TR placeholder for this weekend!

[Seth]

Looking forward to the full report!

[JestersHK]

Alrighty, so back to work and finally have some time.

Fishing this weekend was tough.  Probably one of my toughest weekends down there that I've ever had.  We caught fish although sometimes not the right ones we were looking for.  It was also PACKED!  Forgot it was a holiday weekend, and there were even folks fishing through the night with us which is pretty rare as we usually have the wee morning hours to ourselves.  We did meet some guys one night from Springfield and fished with them for a bit.  Forget the guys name on here, but always nice to meet other forum members.

Thursday night we got an hour or so in before the rains hit.  Tried to fish through the rain, but eventually got soaked through the layers and we called it to take a nap.

Friday was a pretty decent day, not numbers wise, but we were catching enough that it kept us going through cold and lack of sleep.

Saturday just flat whooped us... Morning was rough, but we finally got into some in the afternoon.  We skipped the rain Saturday evening and grabbed a few hours of sleep, and went out that night after it stopped.  Saturday night was flat out awful.  We put in 4 hours with nothing to show for it.  Thats a first for me... A humbling experience LOL.

I never really picked up a consistent bite on the spinning rod or flyrod other than Saturday afternoon on brown scuds.  Jig bite was almost non existent for us.  I caught 2 whole trout on jigs, and a walleye and a carp.  Thats it, and it was tough as I love fishing jigs.  Same with Jerkbait bite, but really didn't have enough flow to fish them how I like to fish them.

Overall I personally am not a fan of the flow they ran almost the entire weekend.  It's just a weird water level down by the Dam, and made it tough for us anyways to actually find the fish.  It does open up allot of water for wading, but combined with the pressure and weather I think it got fish in a funk where we were at anyways.  Saturday night even the outlets were completely void of any fish.  Haven't seen that in a long time as usually theres a few here and there, but didn't see a single one up there.  No surface activity either.  

From what we heard it sounded like the fish moved down towards the narrows.  We did not get a boat to join the weekend warriors, but we likely would of had better numbers if we had.

Overall still a good weekend.  We fish it hard as always since we try to maximize our windows of time that life allows us to come down.  Just a little frustrating when we can't get the fish figured out.   

[Stein]

Well, I could have written that for our experience on the White below B.S..  We fished White Hole in the AM Saturday for two fish and Cotter in the afternoon for ome and a couple of swings and misses.  only fished jigs other than a few casts on stickbaits.  Zero flow all day Saturday and planned for Sunday again so we went bass fishing with Ham. Thought bite at the lake as well.  still better fishing and not catching than looming out my window at 14" of ice on our lakes.   Coming back the end of March so things should get better.

[Stein]

My formerly pristine prop took a beating as well but you have to just consider them a consumable item if you are going to fish zero flow.

[JestersHK]

The weird weather fronts coming through I guess didn't help any either.  

[Jhoff]

20 hours ago, JestersHK said:

Alrighty, so back to work and finally have some time.

Fishing this weekend was tough.  Probably one of my toughest weekends down there that I've ever had.  We caught fish although sometimes not the right ones we were looking for.  It was also PACKED!  Forgot it was a holiday weekend, and there were even folks fishing through the night with us which is pretty rare as we usually have the wee morning hours to ourselves.  We did meet some guys one night from Springfield and fished with them for a bit.  Forget the guys name on here, but always nice to meet other forum members.

Thursday night we got an hour or so in before the rains hit.  Tried to fish through the rain, but eventually got soaked through the layers and we called it to take a nap.

Friday was a pretty decent day, not numbers wise, but we were catching enough that it kept us going through cold and lack of sleep.

Saturday just flat whooped us... Morning was rough, but we finally got into some in the afternoon.  We skipped the rain Saturday evening and grabbed a few hours of sleep, and went out that night after it stopped.  Saturday night was flat out awful.  We put in 4 hours with nothing to show for it.  Thats a first for me... A humbling experience LOL.

I never really picked up a consistent bite on the spinning rod or flyrod other than Saturday afternoon on brown scuds.  Jig bite was almost non existent for us.  I caught 2 whole trout on jigs, and a walleye and a carp.  Thats it, and it was tough as I love fishing jigs.  Same with Jerkbait bite, but really didn't have enough flow to fish them how I like to fish them.

Overall I personally am not a fan of the flow they ran almost the entire weekend.  It's just a weird water level down by the Dam, and made it tough for us anyways to actually find the fish.  It does open up allot of water for wading, but combined with the pressure and weather I think it got fish in a funk where we were at anyways.  Saturday night even the outlets were completely void of any fish.  Haven't seen that in a long time as usually theres a few here and there, but didn't see a single one up there.  No surface activity either.  

From what we heard it sounded like the fish moved down towards the narrows.  We did not get a boat to join the weekend warriors, but we likely would of had better numbers if we had.

Overall still a good weekend.  We fish it hard as always since we try to maximize our windows of time that life allows us to come down.  Just a little frustrating when we can't get the fish figured out.   

It was a pleasure meeting you this Saturday night.  I hope you have better luck next time you come down.  I don't feel as bad about not catching a fish with you saying it was tough.  Judging from some of your other posts you obviously usually catch a lot of fish.

[JestersHK]

16 minutes ago, Jhoff said:

It was a pleasure meeting you this Saturday night.  I hope you have better luck next time you come down.  I don't feel as bad about not catching a fish with you saying it was tough.  Judging from some of your other posts you obviously usually catch a lot of fish.

Likewise, was a pleasure fishing with you both.  Always good to see others night fishing, makes me think we're not as crazy when others are out there with us LOL.  I usually post a bit in advance when I know I'm gonna make it down, feel free to hit me up as we all could use more fishing buddies!  My cuz and I are already talking about bringing the kayaks down when it warms up.  Never though of kayaking at night, but sounds like a good plan!

[fshndoug]

just make sure you have nav lights at night because other boats can't see you.I almost ran over an unlit yak one moonless night,scared the heck out of me.

[Jhoff]

3 hours ago, JestersHK said:

Likewise, was a pleasure fishing with you both.  Always good to see others night fishing, makes me think we're not as crazy when others are out there with us LOL.  I usually post a bit in advance when I know I'm gonna make it down, feel free to hit me up as we all could use more fishing buddies!  My cuz and I are already talking about bringing the kayaks down when it warms up.  Never though of kayaking at night, but sounds like a good plan!

I will keep my eyes open for when you may be coming down.