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... you never know what you are going to get!
I hit Hagg on Saturday the 19th for a day of trolling for trout. I had not been to Hagg in a long time and was looking forward to battling some feisty trout. I was surprised how many folks were already there when I got there around first light. I remember usually arriving to an empty parking lot. I was hoping that meant the fishing was going to be on fire. The day started out according to plan. I quickly caught a 14" trout (before I turned on my video camera), then a 16" trout, lost one right at the kayak then caught one around 12". I also missed numerous bites. I thought I was going to catch a zillion trout, but those fish in the first hour were the only trout I ended catching all day.
Occasionally I missed strikes that seemed trout like (they were hitting quite violently!) but I just could not stick another trout. Fortunately Hagg has a lot to offer in terms of variety. Throughout the rest of the day I caught 2 small largemouth bass (unfortunately not 2 large smallmouth bass), 2 big bluegill and a ton of crappie (best was a hair over 12"). I really spent a lot of the day trolling back and forth through the huge school of crappie I had found since catching them was a ton of fun. I was getting bit every pass through that spot (missed plenty but with that many bites I caught plenty as well).
In terms of how I was fishing, all the fish I caught were caught by trolling. I had a Strike King BItsy Minnow on one rod and my usual roostertail + 1/2 nightcrawler on the other. I had them set out 50' most of the day (occasionally trying longer distances for a spell but eventually coming back to 50') and I had a 1/8oz weight on the dropper of my spreader (really just to avoid line twist).
I caught the trout trolling 1.2-1.3mph and I caught my first crappie at that speed as well. I did find though that slowing down to .7mph really improved the crappie bite. Not sure if it was the change in depth or the slower presentation but that speed was the deal for the them!
So, the day did not go as planned but it was still a blast catching 4 different species of fish. I did waste a lot of the middle of the day searching (fruitlessly for trout) going all the way up past boat ramp A but in the end every fish I caught came out of the no-wake zone in 15-25' of water. Perhaps spending more time over deeper water down closer to the dam would have paid dividends but I never got a bite in water deeper than 25'. Overall it was the kind of a day that makes Hagg special in my book.
16" trout:
A couple of crappie:
And one of the big bluegill:
Here is some video from the day:
I hit Hagg on Saturday the 19th for a day of trolling for trout. I had not been to Hagg in a long time and was looking forward to battling some feisty trout. I was surprised how many folks were already there when I got there around first light. I remember usually arriving to an empty parking lot. I was hoping that meant the fishing was going to be on fire. The day started out according to plan. I quickly caught a 14" trout (before I turned on my video camera), then a 16" trout, lost one right at the kayak then caught one around 12". I also missed numerous bites. I thought I was going to catch a zillion trout, but those fish in the first hour were the only trout I ended catching all day.
Occasionally I missed strikes that seemed trout like (they were hitting quite violently!) but I just could not stick another trout. Fortunately Hagg has a lot to offer in terms of variety. Throughout the rest of the day I caught 2 small largemouth bass (unfortunately not 2 large smallmouth bass), 2 big bluegill and a ton of crappie (best was a hair over 12"). I really spent a lot of the day trolling back and forth through the huge school of crappie I had found since catching them was a ton of fun. I was getting bit every pass through that spot (missed plenty but with that many bites I caught plenty as well).
In terms of how I was fishing, all the fish I caught were caught by trolling. I had a Strike King BItsy Minnow on one rod and my usual roostertail + 1/2 nightcrawler on the other. I had them set out 50' most of the day (occasionally trying longer distances for a spell but eventually coming back to 50') and I had a 1/8oz weight on the dropper of my spreader (really just to avoid line twist).
I caught the trout trolling 1.2-1.3mph and I caught my first crappie at that speed as well. I did find though that slowing down to .7mph really improved the crappie bite. Not sure if it was the change in depth or the slower presentation but that speed was the deal for the them!
So, the day did not go as planned but it was still a blast catching 4 different species of fish. I did waste a lot of the middle of the day searching (fruitlessly for trout) going all the way up past boat ramp A but in the end every fish I caught came out of the no-wake zone in 15-25' of water. Perhaps spending more time over deeper water down closer to the dam would have paid dividends but I never got a bite in water deeper than 25'. Overall it was the kind of a day that makes Hagg special in my book.
16" trout:
A couple of crappie:
And one of the big bluegill:
Here is some video from the day: