Fishing Report - 2/28-3/1

[mwfischer]

Well our group decided to make the trip down Friday morning the 28th despite the Winter Storm warning issued shortly before we left. We all come from St. Louis and typically make the trip a 3 day weekend and head back Sunday afternoon, but this time we knew we would be best hitting the road Saturday afternoon, especially towing a boat. Turns out they missed the forecast the farther north you went, but it still would have been a white knuckle drive back, but on to a quick report.

Started out running up to the riprap shore (not quite sure where the buzzword locations are when I read them here, but stopped just short of the shallow flat about 1/4 mile up from fall creek where the channel hugs the south bank) No water running all day Fri that I could tell. Threw a 1/8 oz straight tied orange/sculpin jig from LL and first fish was a really nice 19/20" rainbow. Really dark fish, very pretty, snapped a photo and released him for someone else. Always fun preparing and expecting mostly 10-13" fish on 2# line and hooking into one of these guys. Need to locate a photo and re-post later on. I've done quite well in that stretch in the past, from the deeper cut along the riprap down to the mouth of the creek.

We drifted (Trolled would be a better word with no flow) this area for an hour or so and went in to pick up a late arrival and boated back up through the shallows and up to what I think you all call the narrows, just down from the first island in the trophy area. My group spent all of the remaining fishing time in about a 300yd stretch from the island point along the bluff wall throwing orange/brown and sculpin jigs, dropped down to 3/32 and I believe 1/16 once or twice and as long as the wind was blowing we caught fish. Not nearly as many as years past but the quality was so much better than I remember, including a couple decent 15" browns that fought like a ton of bricks.

Saturday water was on in the AM, but fishing was slow for us. Tried our jig combination and drifted that area, and I would say the boat caught 20 or so before hitting the launch around 3p, but certainly another successful trip. Thanks for the guidance and supplies Lilley's. We introduced two new folks to the lake and the fishing down there and have two more addicts! That makes about 12 for 12 in the past few years we've brought folks with us.