Johnsfolly

Gavin let us know if the water is running high and clear or more like chocolate milk.

I didn't see the photo with the hat so I didn't recognize that 2Sheds made the post. 2Sheds where are you headed next, Spring and Mill creek or did you fish those already?

I picked a couple of cukes this morning. Only thing we have ready right now.

Otis - welcome to the OA. I'm about 4 hours northeast of you in Columbia. So I only get down your way very infrequently. I look forward to hearing your reports.

We are definitely a few weeks behind you BH. We are just getting fruit on the tomato plants and our blackberries are hard and green. My kids like to eat the tomatoes off of the vine and do that just as they are getting a red blush. I rarely ever get to eat a truly vine ripened tomato. So I am definitely jealous of a haul of ripe tomatoes like you have pictured. Also I can't blame you on the chocolate pie. Enjoy.

JHK - I caught all of my fish on Sat fishing off of the Whistle bridge. I caught 6 drifting a John deere microjig about 20-24" under a small float. I know that I missed at least 2-3X that many. I really like to be able to see the fish before it takes the bait instead of relying on the float to move. What can you do with 10-12" visibility. I did catch 3 using a 1/16 oz black marabou jig and two with a 1/32 white/salmon marabou jig. I was fishing the jigs cross current and fairly fast with a lot of action then a pause. I could see the bait and any fish reaction throughout the retrieve. They all hit on the pause. We were only fishing for 4 1/2 hours with at least 1.5 hours fishing up near the spring without catching any trout. I was pretty happy with the fish we were able to catch considering the visibility issues and the high fast water.

Great Report and photos. I'm jealous of your son as well. Hopefully he is hooked. Great way to spend time with family.

I took my daughter to Bennett's yesterday. The water clarity was terrible, less than a foot visibility and the water was running high which is what I expected. She caught three trout and was really frustrated when she couldn't set the hook on them. However, she does enjoy catching the sculpin there. She could only catch two due to the lack of good water clarity. Sculpin fishing is a sight fishing endeavor. All in all she said she had a great day. I hope that she did. I want her to value our trips and think of them fondly when she is older.

Mike - Make sure that you are able to distinguish between your fish and those of your son. When I go with my family we do that by using separate rope stringers for each angler. However, I have had more than one agent tell me it is okay to mark the fish such that you can easily tell one person's catch from the other if they are held in a common container like the bags. For example clip a notch in the tail fin for one angler and leave it intact for the other. If you are thinking about using one bag to hold your fish, check with the folks at RR to see if they will allow you to mark the fish.

Tim do you think it will clean up by Friday or Saturday?

Great Trip. Can't wait to hear about the next one. good luck.

Nothing like catching an 18" rainbow for your first trout. Sounds like a great time Seth.

Are you catching any grayling? That's a fish that I would love to catch especially the males in spawning colors.

I would go with Phil's estimate. He has seen and handled many more of these big bellied browns.

Did you catch any fishing around the swing sets or sliding boards. Sounds like a good time to fish unnatural habitats.

Great story and photos. Want to see the kings once you get into them. A bit jealous, didn't get into any rainbow action when I was up there a couple of years ago.

I don't consider myself a purist but I have not been able to go with cheese or hotdogs (Vienna sausages), etc. as a trout bait. Maybe I will break down one day. Let's face it velveeta is as processed as any of the packaged dough baits that I do use.

Several years ago I fished the blue ribbon section above the lane Springs CG and ran into a group of five otters. I caught mostly sunfish and small bass and one 3 1/2 rainbow. I haven't been back to that area since that time figuring that the otters were much better at catching fish in that section than I was. Focused the last couple of year fishing around Newburg.

I would guess 3 to 3.5 lbs.

I love the football browns. Nice fish.

Dougie - sound likes you had a great trip. Nice photos and Congrats on your double!

Recently I was back in the UK to meet with clients. Due to the cost of tickets it was cheaper to stay in England a day or two longer than the leave after our last meeting. So I had a couple of days to do what I wanted. So I checked into fishing opportunities around the areas where I was staying. During that process I was reminded of when I was living there in 1998 and 1999 and the reasons that I did not fish when I was living there. You are required to purchase a rod license and if you intend to fish for rough fish, e.g., carp, pike, roach, bream, tench, etc., that was all you needed to satisfy the government. If you wanted to catch trout or salmon (i.e., game fish) there was an additional license that the government required. I'm fine with those fees. The daily rod licenses were not cost prohibitive. It was the day fees for the bodies of water that really bothered me. Every body of water was likely to be owned by a private citizen and they set the fees to be able to fish that body of water and the regulations that you would have to follow while there. It's their property so I understand the regulations. However, they did prohibit my fishing in the past and also on this trip. I didn't explore the pond fishing to determine if for a given day you were provided a certain section of the pond to fish. For the rivers at least in Northern Ireland, you would only be able to fish a certain section of the river. If there were no fish in that section, you were out of luck on that day. As one would expect, the best sections would have the highest fees. The point to all of this is that I continue to the have a great appreciation for the fishing and hunting opportunities that we are afforded as US citizens. As anyone can see just by reading any given thread, each of us have a difference of opinion on the best way to fish, on catch and release, on whether guides should be allowed to operate and fish for state funded stocked fish, etc. Even with all of those differences, I doubt that few on here would disparage the opportunities that we have when we purchase that fishing license. We all have the opportunity to fish miles of creeks and rivers without access fees or to boat and fish in the public lakes systems. Most of the regulations are put in place for us to enjoy a better experience. I appreciate what we have and I hope others do as well.

Billet - I would be proud of a find like yours. I also don't mind a little extra protein with my meal. I didn't get a chance to get out we had pretty severe weather on Sat. The road to one of my prime areas was washed out. I will have to get out and find some new areas this week.

Some great photos. Congrats on the personal best rainbow. Your net looks like mine. Don't tell Ham, but I bought it more for the fact that hooks don't get stuck in the webbing, but a close second consideration was that it was less likely to injure the fish.

I'll try to do the same and let you know if I find any. Good luck.