Short trip, short report

[Phil Lilley]

Boated to the dam... took the pontoon cause my boat was low on gas. Drifted 3 times. Tried a couple of shad patterns on the fly rod- nothing. Threw an 1/8th oz white jig for a little bit and cause 4-5 trout. I know I can catch them on that so I tried a jig and float with the fly rod again. Lost 2 jigs cause I fishing close to the bank- fishing it about 8 feet deep. Then caught a brown on it- finally.

Best was a white/gray 1/16th oz jig on my spin rig, letting the jig hover off the bottom. The bite was light but I could see the line move- very little wind. Fished from 3:30-4:45 pm- have to go see my sister's new house in Harrison or I'd fish till dark. Water running perfect for me- ? units about 707 I'd say... about half speed.

This should be an excellent week to fish... windy tomorrow but warm. Babler said the bass will be a bitin' this week. I have to go to Lawrence on Wednesday to speak or I'd be out there.

[Bill Babler]

Lilley, always put the bite on me, and prussure also, did you notice his post, Babler will Post.

Ok, Ok, got out of the house even though Becky had a dozen breakfasts to serve on her own. I think that builds character.

First guide trip in a while and it felt great and also blessed to be out on such a glorious day.

Fished a couple of fantastic kids, I say kids, 25 plus years old. They all look young to me.

Motored up and drifted from the cable to the ramp, and it was GOOD. Half day trip, starting late netted us about 40 really nice bows, and browns. I believe we had 9 browns and the rest were the red strip fish.

My gal was not a caster, so she dragged an egg pattern for a bit but couldn't get her a nip. Brice was a really good fisherman, and handled the 7' St Croix with ease. Brice used a 1/32 oz. white marabou jig, and I really had not had a chance to get Beca in the water before he had one on. The White jig was the ticket drifted in about the medium colume of the water.

Could get no takers on the egg, so switched to dragging a 64oz. jig on the drift rig, and kept loosing it. Switch to a red san-juan worm in size 8 and the browns loved it.

It was pretty much a 50/50 trip after I got the drift rig figured out. Becca, also caught some really nice rainbows on the San-J.

Hope this keeps up as that was a really nice way to kick off the start of the season.

[Rusty]

Thanks Bill, I feel better now.

[twosets]

Hey Bill

Thanks for the report, even if Phil made you. Those are beautiful fish.

Did you see any shad in the water?

George

[Phil Lilley]

I saw about a dozen. Bill said he saw lots... but I'll let (make) him report on that.

BILL!!!!

[MrDucky]

If all goes well this week and know one from work calls in sick . Im gonna try to come down on thursday . I was fishing with Leonard and Duckydoty Friday night , The fish i caught had shad in them . Mostly heads and a bit of spine

[Bill Babler]

Yes, we did see shad in the water. At first I thought someone had thrown several cigarette butts, in all together as they were floating in a group. Just exactly the size of a butt. I was going to pick them,up and when we drifter over, they were very small shad, still alive and kickin.

Starting watching the area a little closer, and saw several groups of these really small shad, just crappie minnow size floating mostly from the cable to the ramp.

Every trout we caught coughed up shad and my boat looks like a gull roost. Some of the trout had very large shad that were still coming out of their mouth. They liked the white jigs just as well.

It has been my experence, that just the right ammount of shad is a few. If you get the big rafts coming thru, the trout get much harder to catch. If I can see one here and one there, and the trout are coughing them up, thats the correct reciept.

[twosets]

Wow

Phil nags you to report TWICE.

Sincerely, thanks so much for the fishing reports, they help a lot of us get thru the winter.

George

[Phil Lilley]

Starting to get windy already this am... people are leaving from the weekend stay- most have said this was one of the best President's Weekend trip they've had in years. Even fishing off the dock with the water running was pretty good. Still a lot of small rainbows being caught but some nicer ones too.