Really Cold Water Trip...

[Al Agnew]

Oh, I've fished when the water has been a little colder yet, but it was cold yesterday. Beautiful day, no wind, water conditions not as bad as they have been, with a slight bit of color to the water and the remnants of the rise from a few days ago. My brother was going to go with me, but backed out at the last minute. So I called cwc on the way to the river, partly to see if he could fish with me and partly to make sure he wasn't already fishing with somebody else where I planned to fish. He was taking his kids on a short float, but said he'd call me on the river if he could get the afternoon free.

It was still cold, barely above freezing, at 9:30 AM when I fired up the motor and started up the river. I didn't go far...too cold. I stopped at the first good pool and began fishing. Water temperature gauge read 35.5 degrees. Too cold for jerkbaits, at least the way I fish them. I can't stand to let one sit for a minute at aa time. So I picked up the hair jig rod.

There's good water on the log side of this pool, but the bluff side gets the morning sun. Still, I started on the log side. Second log, first bite. Set the hook, solid. Hung up...nope, slacked off, felt the fish. Pulled back up again, solid. Fish had me wrapped around the log. Hit the trolling motor and went over to the log. I could see the fish thrashing around in a wad of brush washed up against the downstream end of the log. No way of getting it out. I kept fooling with it until my line broke. The fish looked to be about 15 inches. Well, good news was that the cold water hadn't completely turned off the fish.

I backed off from the log, and made a cast to the upstream end of it where the rootwad was. Another bite, but this one I missed. That was it for the log side of the pool. Fished back down the rock side, and caught one 12 incher. Also lost four hair jigs in as many casts at one point. It would be a pattern for the day.

Motored up to the next pool. There is almost slack water, decent depth, in the lower portion, with smaller chunk rocks. I caught a 13 incher on the first cast there, and then nothing else. Lost another hair jig. Grabbed the spinning rod with a Senko rigged on a jig head, caught another 13 incher. Farther up the pool is another slack water area. It used to be a terrific spot, but in the last few years has shallowed, and the logs that had been lying on the bottom are either covered up with sand or washed out. The water was clear enough I could see the bottom well over most of it, and so I didn't spend much time there.

The next possibility of a spot is one that I never seem to try until the end of the day, when I coming back downriver toward the take-out and decide to give it a quick try. By that time, it's too late in the day; I've never done well in the winter when the sun is so low that the water is completely shaded. This time I decided to try it at a better part of the day.

It's a small spot, no bigger than the size of my living room, at the lower end of a long, deep run with strong current, too strong for winter fish to hold. A jutting piece of bank shelters this little eddy, and it's deep enough and slack enough to be a possibility.

Sure enough, there were fish there. I got four bites, caught two fish, including a nice 15 incher.

Just as I finished fishing it, the cell phone rang. Wow, it was already 1 PM and cwc was ready to fish. He'd driven into a private access about three miles upstream from where I was, and was waiting for me, thinking I would be lot farther upstream at this point. I told him I'd be there as soon as I could, and took off up the river.

I hadn't planned on fishing up that far, actually, but since we were up there, we decided to go a couple miles farther upstream to a good pool we both knew. It's deep and has plenty of cover. Too much cover...I began to lose hair jigs at an alarming rate. But there were fish. Cwc caught several, including a 16 incher, and I finally hooked a nice one. I got the 18 incher up to the boat, had its head out of the water trying to get a thumb in its mouth, when my line broke. There went another hair jig. Tiring of it, I texas rigged a finesse worm, but the fish weren't having any of it, except for a 14 inch largemouth.

We fished that pool for well over an hour, and between the two of us caught a half dozen fish or so. Then we took off back downriver. One more pool we both wanted to fish, about a mile below cwc's truck. I finally got to fish the entire pool without losing a hair jig, and caught a couple. Cwc also caught a couple, but the sun was getting very low and I had seven miles to run back to my car after going back up a mile and dropping cwc off.

Final score between the two of us, about 15 or 16 fish...and losing the one bigger one at the boat. Final score for me...at least 15 or 16 hair jigs lost! Water temps made it up to about 40 degrees at one point, but was in the 30s for most of the day. Several eagles, two flocks of turkeys crossing the river, quality time spent with a friend, complements on him for my river running abilities (there were a couple of real tricky spots to run in that 9 or so miles we covered)...yeah, I think it worth losing the jigs.

[Mitch f]

Were the wires weedguards not good? I stumbled across a solution at BPS and think I've got it figured out. Also, a new more snagless design on the way. Also I hate 100 percent fluoro for cold water knot strength, but that's just me

[Al Agnew]

Yeah, I'm changing line and getting rid of the fluoro for now.

I doubt if it was your weedguards. I was losing your jigs and three other kinds of jig heads I'd bought at different points in time. It didn't seem to matter. Just one of those days.

[Mitch f]

It happens, the fact that you were even able to hook a nice fish in these conditions is pretty outstanding. Zipstick went yesterday and had 35 degree water temps at the lower stretch. I asked him how he did, he replied "35 degree water temps...need I say more?"

[carptracker]

Al & Mitch have enjoyed your posts and have learned much. Mitch, went through the new MSA newsletter last night, congrats on your great Oct. catch (a beautiful fish). Al, cwc texted that morning, pretty good results in some tough conditions. Hope to get in the valley next weekend. Happy New Year

[LittleRedFisherman]

Great Report as always. Sometimes losing jigs and lures like that just run in cycles. Didn't here you mention Jerkbaits? Guess that was because of the sub 40 degree water? I'm going to try to go myself later in the week, don't have any hair jigs, but got some Eakins jigs I plan on fishing slow on the bottom. Got to try some of those someday, Mitch's jigs look awesome!!

Kudos for catching some fish and getting out there in the winter!!