Wanted to hit Deer Creek before the end of June and hopefully ding a walleye or two. Did the former but not the latter.
Launched my tube from the high tide Charleston gravel launch just after 6 AM. Air temp a chilly 46 after the warm day in the valley yesterday. Water temp 61…rising to 63 by 10:30 quitting time.
Saw some surface activity so thought I would try a bubble and fly on my way to the walleyes. Bad move. Silly slimers wouldn’t leave me alone long enough to make a move. Had a grizzly black bugger on the bubble rig and also fished a jig and fly rig on the second rod. Couldn’t keep both rods in the water and had doubles a couple of times. All rainbows and most around 16"…with some over 18".
Once I got them warmed up, FlyGoddess showed up to take over. She launched and was immediately into bendo and screech. Those kwazy wainbows today really had a lot of wacky in them. Almost every fish jumped several times.
**I finally moved out of the bow zone and headed for some past successful walleye water. But…nothing on sonar and nothing on any of the jigs or rigs I served up. **
Motored across the lake to the railroad side. WOW. Water level was as high as I have ever seen it. Couldn’t recognize any of my favorite spots. No perch or walleyes on the bottom. A few small smallmouths right on the bank. No biggies.
**Had to make an early day of it so I slow motored back across toward the launch spot. Caught a few more feisty troutskis and had a bowzilla rip off line, jump a couple of times and then give me back my fly. Biggest fish I had hooked. Over 20 inches. **
I’ll let the Goddess Lady tell her story. She naturally creamed the trout and also got in a good rasslin’ match with a “Deer Creek Grouper” (carp). You gonna need a bigger net.
Saw several other tubers and tooners out there today. But only saw one catch a fish. Nice day to be practicing though.
wow that water does look really high. Nice to see some rainbows in hand. They always seem to dance at D.C.
Noticed the lady has almost any many rods on her craft as you do. Sounds like a fun trip.
If 4 rods is what it takes 4 rods is what ya need. Glad you found a few fish. Like I said in your other post carp are strong and pull hard. Never had one on a fly rod but imagine it is some fun tugs. Glad you guys caught a few fish.
Next trip, two will do, new lake I am never sure. Where were you?
It seems the past couple trips out you have gone to my second choice of fishing. You always do good and I go to a new spot and seems to do horrible. One of these days we might just meet up on the same lake. Way to go with the troutskis. I managed one small cutthroat up at the berry. A one red sun burn. It was a beautiful day on the lake just couldn’t get the fish to hit. Deer Creek it is for me this Saturday! Should’ve gone with my gut and gone with what I know best.
Oh- it’s Wednesday. Of course.
Some parts of the world that’s “Prince Spaghetti Day”, but round these parts it’s TD and FG show us how it’s done! Nice report you two.
So - smoke 'em if you got em? Or grill 'em good! Those trouts look to have some pretty good shoulders to 'em. Good dance partners too it seems.
TD - I think YOU might appreciate this SHOT. One way to handle them naughty neighbors!
Hoping to hit some water tomorrow afternoon. It’s just TOO nice NOT to be out!!!
(frickin finally! Now that Summer’s officially here - we can have spring for a minute or two!)
I do enjoy smoked trout…but won’t subject them to that end when I still have smoked kitty in the refrigerator. Nope, these are destined to become “oven salmon”.
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63 at 10:30 means big Walleye bite by, Friday!!! A little further south. Away from that nasty cold river.
Oh - damn Pat - ya had to do that BEFORE dinner!
Slurp! Looking good!
They sure got some pretty color to 'em! I’ll bring a bed of rice! [sly][sly][sly][sly]
If you doesn’t mind me asking. How do you fish a wooly bugger? Do you just cast out and real in slow or medium speed? Do you yank the rod, or reel and stop, reel and stop?
63 at 10:30 means big Walleye bite by, Friday!!! A little further south. Away from that nasty cold river.
I worked a long ways south…but found the productive spots from last year in much deeper water and the best potential depths were full of brush and hard to fish. Did not see much on the screen. I just know they were schooled up out there watching and laughing at me for believing they would actually be there.
Water temps off the tower were really not any warmer. And this wind will do a bit of mixing.
If you doesn’t mind me asking. How do you fish a wooly bugger? Do you just cast out and real in slow or medium speed? Do you yank the rod, or reel and stop, reel and stop?
All of the above.
Here…for the very first time…I am posting my new writeup on fishing flies with spinning tackle. This will show some diagrams of how to rig.
The depth you fish and the action you impart…or not…will depend on what the fish are doing and how you read that.
I first learned how to fish flies behind a bubble while living in California and hiking in the Sierras. The silly little trout in the high mountain lakes were pushovers for a drowned fly dragged behind a bubble. But when they got more finicky…or I fished the bubble fly rig for other species on other waters…I learned a few refinements.
**Yesterday I started out with a full bubble and about a 5 foot leader before the fly. But the fish were staying in the top part of the water column and even moving my tube along fairly quickly did not keep it up in the zone. So, I let some water out of the bubble to get a more neutral bouyancy and keep the fly just under the surface…not on the surface. **
That worked well until the sun hit the water and the fish went a little deeper. Then I needed to fill the bubble again and get it deeper. I also started getting more fish on my jig and fly combo…with a jig on a dropper and about 4 feet of leader to a fly pattern…a “silver hilton”.
The fish were mostly in water less than 20 feet deep. A slow kick with my fins kept the flies somewhere about mid depth. That seemed to be the ticket. However, I also got a few by vertical jigging with a single marabou jig…dropping to the bottom and then wiggle jigging it slowly back up through the water column. And I got a couple of fish at the end of a long cast, while the 1/16 oz. jig was pulling the fly down through the water…a pop on the drop.
It pays to learn and know a variety of presentations and to vary the depth and speed of retrieve…and the fly patterns…until the fish tell you what they want. One of the tricks is “counting down” your water filled bubble before you start reeling. Then vary your retrieve to either keep the fly at the same depth or bring it back up to the surface. One very effective technique for stimulating a reaction bite for suspended fish is to let the bubble settle all the way to the bottom and then reel a bit fast to “burn” it up through the fish. The old cat and mouse thing kicks in and you will get hits from startled fish that can’t stand to see food getting away from them.
At other times you can simply fish a floating bubble and either slowly “wake” the fly behind it…or even simply let it drift on the surface. This can be very effective early in the morning when fish are cruising and looking for bugs that blew into the water overnight…or when they are picking up dead fish fry that succumbed to some kind of fish kill. That happens at Willard sometimes when large numbers of small crappies or shad fry die off after dark and are floating and waiting the next morning. The predators have a good surface feed if they get there before the birds do.
