Observations, 10/4

[Phil Lilley]

First - temp and DO levels.  Note the rise and fall (blue lines).  It correlates to generation and daylight.  Night time is the lowest and rises when they turn the water on.  It also heads up after dawn.

This is down by our place.  Note the drop AFTER they started running this hard generation.  It basically pushed the colder but low DO water down from the upper end.

I caught a couple of rainbows yesterday that didn't fight well but only 2 out of 18.  The rest fought well.

Why are they running it like this?  I have no idea.  I did ask that question a couple of weeks ago when they were running 35 mw 24/7 and didn't get an answer.

Scuds are king in the trophy area.  Brown, or mink, has been the best color the last couple of days.  And bigger ones - #14's or even #12's.  And using 6x tippet again... ditched the 7x.

I fished late morning today from above the dock to almost the bend up lake on the shallow side.  Started throwing a sculpin/burnt orange/orange head 1/16th oz jig, 2-pound line and caught some real pretty rainbows.  Did One Cast.

Then I got the fly rod out and fished a mink scud, #14, under a float 6 feet deep and caught 6 rainbows - missed several others.  Switched to a brown #16 zebra midge under a float 5 feet and caught a couple.  Then I tied on a medium mega worm, cream.  It's not the big fluffy mega but a medium (thinner) worm tied at the head only with a nickel bead, not a jig hook.  I bought them from a guy who sells a lot of flies to the trout parks.  They worked real good!  Fished them deep enough to get to the bottom.  Missed more strikes than I connected with though.  I think they were taking them short.

One rainbow I caught had a half dozen brown and gray snails in its mouth.  I noted most of the trout had big bellies... are they all eating snails now!?  Interesting.

[dnj21]

Phil-  When you say Mink scud, is that the material not the color correct?  

[dnj21]

Never mind, I did a quick search and found a Nov of '12 thread showing what you are talking about.  Do you stock those?  I drew a blank at that term at first.....

Quote in case anyone else in curious:

We both used 6x fluorocarbon tippet and fished a fly Rolan has made famous, at least in my world.  No not peppy, but a #14 mink.  He usually uses a 3769 TMC hook, 7 wraps of .015 lead wire and a dubbing he makes, mixing mink fur with brown antron.  He uses either mink or peppy 99% of the time when he’s using scuds and one of the other catches trout.  He uses the dubbing sparingly, leaving the ends of the fibers sticking out, no trimming.

 

[Phil Lilley]

Yes I do.  I have them on a 220R hook as well as the 3769.  I wrap a small copper wire over the dubbing too.

[Travis Swift]

Can you explain a little on how the different ways to fish a megaworm? I have some tied up but I'm unable to get a clear answer on the proper way to fish them. 

[MickinMO]

Got down this afternoon and fished from Fall Creek down to about Lakeshore Resort area. Made two full drifts. Two of us in the boat threw jigs or spoons at times with no hits. Bottom rigs with power eggs caught fish pretty steady all afternoon. Seemed to catch nicer fish in stretch from monkey island to 65 bridge. Mainly new stockers past that, but if you have kids with you or are just wanting to catch some fish it was steady action. Power eggs in white, pink, orange, and chartreuse all worked and garlic or no garlic scent didn't seem to matter. My uncle has been down for a couple of days already and has had some luck in the mornings off the dock using orange power eggs catching a pretty thick 13" rainbow this morning about 9am. Saw a couple of fish caught this evening off the end of the Lilley's dock about when the water started to really slow down.

[Phil Lilley]

Megaworm... I'm really not the one to tell you cause i haven't fished it that much.  I did today though and while I was fishing it, I thought "I need to write or video something on this thing".  Confirmation!

Today while the water was coming on, I fished a white one under a float 8 feet deep and fished along the bluff bank across from Short Creek - caught 2 rainbows and missed another.  Jeremy Hunt is probably the best to say and I'll ask him next time I talk to him.  He catches a lot of trout on it here and in Arkansas.

I've sighted fish for trout using it, throwing it in shallow water and twitching it back, watching for it to disappear.

I'll get on this and try to have something before I leave next week on vacation.