Fishing Trip Report 8/15/16

[Ham]

I had gotten my trout boat out of the shop last week. Danny at Independence Marine got it fixed up for me. I had a gasket failure that was preventing it from starting/running and I had the water pump impeller changed out. It was way past due being down. I needed to do a shake down cruise. 

I always need to go fish and I have a stretch of 6 days in a row coming up so it was,now or never Well, I could go in a week or so, but that's forever away. So even though I prefer sunshine for trout fishing, I went. 

So, it was raining when I launched the boat and it was raining when I put it back on the trailer about 4 hours later and it rained every minute inbetween those events. Some of the time it rained pretty hard. Some of the time it rained less hard, but it always rained.

I brought rods for jerk baits and I even started with them, but I caught all my fish on Zig Jigs. 

First cast with a Zig Jig and I caught a 17 inch hen Brown Trout. She really pulled hard. Soon after I caught my first Big Rainbow of the day. I lost a couple of Jumbows, but that's how it goes when you sling barbless jigs. 

I dropped down river to the start of the catch and release area. I caught an ok Brook trout. He had me behind some wood at first, but I got him to hand. Usually, the Brook Trout is the hard part of the Slam, but I have been catching a lot of Brookies this year. Of course, I've been fishing Norfork a lot more than usual. 

I was sick of the rain, I was tired of not being able to see thru my glasses for the raindrops. I was starting to get cold. I was soaked over about 3/4's of my body despite having rain gear,. I really wanted to catch that Cutthroat and complete my slam though. I kept grinding away. I lost a huge Bow that jumped way out of the water. I think it had a couple of lamprey attached. I dropped down to another area I like. Boat control down there is a pain in the butt, but it holds a lot of fish. I lost three good fish and caught one small bow. I ran through a tough spot and made a amphora cast below some broken water and hooked up. After a few hard pulls, a nice Cutthroat started thrashing around on the surface. I was able to slip the net under her. 

Woot! I had my first Norfork Slam. I head back upstream cold, but happy. 

 

 

 

[Ham]

[Ham]

[Ham]

[Ham]

[Greasy B]

Beautiful Fine Spot. 

[DADAKOTA]

Love seeing those brookies.  Reminds me of trips to the UP when I was younger.  From about 5th grade into my college years my Dad, brother, and I would go up every summer to catch brookies and sometimes a few walleyes from the creeks and rivers around Republic and Rapid River.  Brook trout are fun to catch and make superb table fare.  Smoked brook trout may be the finest smoked fish on the planet.  Truly gourmet fare.  My biggest was right at 26 inches long.

[Johnsfolly]

Ham

Nice bunch of fish. Congrats on the slam! 

[snagged in outlet 3]

NICE!!

[Ham]

There are bunch of > 16 inch Rainbows in Norfork right now. Really Fat and Happy. I need a buddy to come down and float kayaks downstream on low water.