Opening Day-

[TroutMonster]

Anyone down for opener? Good fishing? Good fish?

[Seth]

I got down there around 11am. My tag number was 810 so numbers were definitely down. Water is up and stained but there were lots of fish being caught. I caught a couple on a black/chart 1/16oz rubber leg jig and the others on rainbow powerbait. On my way out I stopped and seen a guy weigh a 6# on the store scale. Also seen a guy walk by with a giant on his stringer that he said weighed 8. I'd believe it as it was definitely bigger than the 6 that i got a good close look at. Very nice fish!

[Haris122]

Man, I could've went for my first time ever down there, had I not had this darn cold. Seth, how much space was there between anglers?

[TroutMonster]

I heard there were a lot of lunkers being caught, 927 total fishermen...

[Seth]

  On 3/3/2013 at 8:54 PM, Haris122 said:

Man, I could've went for my first time ever down there, had I not had this darn cold. Seth, how much space was there between anglers?

There was plenty of room everywhere I looked. The most crowded spot was the bathroom hole on the bathroom side just above the riffle. Every other hole was wide open for the most part. I'm sure it was worse during the early morning hours.

[Haris122]

I really got to head down there soon. Been wanting to see what it's like to go there for over a year now. Maybe catch some nice fish in the process.

[Seth]

Dad and a buddy went down yesterday and and said they fished 20 minutes and had two limits and were on there way to the cleaning station. They were fishing bait under a flat in the pond hole.

[Haris122]

I finally went there today. It was actually better than I expected crowd-wise. I like the scenery, though the place is a bit smaller than I thought it would be. I got there probably around noon, checked out the hatchery section and did the food pellet thing first. Was psyched, after seeing how many there were in the rearing pools, especially the one with the smaller ones. Thought for sure I'd come back home with 4 of them on the stringer at least. As usual I had a little too much faith in my fishing prowess.

Fished the whole time with roostertails of varying colors (I should've just swallowed my pride and started using the dough bait, and whatever else, but I just wanted to catch them my way). Finally 2 hours in, I reached the long pool just upstream of the bathrooms and tossed out a different roostertail, and bam, hooked one. Reeled it in, pulled the line up, and it shook itself off the hook. Didn't matter all that much to me, as it was just average stocker size, and I was thinking of letting that one go anyways, it being the first one of the day. Another 2 hours+ later I reached the bridge where the red ribbon area starts with not a single additional bite to show for it. I was feeling pretty stupid letting that first one go. Went down to the red ribbon area and started casting right where the 2 rivers/creeks merge. Not long into that, I caught my 2nd one on another roostertail (firetiger color I believe). This one was bigger, but still probably under the 15" requirement to keep. Just as feisty as the first and almost hooked me in the hand while I was grabbing it to unhook. Anyways, after that one got it's bearings back and swam off, and I gave up on catching any more there, I went back upstream along the opposite bank and around to the other bank again, to end the day with nothing more to show for it. I'll be back though.

Oh yeah, forgot to mention, for the less fishing challenged folks, it wasn't all that bad a day. I got the impression for a lot of folks it was a slow but steady kind of day. Saw some people catch a few throughout the day, one or two guys caught even more than one while I was watching. Most folks I saw had about 2 fish on their stringers.

[TroutMonster]

It's always a tough bite after 9am especially when using rooster tails... Those fish have seen a lot by that time of day and are pretty weary... Might have been better earlier in the morning. I'm headed down that way today...

[Seth]

I always liked tossing a spinner but never did have much luck with them. I'd get a fish here or there but never have caught a limit on them later in the day. Jigs and those trout worms have always been my best lures. Small beadhead nymphs under a float work pretty good as well.