Weekend Report - North County - Apollo, Elizabeth & Hanson Dam

[denthedad59]

The daughter and I started 6:30 AM Friday morning at Apollo park...caught zippo, we moved three or four times, no bites. We packed up around 9:30 AM and headed over to Elizabeth...the stocking truck was just pulling out when we got there. We head down by the boat ramp and watch the fish jumping everywhere. There were two other guys fishing beside me and the daughter...we couldn't get them to bite on anything. We threw all kinds of lures and grubs at them...we soaked every color of Power Bait we had...nothing...they wouldn't bite on anything. We fished by the ramp for about 90-mins and decided to head up to the end going towards Lake Hughes. I was thinking some of the trout may have already moved that way with the current. Fished there for an hour and all we caught were sunburns. We headed back down by the boat ramp and fished there for another hour...zippo...skunked. I've never seen so many fish jumping but not biting on anything.

Saturday afternoon I had to run an errand over by Hanson Dam so I decided to stop in and do a little recon. I was told they stocked 400-lbs on Friday. Finished my errands and grabbed my gear & had a line wet at around 5:00 PM. First cast...boom...got hit...pulled in about a 3-lb catfish...on Power Bait. I must have hit him right on the head with it. Fished there till about 6:30...no trout...no more bites on anything. Went home BBQ'd in the rain (it wasn't raining when I started the coals) and drank some beers and had a few shots with friends.

Sunday...slept late and woke up with a bit of a hangover. Ate breakfast then me and the daughter hit the Hanson Dam about 11:30 AM. The wind was blowing a gale...I'm talking foot tall waves at Hanson Dam. We fished the far end for about an hour...all we caught was more sunburn and some windburn to go along with it. We moved to the far side and fished for awhile...nothing again for about an hour. I was just getting ready to pack it in when we got hit...nice little half-pound stocker trout. We caught three more within a 20-min flurry of action and then it went dead again...at least we didn't get skunked.

We're planning on hitting Apollo this Friday. I hope they stock this week.

[PilgrimDG]

Great report, thanks. I hit Elizabeth on Monday and nobody had any of the stockers. Those trout sure seem to disappear quickly. Do you happen to know how many lbs. they put in? I was at Apollo this afternoon. No truck, no fish.

[denthedad59]

The guy driving the stocker truck told me he put in 1,400 fish. I talked to a guy fishing by the boat ramp who saw them go in and he told me they were all in the 1/2 pound range...typical DFG stocker trout. I don't know what happened to the trout. We saw no birds gulping them down. They have to be there somewhere...it's just a matter of tracking them down. Are the bass in that lake big enough to scarf down 1/2 pound trout??

Bummer about Apollo...do you think they'll stock this week?? I know the locals I talked to said Tuesday's are the stocking days...do they ever show up on Wednesday or Thursday?? In any case me and the daughter will probably end up there on Friday morning, if it's slow we'll most likely hit Elizabeth and pound the bank for awhile. I don't know...maybe I'll try one of the city park lakes on the planting schedule this week.

[PilgrimDG]

If they don't come Wednesday, they will probably wait until next week. I've never known these lakes to be stocked on Thursday or Friday.

[denthedad59]

ok...thanks for the intell