carpanglerdude
11-16-2012, 10:25 AM
http://i.imgur.com/qpaRV.jpg
Went fishing at Silverwood this week. I was hoping the overcast conditions would allow for a better striper bite from the shore. However, I was wrong-I only saw three boils near shore in the AM and a few more near dusk. However, I had the entire day free, so I decided to explore the shoreline. As the water was considerably lower than in the past, I decided to hike along the shoreline, from Chamise Cove to Cleghorn. The weather was fine, I had plenty of water and I figured exploring the various coves and points along the way might be a fun experience.
At one of the first coves I fished, I had a nice bass follow my topwater back to the bank. I switched up to a power minnow/jig, worked the area, and hooked into a decent fish. Surprise, surprise, not a bass, but a beautiful rainbow trout. It had full fins and fought pretty well. Here's a quick video of it underwater on my BlurFix camera:
YouTube Video link (http://youtu.be/Du-Mo7_TLQs)
And here's the trout...
http://i.imgur.com/kGVIv.jpg
After that, I continued hiking along the shore. Initially, it was fairly easy,as much of the shoreline was hard packed sand. However, as I began to work around the main point, I encountered a lot more rocks and and loose debris. Definitely slowed my trip down. Had lunch in one of the coves further back and did more fishing along the way. For the most part, I didn't spot any fish. The water was very clear and there was very little cover near the shore. However, at one cove, I found a nice bit of wood cover and it held several largemouth. There was one group of 1-2pound fish and another of 3-5pound fish, just hanging out near the cover. They were curious enough to follow a swimbait and soft plastics, but wouldn't commit. While I know Silverwood has large bass, I haven't spotted fish of this size, congregated right up next to the shore before.
http://i.imgur.com/QSoOj.jpg
I continued walking around the lake and as I drew closer to Cleghorn, I began to encounter some problems. The shoreline changed significantly, with several rough rock walls sloping into the lake. I was able to scramble along several of them, laden with fishing tackle/gear, slipped in once, but pressed on. I finally got to the point indicated at the "Turn Around" on theabove image and had to call it quits-the rock face was simply too sheer and the water below too deep for me to safely continue. Ugh. Making the walk back was slow and painful but the scenery was fantastic. Fishing...not so much. Ended the day fishing for stripers from the shore as the sunset. Just a couple of scattered boils, nothing hitting my lures at all. I did spot, far out near the dam, a few seagulls circle and crash on a school of something for 30 seconds or so, but nothing else.
http://i.imgur.com/7lYEL.jpg
If anything, it was a great exercise, but I wouldn't recommend making that hike to others! According to Google, it was ~ 5 miles round trip.
Here's my question: Has the topwater bite and fluke bite from the shore pretty much died down for a while now? While I'm sure a few monsters will be caught by the swimbait guys from the shore, has the days of 15+ micros from the bank ended for the next few months? Somebody help me out with this?
http://i.imgur.com/AXCeU.jpg
(Whoops, just noticed I posted this to the General Section, if someone could move this to Reports it would be much appreciated!)
Went fishing at Silverwood this week. I was hoping the overcast conditions would allow for a better striper bite from the shore. However, I was wrong-I only saw three boils near shore in the AM and a few more near dusk. However, I had the entire day free, so I decided to explore the shoreline. As the water was considerably lower than in the past, I decided to hike along the shoreline, from Chamise Cove to Cleghorn. The weather was fine, I had plenty of water and I figured exploring the various coves and points along the way might be a fun experience.
At one of the first coves I fished, I had a nice bass follow my topwater back to the bank. I switched up to a power minnow/jig, worked the area, and hooked into a decent fish. Surprise, surprise, not a bass, but a beautiful rainbow trout. It had full fins and fought pretty well. Here's a quick video of it underwater on my BlurFix camera:
YouTube Video link (http://youtu.be/Du-Mo7_TLQs)
And here's the trout...
http://i.imgur.com/kGVIv.jpg
After that, I continued hiking along the shore. Initially, it was fairly easy,as much of the shoreline was hard packed sand. However, as I began to work around the main point, I encountered a lot more rocks and and loose debris. Definitely slowed my trip down. Had lunch in one of the coves further back and did more fishing along the way. For the most part, I didn't spot any fish. The water was very clear and there was very little cover near the shore. However, at one cove, I found a nice bit of wood cover and it held several largemouth. There was one group of 1-2pound fish and another of 3-5pound fish, just hanging out near the cover. They were curious enough to follow a swimbait and soft plastics, but wouldn't commit. While I know Silverwood has large bass, I haven't spotted fish of this size, congregated right up next to the shore before.
http://i.imgur.com/QSoOj.jpg
I continued walking around the lake and as I drew closer to Cleghorn, I began to encounter some problems. The shoreline changed significantly, with several rough rock walls sloping into the lake. I was able to scramble along several of them, laden with fishing tackle/gear, slipped in once, but pressed on. I finally got to the point indicated at the "Turn Around" on theabove image and had to call it quits-the rock face was simply too sheer and the water below too deep for me to safely continue. Ugh. Making the walk back was slow and painful but the scenery was fantastic. Fishing...not so much. Ended the day fishing for stripers from the shore as the sunset. Just a couple of scattered boils, nothing hitting my lures at all. I did spot, far out near the dam, a few seagulls circle and crash on a school of something for 30 seconds or so, but nothing else.
http://i.imgur.com/7lYEL.jpg
If anything, it was a great exercise, but I wouldn't recommend making that hike to others! According to Google, it was ~ 5 miles round trip.
Here's my question: Has the topwater bite and fluke bite from the shore pretty much died down for a while now? While I'm sure a few monsters will be caught by the swimbait guys from the shore, has the days of 15+ micros from the bank ended for the next few months? Somebody help me out with this?
http://i.imgur.com/AXCeU.jpg
(Whoops, just noticed I posted this to the General Section, if someone could move this to Reports it would be much appreciated!)