Just a quick report for my Poway trip last week.

Got to Poway on Wed the 20th at 6 am. Pretty much the only ones there, except for the truck that had just stocked the lake. All 6 of us headed out to Halfmoon Bay to fish from shore. It was REALLY quiet for the first few hours, none of us got any nibbles on powerbait or the spoons/spinners. I hiked up to hidden bay around 9:30 or so and camped up on shore on the shallow side. Had a bite on rainbow powerbait dipped in Bite On garlic, but the fish got unhooked about 8 seconds into the fight. Tried some mini jigs for about an hour with no luck, so switched back to powerbait. At about 11:00 my buddy radio'd me that the 1st fish was caught from Half Moon Bay.

I decided to hike back since I was getting hungry anyways so start reeling in my powerbait rig...I could see my powerbait about 8 feet away from me as Im' reeling in pretty quickly when BAM!!! my rod bends violently and i can see a HUGE trout that gobbled up my powerbait literally like 3 or 4 feet from shore. Unfortunately I wasn't able to set the hook and I watched him swim away as my brain struggled to comprehend what just happened. That was my fault though as I wasn't paying attention and was just trying to get my line out of the water.... =(. So two bites at hidden bay, no fish.

Hiked back to Half Moon Bay and we all started catching fish starting from about 1 pm. Very, very slowly though, about a fish every hour or so. Everything was caught on Garlic powerbait, with 2 fish being caught on powerbait/white powerworm combo on a treble hook...We had no hits on mini jigs, spinners, or spoons. I also had a big hit on powerbait about an hour before closing, but the fish got unhooked about 10 seconds into the fight. I have no clue what was wrong with me. I blamed my poor hooksets on the fact that it was my first time with my new rod, a 7'6. (I know, I know..its me and not the equipment):DD

All in all, we caught 7 fish between 6 of us, (2 by me) all between 2-5 pound range from 6 am to 5 pm....Hard day of fishing. Weather was supposed to be rainy and windy but it was pretty beautiful most of the day. Had some hail at about 7 am but it was pretty light.


On friday, my Pops asked if I wanted to go back on Saturday morning, and of course I jumped all over it. My buddy, my dad, and I got to the lake at 5:55 am. on Saturday to be greeted with a line of at least 30+ cars in front of us waiting for the gates to open. Wow. Waited in line for the fishing permit for about 20 minutes, and got to halfmoon bay. Again, WOW!. There was almost no room on shore, pole after pole line after line was already in the water. We picked an empty spot on one side of the cove and threw our lines out.

We then watched as a select group of fisherman (about 3 or 4 of them) were SLAYING the fish on mini jigs and what I overheard one of them call a "Cheater". Seemed like a poweregg/powerworm combo to me but I couldn't really tell. So there were lots of fish being caught all around us from 7 to about 8:30 or so and than it slowed down. I worked my mini jigs for a few hours but nothing! I think my technique needs improving. Hour after hour went by and my buddy finally hooked a nice trout around 1:00 pm or so on powerbait. At this point I had been trying everything, Powerbait, powerworms, spinners, jigs, spoons, drop shots, carolina rigs, changing leader lengths, using fluoro leaders, etc.....

About 3 pm I start thinking to myself its going to be a big skunk for the day for me and my pops. My buddy than hooks up on one fish with powerbait again, reels it in, when BAM!!! his other rod slams with a fish on too!!! Unfortunately that one got away. SO at this point its my buddy 2, me: 0, Dad: 0. (was killing me....my friend was literally 2 feet away from me the entire time and I haven't even had a nibble yet).

Now, my dad and I have had massive arguments over line weight and fluorocarbon leaders and such. He has been telling me I'm wasting my money on fluoro leaders, saying it doesn't make a difference. He uses 6# test pretty much for all his lake trout fishing needs.

So my dad's been laughing at me all day watching me changing out my fluorocarbon leader lengths and such. I'm now determined to catch a fish on my set-up!!! At about 4:00 pm....My heart sinks as I watch his line start to flicker a little, than the rod bends over with a fish on. Did I mention this was on his green spider-line/braided line that he uses for catfish and carp??

My dad reels in his fish giving me the "I told you so" look. *Facepalm*

Total for fishing between 3 of us 6 am to 5 pm.....3 fish. Another hard day of fishing.

It started getting into my head that maybe smoking was leaving a bad odor on the bait. My buddy who had at least some action that day doesn't smoke, but me and my dad were smoking all day. I dunno..luck wasn't on my side that day.

Anways...thanks for reading if you haven't fallen asleep by now. :D Happy Fishing!