Supplemental June 28 Report

[Bill Babler]

Pretty much been out everyday this week, with some days better then others.  I have not had huge numbers on trips this week, but mostly have not been fishing for numbers, but concentrating on quality fish and we have accomplished that.

Want to give a shout out to Ducky as I watched him a bit on his guide trip this morning with 2 lady clients.  He was teaching every time I passed him, and was really interesting to listen to.  Not only teaching in a professional manner but demonstrating technique and proper form.   He  said they did extremely well this morning on a jerk bait and then continued with good success on a sculpin/orange head jig.  Great morning for him and his clients. 

Fishing a jerk bait for trout is not easy, it is stand up hard work and it takes total concentration and continued good form or you are spinning your wheels.  Duane has developed the right cadence for brown trout.  We have had it dialed in for rainbows for some time and there is a difference.  Continued head turning and constant movement are the key to catching the browns.  A constant Zara Spook  walk-the-dog head turn non-stop.  For the bows the traditional early season bass approach works great.  Just a 3 peat twitch-twitch-twitch pause, turning its head bang-bang-band and then pause.

I heard him a couple of times this morning advising the ladies they had lost their cadence or technique.  Take a breath make a long cast downstream a bit put your rod tip slightly above the water reel the bait down to maximum depth and start twitching.

Best fishing is early from 0500 to about 0800 and that is starting to push it at the 8 number.  I have been starting clients if they can and want to do it on the megabass 110 plus 1 or 2 early and then have had excellent success switching to a Wlure 606 or the smaller size in sculpin patterns on a drift rig.  I am floating the small 1/16th. oz weight free on 6 lb. line above a size 12 swivel, and then dropping to 5 lb.test maxima moss color line to the crankbaits.  I'm fishing them from the cable down thru Fall Creek. and doing well after the jerk bait bite slows.

One of the tricks is to use a suspending or floating small size crank on a long leader to keep it out of the moss.  I'm using 6' of leader and it allows the bait to suspend above the bottom while the small weight keeps it in close but not touching the mossy gravel.  

I'm also running a scud, egg or san juan worm combo at times.  I am running two rods per client to keep them clean and am constantly trading rods with them to make sure they have un-mossed up presentations.  Use an extremely long 4lb. leader on the rig and as light a weight as possible.  I am running the 1/16th. most of the time.  They will still get terrible in very short order and you can see the guides smacking them on the water as we drift to remove the moss.

I think for most of us the mega worm has really slowed down as has dead drifting.  Yes you can catch some on it and it should be better than it is.  After 8 am the best bite by far has been a jig bite  in the restricted zone, but you must be willing to work and fish it with technique.

Fall Creek to Lilleys has really gotten hard.  I drifted it 3 different times this week with the pink worm on a drift rig and of course crawlers.  1 to 3 fish per drift and that is not worth the effort.  Best bite has been the flat from Short Creek to Trout Hollow and you may get one bite there.  They at times have just been mashing the worm and nothing there.  

The past few days I have had catch and release fishermen and have been totally glad as gathering keepers out of the restricted zone is not easy.

Phone has been burning up from the guys fishing the pink worm downtown as they are really looking for another bite.  Talked to Rick Lisek this morning and he says the number of bites this year has been extremely low.  Really low right now.   I believe he only had about a dozen fish this morning on the pink worm under a float and for my money Rick is the best on the lake with that presentation.

Get out as early as you can, work at it and you will be rewarded with some excellent fish right now.  Not numbers, but just about the best quality you can possibly ask for.

Good Luck

[Phil Lilley]

Nice report, Bill.

We're over 70 registered catch and release 20-inch + trout this month.

That's not counting the trophies kept or released NOT registered with us.

[MNtransplant]

I will update with a bank fishing report after tomorrow night...I'm playing guide with a couple of coworkers that have never really trout fished before. We'll be throwing jigs and jerks in the trophy area until dark.

I'm hoping to put them on some fish...especially my supervisor 🙃🙃

[snagged in outlet 3]

1 hour ago, MNtransplant said:

I will update with a bank fishing report after tomorrow night...I'm playing guide with a couple of coworkers that have never really trout fished before. We'll be throwing jigs and jerks in the trophy area until dark.

I'm hoping to put them on some fish...especially my supervisor 🙃🙃

My boss thinks he’s a good golfer.  🙄 Makes life easier for us but listening to that hack ramble on about his pitiful round gets old. 

[netboy]

1 hour ago, snagged in outlet 3 said:

My boss thinks he’s a good golfer.  🙄 Makes life easier for us but listening to that hack ramble on about his pitiful round gets old. 

Oh my... hope your boss doesn't look at this website.

[snagged in outlet 3]

1 hour ago, netboy said:

Oh my... hope your boss doesn't look at this website.

I don’t think he knows people go fishing.  I’d really hate to hear hm babble on about fishing.  

[Gavin]

My bosses have no desire to hunt, or fish. One is a decent golfer, member at Bellerive. I dont play golf, but used to caddy at Sunset. Just a good cash money Job for a 14 year old. Paid for my first car, first rifle, first shotgun, other things  & groceries for a month or two when dad was out of work. No love for the game of golf or the country club lifestyle.

[Flysmallie]

14 hours ago, Gavin said:

My bosses have no desire to hunt, or fish. 

I have no desire to hunt or fish with my bosses.