Henry Hagg Lake fishing reports 2009 - 2018

[troutdude]

LOL Don't want to give your loot, to the state eh?

Well, I went today as planned. Hopped OFF my pad, at o'dark thiry, with a cup o' Joe in hand and set my Jeep's controls for North. Arrived a tad after 6:00. Grabbed my gear, and lines in Sain Creek inlet by 6:15. The temp, last Sat. morning was 43. This morning, it was only 31 and the ground was clearly frozen! Wound up going, 2 for 5. Both dinks that went back, to grow up.

As you can see in the pic below; it was a VERY ROUGH day to be called into the OFFice again!



About 7:30 or 8:00, I gathered my gear and went upstream 100 yards or so. It's the same spot, where I retrieved a 17 incher last Saturday. Proceeded to fish there until 10:00. Only the nice young lady next to me, got anything: one dink. She got a 17" and a 19" fish in that very pocket, last Saturday. And I got my 17", right where I was standing. Plus, in front of us was where that 11 POUNDER, was gotten last weekend.



That was IT, for 2 dozen rods, in 2 hours. In other words; once the sun was out in force: we all got SKUNKED! Not even the boats were catching anything.

Snapped this pic from the dam, on the way back to the store. My tired bones, required fresh Pizza for breakfast! YES, there IS still snow on the highest peak!



Got my pizza; and the store dude confirmed my suspicions. The bite has ONLY been happening, in the WEE (read EARLY) hours of dawn and dusk. Otherwise, you need a one ounce weight and it's a trolling show.

I made my way, to boat ramp A. Was munching, and starting to watch the bank maggots...to see if anything was being caught on the eastern shore. But, a boater approached and asked if had jumper cables. He had just taken out, and couldn't get his 150hp Honda to raise up. So, I did the neighborly thing and helped him out. After a bit of fidgeting, he got the motor up and I went on my way. BTW, they had only gotten two dinks all morning.

All in all, a beautiful day to be "out n' about"! It was 50 degrees, when leaving (it felt even warmer). Well, that's my story--and I'm stickin' to it.

 

[cpeaslee]

8 bass from 5:00 until 8:45. Biggest was a 4lb Largemouth. It was a perfect evening on the water. And a Smallmouth to keep the big mouth company.
And another big mouth for the Smallmouth hanging with the other big mouth.

 

[Grover35]

Thanks to the all the tips I got here a couple days ago I was able to hook up with a perch, bluegill, and a bunch of crappie. Even with all the madness at the lake yesterday with free fishing weekend I was able to hook up with some good fish. Thanks again for all the tips.

 

[fisherofmen]

had perfect fishin weather yesterday, cloudy light wind occational light rain. fish the creek arms in 10-12' with 2' pink and char curly tales. tied two 1/16 oz jigs on per pole. had a couple of doubles on same pole. all 16 were between 9 to 12 1/2 inch range. had fun with grandson catching them and will enjoy fishfry with him.

 

[fisherofmen]

Grandson Austin and papa got 19 crappie and 1 nice sm Monday the 29th. Thought we would have all the action in the cloudy morning, but caught most of them in the sunny afternoon. water temp 75, we trolled in 7' over spider blocks with 2" curly tail jigs pink and chart. few small perch and lost one nice lm at boat. were blessed to get this last trip in as I am selling my boat. good fish in.

 

[PTownAngler]

Went to Hagg today, got there about 10:30 weather was overcast. There were only 4 other people there when I first got there. After awhile the 2 guys closest to me left so I was pretty much there by myself. Started off plunkin PowerEggs with a 2' leader, the Eggs were the Garlic Scented Lemon Lime color (which is green and yellow) got a bite after about the first 5 min and landed the fish. After that the bite slowed a little bit, then I ended up limiting out after about 2 hours using the same method, Lemon Lime Garlic Scented PowerEggs with a 2' leader 2 eggs on a #6 EagleClaw Single Egg Hook. After that I stayed for about another half hour and caught and released 2 more fish. All in all it was a great day at Hagg Lake. It was only my 2nd time there and my first time fishing the spot I was at, the first time I went there I was on the complete other end of the lake. But i'm really starting to like Hagg Lake idk what it is, but its just a nice lake to go to. The only bad thing is its about a 1 hour 15 min drive for me. The one other guy I talked to got skunked, he was using spinners. I told him what I was doing and gave him a strand of PowerEggs to use as he didn't have any Green or anything garlic scented. Hopefully he got into some fish.

Here is a pic of the 5 fish.

 

[bernduffy]

Hagg Lake Sun 11/10
Launched in the dark at 6:20 am. Air 37 rising to 50. Water 56. No wind. Beautiful sunny day. No action until 8:30. This is the third time I’ve tried for the morning bite and not seen much. I’m sleeping in from now on. Although the purple-pink sunrise was almost worth it.
Steady action throughout the day, with everyone I talked to (though only 4) reporting limits of 9-12” stocker rainbows. I netted 11, lost 4, had another 4 solid take-downs. Kept 5 ranging from 9-11". Questing for big trout, I tried Rapalas, swimbaits, spin&glos, rebel crawdad to no avail. Oh, well, I guess I’ll take refuge in the old “Quantity has its own Quality” excuse. Champ lure of the day was a ProTroll silver Kokanee Killer with worm chunk and Crappie Nibble…trailed a couple of feet behind various lake trolls and dodgers. Caught fish from surface down to 20 feet (on downrigger). First time using a KoneZone flasher…very effective, especially at dark dusk. I like how light and drag free it is.

BTW: Fall Waterfowl activity is peaking: hundreds of geese in addition to coots, grebes, mergansers (including Hooded), Buffleheads, herons, ducks of various other sorts, and of course, seagulls.


Hagg Ramp Circus… Chapter 47

So anyway, I’m sliding in by the dock at ramp C to change my battery when I notice something strange underwater to the left. I do a head shake to clear my vision because surely that isn’t..

”Yup, ‘ says a nearby bank angler. “That’s a pickup.”

“What the-“

“And there’s a trailer behind it.”

Turns out a guy left his truck in reverse (no joke) and when he climbed onto the trailer to unhook the heavy fiberglass pleasure craft, the (obviously weakly engaged) emergency brake gave way. This tale descends from just plain stupid to just plain scary when I learn that there were children in the truck at the time who escaped with 20 inches of water in the vehicle. Hillsboro Towing got the pickup and trailer out ok and no one was hurt. I returned to my pontoon boat to find it sitting in a thick oil slick.
We all mess up, but let’s try not to kill the kids. Aren’t they supposed to be on dock or waiting off safely to the side?

So the Catch of the Day turns out to be a 6,000 lb Ford Pickup (stock, not stocker) on a single 48/0 hook on a 50,000 lb line. No leader. Plenty of oil scent. You should have seen the rod this guy was using. Very stiff.

Ahh, sunny Sundays at Hagg. Even in November, you just can't beat the excitement.

 

[troutdude]

It was a fun day; and I met 2 cool new friends Ethan (Bigboy), and his missus Josie. But, it was also a day just as described by HVACR1. We put in at 7:00, and took out at 2:00. We trolled all the way around, from Sain to Scoggins, to Tanner, to Ramp A and down the middle for a while.

Our boat only garnered 2 fish, for all of efforts! Josie got 'em both, with a green wedding ring spinner, tipped with purple glitter (nymph) power bait. One was 14" and fat. The other was 16" and even more plump! Her fish combined weighed in--at the Lake Stop Store--at 3.76 pounds.

Cherie, at the store, was cheerful and friendly as always. They'll have some big changes coming, for their store--as their are plans for campgrounds and year-round fishing up there now! Cherie also told us that, the largest fish of the day was a 7-pounder. Plus, we saw another fish that was 6, or maybe 7, pounds. Contrast to last year--I saw and photographed, and 11l.36 pounder. Plus Cherie told me of two 12 pounders, a 9 pounder, 2 seven pounders last year on the 2013 opener. So all in all, not a very good day of fishing was had (and we chatted with a lot of others).

I also met a Berkly rep/beta tester named Mike. He told me that Ford Fenders, work best for him. And he likes to fish, the middle in July and August.

We also bumped in Ben (a.k.a. Bagold), a fellow OFFer...who was getting out of his toon/OFF the lake around noon. It was a pleasure meeting you Ben.

We listened...and listened...and listened...for Moe's "air gun". But, we never heard it. Moe, were you out there?

We are also wondering, if we passed by BASS around the Scoggins Creek inlet? How about it, "Mr. Sturgeon"...were you out chasing the trouts today too?

A great big THANK YOU, and tip of my fishing hat, to Ethan and Josie. It was a real treat, to meet you. And I'm truly grateful, to have gotten to go trolling today! I'll look forward, to our next adventure on the water!

Josie's fish:

 

[K406]

Opening weekend report:

Had a late night Friday, so didn't get up and at em as early as I had liked, but probably wouldn't have mattered much as it seems the fish were hungover Saturday as well... Got the boat in the water right about 8:30 and just started trolling up along the shoreline towards the dam from ramp C. Made a lap up and around the dam and back down to ramp A with maybe one little bite, or potentially a stick, otherwise nothing doing. Jetted back over to ramp C and started up the shore again, with no action. Got up to the dam and figured we would reel in and head home, when suddenly a fish finally made an appearance. Got a nice little rainbow on board. Pretty fat, right about 15". The old man and I were just about to head in anyways, so we just called it a day on a high note. Was right about 11:30am is all.

I didn't see many fish pulled into boats Saturday, but did see a couple anglers on shore with full stringers with some nice looking trout. This motivated me to go ahead and go try the bank on Sunday. Didn't spend much time out there, noon until 2pm or so. Had one bite and brought a little freshly stocked bow in on a powerbait worm. Nothing worth keeping, but at least I can say I'm 2/2 this year at Hagg. The motor started acting up on the boat as we cruised in towards the ramp Saturday, so probably will need to get it checked out before getting it on the water again. Will probably be lucky if it gets out again in March. Gonna be doing some bank fishing though, and getting back out on the river with my new fly rod looking for that ever elusive first steelhead! Maybe I'll see some of ya'll out at the lake this spring; I'm hoping to do some fly fishing at Hagg this year, maybe for bass once the warm season starts up. More fishing opportunities finally! Cheers!

 

[michael_g]

Caught fish in between dam and rampA, stockers. Moved to just left of ramp c handicap pavillian, nuttin. Moved to sain creek area. Caught 17 inch fatty holdover. Moved closer to creek, and landed three more 16 + inch fish. Best day I've ever had at Hagg! You all have a good en. Fished all day, yellow garlic eggs working best.

 

[rainORsnow1]

Me and my buddy managed to pick up two of those two pounders yesterday and lost one that was about six pounds,(it breached two feet out of the water, snapped line).

 

[bass]

I hit Hagg lake with my son, Zach, in the tandem kayak for some Fourth of July panfishing and exploring. We hit the lake at the crack of ten, all the fish having dropped their guard by then after the typical early morning onslaught of fisherman. We headed to a small cove in hopes of catching something other than just perch. I was pleasantly surprised to catch 4 different species on my first 4 casts with a little home tied black and white jig. I caught a smallmouth, perch, bluegill then a crappie. That was a really sweet way to start the day.

Zach did not fish much at the first spot. He really keeps trying to see one of the bullfrogs croaking in the weeds plus he was fascinated in watching out for salamanders which would occasionally surface. After my first 4 fish it was mostly a perch fish with an occasional crappie thrown in. I probably caught 1/2 dozen decent crappie out of that spot mixed in with a zillion smaller fish.

After a while easy fishing like that gets a little boring so we decided to let the wind do the work and we did a controlled drift down the bank, tossing jigs under bobbers, looking out for eagles, osprey and herons and in general just enjoying nature. We caught a ton of perch doing that but 99% of them were total dinks. It is still fun to watch the bobber plunge under when they suck in your jig, but the lack of size does get a little disheartening after a while. We broke up the day with a couple of shore stops to poke around in the woods, eat lunch, Zach tried to climb the vertical clay banks at the Northwest end of the lake.

After a bit more fishing we headed up Scoggins creek in the kayak for a bit of exploration. We found a tiny backwater loaded with salamanders, another with tadpoles. We saw a ton of minnows in the creek, but I have no idea what they were. After a while I had to be the dad and say it was time to start heading back. After an appropriate amount of hemming and hawing Zach climbed back into the kayak and we headed back towards the dock. On the way there we stopped to fish one last spot where we had caught some crappie previously. Once again there were some decent size crappie on that spot and we probably picked up another 1/2 dozen of so crappie that were definitely eating sized. Here is Zach being a goofball with one of them:



It seems like we would catch a couple of crappie casting to a spot and then nothing but tiny perch. After some probing casts we could find a different spot where we could catch a couple of crappie before the perch would take over. Still not sure if it was a case of the crappie moving out or the perch moving in.

Anyway we had a great time out on the lake, not trying to catch anything special but rather just enjoying being out in nature with each other. As a treat we stopped at the Lakestop store on the way home to get some fried chicken. If I close my eyes it feels like I am back in North Carolina. Nothing says South Eastern US like buying your dinner from the bait store

Hope everyone else had as nice of a Fourth as we did.

 

[Dillonewolf]

Check this lunker out it was one of two that I caught today both the same size by boat ramp c !!

 

[bass]

I went to Hagg lake yesterday (Sunday) and I almost ended up not fishing. I got to the lake, got the kayak in the water and all loaded up. When I went to get started the trolling motor would not run.

I had not brought my real paddle (just a mini-telescoping one) so I was not going to be able to fish using that. I tried for about 45 minutes to find the problem but without a voltmeter I was at a loss. Finally I carried everything back to the truck. I decided to try and check the jiggle each connection one more time at the truck and I found out where the loose connection was. I then carried everything back to the water and was able to rig the fragile connection from failing.

My plan was to split the day between bass and trout but I only fished for bass for about 15 minutes as my shoulder was killing me (torn labrum still cranky from boogie boarding the weekend before).

Thus, I decided it would be a good idea to spend most of the day trolling for trout. I got started trolling around 9am. The bite was good until about one or one-thirty. I ended up C&R'ing 17 trout and 2 smallmouth while trolling for the day. Fifteen of the trout were caught between 9 and 1.

I was fishing a small (1/24oz) roostertail with a 1/2 nightcrawler. I add a trailer hook a few inches back. Usually I troll one pink/silver pn one rod and a green/gold on the other. Every trout on Sunday but one came on the green and gold. I tried a bunch of different lures on the rod I normally have the pink/silver lure but finally just ran green/gold on both rods. I also want to say that the trailer hook is important! Here is the one guy who took the pink spinner:

That fish had the normal pink side. Some of the trout look like pure chrome:

I am not sure what causes the difference in coloration.

One improvement I made this week was to add bells to my rods. I think I have been missing a lot of bites because my rods are behind me and I can't see the one rod very well even when I am turned towards the back. This past Sunday I only realized I had a lot of the bites because I heard them. The bell seems like a good idea in general! You can see where I put the bell in this blurry picture:

I tried to get a picture fighting a fish, but the rod was vibrating so much the camera did not focus. I do love those Lamiglas Kokanee rods!

The biggest trout I caught was about 15 or 16" but it wrapped my lines together during the fight and then wrapped them around the motor (should have turned it off when I realized I had a good one on). I had to release it leaning way back in the kayak since I did not want to grab it and injure it just to measure it.

After about 1 or 1:30 the wind died down, the sun came out and the bite slowed way down. I only caught 2 more fish between 1:30 and 4:30. I still had some bites but the were once and done. When they are hitting well they will chomp on it and hit it repeatedly. I think the sunshine definitely made them more skittish.

I did try trolling deeper and different lures but nothing seemed to help. There were still fish rising (as there were all day long). I should have switched tactics, but with my shoulder bugging me I just decided to keep trolling. A lot of times when the fish are rising like that I do well with my fly rod or with a fly under a bubble. Nothing fancy.

Around 4:30 I decided to head up the lake to a nice little panfish spot that I know. I wanted to catch some panfish since I wanted to motivate my son to come next time (he loves panfishing). I went to a small little indentation in the shore that was packed with bluegill (last year we caught a bunch of crappie off this spot, but yesterday it was nothing but bluegills).

I caught a bunch on a small jig that I tie up with a tiny piece of worm on it. Some were decent sized

Overall what started out as a terrible day ended up being a really good one. Catching a bunch of decent sized bluegills made for a really end to a good day. Man I am glad I decided to give the motor one more try!

 

[bass]

I hit Hagg lake with my son on Sunday May 24th to do some trout trolling. We launched at boat ramp C around 8am or so and decided to start the day trolling for trout since he was not feeling great.

We headed up the lake a bit to a spot that I have been doing well at in previous weeks. As we got close to the spot Zach said that one jumped a little ways behind the kayak. Then I noticed that the rod was doubled over I asked him if we wanted to reel the fish in and he said OK.

It was a good fish (~13 or 14") and Zach did a nice job of fighting it. I had the drag set loosely and the fish made a couple of nice runs. Zach was so excited that he forgot about his stomach ache

We kept trolling and the bite was fast and furious for a about the first hour and a half. We missed a lot of fish and lost a few on the hand off, but Zach got to reel in 5 nice trout during that period. By 10am the bite had slowed down. He still had occasional hits but none of them stuck well enough to make it to the boat. It was interesting how the bite kind of faded from a lot of vicious strikes to far fewer and shier strikes, almost nibbles.

With the slowing of the action, Zach went back to noticing that he did not feel well so I called his mom and she drove out to pick him up around noon.
As we waited for her we trolled around the boat ramp. Just as we saw her pull into the lot one of the rods went off and Zach got to reel in his 6th trout for the day. Always good to leave on a high note!

After I dropped him off I re-rigged the rods since I had tangled them during the drop off and then I went back to trolling. During the next few hours I went back to my favorite spot and continued to get occasional hits that would either come off quickly or that would not fully commit. Very frustrating!!

After a while I realized that even though I was getting an occasional hit, that I needed to move if I wanted to land some fish. I sometimes have a hard time leaving a known good spot for the unknown even though once the bites. After trying a few areas and moving around I decided to try fishing out in the middle of the lake and that was the ticket.

Between 3 and 6pm I caught 15 more trout including a few nice ones (14" range). High point was hooking a double that a ski boat stopped to watch me land. A guy on the boat was amazed that I was catching them two at a time. That was my only double so it was great to land it for an audience

Once again the trailer hook was key. Of the 21 trout we landed only 1 was hooked on the treble. 20 or the 21 were hooked on the trailer. This week both the pink/silver and green/gold worked well with a bit of an edge to the pink/silver.

Around 6 I decided to go do some panfishing to round out the day even though the trout were still biting well. I went to a small cove and started tossing a homemade jig under a bobber. The action was fast and furious. The funny thing is that I probably caught 2 small largemouth (6-10") for every bluegill. Really strange but a lot of fun on the ultralight. The best bluegill were again hand sized, but most were smaller.

The fish did seem to have a pretty strong preference for the protected (lee or sheltered) side of the cove. I did not do very well on the side that the wind was blowing against even though the cover looked better on that side.

Overall another really nice day on the lake. It was fun to get Zach into some fish and he really liked using the fighting the fish on the new kokanee rods and line counter reels. It was his first time using a conventional style reel and he loved how flexible the rods were.

 

[bass]

Usually when I take my 11 year old son fishing he does not fish all that much (just likes to hang out on the kayak) and starts asking when we are going to leave after 4 or 5 hours. On Sunday he was just a different kid - he was a fishing machine. It was definitely the best day we ever had fishing together. We caught a lot of fish and just had a great time.

We got to the lake around 8am. While I was getting the kayak ready he spotted some bluegill near the ramp. He came running over and asked for one of his rods. He promptly went over and caught two bluegill as I finished getting everything ready.

The first spot we went to is a spot he name "crappie town" since we often caught crappie there in the spring. Well it was perch city on Sunday. The exciting part is that usually all the perch we catch are tiny, but on Sunday we caught quite a few in the 8-9" range. I did not bring enough ice to keep them but our plan is do that next time. Zach has suddenly started asking for fried fish.

The fishing was really fast and furious. Within seconds of casting out you would get a bite. Zach was just throwing a piece of worm on a hook that he also had a tiny tube bait on. I was just tossing a piece of worm under a bobber. We probably caught about 20 perch for every bluegill. I would guess we caught well over a hundred fish each. I did not take any pictures of the nicer perch, but here is a bluegill shot (because was so nicely colored)

After a while we got tired of catching fish at that spot and so we explored a bit more of the lake, heading deeper into the no-wake zone to one of his favorite spots. It is a tiny island (that is now a peninsula with the low water) at the point between Scoggins and Wall creek arms. We pulled up on shore there and caught fish for a while, but no fish were keeper sized. It did feel good to stretch the legs.

After doing that for a bit Zach said he was hungry so we went back to the ramp and had lunch at the boat rental/bbq place. Zach's cheeseburger and my pulled port sandwich were both excellent. I was expecting Zach to ask to go home at that point, but he said he wanted to go fish some more.

After lunch and a bit of stretching our legs we headed back to our first spot and the fishing was just as good it was first thing in the morning. There was a young blue heron just down the shore from us and Zach said that he was watching us. As I reeled one fish in it came splahsing to the surface and the heron, took off and tried to swoop down and grab it. The fish was bleeding so I threw it towards the heron (I could get it about 2/3 of the way there). The heron flew over to it and landed in the water like a duck. It then picked the fish up and swallowed it and flew back.

Over the next hour we probably fed the heron a dozen fish. It was pretty cool. If we did not throw one to it in a while it would fly over to my bobber when I cast out. It was pretty funny that it was basically demanding fish from us. At one point a gull tried to grab one of the floating fish and the heron took off after it croaking loudly. Zach said, "this is the best nature show ever".

We fished that spot for a while longer but then decided to take another shore break. Here is Zach with a small perch from that spot:

Usually Zach is all done fishing after 5 hours or so, but on Sunday he was begging to stay until they closed. I think getting a hot lunch and taking multiple shore breaks really helped. Plus, the fishing was just insanely fast. Here is his reaction as to how the day was going:

After fishing from shore for a while at a shady spot, we headed over to the Tanner creek arm. Even though we had the motor Zach decided that he wanted to paddle around so we decided he could paddle while I fished. I put on a small beetle spin and as he paddled us to the back I picked up a few small bass, bluegill and perch as we made our way along. The fish were just biting so well it was ridiculous. Finally around 6pm I told him we had to head back since he had camp the next day.

Just as we left the arm the skies broke open and it absolutely poured for about 5-10 minutes. We laughed about how silly it was as we slogged back across the lake. By the time we got to the ramp the rain had quit and we packed up. Zach helped me get stuff unloaded and then he ran up the bbq shack and got a pulled pork sandwich and an ice cream.

The only down note on the day was not being able to get fried chicken from the lakestop store on the way home because they were already closed. I was so happy that Zach had spent 10 hours on the lake and had wanted to stay longer.

 

[TimberTodd]

Took the boat out Wednesday morning and fished from 6:30ish to about 9:30. Called it a morning as the breeze started to pick up and the skiers and wakeboards began to show. Launched ay ramp A and proceeded to work the points uplake with a dropshot rig. Boated 4, lost 1 at the boat and missed several. The biggest was just over 17". The others were in the 1lb range. It was nice just to be on the water (very peaceful). Saw several deer walking the banks. Got a grainy pic. of this one.

 

[bass]

My son Zach and I hit Hagg on Sunday for some panfishing. We got to the lake around 8am and we were on the water by 8:45am. Even that early in the morning the wind was brutal, coming out of the North hard enough to make whitecaps in the no wake zone and gusty. I knew we were going to be in for a bit of a challenge. We headed up the lake away from the dam. The waves were rough and choppy enough that one would break over the bow occasionally even though I was going slowly.

Zach was complaining about being wet (I told you to wear your jacket!) and eventually turned around to complain harder. He said, "You are not even wet". I told him that the reason I take him out with me is to use him as a human shield against the elements - Zach did not find this nearly as amusing as I did

As we headed up the lake I was amazed at how much lower the lake is now compared to 1 month ago. The spots where we had killed them then were a long walk from where the shoreline is now. I decided to head all the way back to get as much protection from the wind as possible. When we finally got to the area between Tanner and Scoggins creek arms we started fishing.

We spend a good hour and a half moving and fishing the shoreline without anything to show for it. Not even a bite. I was totally surprised and starting to get pretty frustrated. It was hard to locate any structure and stay on it and fish it do to the strong, gusty wind that kept changing directions. Each time I would mark some small tree I could never get us set up on it.

Finally I told Zach that I was going to drive around until I found a decent sized structure that we could fish effectively. As we made our way along I finally found a good sized pile of trees on the sonar in about 10-12' of water and the trees stuck up about 3-4' off the bottom. I circled the area for about 10 minutes until I understood exactly where the brush pile was. I went to the upwind side of the pile and dropped anchor.

Zach quickly got his line in the water and said we was getting bites. I told him I would believe him when he caught a fish. Two minutes later Zach caught the first bluegill of the day:

I was so relieved. I did not want us to get skunked on our first trip in a month. It had taken two hours to catch that first fish but after that the fishing was fast and furious. We both fished with pieces of worm. Zach dropped his straight down while I used a bobber with the hook about 7' down (I love using that 7' long Okuma kokanee rod for panfishing).

We caught a lot of decent sized bluegills about this size:

They were a blast to catch on our ultralights. The weird thing is that we never caught a single perch or crappie. Usually it is about ten perch per bluegill. I am not sure where the perch are right now, but I know where they aren't

We fished until 1:15 when we decided it was about time to go. I told Zach that I wanted to try a little beetle spin before we went to see if I could catch a perch or a crappie. On my third cast I was pleasantly surprised by this little guy:

At first I thought I had a monster bluegill. That fish was really prettily marked. We stayed and tossed lures for another 15 minutes before heading back to the ramp.

The day had started out tough, but eventually we got it figured out and had a blast. My takeaway from the day is that right now the fish are pretty tight to structure. If you find some you should have a killer day.

We ended the day by stopping at the lakestop store to pick up some fried chicken. My wife's parents are in town and they especially wanted to try it since I always rave about it. The lakestop store did not disappoint!!

 

[pinstriper]

It were cold today. Bitter cold. Got out with Chris for a little over 2 hours at a super secret location, I don't think many people know about it yet.



We turned 3 or 4 others loose, including the last one of the day that JUMPED!!! while Chris was fighting a wee one onto the stringer and took his eye OFF his pole. These were hooked too deep so they will get the OBT (Old Bay Treatment).

Thanks, Chris, for graciously allowing me to invite myself onto your boat! Next time tell your da to leave the seat cushion.

It aint easy cleaning a fish when you can't feel your fingers, and that's a fact.

 

[GungasUncle]

So my mom has been braving the nasty weather, the muddy water, and fishing. Color me jealous. Color me more jealous, because she got this girl last week:



She told me she was fishing near ramp C (didn't say which direction from the ramp) and floating a worm off the bottom. She uses a worm puffer, and she said the worm was slathered with garlic sauce. They wouldn't hit power bait, they wanted real food.

She fishes a lot of weight usually - and I'm going to guess she was fishing her long light Loomis rod - with at least half an ounce of lead, if not a full ounce. She probably landed her cast 80-100 feet out from the bank - just guessing because she didn't elaborate but that's her standard M.O. when fishing. Lots of weight, carolina rigged, and bait. I think she runs her leaders a couple feet long.

She told me she got the big girl - 22 inches - plus a few 12-14 inch dinks.