size BB split shot, will neither jerk off the worm when it hits the water, nor knock the air out of it and allow it to sink instead of float.
Instant hookup on the bigger grade 2.5-lb trout, followed closely by a second. A third soon came from under a bobber, and the limit was complete by 11:30. Whew!
All of my fish today came on mealworms, four blown up and floating off the bottom, one six feet under the slip bobber. No love on artificials, no love on Power Bait, and nothing on my beloved half-'crawler.
What I saw around me, other than the float tube flurry in the flats, was a slow pick bite with a lot of boats catching fish, just not a numbers bite for most. Most of those fish came on Power Bait in orange or green, or on Power Worms in red or green.
Looks like when I want a limit, I need to go to Corona Lake!