bass
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C_Run said:
Hagg is such a fun place to fish.
Parked for the year???? Sturgeon season is just getting started
Lakes Henry Hagg Lake Fishing Reports
Hagg is such a fun place to fish.
Parked for the year???? Sturgeon season is just getting started
C_Run
Well-known member
Sturgeon are too scary!
P
pinstriper
0
For the record, I didn’t say Hagg was no good, just that it wasn’t a two hour drive worthy destination, as a general rule. It is heavily fished and not the automatic trophy pond it is sometimes made out to be.
However, it is a great place to fish and on any given day....
However, it is a great place to fish and on any given day....
bass
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pinstriper said:
Definitely agree that if someone thinks they are going to catch a trophy they will likely be disappointed.
This fall though, each trip my big fish has always been at least 16" which is a pretty nice fish. I think the fall is especially good for niced sized fish because (I believe) a lot of fish hold over from the spring stocking and pack on weight and length by late fall and a lot of the smaller stupider fish have been weeded out.
I guess I would say Hagg is a worthy quality fish destination but not a trophy destination.
bass
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C_Run said:
When I first started fishing for them I found sturgeon fishing to be kind of terrifying. After doing it for a while it just seems kind of normal now. I still am very cautious and careful when sturgeon fishing but I guess I now just have confidence in the level of caution I am employing.
A
Anotherdude
New member
Excellent report. Thanks for sharing, was thinking of hitting up Hagg over the winter
bass
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Anotherdude said:
Thanks!
Based on my experience and from reports I have read I think that as long as the water is reasonably clear that Hagg fishes well all winter - especially if you can get a calm sunny day. I tend to look at this graph in the winter(Hydromet Pacific Northwest Region | Bureau of Reclamation). It is Scoggins creek at the input to Hagg. If that graph is pretty low and not rising or dropping fast then usually the water is clearing.
A
Anotherdude
New member
It's a lovely lake. Recently started looking into kayaks but living in an apartment means no place for storage. Then I head about the Colorado XT Pontoon boat. Your thoughts about pontoons vs kayaks? For one I can't swim, but the idea of a trolling motor on a pontoon is very enticing. That and it breaks down easy enough to fit into a regular size car.bass said:
I need to traverse that lake easily!
bass
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I got to Hagg around sunrise and headed out to start trolling.
The fog was really thick to start but lifted pretty quickly. I started trolling towards the No Wake buoys and immediately caught a micro perch on a tiny crankbait. At least the skunk was off quickly.
I trolled along the buoy line and about half way across I hooked a big fish. The rod was bending all the way to the handle but I got my rod leash stuck in the holder and I just could not get the rod free. I heard it jump behind me and it sounded someone doing a cannonball and then it was gone. I was so mad at myself for not being careful when I set that rod up. Arghhhh.
I was mad but I figured with that quick bite that it was going to be a pretty good day on the water.
Narrator's voice: "It was not a pretty good day on the water".
I trolled back and forth a handful of times along the buoys and had a couple of short strikes but did not hook up again. No big deal I said to myself, I will just head down towards the dam where the bite was excellent last week.
I did not have a sniff as I trolled down towards the dam. By the time I finally got down to the "good" spot I had spent over 2 hours with only the first micro perch to show for it.
I was pretty frustrated and tense and was hyper-focused as I made my first pass. I could not believe that I did not get a bite on that pass. I turned around and trolled back. Once again, it was nothing but crickets. However on that pass I did see what looked like a school of trout that were down pretty deep.
I had been doing my normal trolling along the surface (1/8oz on the dropper). So I switched one rod to a 2oz dropper and put out 35' of line. Line angle was about 45 degrees which should have put my lure down around the 25' depth range.
On my first pass with that setup I hooked up and landed my first trout of the day. Woo hoo, I thought! After that fish I rigged my other rod with 2oz as well thinking I was getting ready to have an epic day.
However, the bite was just painfully slow for the rest of the day. What I came to realize was that the trout were really tightly schooled and that the schools were widely scattered. I would find a school on my side imaging and then try to make a pass where I went through the school. That was difficult but when I did manage to go through a school both rods would go off. I never landed a double, but with both rods deep I always got a bite on the second rod while landing a fish on the first.
The other thing is that the schools were moving around. I would mark a school with a way point but when I came back across where the school had been they weren't there anymore and I would go back to search mode.
I missed as many bites as I hooked and my landing percentage was not as good as normal, but I think that both of those were due to the heavy weight on the line.
As the day wore on it seemed like the schools got deeper and deeper. I did notice that other boats that had success pretty much always had a lake troll (I think that is what those big leader with all the blades on it are called). My guess is that they were able to call the fish from a lot further away than I could.
At the end of the day I added a flasher to each rod but I did not get any bites doing that. After 6.5 hours of trolling I only landed 5 trout and I only got one on video. I wore out my first battery before caught my first fish and the bites were so few and far between that more normal method of turning the camera on after catching a fish was not a winning approach.
Finally, it was getting to be mid-afternoon so I decided to change things up and chase bass for the rest of the day. I zoomed back towards the no-wake zone and started fishing brush piles (or perhaps some are spider blocks) along the creek channel.
I did not have any confidence by this point but I was sick of trolling. I fished a few spots without a sniff, confirming my opinion of my ability to catch fish that day. I finally worked my way to a pretty big area along the creek where there is quite a bit of brush over a wide area.
Up to that point I had been using a drop shot. Dropping straight down helps reduce the snags and is how I had been catching fish this fall. Since I was not catching anything doing that I decided to pick up a Carolina rigged rod. That is a pretty snag resistant setup and lets me to easily cover more water.
I made a long cast and slowly crept that Carolina rig back. I could feel the heavy sinker crawling up over and through cover. All that tactile feedback is pretty fun and interesting. When I am in the zone I really am almost entranced as I picture each rock and tree branch that I feel.
I was enjoying myself (which I had not been doing for the past several hours) when all of a sudden I felt a tug that was not wood and not a rock. I reared back on the rod and it was fish on! Not a big fish but catching anything at that point was huge.
Even a fish that size pulls the kayak around so I carefully re-positioned myself and went to back to getting myself back into the zone. The next two bass were similar to the first. Each time as I crawled the rig over a log or stump I would feel a tug and boom, fish on.
I reallized I still had some battery left on the camera so I turned it back on to see if I could catch one more and get it on video (it was getting late by now and I wanted, no needed, to make sure I got to the Lakestop store before they turned off their fryer so that I could get some fried chicken!).
I got myself back into position and kept fishing that same stump field. Changing my angles and fanning my casts. I was just thinking about packing it in when lightning stuck for the 4th time! It was the smallest fish of the 4 but it was fun to get it on video. So after 5 trout in 6.5 hours I was able to catch 4 bass in 1.5 hours. Relatively blistering action!
After that last fish I packed up and headed back to the ramp. As I was going across the lake I saw this big mayfly sitting on the water drying its wings. Kind of cool way to end the day.
I did not get much video footage of catching fish. Here is a short video of the micro perch, one trout and the last bass. I did buy a mount for the camera so I could put it on the kayak instead of having it on my chest. I think this kind of footage is better. If you watched any of my other videos please let me know if this is better than the chest cam.
The fog was really thick to start but lifted pretty quickly. I started trolling towards the No Wake buoys and immediately caught a micro perch on a tiny crankbait. At least the skunk was off quickly.
I trolled along the buoy line and about half way across I hooked a big fish. The rod was bending all the way to the handle but I got my rod leash stuck in the holder and I just could not get the rod free. I heard it jump behind me and it sounded someone doing a cannonball and then it was gone. I was so mad at myself for not being careful when I set that rod up. Arghhhh.
I was mad but I figured with that quick bite that it was going to be a pretty good day on the water.
Narrator's voice: "It was not a pretty good day on the water".
I trolled back and forth a handful of times along the buoys and had a couple of short strikes but did not hook up again. No big deal I said to myself, I will just head down towards the dam where the bite was excellent last week.
I did not have a sniff as I trolled down towards the dam. By the time I finally got down to the "good" spot I had spent over 2 hours with only the first micro perch to show for it.
I was pretty frustrated and tense and was hyper-focused as I made my first pass. I could not believe that I did not get a bite on that pass. I turned around and trolled back. Once again, it was nothing but crickets. However on that pass I did see what looked like a school of trout that were down pretty deep.
I had been doing my normal trolling along the surface (1/8oz on the dropper). So I switched one rod to a 2oz dropper and put out 35' of line. Line angle was about 45 degrees which should have put my lure down around the 25' depth range.
On my first pass with that setup I hooked up and landed my first trout of the day. Woo hoo, I thought! After that fish I rigged my other rod with 2oz as well thinking I was getting ready to have an epic day.
However, the bite was just painfully slow for the rest of the day. What I came to realize was that the trout were really tightly schooled and that the schools were widely scattered. I would find a school on my side imaging and then try to make a pass where I went through the school. That was difficult but when I did manage to go through a school both rods would go off. I never landed a double, but with both rods deep I always got a bite on the second rod while landing a fish on the first.
The other thing is that the schools were moving around. I would mark a school with a way point but when I came back across where the school had been they weren't there anymore and I would go back to search mode.
I missed as many bites as I hooked and my landing percentage was not as good as normal, but I think that both of those were due to the heavy weight on the line.
As the day wore on it seemed like the schools got deeper and deeper. I did notice that other boats that had success pretty much always had a lake troll (I think that is what those big leader with all the blades on it are called). My guess is that they were able to call the fish from a lot further away than I could.
At the end of the day I added a flasher to each rod but I did not get any bites doing that. After 6.5 hours of trolling I only landed 5 trout and I only got one on video. I wore out my first battery before caught my first fish and the bites were so few and far between that more normal method of turning the camera on after catching a fish was not a winning approach.
Finally, it was getting to be mid-afternoon so I decided to change things up and chase bass for the rest of the day. I zoomed back towards the no-wake zone and started fishing brush piles (or perhaps some are spider blocks) along the creek channel.
I did not have any confidence by this point but I was sick of trolling. I fished a few spots without a sniff, confirming my opinion of my ability to catch fish that day. I finally worked my way to a pretty big area along the creek where there is quite a bit of brush over a wide area.
Up to that point I had been using a drop shot. Dropping straight down helps reduce the snags and is how I had been catching fish this fall. Since I was not catching anything doing that I decided to pick up a Carolina rigged rod. That is a pretty snag resistant setup and lets me to easily cover more water.
I made a long cast and slowly crept that Carolina rig back. I could feel the heavy sinker crawling up over and through cover. All that tactile feedback is pretty fun and interesting. When I am in the zone I really am almost entranced as I picture each rock and tree branch that I feel.
I was enjoying myself (which I had not been doing for the past several hours) when all of a sudden I felt a tug that was not wood and not a rock. I reared back on the rod and it was fish on! Not a big fish but catching anything at that point was huge.
Even a fish that size pulls the kayak around so I carefully re-positioned myself and went to back to getting myself back into the zone. The next two bass were similar to the first. Each time as I crawled the rig over a log or stump I would feel a tug and boom, fish on.
I reallized I still had some battery left on the camera so I turned it back on to see if I could catch one more and get it on video (it was getting late by now and I wanted, no needed, to make sure I got to the Lakestop store before they turned off their fryer so that I could get some fried chicken!).
I got myself back into position and kept fishing that same stump field. Changing my angles and fanning my casts. I was just thinking about packing it in when lightning stuck for the 4th time! It was the smallest fish of the 4 but it was fun to get it on video. So after 5 trout in 6.5 hours I was able to catch 4 bass in 1.5 hours. Relatively blistering action!
After that last fish I packed up and headed back to the ramp. As I was going across the lake I saw this big mayfly sitting on the water drying its wings. Kind of cool way to end the day.
I did not get much video footage of catching fish. Here is a short video of the micro perch, one trout and the last bass. I did buy a mount for the camera so I could put it on the kayak instead of having it on my chest. I think this kind of footage is better. If you watched any of my other videos please let me know if this is better than the chest cam.
Admin
Well-known member
picture is crisp, angle is wide. TV production level. Keep them coming.bass said:
bass
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Anatoliy said:
Thanks, I thought the video quality seemed better as well. Somehow when I had the camera on a chest strap the video quality was kind of crappy. No idea why I get improvement but something about a gift horse and a mouth
fromthelogo
Active member
Excellent write up and video.
bass
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I hit Henry Hagg lake on Sunday to meet up with @Fishnbuck and hopefully get the skunk off of Hagg. I got there first and launched at ramp C, fishing by about 8:45am. There were not many people on the lake at that point and there was a misting rain falling. I started trolling towards the Sain creek arm, figuring that I would fish not too far from the ramp so that I would be able to see when @Fishnbuck showed up.
The water was a little dingy so I decided to try adding dodgers to my usually roostertails with1/2 nightcrawler. Normally when I fish Hagg the water is clearer so I thought that perhaps this would be helpful. As I trolled towards the back of the cove I had a hit on one of my rods - this was already a better day than my last trip. I kept trolling towards the back and I saw someone hauling out a huge brooder from the shore. I was not all that close but it looked like a really pretty fish and added even more hope for the day.
I trolled towards the back and I was marking what looked to be groups of fish here and there but I was able to successfully pass by them without disturbing them in the least Once I was out of the cove I started trolling along the no-wake zone buoys and met up with @Fishnbuck. We headed towards the dam since that is where I have had my best late season success at Hagg.
Once we were past ramp A I started to mark quite a few fish again but once again I could not buy a bite. I made two passes through that area varying depths and speeds but nothing seemed to interest the fish. I kept going on towards the dam, and then along the face of the dam and back and forth. I tried with flashers, without flashers, lure depths from about 50' to the surface but nothing seemed to make the fish want to bite.
The day was gorgeous, calm and sunny, and there were tons of midges hatching but I only saw a couple of rises all day long. The fish just seemed to be in a stupor. I talked with a handful of other folks (and @Fishnbuck) and everyone told the same tale. One boat did have a nice brooder that I believe that they said they caught jigging a spoon, but I don't think I spoke with anyone who landed a fish while trolling.
Around mid-afternoon, I decided that I'd had enough of the trolling. Even though I don't like to do it I decided to try bottom fishing with some powerbait (power eggs). I moved to one of the spots where I had marked fish earlier (and was still marking fish) and dropped anchor. I cast out and set my rod in the kayak and started fiddling with my depth finder to pass the time.
I was about 3 menus deep when I heard a scraping sound and saw my rod being dragged over the edge of the kayak. I grabbed the rod and felt the weight of a decent fish. I had been running my camera for a lot of the day but had turned it off at some point. I reached back and turned the camera on when I got the fish close to the kayak. I would guess it was about 13-14" and nice and fat.
I was pretty pumped to have broken the skunk! My next few casts did not produce (I only let them sit for a few minutes each - using sturgeon fishing like tactics). On the third cast I was rewarded again with another nice fish. It seemed like if I cast on top of them I would get bit within a minute and otherwise it was crickets. Sadly, the batteries died in the camera somewhere between that first and second fish and I did not notice until I went to turn the camera off later.
That second fish was a nice one just like the first. I quickly unhooked it and cast back out. Once again I had to move my cast a number of times before I got a bite. This time the fish swallowed the hook so I just cut it off and let it go. That is the part I hate about bait fishing for trout. They often swallow the hook and since I am out there for C&R fishing that is a bummer.
I decided that perhaps if I pulled the anchor and slowly drifted that perhaps I could do a better job of hooking them quickly and in the mouth. It took a while of moving here and there before that method paid off, but unfortunately once again, the fish swallowed the hook. At that point, I decided that I did not want to leave any more hooks in fish and to put away the powerbait. I had caught 4 nice fish all in the 13-14" range (and lost a couple more) in about an hour an d half. Not a blistering paste but WAY better than the earlier skunking.
I decided to end the day bass fishing so I went to where I had found them in November. I don't think that I really marked any bass but fished the spot anyway. I confirmed the lack of bass (or at least my inability to catch them) for the rest of the afternoon. I headed back to the ramp, bummed at the lack of success trolling but happy to have at least found success with the powerbait.
@Fishnbuck was loading up to leave when I got to the ramp. He had a similar story to mine. He had not had success trolling but did have some bites, including losing a big fish, dragging powerbait. This winter the fish have just seemed really inactive. I think if I make another trip out there I will not stick with unproductive methods for such a long time and try powerbait sooner. Use it to find fish that will bite and then perhaps try jigging a small castmaster or something like that. I think that would be a way to catch them more safely. Maybe tip the spoon with a crappie nibble or a piece of worm.
Anyway it was a gorgeous day on the water and I got to meet a new fishing friend, you can't complain about a day like that!
The water was a little dingy so I decided to try adding dodgers to my usually roostertails with1/2 nightcrawler. Normally when I fish Hagg the water is clearer so I thought that perhaps this would be helpful. As I trolled towards the back of the cove I had a hit on one of my rods - this was already a better day than my last trip. I kept trolling towards the back and I saw someone hauling out a huge brooder from the shore. I was not all that close but it looked like a really pretty fish and added even more hope for the day.
I trolled towards the back and I was marking what looked to be groups of fish here and there but I was able to successfully pass by them without disturbing them in the least
Once I was out of the cove I started trolling along the no-wake zone buoys and met up with @Fishnbuck. We headed towards the dam since that is where I have had my best late season success at Hagg.Once we were past ramp A I started to mark quite a few fish again but once again I could not buy a bite. I made two passes through that area varying depths and speeds but nothing seemed to interest the fish. I kept going on towards the dam, and then along the face of the dam and back and forth. I tried with flashers, without flashers, lure depths from about 50' to the surface but nothing seemed to make the fish want to bite.
The day was gorgeous, calm and sunny, and there were tons of midges hatching but I only saw a couple of rises all day long. The fish just seemed to be in a stupor. I talked with a handful of other folks (and @Fishnbuck) and everyone told the same tale. One boat did have a nice brooder that I believe that they said they caught jigging a spoon, but I don't think I spoke with anyone who landed a fish while trolling.
Around mid-afternoon, I decided that I'd had enough of the trolling. Even though I don't like to do it I decided to try bottom fishing with some powerbait (power eggs). I moved to one of the spots where I had marked fish earlier (and was still marking fish) and dropped anchor. I cast out and set my rod in the kayak and started fiddling with my depth finder to pass the time.
I was about 3 menus deep when I heard a scraping sound and saw my rod being dragged over the edge of the kayak. I grabbed the rod and felt the weight of a decent fish. I had been running my camera for a lot of the day but had turned it off at some point. I reached back and turned the camera on when I got the fish close to the kayak. I would guess it was about 13-14" and nice and fat.
I was pretty pumped to have broken the skunk! My next few casts did not produce (I only let them sit for a few minutes each - using sturgeon fishing like tactics). On the third cast I was rewarded again with another nice fish. It seemed like if I cast on top of them I would get bit within a minute and otherwise it was crickets. Sadly, the batteries died in the camera somewhere between that first and second fish and I did not notice until I went to turn the camera off later.
That second fish was a nice one just like the first. I quickly unhooked it and cast back out. Once again I had to move my cast a number of times before I got a bite. This time the fish swallowed the hook so I just cut it off and let it go. That is the part I hate about bait fishing for trout. They often swallow the hook and since I am out there for C&R fishing that is a bummer.
I decided that perhaps if I pulled the anchor and slowly drifted that perhaps I could do a better job of hooking them quickly and in the mouth. It took a while of moving here and there before that method paid off, but unfortunately once again, the fish swallowed the hook. At that point, I decided that I did not want to leave any more hooks in fish and to put away the powerbait. I had caught 4 nice fish all in the 13-14" range (and lost a couple more) in about an hour an d half. Not a blistering paste but WAY better than the earlier skunking.
I decided to end the day bass fishing so I went to where I had found them in November. I don't think that I really marked any bass but fished the spot anyway. I confirmed the lack of bass (or at least my inability to catch them) for the rest of the afternoon. I headed back to the ramp, bummed at the lack of success trolling but happy to have at least found success with the powerbait.
@Fishnbuck was loading up to leave when I got to the ramp. He had a similar story to mine. He had not had success trolling but did have some bites, including losing a big fish, dragging powerbait. This winter the fish have just seemed really inactive. I think if I make another trip out there I will not stick with unproductive methods for such a long time and try powerbait sooner. Use it to find fish that will bite and then perhaps try jigging a small castmaster or something like that. I think that would be a way to catch them more safely. Maybe tip the spoon with a crappie nibble or a piece of worm.
Anyway it was a gorgeous day on the water and I got to meet a new fishing friend, you can't complain about a day like that!
troutdude
Moderator
"This time the fish swallowed the hook so I just cut it off and let it go. "
Many years ago (maybe in the 80's) a Fisheries Biologist told me something that comforted, my C & R soul. He said that fish have an enzyme in their bloodstream. Which will dissolve hooks in roughly 3 days. So ever since then I, too, have just cut the line at their mouths. Then returned them to the drink. To hopefully continue to grow.
You may also want to try sitting on a school and jig with a lighter spoon, like a Thomas Buoyant. They flutter more slowly to the bottom--and just may trigger those finicky finned fiends.
Many years ago (maybe in the 80's) a Fisheries Biologist told me something that comforted, my C & R soul. He said that fish have an enzyme in their bloodstream. Which will dissolve hooks in roughly 3 days. So ever since then I, too, have just cut the line at their mouths. Then returned them to the drink. To hopefully continue to grow.
You may also want to try sitting on a school and jig with a lighter spoon, like a Thomas Buoyant. They flutter more slowly to the bottom--and just may trigger those finicky finned fiends.
fromthelogo
Active member
Thanks for the write up @bass. Glad you had nice weather. I’ve always found Hagg hard to figure out for bass and spend most of my time on the Willamette. I think I’ll give it another try this Spring when the parking lots at the ramps along the Willamette are full with salmon boat trailers.
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troutdude said:
Good to hear that @troutdude ! I have heard that from time to time but knowing that it came from a Fisheries Biologist makes me really believe it.
I said a kastmaster for jigging up above because I know I have one in my tackle box. I will look around to see if I can find a Thomas Buoyant spoon in a good size. I have a couple of super tiny ones I bought with the idea of shad fishing (have not gotten around to that yet, but one of these years) but they would be too small to jig in 25-30' of water.
I may also tie up and try a few marabou or bucktail jigs as well.
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fromthelogo said:
I agree that bass fishing at Hagg is trickier than on the Willamette. I definitely spend way more time chasing bass on the Willamette than on Hagg. I felt like I was getting a handle on the late fall fishing on Hagg this year (did pretty well in November) but I have not had a bite in my two January trips.
I have no idea where the bass on the Willamette winter over.
fromthelogo
Active member
I don’t either and with that current and amount of debris in the water, I’m not going to go looking for them either.
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I left home and it was clear and cold. A low fog swallowed me as I headed out 26, "this is fine", I said to myself. The fog changed into light rain as I kept heading West, "this is fine", I said to myself again. As I got to Hagg and started across the dam the light rain started getting slushy. By the time I got to ramp C it was snowing, "what the *&%$" I said to myself
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/jAIpg8FiMkvqiKhOgdzDx8RwYDmNg7fCKEHnt4vHVaN
I got to ramp C around 8am. I took my time unloading hoping that the snow would stop before I got on the water. The snow, sensing the challenge, refused to give in and it was still snowing lightly when I launched my kayak. The wind gently pushed me down towards Scoggins as I rigged up my trolling rods. I figured maybe it was a sign so I decided to just troll that direction.
The water was pretty muddy, maybe 1' of visibility so I decided to switch things up a bit. I had bought a small-bladed lake troll earlier in the week. I put that in front of my normal roostertail + 1/2 nightcrawler on one rod and on the other rod I decided to put on a chartreuse Strike King Bitsy Minnow (tiny crankbait). I got the rods out and I hunkered down deep inside my rain gear as I started slowly trolling towards the Scoggins end.
I had not gone too far when a trout slammed the rod with the BItsy Minnow. I picked up the rod and worked the fish to the kayak and carefully worked the fish towards the net. It was a really fat and healthy trout that was in the 13-14" range.
I was really stoked! That was my first trout caught trolling in the new year. I went back to trolling and a short while later I hooked up again on the Bitsy Minnow. As I was fighting that fish in I realized that I had not turned on my video camera yet. So I reached back, turned it on and went back to fighting that fish. After another really good fight (if you watch the video at the bottom of the post closely you can see it jump just off my handle) I was able to land my second trout of the day!
Now this was more like it. I was ready for a killer day. I kept trolling towards Scoggins and maybe 20 minutes later my rod with the roostertail went off. I started working that fish in (felt like another good) but the hook pulled out as I was working to the kayak. I blame the Lake Troll, surely it could not have been a lack of skill on my part.
No big deal I thought I will have plenty more chances. Narrator's voice: "He did not have any more chances".
It was so weird. After that fish I had one more quick drive by on the spinner and that was it for me for trolling. I spent several hours trying but it was like the lake had just shut off. Really strange.
I had eventually trolled up to Sain creek arm and I decided to give the bass a chance. I fished a bunch of spider blocks with a drop shot but I never got a sniff. After an hour or so of that I decided to anchor up and try some powerbait fishing.
I dropped anchor in about 22' of water, tossed out my first rod and before I could even get my second rod baited I had another nice-sized trout on. Woo hoo, I thought. I quickly landed it and then was able to quickly get both rods back out. After a short wait I had another good bite on the same rod and started fighting the fish in. I once again realized the video camera was off and turned it on to capture the end of the fight.
I was so stoked to get some great, fast action footage. Once again the fish gods laughed at my paltry desires. I spent an hour fishing (moving a couple of times) without getting another bite. Really strange day.
That was it for me. I did a little more trolling without touching a fish and then spent the last hour of the day trying to calibrate my Garmin SteadyCast heading sensor. I realized I could turn on both the SteadyCast heading and the GPS heading on my unit. That revealed that I had a pretty big calibration error on the heading sensor. I kept trying to just re-calibrate the heading adjustment on the sensor but each time it would drift off almost right away.
Eventually it dawned on me to recalibrate both the compass and the heading. Once I did that everything was right with the world. When I was undeway in a straight line the two heading lines were perfectly on top of one and other. That felt really good to get that figured out. I am really looking forward to my next trip out. Might be tomorrow if my back starts behaving.
It was a day of snow, and then a calm period, then it was breezy for a few hours, then it rained pretty hard, but at the very end the wind died and the sun even came out. It was strange day with a couple of really good flurries of action and a whole lot of my just pedaling around. I was at least stoked to get my first troll fish of the year.
Here is a short video. You can see it still spitting snow when I land the fish trolling.
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/jAIpg8FiMkvqiKhOgdzDx8RwYDmNg7fCKEHnt4vHVaN
I got to ramp C around 8am. I took my time unloading hoping that the snow would stop before I got on the water. The snow, sensing the challenge, refused to give in and it was still snowing lightly when I launched my kayak. The wind gently pushed me down towards Scoggins as I rigged up my trolling rods. I figured maybe it was a sign so I decided to just troll that direction.
The water was pretty muddy, maybe 1' of visibility so I decided to switch things up a bit. I had bought a small-bladed lake troll earlier in the week. I put that in front of my normal roostertail + 1/2 nightcrawler on one rod and on the other rod I decided to put on a chartreuse Strike King Bitsy Minnow (tiny crankbait). I got the rods out and I hunkered down deep inside my rain gear as I started slowly trolling towards the Scoggins end.
I had not gone too far when a trout slammed the rod with the BItsy Minnow. I picked up the rod and worked the fish to the kayak and carefully worked the fish towards the net. It was a really fat and healthy trout that was in the 13-14" range.
I was really stoked! That was my first trout caught trolling in the new year. I went back to trolling and a short while later I hooked up again on the Bitsy Minnow. As I was fighting that fish in I realized that I had not turned on my video camera yet. So I reached back, turned it on and went back to fighting that fish. After another really good fight (if you watch the video at the bottom of the post closely you can see it jump just off my handle) I was able to land my second trout of the day!
Now this was more like it. I was ready for a killer day. I kept trolling towards Scoggins and maybe 20 minutes later my rod with the roostertail went off. I started working that fish in (felt like another good) but the hook pulled out as I was working to the kayak. I blame the Lake Troll, surely it could not have been a lack of skill on my part.
No big deal I thought I will have plenty more chances. Narrator's voice: "He did not have any more chances".
It was so weird. After that fish I had one more quick drive by on the spinner and that was it for me for trolling. I spent several hours trying but it was like the lake had just shut off. Really strange.
I had eventually trolled up to Sain creek arm and I decided to give the bass a chance. I fished a bunch of spider blocks with a drop shot but I never got a sniff. After an hour or so of that I decided to anchor up and try some powerbait fishing.
I dropped anchor in about 22' of water, tossed out my first rod and before I could even get my second rod baited I had another nice-sized trout on. Woo hoo, I thought. I quickly landed it and then was able to quickly get both rods back out. After a short wait I had another good bite on the same rod and started fighting the fish in. I once again realized the video camera was off and turned it on to capture the end of the fight.
I was so stoked to get some great, fast action footage. Once again the fish gods laughed at my paltry desires. I spent an hour fishing (moving a couple of times) without getting another bite. Really strange day.
That was it for me. I did a little more trolling without touching a fish and then spent the last hour of the day trying to calibrate my Garmin SteadyCast heading sensor. I realized I could turn on both the SteadyCast heading and the GPS heading on my unit. That revealed that I had a pretty big calibration error on the heading sensor. I kept trying to just re-calibrate the heading adjustment on the sensor but each time it would drift off almost right away.
Eventually it dawned on me to recalibrate both the compass and the heading. Once I did that everything was right with the world. When I was undeway in a straight line the two heading lines were perfectly on top of one and other. That felt really good to get that figured out. I am really looking forward to my next trip out. Might be tomorrow if my back starts behaving.
It was a day of snow, and then a calm period, then it was breezy for a few hours, then it rained pretty hard, but at the very end the wind died and the sun even came out. It was strange day with a couple of really good flurries of action and a whole lot of my just pedaling around. I was at least stoked to get my first troll fish of the year.
Here is a short video. You can see it still spitting snow when I land the fish trolling.
305to503fishermen
Member
I am excited that the bite is slowly coming back. I plan on getting back out there in the next couple of weeks. Maybe i will get lucky and get a hold over brooder.