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Opening Day '19 -- Report


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Hey, everyone!

Thanks for the tips and pointers in advance of the madness. I spent the night before down in the area with some friends and made it to the river by about 5:10. \

We set up at one of the lower, deeper pools in Zone One (about a hundred yards above the kids swimming pool/Zone 2. I threw a 3/32-1/8oz Marabou white jig to start the morning and switched to an Olive 3/32oz for the rest of the morning. The trick for me was just throwing to the other bank and then pulling into the deep, faster current. A slow retrieve and jigging action, keeping it off of the bottom and out of the sunken branches was the key to getting it to the end of the pool which is where I caught about 80% of my fish.

 I caught about 10 in the first hour and another dozen or so until the pool was fished out and my fishing buddies limited. Most of them were in the 1-2 range with a couple pushing 3lbs (which from my view was about the largest size in the pool). 

Later in the day I went to Zone 2 and threw a fly rod for a couple of hours. It was more re-learning how to fly fish since I hadn't been in so long, but I did connect with a handful of decent fish, most notably on a mega-worm and a wooly-bugger in olive/black. I'd like to write more about it, but I feel it was a lot more luck and dumb fish than it was my skill and approach. 

 

Hunter

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Fished Roaring on the opener and part of the second until the weather forecast hastened my return to the old Lead Belt. Caught a nice rainbow early on of about 5# and the youngest person in our group of 5 lost an equally as big a fish on his second cast. He's 10 and it was the biggest fish he's ever hooked and was quite upset when it broke his line. Didn't think there was as many fish as I've seen in previous years but it was okay. Good friend and fisherman, Chris Horton, caught another nice fish the second day again in the 5# range. Saw a young fellow that Laker and I know with a big fish and he said he had caught 3 lunkers that first day. Strange second part of his story was that he saw a good fish laying on the bottom and cast at it. Said he thought he saw it open it's mouth, so he set the hook. The hungry fish in his words had been dead a couple of days.😎. Told him his eyes must be really good to see a dead fish open up to take his jigs. Maybe the best part of the trip was the second day. A couple of big fish were circling the long pool above the twin falls. With the catching being slow.I would cast at them whenever they came into view. A married couple were fishing in the area and their reactions were priceless each time these fish passed by. In the clear water, they could see the biggest fish charge my fly on three separate occasions only to shy away within the last couple inches. They were a lot more excited and vocal about the big fish almost hitting my fly than I was.   

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1 hour ago, Foghorn said:

Fished Roaring on the opener and part of the second until the weather forecast hastened my return to the old Lead Belt. Caught a nice rainbow early on of about 5# and the youngest person in our group of 5 lost an equally as big a fish on his second cast. He's 10 and it was the biggest fish he's ever hooked and was quite upset when it broke his line. Didn't think there was as many fish as I've seen in previous years but it was okay. Good friend and fisherman, Chris Horton, caught another nice fish the second day again in the 5# range. Saw a young fellow that Laker and I know with a big fish and he said he had caught 3 lunkers that first day. Strange second part of his story was that he saw a good fish laying on the bottom and cast at it. Said he thought he saw it open it's mouth, so he set the hook. The hungry fish in his words had been dead a couple of days.😎. Told him his eyes must be really good to see a dead fish open up to take his jigs. Maybe the best part of the trip was the second day. A couple of big fish were circling the long pool above the twin falls. With the catching being slow.I would cast at them whenever they came into view. A married couple were fishing in the area and their reactions were priceless each time these fish passed by. In the clear water, they could see the biggest fish charge my fly on three separate occasions only to shy away within the last couple inches. They were a lot more excited and vocal about the big fish almost hitting my fly than I was.   

Choked on my glass of water when I read the open mouth thing. You gotta ask yourself, why would he cast to a fish "laying " on the bottom? Maybe to" up" his lunker count, or turn it in for the big fish contest ? Or he might have mistaken it for a halibut.

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