541 Native son
06-03-2008, 07:24 PM
Hello iFishers – My buddy Mike and I hit the water at Odell just before 6:00am. I landed fish on my first and third casts, then went a half hour before my next strike. While I was waiting for that next bite, Mike put three in the box and the rain and wind picked up. We spent a cold, wet two hours with five fish apiece before the (poor) bite quit and our hands were so cold we couldn’t tie knots.
Conditions were a lot different from the past few years. We usually graph HUGE (30-40 feet thick) schools of fish in the west end around Trapper Cr. We graphed zero large schools this year, just a few scattered groups. There were very few fish jumping compared to usual. The fish were the least aggressive I have EVER seen – they wanted the jig almost dead in the water and the bite was so subtle we probably missed a few due to cold hands. On our first trip last year, (besides getting sun burnt), Mike and I were landing fish at a rate of about a limit an hour, so ten fish in two hours is a pretty poor bite.
Trollers weren’t doing any better than us jig flingers. We did see other boats landing a fish here and there, but no one was knocking them dead.
Judging by what we saw at the cleaning station, we did about average. All were the typical 8-11” Odell kokes. Stomachs were absolutely empty. I didn’t see anyone with a mackinaw.
Maybe the falling barometer put them off, but I am guessing that the water is still on the cold side. The empty stomachs suggest that they are not actively feeding yet. There was still a bunch of old snow around, but the rain should get rid of it pretty quick.
I saw a couple iFish stickers on boats, but never got close enough to say hello – I hope you guys did better than we did. Ken
Conditions were a lot different from the past few years. We usually graph HUGE (30-40 feet thick) schools of fish in the west end around Trapper Cr. We graphed zero large schools this year, just a few scattered groups. There were very few fish jumping compared to usual. The fish were the least aggressive I have EVER seen – they wanted the jig almost dead in the water and the bite was so subtle we probably missed a few due to cold hands. On our first trip last year, (besides getting sun burnt), Mike and I were landing fish at a rate of about a limit an hour, so ten fish in two hours is a pretty poor bite.
Trollers weren’t doing any better than us jig flingers. We did see other boats landing a fish here and there, but no one was knocking them dead.
Judging by what we saw at the cleaning station, we did about average. All were the typical 8-11” Odell kokes. Stomachs were absolutely empty. I didn’t see anyone with a mackinaw.
Maybe the falling barometer put them off, but I am guessing that the water is still on the cold side. The empty stomachs suggest that they are not actively feeding yet. There was still a bunch of old snow around, but the rain should get rid of it pretty quick.
I saw a couple iFish stickers on boats, but never got close enough to say hello – I hope you guys did better than we did. Ken