report 3/25/06

[Brian Sloss]

Today was a prime example of not using a boat and limiting yourself on this river. I was able to get out for a little while for the first time in a long time, so i thought I'd see how the trout were doing. I didn't have long so I fished for about 45 minutes at Graveyard hallow (island one) and 15 minutes at the 19 bridge. The water was moving fast and is up almost a foot, which is good for the spring. The down side was without a boat I couldn't get to a lot of places I would have liked to. My fishing was religated to a lot smaller area. At graveyard I was able to land 3 out of four strikes. My favorite on was a fish that was hiding in an undercut bank. There was an undercut bank with real swift water running past and an overhanging tree above it. Also there was about a foot of a back eddy by the bank. It look promising, so I threw a side-arm cast under the tree tight to the bank and the MOAT wasn't in the water for a second before a 14 inch rainbow took it. I love it when it works just like you draw it up on the chalk board. All fish landed took the MOAT. One thing to note about the fish, they all looked hungry. There are a lot of theories about whether the fish eat better when the water comes up. Well these fish looked to have been eating a minimal amount while waiting for the water to recede a little. they did not fight as hard as fish normally do here. Maybe it was just the fish I hooked today, I don't know. My bet is that while the waters continue down a little the feed will pick up and they will regain their strength. By the way, I didn't hook anything at the bridge, but I didn't fish long as I couldn't get to the best parts of the water there due to the current. I bet the fishing will be better and better as the week continues and the water slows a little. There are some areas that I know would have been fishing great if I had my boat with me to get to them.

[Scooper]

Sorry, Sloss, but what is "MOAT?!?"

[Brian Sloss]

Sorry, but I forget to define it, but I have if you go into the archives. A MOAT stands for mother of all tungston. Size 8 hook, 1 large tungston bead and 2 smaller ones, rubber tail and 2 two pairs rubber legs, and peacock dubbing. It looks like nothing but maybe a stonefly, but mostly it looks like a big meal. Most importantly it gets deep fast and when the water is up and moving that is doubly important. A MOAT has stung many Eleven Point trout.