I pulled out of the house at 0700 and after a quick stop for coffee at Cooks Station, I was back in the truck and "put the pedal to the metal".
I arrived at the place I wanted to fish at 0801 and at 0805 I had two rods in the water with rainbow Power Bait and Pro-Cure garlic scent. Unfortunately the wind was blowing at 15 to 20 and it was almost impossible to keep a straight line even using a 1/2 ounce sinker.
Windy with a good surface chop |
Rods almost flat |
When I got out of the truck at Red Lake, there was no wind at all. The lake was glass calm. Go figure. I went to my usual spot and with one rod out with rainbow Power Bait, I put a little (3/16th oz.) silver Kastmaster on my little Okuma.
It took one cast and this small Cutthroat was to hand. With catch and release in mind, you always want your hand to be wet, but bending over every time to get your hand wet when you're perched on some pretty good sized rocks becomes problematic, so to solve this problem I got a bucket out of the truck and filled it with water. Problem solved.
Small, maybe 8 inches |
Still visible at 11:00 am |
Red Lake? |
So named because of Red Mountain.
Pretty good view of Red Mountain |
Most of the hits on Power Bait were ones I missed. For some reason, they would hit and then were gone. I was only using a pea sized ball of PB, but I only hooked one and missed a couple dozen other hits. I must be getting slow in my old age, or the fish are getting a lot faster.
Now, my companion while I was fishing. This little Garter Snake came slithering out of the rocks and just laid there on the rock. I was talking to it, but snakes must not have ears because it never even looked at me.
Snakey little companion |
I caught and released, caught and released, and caught and released more until about Noon. I tried to stay long enough to bring that 13th fish to hand, but it was not to be. At that point I was some where between well done and burnt to a crisp (high elevation, lots of UV rays) so I packed up and headed home.
I settled for 12 brought to hand and a whole lot missed. Oh, there were two incidents where a couple of Cutthroats swam by me just five feet off shore that were in the 18 inch or maybe bigger range, but they wouldn't touch anything I offered.
Since the weekend will be spent on the remodel project and early next week (Tuesday is now supposed to hit 108 down in the Valley) I'm spending most of the time hugging the air conditioner, I probably won't get out until the latter part, but I think I'm going to try to hit Rancho Seco Lake in the Float Tube Cumberland and see if I can rustle up some Bluegills or Crappie.
Stay tuned.
Mark
Sounds like you had one of those days we all like to have now and then. Constant action and fun to go along with it. Good to see! Interested in how you do when you trying using the Cumberland on Crappie and Bluegill. Will check back.
ReplyDeleteThat water is as calm as glass, not a cloud in the sky, fish are biting, now that's a fine day of fishing. When you're busy catching fish size is less important.
ReplyDeletePro Cure or Powerbait...which one caught the snake?
ReplyDeleteThere will be no catching of snakes. In the words of Indiana Jones, "I hate snakes".
DeleteNice cutthroat, I hope to see one in real life sometime soon.
ReplyDelete