It's a rap at Lake Wohlford (Trout season)
If some of you have already guessed, I go fishing every week somewhere. I fish with the Seasons. Winter trout, Spring Bass & Crappie, Summer & Fall catfish and any game fish that swim in the ocean. So when April and May rolls around, I'm looking for any good Bass & Crappie fishing that I could find. The Aqueduct is killer this year, I've hit it 3 times and it didn't disappoint me on any trip. So when the 3rd week in April comes around, I'm thinking what do I want to do??? I've got several choices, Bass at DVL or perhaps a go at the Tuna & Yellowtail offshore. I did notice my winter folly of trout down south would get 1 last stockings for the season. I know the water is getting warm, so it's not going to be wide open by any standards. Then something occurred to me, I have fished Lake Wohlford every week they stocked it all season. So how could I miss the last stock of the season. (it does go against my fishing philosophy) Which is to go to the where the fish are biting best. But if I go to Wohlford, I can say "I fished every trout plant they put in the 2016 & 2017 season." The smart play is Lake Dixon, their going out in a Blaze of Glory!!!! 10,000 lbs of trout planted the last month of the season. So what to do???? I know, "I'll go to both of them!!!" The logistic on this is going to be easy, they both get stocked on Wed but they won't let you fish Dixon till Saturday. So fish Wohlford on Thursday, put a full day of work in on Friday and fish Dixon Saturday afternoon. (Saturday afternoon are you crazy boy???) Some of you must be thinking that because trout do bite better in the morning. The problem is, I want a boat to fish from and good luck on that one!!!!! Every Tom Dick and Harry has the same idea I do. So I'll pretend they voted for Trump and I'll "OUT THINK THEM!!!" I'll show up in the afternoon when people are leaving and get a boat after they turned it in for the day. (peerfecct plan) lol
On to the fishing!!!
I had realistic expectations for Wohlford on Thursday. Catch a few catfish as I'm looking for where the trout might be hiding. (I had other people with me, but they were pretty insignificant so I'll just talk about myself) I started off in the shallow East end of the lake looking for trout. (this is where they were all season) Caught a few small catfish (1lbers) and then I hooked a big Carp. I had a blast on him on 2 pound test. (a nice 10-12lb fish) I then went looking for the trout in the deeper water and caught some more small catfish. Finally I caught a few trout drifting near the doughnut hole of the lake. What's the doughnut hole of the lake???? The part between the deep water and the East end. (I never fished it all this season) All in all I had a fair day with 3 kinds of fish caught. But Dixon was going to be the killer trip I kept thinking.
Saturday rolls around and I'm ready to go with Bill. We take off right on time and hit pretty bad traffic all the way down there. When we get to the lake it's a fricicking zoo!!!! Zillions of people every where (as I thought it would be!!!) Luckily my evil plan looked pretty good. 20 boats were tied up at the boat dock. (I'm thinking no problem getting a boat) I walked up to the lady and ask for 2 fishing permits and a boat & motor rental. I was shocked when she said, "no boats were available!!!" SAY WHAT????? There is 20 boats tied up to the boat dock!!!!!! She started giving me some dumb arse logic. (I know she voted for Trump!!!) The bottom line was, they were only going to rent each boat only once that day. I was ticked off at that horse arse logic!!! My buddy Bill wanted to fish from the shore. (no way am I giving these fools any of my money!!) But I am a team player and wanted to make Bill happy. So I tried to negotiate a deal with him, that let him fish from the shore while I entertain myself doing something. He wouldn't go for it!!!! He really wanted me to fish with him. So I made him a counter offer, Dixon had doubled their prices today and then only allowed you to fish with 1 rod. So I said, give me the price you were going to pay to fish from the shore at Dixon and we will then rent a boat at Wohlford and I'll pay the difference. The funny part is, it was going to be the same price as I was going to pay at Dixon. Wohlford is dirt cheap!!! So we made a deal and went to Wohlford and rented a boat. (the lakes are only 15 minutes away from each other)
I started off in the East end hoping the trout found their way down there by now. Nope they didn't, I just caught 1 small catfish. Tried the deep water and caught another small catfish. By then my friend Bill started making fun of my new fishing rod. He called it a "Barbie" fishing pole only a little kid would fish with it. In reality it was a killer vintage pole I wanted for years!!!!! It was an 1980's TIGER STRIP KENCORE rod rated 1-6 lbs test 5 footer. Well it was soon to be tested!!!!! Since we were expecting to fish Dixon Lake I only had ultra light tackle and trout bait with me. All these catfish we were catching came on the orange power bait and #2 test line. As we were still drifting in the deep water the Barbie pole got bit or snagged for it was hard to tell for a minute. I started fighting this fish and this was diffidently not a 1 lb catfish. It pushed that little pole to the brink!!! I knew it was a medium size catfish by the way it was fighting!! They have a contest for biggest fish of the month by species. (we won it last month for catfish) So I looked up the weights before we went and what we had to beat. 5 pounds and change (5.10) was the weight for a catfish we would have to beat. This fish comes up and it's right in that bracket. Bill nets him and we haul arse to the boat dock to weigh the fish. 5 pounds even!!!! (Very close but no cigar) Not quite big enough but a great catch on #2 line and that Barbie pole. (I released him of course!!!)
Now it's getting late and no sign of any trout.
As we are drifting along in the deep water again we eventually get to the doughnut hole area. It turns really shallow there because our split shot weights are easily bouncing on the bottom again. I give it a little bit of time and then tell Bill to reel up and let's get back in the deep water again. Bill goes I got one!!!!! Did you even see a bite I ask??? Nope he yells as he's fighting this fish. It's a trout!!! I'm thinking let's stick this drift out a little more. What happened next was unbelievable!!! There was a huge school of trout under us and they knew how to steal our baits!! I'm not kidding, we each had 6-7 bites in the next 20 minutes and we couldn't hook them!!! I said, "just don't touch the rod and swing only when it's totally bent." That was really hard for my friend Bill to do, but he finally waited and hooked one but it got away. I said, "I'm going to wait and swing hopefully at the perfect time." The whistle then blows which means it's time to leave, "Damm" we got these things right under the boat and now we got to go!!!! The nice young man comes by to tell everyone it's time to leave and I tell him with got a huge school of trout right under the boat. He say's stay a little longer for he still has to go around the whole lake. I told him thanks a lot!!! Now I have to have patience on when to swing on these things. The Barbie poles get's a tiny tap tap (wait I tell myself) then it bends and "I swing" a nice trout jumps 4 foot straight up in the air. I got this one hooked!!! He fights like a champ on that Barbie pole, it took awhile but I landed him. A real nice #3 pound tail walker that get's to live another day. He was hooked right in the mouth so I carefully released him unharmed. A steelhead guide once told me, "they will only jump if their hooked in the mouth." I don't know if that's true about trout but he put on a real nice show for us!!!!
In conclusion it's a rap for Lake Wohlford trout season for me. It was just like that old joke about pizza, it was never bad but some (days) were better then others!!!!
