TubeBabe and I launched at Jordanelle’s Rock Cliff ramp about 7 AM. Air temp 50 and water temp 63…warming to 65 by noon. Steam coming off the water at daybreak. Cool. Water level dropping to seasonal low levels.
Just as we were setting up to launch, a boatload of swim nuts backed down on top of us and took over the ramp. We had to push our stuff off to the side to keep from getting run over and when they pulled the trailer out they soaked my clothes bag with the wash. They put a couple of swimmers in the water and paced them with the boat. They did not come back. Maybe a big brown munched them.
A few fish hitting the top at first light. Most looked like chubs. Tried throwing a variety of spinners and bubble fly rigs. Occasional bumps. Likely chubs that did not have enough class to get hooked.
**Worked up into the channel into shallow water. Again, a few chub risers but nothing trouty. Pitched plastics and metal. Nada, zip, zero. **
**Kicked uplake into deeper water. Did not see much on sonar until after reaching 20 feet. Then, a few fish, mostly suspended. Probably chubs. **
About the time I got into 30 feet plus, I began getting regularly molested by those “Rock Cliff smallmouths” (chubs). Caught them on bubble and fly while also catching them bottom bouncing jigs with the second rod. In some places there were fish all the way between top and bottom in 35 feet of water. But, all that munched my offerings were chubuglies.
Quite a few boats in the arm this morning. Some trolling, some drifting, some anchored and bait fishing. Did not see anybody in a boat bring in a fish. Talked to a couple of boaters and they said they were blank for blank.
TubeBabe worked along the south shoreline and managed to hook a few dink perch (Rock Cliff marlin). I got a few on the other side, in water from 8’ to 30’…on everything from plastic jigs to one of my “California Gold” flies behind a bubble. I had one fish on a “Silver Hilton” fly that acted like a decent rainbow. Screamed line off the drag, ran sideways, headshakes and then a “conservation release”.
There was a substantial group of bank tanglers that apparently were either all in the same family…or at least the same zip code. They set up camp on the road above the shore and along the shoreline and cranked up the music and the loud conversations. I gotta try that. They at least caught a couple of planter rainbows. Don’t know how they fed everybody on those two scrawny hatchery pets. Might be a modern day miracle.
We made an early day of it since we had other things we needed to do before going home. Off the water by noon, just as the westerly breezes were beginning to come up the channel. A nice day and a surprise to see a couple of scrub oak turning orange on the hillside already. Fall ain’t that far away folks.
Had a neat ending to the trip. While we were packing up a pretty grey mink came down the rocks to forage for anything that might have washed ashore. I got him to pose for a couple of pics and when he came over to our vehicle we sacrificed one of our bait perch for his shore lunch. Thought we had seen the last of him when he carried it into the rocks. But, just as I was bending over to pick up my last bag to put in the car, his little face peeked out from under the bumper and he looked at me as if to say…“Where’s dessert?”
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