Well Brent lost an axle on his boat trailer so we headed up with mine…
Got to the Nell at 5:45 and on the water we went on our first stop we both hooked up and we thought it was going to be fast all day…(was we wrong)
In the next 2 and 1/2 hours all we could get was one here and one there, then we headed up the Rock Cliff arm and in the covers going in we found the bass in schools we got 4 to 8 at each stop and in one place I got 10 on 10 cast, Brent was trying to get a birds nest out of his reel, and the words he was saying…XXXXYYYY
We ran in to Bigbassone and his better half just before we had to leave, all in all it was a very good day the bass was from 11" up to 19 1/2" that Brent got I think it weight was 3.4 lb …
I went up to the nelle on monday and I thought I was in the wrong place. Bassrods truck was not there. We had a great day monday. I got the biggest brown of the year so far. 27 inches and just about 7 pounds. All in all my Dad and I caught 4 nice browns and a bunch of bass. It seems like every bass you bring up has little perch coming out of there mouths. They must be feeding heavy on the perchlets right now.
While out in the boat we had a rattlesnake swim at the boat and then it got up on the motor. We were able to push it back in the water and it swam off to the shore. Never had anything like that happen before. I hope is does"nt happen again.
Nice Brown! I have heard that there are some good browns in there, but haven’t known how/where to target them. What kind of water depth do you find them in? Do you fish on the bottom, suspended, in the shallows? What techniques work best? Sorry for all the questions. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks.
Hi cliff, that was me and my better half saying hi to you… The wife had me 4-0 this morning right away… she finally quit fishing and laid down across the seats to get a little sun and then I caught up to her… Smallmouth were spitting up 3" perch… I tried dropshotting real worms and were getting hit but just tail suckers. never got one in… stole my worms is all… After saying hi to you and brent we headed out also and were right behind you on the freeway… goodluck and see you on the water again…
I went up to the nelle on monday and I thought I was in the wrong place. Bassrods truck was not there. We had a great day monday. I got the biggest brown of the year so far. 27 inches and just about 7 pounds. All in all my Dad and I caught 4 nice browns and a bunch of bass. It seems like every bass you bring up has little perch coming out of there mouths. They must be feeding heavy on the perchlets right now.
While out in the boat we had a rattlesnake swim at the boat and then it got up on the motor. We were able to push it back in the water and it swam off to the shore. Never had anything like that happen before. I hope is does"nt happen again.
Got any Pics of the behemoth? You know what hookjaw says!! I would love to see it.
In lakes I have caught browns mostly on flies and spoons.
I am certainly not an expert but I have learned a few things chasing after them for years. At the Nelle the browns have been fairly shallow. I have caught them on flies, spoons, spinners, dropshotting, rapalas, jigs and even pop gear and worm. Browns are tough to catch. I have been trying to figure them out for 35 years. I used to read everything I could about them, especially in the days of Ray Johnson and the Bringhursts up at the Gorge. The biggest thing is to get on lakes that have a lot of browns and get there early. Most of the browns I have caught have been first thing in the morning. There are always exceptions though. I have caught a few in the middle of the day.
I forgot to mention that she is still swimming as well as all of the other browns that I have caught. I like to give myself or someone else a chance to catch her when she is bigger.
I was in the yellow tube north of where you were fishing in Rock Cliffs. The topwater action was fantastic. The fishing slowed for about an hour after sunup, but then it was on again. I never moved more than 100 yds from where I was. The hot lure for me today was a 4" Maniac paddle tail. The didn’t seem to want the fatter salt sticks. You had at least seven or eight fish in as many cast when you first showed up. That was nice of you to help out the guy in the crestliner, he wasn’t catching a thing. That must have been one hell of a birdsnest your buddy had. He worked on it for half an hour. I’ll post up some pics when I can. I caught about 30 smallies and 3 largies today. One lmb went about 3.3. The others were small. Biggest smallie was about 17", but only a couple under 12". Almost every fish I caught today had been caught before. Also caught my first Jordanelle perch of the year.
The guy in the crest liner number 1 I past on the way into the back and when I caught my 3rd bass he was headed my way as fast as he could…
The other person in the other boat was coining from the other side we thought they was going to ram us but they stayed about a casting length away, boat number one was on top of the fish and I pulled 4 from under his boat…
It was like dancing if I moved one way the two of them moved with me if i moved back they moved back…
I caught 23 bass and Brent got 7, but I had 12 before brent made his first cast…
Sunday before last and last Tuesday I took a friend with me to the Nelle and we slayed the smallies both times, then I went Friday and the lake looked to be turning over and the fish were tight-lipped. I don’t have a boat so we were hitting them from the shoreline between 3p and 9p. Some went from 3- 5 lbs. Both times we were successful we were fishing at hailstone at the drop-off of the point east of the marina. This was only my friend’s 5th time fishing with any instruction and he was thrilled with the results. My cell phone is my camera and I haven’t had service for a while so I don’t know how to get the 5lb. smallie picture on here, but my pal took a couple of pictures of some pretty good fish and when he gets back from Idaho i’ll try to get them posted.
I love the bass fishing up there, but I’m excited to hear you get a perch. And if all the bass are full of baby perch. The bigger perch should be around.
Headed up there in the morning. I guess i’ll try for some perch.
What a hog! Thanks for posting the picture. Glad to know she’s till swimming. Maybe one of these days I’ll figure out how to catch a big one. Thanks for the advice.