FallRiverGuy
06-01-2008, 10:55 AM
My son-in-law and I were fishing by 5:00. We started in the Davis arm. We tried using all glow lures and glow dodgers first thing without success. After the sun peaked over the horizon we switched to our standard colored lures and dodgers.
The fishing was steady but slow and we ended up with 24 hard earned fish. Our target water depth was between 30 and 45 feet. The fish were either shallow or deep. The majority of our fish were caught between 5 and 15 feet. A few were caught deeper, but not many. The surface water temperature was 52 F in the morning and climbed to 54 F when we left.
There was no one lure or color that worked best. I don’t think I have caught fish on so many different lures. Rarely did I catch more than one fish on one particular lure. I would switch lures and get bit fairly quickly. I would rebait and send it back down. I would go fishless until I changed. This pattern repeated all day. Fish were caught on Apex’s (pink, orange and watermelon), hoochies (chartreuse, pink, double glow pink, UV orange and orange), wedding rings (red, orange and green), a Scorpion Caribbean Sunset spoon and a lollypop Father Murphy bug. Tolling speed varied between 0.9 and 1.4 mph.
The fish were all small; between 10.5 and 12.5 inches. They are, however, starting to get some of their girth back. They are not the skinny snakes from a month ago. All the fish were full of phytoplankton and some had chironomid pupa in their stomachs as well. The fish were very tentative biters as well. Many of the strikes, if you could call it that, looked like a small vibration. It took a while to recognize the diminutive take. Often they would swim right to the boat before going ballistic.
I also had one of the more scary moment fishing that I have ever had. For the most part the severe thunder storms either flanked to the North or South of Wickiup. The first one of the day was passing to the South and the lightning and thunder seemed to be well South of us and the sky above was only partial cloudy. At first I noticed a strange buzzing noise. It took a few moments to realize that the line on one of my rods, which was leaning up against the windshield, was buzzing. In retrospect it was buzzing like a high voltage power line. I picked the rod up, not by the cork, and I was shocked rapidly three times. Something like a static electric shock you get then you to touch metal, but it was stronger than that. It was such a surprise that I drop the rod. My mind started to put the pieces together. I remember reading about similar incidences before lightning struck when people were on a lake in a boat. I had a oh **** moment just then. I told my son-in-law to lay his other rod down and to get all the gear in the boat because were leaving pronto. I was glad when we had all the gear in and were on step out of that area. That situation ranked right up there for me on the PFS (pucker factor scale).
The fishing was steady but slow and we ended up with 24 hard earned fish. Our target water depth was between 30 and 45 feet. The fish were either shallow or deep. The majority of our fish were caught between 5 and 15 feet. A few were caught deeper, but not many. The surface water temperature was 52 F in the morning and climbed to 54 F when we left.
There was no one lure or color that worked best. I don’t think I have caught fish on so many different lures. Rarely did I catch more than one fish on one particular lure. I would switch lures and get bit fairly quickly. I would rebait and send it back down. I would go fishless until I changed. This pattern repeated all day. Fish were caught on Apex’s (pink, orange and watermelon), hoochies (chartreuse, pink, double glow pink, UV orange and orange), wedding rings (red, orange and green), a Scorpion Caribbean Sunset spoon and a lollypop Father Murphy bug. Tolling speed varied between 0.9 and 1.4 mph.
The fish were all small; between 10.5 and 12.5 inches. They are, however, starting to get some of their girth back. They are not the skinny snakes from a month ago. All the fish were full of phytoplankton and some had chironomid pupa in their stomachs as well. The fish were very tentative biters as well. Many of the strikes, if you could call it that, looked like a small vibration. It took a while to recognize the diminutive take. Often they would swim right to the boat before going ballistic.
I also had one of the more scary moment fishing that I have ever had. For the most part the severe thunder storms either flanked to the North or South of Wickiup. The first one of the day was passing to the South and the lightning and thunder seemed to be well South of us and the sky above was only partial cloudy. At first I noticed a strange buzzing noise. It took a few moments to realize that the line on one of my rods, which was leaning up against the windshield, was buzzing. In retrospect it was buzzing like a high voltage power line. I picked the rod up, not by the cork, and I was shocked rapidly three times. Something like a static electric shock you get then you to touch metal, but it was stronger than that. It was such a surprise that I drop the rod. My mind started to put the pieces together. I remember reading about similar incidences before lightning struck when people were on a lake in a boat. I had a oh **** moment just then. I told my son-in-law to lay his other rod down and to get all the gear in the boat because were leaving pronto. I was glad when we had all the gear in and were on step out of that area. That situation ranked right up there for me on the PFS (pucker factor scale).