Black jigs are working again

[Phil Lilley]

Last summer black jigs were the color.  This summer we caught more trout on sculpin/ginger and white more than any color.  But lately it's been black or black/olive.

I've been getting out mainly in the evenings and doing very well on black jigs.  The best catching has been as the water is dropping out.  Got out last evening when they were running the most water of the day - lake level was 705.12, 3852 cfs, 56 megawatts which is equivalent to one unit.  Kelly and I boated to the dam and started throwing jigs, mainly 3/32nd ounce black, white or sculpin color.  One rainbow right off the bat then nothing up there.

Dropped down to Lookout and caught one more.  Very slow.

Then we boated down close to the top of the Narrows and started catching, all on black 1/16th ounce.  The water had started dropping out too which seemed like to trigger the feed.

We caught rainbows above the Narrows but not in the Narrows.  Then started catching them again below.  The second drift, we started further above the Narrows and had the same results.

We sent ahead and drifted down past Fall Creek, catching rainbows the whole way down.  They stopped about 100 yards below the mouth of the creek.  We had to get back in so we headed back to the dock.

Rainbows were fat for the most part.  Had a couple in the 15 inch range but most were 12-13 inches.

[Phil Lilley]

Boated to the red house above the Narrows last evening and started fishing a black 1/16th oz jig, this time under a float 4-5 feet deep.  They were running one unit worth of water, about the same as Saturday evening.  Drifted down to Fall Creek - nothing...

I ended up throwing the jig straight below Fall Creek but still no bites.  I quit before the water dropped out - that's when the fishing has gotten better the last few times out.

Lots of leaves in the lake from the winds all day yesterday.  Hopefully they sank last night and won't be a factor today.