Opening Day (Trout season) Lake Wohlford
Last year was a wake up call for me for my winter time fishing. After having the BEST ever local Saltwater season last year I hit the wall in the freshwater scene last winter. 3 out of 4 of my beloved pay lakes were history. The only one left SARL was Shad infested to my way of fishing. So I went looking around for a replacement. I went Trout fishing about 10 times last year with horrible results!!! I felt like Austin Power did in losing his MoJO!!! This year was going to be different I told myself. I would spare no expense in time energy and research in looking to get my Trout MoJO back!!!!!!. I started off last week at Lake Dixon with a Fair result. (which was better then all of last year) This week Lake Wohlford was having their Trout opener. So I started my research of the Lake and also what happened at Lake Dixon last week. (These 2 are sister lakes in Escondido) The first conclusion is it's going to be crowded and you need a boat. Solution is to get their early!!!!! Set the alarm for 2:00 am and be on the road by 2:45. It's an hour and a half to get there so being in line by 4:30 am will hopefully do the trick. I had taken my friend Glenn with me on this adventure. Since I have never been to this lake before I was going to have to trust my Trout instincts to get the job done.
The crowd wasn't as bad as Dixon's opener by how many cars were ahead of us once we got in line. (Dixon's opener had 200 people waiting in line by 6:00 am) The Rangers had their act together, walking down the line of cars telling everyone they were going to let us in at 5:30 am. Right on schedule the line moved and all's you needed to do was park and get in line at the Ranger station for permits and boat rental. The prices are good!!!! No parking fees and a $7 fishing permit and a $35 price for an all day motor boat rental. Glenn is a senior so it cost us $47 dollars for all day entertainment for the both of us. (fishing isn't cheap is my motto) Since they stocked 6,000 lbs of Nebraska tail walkers prior to us arriving, I think the money was well spent!!! Since the first order of business was accomplished (securing the boat) we now had to find the fish.
This was not my first Rodeo on fishing for stocked fish. So I asked the very nice boat attendant where they stocked the fish at and when???? Right here and 2 day's ago (in 2 day's those fish probably moved) but that's where most everybody started. (within 100 yards of the boat dock) I don't want to be stupid and go exploring when the fish MIGHT be right here!!! It was also still pretty cold and foggy and starting right there was ok by me. We sat there for an hour and caught one pretty unimpressive 1 lb Trout. The most we saw any boat catch was 3 fish so leaving that area was an easy decision. We headed for the Dam trolling along the way looking for anybody either on the shore or in a boat doing any catching to indicate if any biting fish were there. We saw nothing in that whole area of the lake and "VAMOUSED" on out of there!!!! We next headed for the East end of the lake. Everybody we saw down there was fishing next to the reeds. The whole middle of the lake was wide open to fishing and that's "My kind of fishing!!!" I like to pull long drifts offering the Trout the whole kitchen sink of goodies to snack on. We had power bait out there, power mice and mini jigs hoping to entice a strike. It was pretty shallow with no crap on the bottom to snag your baits on. We were bouncing along with no bites till we got near some platform in the water. (it looked like a turned off air rater) Glenn get's bit first on a mini jig and it's a fighter. (a nice 3-4 lbs tailwalker) As soon as he get's it in the boat my Power bait pole goes off!!!! Another nice tailwalker same size, I don't even have this one in when my Power mice pole goes off!!! (3 hook ups in 5 minutes) "WE FOUND THEM!!!!" The best part is, "We are all alone!!!" Nobody is fishing this part of the lake. Everybody else is in a line behind us casting at the Reeds. That's not to say they weren't biting a little bit for them. But for us it was bites every time we would pull a drift. Nice fish too!!!! 3-5 lbs just about every one of them. I soon boxed the area into a small segment so our bites would come pretty quick. Glenn say's let's anchor up???? I had to give him my pirate captains speech. A pirate captain is elected by a vote of all shipmates. But when your in the heat of battle his word is "LAW!!!!" So Glenn said, "you don't care what my opinion is do you????" I said "NOPE!!!" If I don't get us full limits by noon, you can fire me and you can run the boat as captain!!!! Well we did!!!!! We were the first boat back to the boat dock and we left them in a wide open biting mood. The other riff raff (fellow fishermen) were starting to catch them pretty good by the reeds when we left. But that middle section (channel by the east buoys) wasn't even being fished after we left. They bit everything including a troll fish as we were blasting out of there. If you wanted to keep it simple they bit the power bait better then anything else. I guarantee this won't be the last time I fish this lake this season!!!
Thanks for reading my story!!!!
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Originally Posted by nolivebait4bass
