Trial 11-12

[catchinon]

Yeah, Alan, it was a fun day. I caught most of mine on a Ratfinkee and a Ratso both sweetened with (mostly) wax worms. I also got some action on meal worms and a bit of PowerBait nugget. You had your success with crawler bits. You forgot to mention that you out-caught me about 4-1 in the last couple of hours. I think you may have gotten in a micro-spot where the fish came by more because I drilled all around your spot and none of the holes produced like your's. Plus, of course, you know how to play those slip-bobbers. I hooked and hand-lined several fish while messing with the line and bobbers so I know that I must have been either not jigging exactly right with my pole or the fish were biting so subtly that I couldn't detect it. My message to anyone who goes: drill holes across the lake until you find the deepest water, around 14-16' at the lower end of the lake. My theory is that they cruise the old stream bed, FWIW. We caught almost nothing deadsticking. The other advantage you had was a fish finder. Gotta get me one of those. Oh, a couple of fish toward the end did swallow my still bait while I was exploring other holes (almost all the others were stuck in the upper lip). I let them keep the Rats. I tied on a couple of tungsten jigs and had some success with them. At least I could feel them on the line and they went down quickly. The Rats are so light you can hardly feel them, and they take their sweet time drifting to the bottom.

Yes, it was pretty cold at first and the holes were icing over a bit, but it got fairly warm in the afternoon. I took my coat off for a while and the sun felt real good on my back. Nothing like those sub-zero days we'll see later in the winter.
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