$50K BBL Derby Tagged Trout

[SlayinRainbows]

Hit the derby up yesterday over by the dam. My buddy gets the first fish of the morning around 8...pulls it in and it's tagged. They only stocked 10 tagged trout with numbers on them in that entire lake...he caught one of them. Went to the weigh in station and they said there was only one other tagged that got turned in. I'm not sure how it's going up there today but he's gonna be there at 3pm on the berkley stage waiting to hear if he caught the 50K tag. I guess the other prices are lodging packages and other things like that. 1 outta 10 chance ain't too bad though. I tried to zoom in on a pic of the fish so you can see the tag. It's pink and right by the dorsal fin.

[Sublime-Steve]

What! That's Kool as hell lemme know how it goes.

[flyhigh123]

i'm guessing no 50k as he never came back to report it ?

[EfrenM]

on what lake was the derby

[DrePSP]

BBL.... big bear lake. I was there, cought 10 fish. no tags or big ones. but still fun. last year the fishing was much better. I think this year the bite was off, I dont know if it was the weather, wind or merkier water. trolled for a while each moring. seems gold /red was the color. had best luck at the observatory after I anchored up and figured out which PB worked. had a nice one that broke off my 6 lb leader trying to get into the net. SOB. cant wait to hit up BBL again.

[EfrenM]

Im new to FNN how do I make my own post?

[SlayinRainbows]

You gotta make sure you're signed in, then you go to the forum you want, like this one - Southern California freshwater general discussion and there is a tab at the top that says "post new thread". No he didn't win the 50K but he won a brand new Shakespeare light w/ reel, tackle box, $50 worth of tackle, one night mid week lodging, lift tickets and restaurant accommodations for 4.

[SlayinRainbows]

Ain't too bad for a $50 entry. I still can't get over that he caught 1 out of 10 that were stocked in the entire lake, the odds are crazy. It's funny too cause we were totally fishing the wrong way. I didn't find out till later, but apparently I was fishing waaaay to low. We were rigged up with power bait on a 4' leader off the ground and the water is 50-70ft deep over at that end. We got there at 5:15am, caught the tagged fish at 8:00am...and that was it until about 1 hour before we left at 3:30 my buddy caught 1 other small trout. Turns out the fish are in thermocline right now and I needed to be fishing 16-20ft down with a slip bobber set up. Regardless, if I hadn't made that mistake he never would have caught that tagged trout and come up on all that stuff. Crazy how things work out sometimes. I'm going back this weekend for a little redemption myself. If I can throw out a quick piece of advice to any beginners out there like myself that I recently learned...if you're going fishing somewhere you're unfamiliar with...make the effort to call around the local bait or sporting goods shops close to the lake for advice. Those guys are get fishing reports every day and they know what's workin and what's not. A little bit of homework goes a long way for me, especially if I'm making a 4 hr round trip to big bear.

[EfrenM]

thx for the help