If you've followed my fishing reports over the years you know I'm honest to a fault. I report poor fishing when it happens, and now isn't the time for a poor fishing report! It's just the opposite.
I saw something yesterday that I haven't seen in a number of years, may be ever on our lake. There was no generation, water was still. No wind and high, bright sun. A glassy lake surface allowed me to see everything in the water at some distance. I was guiding a couple from the St Louis area, fishing the trophy area above Fall Creek. The lake up there is fairly shallow and with the gin clear water, we could see into the water very easily. What we saw were schools of rainbows, large and small. But as we caught what we thought were "small stockers", upon netting these trout we realized they were large trout, most over 15 inches and very heavy. So what were the "large" trout we were seeing? Very large rainbows.
For over a year we've seen heavy generation day after day after day. For years I have said generation creates a healthy tailwater -- more food is produced for fish and that is evident right not by the condition of our trout. They are fat and colorful. And not just up in the trophy area. We've seen limits of rainbows brought to the dock by anglers who are fishing below Fall Creek, catching most of the nicer rainbows on night crawlers.
So how are we catching some of these trophies? Up in the trophy area, with these blue bird days of high sun and little wind, throwing a 3/32nd oz jig straight and hopping it sharply just off the bottom is how we found to catch them yesterday. We were using a sculpin/ginger or sulpin/peach jig yesterday. By using a jig with a little light color in the jig, we could see the jig in the water as we worked it back to the boat. We could also see the rainbows chasing and nipping at the jig, sometimes over and over and over but not really taking the jig in its mouth. But if more than one rainbows was pursuing the jig, the competition factor would cause them to be more aggressive and one would take the jig more often than coming up with no bite at all. It was fun to watch.
Another interesting observation, one that I've already addressed here -- I was after smaller rainbows to keep yesterday. My clients wanted to take 4 or 5 trout home to eat and we had only caught rainbows over 12 inches. Can't keep rainbows between 12 and 20 inches in the trophy area. So I was shaking my jig away from the larger ones and working on catching what I thought were smaller than 12 inch rainbows. But when I'd hook and land one I thought was under 12 inches, they turned out to be well over 12 inches! Then what were the larger ones!!?? Fortunately, we did end the morning with 7 rainbows we could keep.
We've been trying to start our morning trips at 6 am and really you can get out even earlier than 6 but for most folks, 6 am is early enough. We're trying to get out before the sun gets up and over the water. Fishing really drops off when it gets bright out, especially with little or no wind. Now if the wind picks up and we get a chop on the water, the fish come alive. We saw this again yesterday. Bill Babler had 3 fly fishing clients. They were fishing above us in close proximity. They were struggling to get bit with the flat water but when a breeze would come through, breaking up the surface just slightly, they'd all have a trout on the line. Chop on the water makes a HUGE difference, even when bait fishing.
Early in the morning above Fall Creek, we've been fishing a tan or olive micro jig or a #14 red zebra under an indicator 3 to 4 feet deep in the shade of the bluff either using a fly rod or spin rod. Use 2 lb test for more hookups, especially when the sun comes up over the water you're fishing. Bill's also using a combo with an egg fly on a small jig hook and tying a #14 gray scud OR a #14 red zebra under the egg about 18 inches. You can also throw that straight jig and catch them too. If you're not into flies that much, a simple marabou jig will work -- colors: olive, brown, brown/orange, sculpin and vary the choices with either a dark head or an orange head. Size: 1/125th, 1/100th, 1/80th but unless they're running water I would go any heavier than a 1/80th oz. If they are running water I use a 1/32nd oz jig under a float.
Later in the morning and on into the afternoon, I'd try a dry along the bluff bank. I notice the fish were really getting active along the bank yesterday about noon and if I had fly fishers in the boat, we would have tossed a #8 stimulator at them and I bet they would have loved it.
Below Fall Creek, air injected night crawlers fishing in the middle of the lake between Fall Creek and Lilleys' Landing has been deadly. Don't wind the worm on the hook in a ball -- hook it one time in the collar of the worm, letting it hang off the hook on both sides, pinching off the tail. Inject air in the head of the worm so that it floats. Set the weight about 12 to 18 inches from the bait so that it floats that distance from the bottom. Don't use any line heavier than 4 lb and for best chances to catch fish, use 2 lb line. Remember, if the fish swallows the hook and you wish to release the fish, don't touch the fish... NEVER handle a trout when releasing it with a dry rag or a dry hand! Simply cut the line close to the fish's mouth and let it drop back in the water. The hook will work it's way out or dissolve eventually.
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