Upper Lake Report 2-21-15

[Bill Babler]

Guided Taney 3 days this week and just had a ball.  Spent two days in the restricted zone and yesterday amidst the armada in the catch and keep area above Lilleys' 

Thursday and Friday my clients were mostly newbies and we dragged a variety of patterns on a drift rig in the upper restricted zone.  I kind of divided it into sections for the best results.  Big Hole thru Clay Banks were locations we had a shad fly on and from the bottom of the Clay Banks run thru lookout Island we ran a combination of egg patterns, san juan worms and scud patterns.  Lookout Island is just alive with fish.  I believe from talking to Phil for those of you that are wade fishermen, that might be a pretty good location to beach the boat and give it a whirl.

If you are dragging on two units thru the lower restricted zone, man has that changed. It has just filled with bottom obstructions.  Go as lite as you can on weight.  I was using 1/16 for the best results.  You will learn pretty quick where to and not to drag.

Yesterday we had folks looking for a trout dinner, so we fished from Fall Creek down.  Lots and lots of fish.  I have never caught them this well in a crowd, never.  I had 3 guys and we used Night Crawlers to catch 60+ fish in a 4 hr. trip.  Rick Lisek did the same, catching over 40 in 4 hours.  Wish I would have taken a picture, but from Trout Hollow looking up river I had 47 boats in site from TH to just above Short Creek.  Now that is some competition.  It did not matter, they were snapping.  With this many folks I really was worried about the catching.  I have seen these fish bite well the first pass but when the boats come they can completely turn off.  I had my guys keep their limits to quick. They went into catch and release mode on the first drift.  We however caught our best fish after 10 AM.  Our last pass we caught our best 15 fish of the day.  Rick said the same thing.  We should have been more patient putting them on ice.

Just before 11 I got a call from Guide Tony Wedele, he was fishing the lower restricted zone and he said it was simply stupid.  Said they  would bite anything he threw at them.  I told him we had keepers in the livewell and I could not come up there.   Rick had a second trip of catch and release, so he went up and fished from Andy's down.  He called and said Dude, it was completely crazy.  His party caught and released over 70 fish in 4 hrs. on a pink San Juan bead head, under a strike indicator.

This simply cannot go on forever like this.  Probably one of the best prolonged stretches we have had here in quite sometime.  Come on down and get ya some.

Good Luck

[Phil Lilley]

With good fishing comes over harvest. I'm sorry to say we saw plenty of this all weekend.

I just hope these fish are eaten and not forgotten, sitting in a freezer, burned and thrown away. I speak out of experience. 

[Ham]

The good news is that trout are regularly stocked. The fishing will slow down as more and more and more are kept, but they will be restocked and hopefully some of them will stay in restricted zone and can get bigger. 

The Silver Bullet Trout are as popular with most as the Silver Bullet Beer. Takes all kinds. I hope they're having fun. 

[crappie_adams83]

Yea me and my fishing buddies stayed in the upper part for most out trip and had a blast with biggest brown being 17¾"on a solid white rooster ⅛oz with silver blade the white bite is still on

[Bill Babler]

7 hours ago, Ham said:

The good news is that trout are regularly stocked. The fishing will slow down as more and more and more are kept, but they will be restocked and hopefully some of them will stay in restricted zone and can get bigger. 

The Silver Bullet Trout are as popular with most as the Silver Bullet Beer. Takes all kinds. I hope they're having fun. 

Currently you have to wonder about the availability of trout to stock.  I don't know what they have in reserve after stocking so many early and with the death that occurred.  Be nice to know what type of schedule and numbers they will be on this Spring.

I have just gotten to the point, that I am really very hard to deal with on folks keeping trout.  I don't need a sworn and notarized contract, but I pretty much tell folks that you need to consume them that evening if your staying at Lilleys'.  I am also not a believer in catching fish for others to eat.  You keep what you will consume when they are fresh, and call it good.  We had a party of 6 clients yesterday that their main reason for coming was not only the camaraderie by a fantastic fresh grilled trout dinner at the resort.  No problem at all with that.  Just don't want the housekeeping gals at Lilleys', throwing them out of the freezer when people decide that they did not really want them.

 

[Ham]

I agree. Keep only what you are going to use. They stay fresh in the water a lot better than in a freezer. 

[Travis Swift]

trout hollow had a tournament this weekend so that was probably some of the reason for so much boat traffic.

[rainbow]

One of the best parts of a trip to Taney is a fresh fish dinner at the resort after fishing all day.  There is no reason to over harvest and they are always better fresh.