11-08-2009, 05:33 PM
7 I decided to try Scofield on Saturday for the first time this season. It was beautiful, but mighty chilly first thing in the morning. Notice the frost on my rod in the first photo.
I arrived at the Madsen's boat ramp at 6:15AM, and it was still mostly dark. As I drove to the bottom of the ramp there a couple of larger fish chasing minnows right up onto the ramp - cool! I stopped the truck, turned off the lights and grabbed a rod. I threw a roadrunner for probably a dozen cast but nope.
I unloaded my gear and was on the water at 6:35 with the sky getting lighter very quickly. Air temp was a cool 20 degrees and water temp a shivery 40 degrees. My wife thinks I'm crazy to get up at 4:30 to do that. She may well be correct, but I had fun.
I quickly had several short strikes, so I shortened up the tail on my bugger. Over the next 2 hours I proceeded to land and release ~30 Rainbows and Cutts (mostly 'bows) from 11"-13". At that point I decide to head over to the dam and try for something a bit more piscivorous.
I launched west of the dam at 9:30AM and began paddling eastward. There were 3 groups of people fishing right near the dam, and two guys in toons were working the edges. I quickly picked up 4 or 5 fish similar to what I had caught over at Madsen's. At 9:45 the wind began blowing right up the alley from the west. I decided to cross over to the north side and head back into the wind before it got too out of hand. The wind became stronger and stronger. I fought it until about 10:30 and finally cried uncle. With the wind out of the west it seemed like conditions might be a lot better back at Madsen's, and they were. I talked briefly to the guys in the toons - a father and son duo that were very friendly. The son asked if I ever got on Big Fish Tackle, and I said responded in the affirmative. He wondered if I was TubeDude, but I had to condeed that I was merely a wonnabe, but he wanted to check out my tube anyway. I didn't get his name, but if you are out there reading this it was nice talking to you!
After relocating back to where had I started, I began tossing a spinner from the dock. It wasn't more than a few minutes before I hooked and landed a pretty 17" male bow. Shortly after that, a nice 15" hen wanted to play. Soon after however, the wind began blowing harder and a group of delinquent boy scouts came over and started throwing rocks and boulders from the ledge into the lake. I stuck it out until about 12:30 and decided I'd had enough.
It was a fun and productive day. It wasn't what I was really hoping for, but a good day none the less.
[signature]
I arrived at the Madsen's boat ramp at 6:15AM, and it was still mostly dark. As I drove to the bottom of the ramp there a couple of larger fish chasing minnows right up onto the ramp - cool! I stopped the truck, turned off the lights and grabbed a rod. I threw a roadrunner for probably a dozen cast but nope.
I unloaded my gear and was on the water at 6:35 with the sky getting lighter very quickly. Air temp was a cool 20 degrees and water temp a shivery 40 degrees. My wife thinks I'm crazy to get up at 4:30 to do that. She may well be correct, but I had fun.
I quickly had several short strikes, so I shortened up the tail on my bugger. Over the next 2 hours I proceeded to land and release ~30 Rainbows and Cutts (mostly 'bows) from 11"-13". At that point I decide to head over to the dam and try for something a bit more piscivorous.
I launched west of the dam at 9:30AM and began paddling eastward. There were 3 groups of people fishing right near the dam, and two guys in toons were working the edges. I quickly picked up 4 or 5 fish similar to what I had caught over at Madsen's. At 9:45 the wind began blowing right up the alley from the west. I decided to cross over to the north side and head back into the wind before it got too out of hand. The wind became stronger and stronger. I fought it until about 10:30 and finally cried uncle. With the wind out of the west it seemed like conditions might be a lot better back at Madsen's, and they were. I talked briefly to the guys in the toons - a father and son duo that were very friendly. The son asked if I ever got on Big Fish Tackle, and I said responded in the affirmative. He wondered if I was TubeDude, but I had to condeed that I was merely a wonnabe, but he wanted to check out my tube anyway. I didn't get his name, but if you are out there reading this it was nice talking to you!
After relocating back to where had I started, I began tossing a spinner from the dock. It wasn't more than a few minutes before I hooked and landed a pretty 17" male bow. Shortly after that, a nice 15" hen wanted to play. Soon after however, the wind began blowing harder and a group of delinquent boy scouts came over and started throwing rocks and boulders from the ledge into the lake. I stuck it out until about 12:30 and decided I'd had enough.
It was a fun and productive day. It wasn't what I was really hoping for, but a good day none the less.
[signature]