Fishing Buddy Report Jan. 6-9

[Trevor K]

First off, I want to thank Phil for offerings us a great room at a great rate again this year. As usual, everything at Lilley's was top notch.

We arrived on Sunday afternoon and wanted to do a little fishing out of the boat. So we unloaded our gear and hit the water. No water was running, which made it a little tough. We did manage to pick up a few fish on pink and chartreuse trout magnets though. Gold cleo's also did pretty good. As is normal, it helped if you could find areas that had a little bit of chop on the water. We even managed to pick up one largemouth and a bluegill across from Cooper Creek boat ramp.

Monday had no water running again. We went out first thing in the morning, but there wasn't much of a breeze and the water looked like glass. We picked up a few fish on cleos and trout magnets again, but headed back to the cabin before too long. We did hook into one 14-15 inch brown on a cleo, which was a pleasant surprise. Went up below the dam to try some wade fishing. I was surprised how many people were there for a weekday in January. We didn't do great there, but the fish we caught all came on the usual suspects. Picked up a few on size 16 scuds and size 18 midges in primrose and pearl or rusty. That afternoon we went back out in the boat. This time we went down to monkey island. I was using a pink trout magnet and was getting quite a few bites. The bites were VERY light though and I definitely missed more fish then I caught. I was using a fly rod and had the trout magnet set anywhere from 3-6 feet deep, depending on where we were at. This trip is the first time I've used these and I was liked them a lot. They seem to get a lot of bites, but you have to pay attention as a lot of times the float won't go under. It will just look different or hesitate for a split second.

Tuesday we were stuck with no water running the whole day again, but not much you can do about that. We took our time getting up that morning to let it warm up a bit. We started up below the dam, but it was pretty much the same as the day before. Caught a few on scuds, but that was about it. Sounds like from reading the other report we should' have picked up a couple super worms or whatever that fly is called. That afternoon we went back out in the boat with jigs, trout magnets and cleos again. We spent most of our time either across from Cooper Creek boat ramp or down by monkey island. Again, if you found a spot that had some breeze you could get bites, but it was pretty slow if you were in the smooth water. Caught quite a few small rainbows. We also caught 3 more largemouths and a crappie. I missed one fish that I think was pretty good size across from Cooper Creek. It bit on a pink trout magnet and just went straight towards the bottom and broke me off pretty fast. I never got a look at it and I never even got it's head turned, so who knows what it was.

Wednesday morning we woke up and saw that they were running a little bit of water. So we packed up our stuff then went out in the boat for a little while before we headed home. I think the little bit of running water really helped out. We caught a lot of small rainbows on trout magnets and a handful on cleos. We caught another 15 inch brown on a gold cleo and one more decent sized crappie. About noon we loaded the boat on the trailers and started the trip back home.

The fishing was a little tough at times, but we still enjoyed the trip. It's always fun to get down to Lilley's and this was our first trip down there with a new boat, so that was fun. We didn't come up with any new techniques, but were able to at least catch some fish on a regular basis with the old standbys. Thanks again to Phil and the rest of the crew at Lilley's for the great deal on the room!

[mic]

Bet those largemouth on the flyrod where fun. They have any size to them.

[Trevor K]

nah, the bass were all maybe 12-13 inches.