How was the opener?

[Haris122]

Anyone go down there today, and if so how was it?

[Haris122]

Well, here's my own quick "first week" report. Friday I was off, so after sleeping in and taking my sweet time deciding if it was too late to even bother going towards there, I decided to head that way anyway, and decide on the go just where around there I'd want to fish. Eventually I decided to try wading downstream from the hwy 8 access, as far down towards the springs as I could given that I had another 4 and a half hours before sunset. Pretty soon in, it became apparent to me that my waders were leaking somewhere inside my left boot. I figured I deal with that later since it wasn't a catastrophic leak yet, but as the time passed, and the actual wading got tougher and tougher (surprising how many boulder fields there are on that section of the river), the leak was beginning to irritate me. After making my way a little over half a mile downstream at a slow but steady pace, I decided further wading while having a leak in one boot, is just not going to work, especially with the bottom as slick and difficult to traverse as it was. So I headed back upstream to my car, and even though I had my older waders in the car, I decided it was too late to change into them and give it another try there. Instead I opted to drive a little further down the road, and fish the park from the bank. By the time I started fishing it was about 5 or so. Usually I don't do too hot even when I'm there all day, but to my surprise, fishing a little crappie minnow crankbait, I caught 3 fish, including 2 12" trout, and 1 little sunfish. All near the riffle just down from the fish cleaning station. Both trout were pretty fun fights, but the first one was really feisty for a stocker size fish. It jumped pretty high out of the water several times and took some decent runs. I'm glad I had my drag set a little lower than usual. I'm still surprised it didn't somehow get unbuttoned in all that. Anyways, I also got a bite on a smaller sinking rapala, towards the end, but not near as much action as the little shad colored crank. Not sure if anything hit on the roostertail I had too. Anyways, the park turned out pretty good by my standards, cause coming in people were saying they weren't biting too good, and even in general I always struggle there even when others don't. Btw, I think they had stocked like 700 fish that day. Seemed a little on the low end for the 3rd day of catch and keep season but I'm not real sure of that.

[jfrith]

Lot of people in the park?

[Haris122]

Not that many when I got there. Though that was basically around 5 with just another hour of fishing left to go. However somehow I still managed to get crowded in by a family of 4-5 that started fishing right around me. Guess they really liked that spot that I was at.

[Seth]

I'm headed down Wednesday to fish and bringing along a dozen high school aged kids. I'll let you know how we fair. Hopefully the fish cooperate and everybody can at least catch something.