09-10-2013, 08:40 PM
[#0000FF]Wanted to go fishing. Deer Creek was the lesser of 3 weevils...or whatever. Starvation was a long drive for the forecast of steady rain. Willard was supposed to be more breezy. What? Willard? So I headed for the Island boat ramp on DC.
Launched about daybreakish...6:30. Overcrashed skies with light breezes. Air temp just under 60 and water temp still over 67. Didn't even need the new waders I was trying out. Figured the water would be cooler. Nope.
Water level is already much lower than the lowest point it reached late last fall. That's a long hike back and forth on that ramp for an old fat man launching and retrieving a float tube. But the slope on the ramp is still good enough to launch a good sized boat...and several did launch and trailer without major problems. Just gotta stay in the middle of the ramp and drive out a long ways if you got a biggun with a deep draft.
Dragged jig and fly combo over to the island (now a big peninsula) and started pitching a tandem plastic tube jig rig for perch...or whatever. Got a lot of whatever...small smallies. For a half hour or so they kept me busy. All from 8 to 11 inches. Fun on light gear but not the perch for which I searched.
The "big" bite shut off suddenly. It was over. But I did get another funny munch and reeled in a feisty 12 inch bullhead...a yeller belly. Kept him as is required under the regs.
Bottom bounced the tube jig rig deeper and deeper, watching sonar for some perchy looking blips. Not much on TV. Finally, out in 24' I saw a couple of likely marks and got a rattle-rattle perch peck. Set the hook in the first of several 7-8 inchers. Then they went bye bye.
Kept working back and forth...shallower to deeper. Finally got into a few larger perch in 18-20' of water. Missed several good munches but landed one ten incher and one 11 incher. Basket fish. Lost one that would have been a footlong and also lost a plate-sized crappie at the tube. They don't call them "papermouths" for nothing.
"My spot" suddenly got popular with new arrivals. A bank tangler and a rock hopper took up station and started fanning casts around me. Then a couple of boats kinda moved in...pretending I wasn't there. And I wasn't there much longer. The fish had shut off there too. Those who inherited my honey hole didn't harvest anything from it.
Just for grins I worked two rods with different tandem jig setups out over areas that had produced in the past. But where it used to be over 40 feet deep during low water it was now less than half that. But I did find some fishy marks in 30 to 32 feet of water and had some good pokes. Did manage a couple more smallettes and had one fish about halfway up that felt a lot like a walleye. Since I lost it before a positive ID it can be anything I want it to be. Those are the rules TubeBabe and I established a long time ago.
Weather stayed calm and overcast. There had been the prediction of rain about 9ish. Whaddayaknow? Within a couple of minutes of 9 it began to sprinkle and turned into a fairly good soaker...for about 5 minutes. Didn't improve the fishing...but didn't make it any worse either.
Kept one 11 inch smallie to go with the two perch I had kept...to make TubeBabe some scampi and noodles. Then headed for the ramp.
One of the boats that had gone out after I did returned to the ramp about the same time. Three people in the boat had all limited on trout...up near the cooling inflow of the river. They used mostly "bottle baits" in water only about 10 feet deep. I didn't see any of the boats trolling for trout in the main lake bring anything in.
I also didn't see any identifiable surface action from trout. But I saw LOTS of carpkind slurping the surface...singles, doubles and clusters. Some of them looked like buglemouth boils. Coulda been some fun times with a proper flyrod setup.
[/#0000FF]
[signature]
Launched about daybreakish...6:30. Overcrashed skies with light breezes. Air temp just under 60 and water temp still over 67. Didn't even need the new waders I was trying out. Figured the water would be cooler. Nope.
Water level is already much lower than the lowest point it reached late last fall. That's a long hike back and forth on that ramp for an old fat man launching and retrieving a float tube. But the slope on the ramp is still good enough to launch a good sized boat...and several did launch and trailer without major problems. Just gotta stay in the middle of the ramp and drive out a long ways if you got a biggun with a deep draft.
Dragged jig and fly combo over to the island (now a big peninsula) and started pitching a tandem plastic tube jig rig for perch...or whatever. Got a lot of whatever...small smallies. For a half hour or so they kept me busy. All from 8 to 11 inches. Fun on light gear but not the perch for which I searched.
The "big" bite shut off suddenly. It was over. But I did get another funny munch and reeled in a feisty 12 inch bullhead...a yeller belly. Kept him as is required under the regs.
Bottom bounced the tube jig rig deeper and deeper, watching sonar for some perchy looking blips. Not much on TV. Finally, out in 24' I saw a couple of likely marks and got a rattle-rattle perch peck. Set the hook in the first of several 7-8 inchers. Then they went bye bye.
Kept working back and forth...shallower to deeper. Finally got into a few larger perch in 18-20' of water. Missed several good munches but landed one ten incher and one 11 incher. Basket fish. Lost one that would have been a footlong and also lost a plate-sized crappie at the tube. They don't call them "papermouths" for nothing.
"My spot" suddenly got popular with new arrivals. A bank tangler and a rock hopper took up station and started fanning casts around me. Then a couple of boats kinda moved in...pretending I wasn't there. And I wasn't there much longer. The fish had shut off there too. Those who inherited my honey hole didn't harvest anything from it.
Just for grins I worked two rods with different tandem jig setups out over areas that had produced in the past. But where it used to be over 40 feet deep during low water it was now less than half that. But I did find some fishy marks in 30 to 32 feet of water and had some good pokes. Did manage a couple more smallettes and had one fish about halfway up that felt a lot like a walleye. Since I lost it before a positive ID it can be anything I want it to be. Those are the rules TubeBabe and I established a long time ago.
Weather stayed calm and overcast. There had been the prediction of rain about 9ish. Whaddayaknow? Within a couple of minutes of 9 it began to sprinkle and turned into a fairly good soaker...for about 5 minutes. Didn't improve the fishing...but didn't make it any worse either.
Kept one 11 inch smallie to go with the two perch I had kept...to make TubeBabe some scampi and noodles. Then headed for the ramp.
One of the boats that had gone out after I did returned to the ramp about the same time. Three people in the boat had all limited on trout...up near the cooling inflow of the river. They used mostly "bottle baits" in water only about 10 feet deep. I didn't see any of the boats trolling for trout in the main lake bring anything in.
I also didn't see any identifiable surface action from trout. But I saw LOTS of carpkind slurping the surface...singles, doubles and clusters. Some of them looked like buglemouth boils. Coulda been some fun times with a proper flyrod setup.
[/#0000FF]
[signature]