Where Do You Go Fishing When It's Hot?

I mentioned on Wednesday that it was going to be hot this weekend. The weather guessers have changed their guess a little making today still around 104, but only 106 tomorrow instead of 108. I just went out on NOAA and they said the high for today at La Casa Kautz should be 92. When I was on the back porch and looked at the thermometer it was already 94 and it's only Noon:45.

I had a couple of hours to hit one of the lakes this morning and with Caples Lake (Elevation 7806) in mind I headed up the hill. I stopped (This should not be a surprise to you any more.) at Cooks for coffee and in talking to the people was reminded that this is the weekend for the Bear River Reservoir's spring (if you can call 100 degrees spring) fishing derby. Oooh that means they stocked the lake.

Now, a smart person would go HIGH because of the heat, so being the smart person I am, I went to Bear River (Elevation 5850). OK, so I'm not so smart. 

I got there at 0830 and with the place packed to capacity I wandered down to the spot I usually fish. Why there was nobody there I have no clue.

One rod out with rainbow Power Bait and a little sweet corn bait scent (might as well just go for the throat) and a gold Kastmaster on the little Okuma, I went to work.

Here's what happened, nothing. Nothing on the Power Bait, nothing on the Kastmaster. OK, change of plans. One rod with plain rainbow Power  Bait and a rainbow pink Kastmaster on the other.

The first fish to come to hand was a nice 11 inch stocker on the Power Bait. Nothing I'd consider a derby winning fish. Second fish was a small 8 incher on the pink Kastmaster. The third and fourth fish I'm not even going to mention because they were so small they make the ones from Cat Creek look like lunkers. Oh, they came on a night crawler under a bobber. Couldn't figure out why the bobber kept dipping and I couldn't hook one. Now I know why, the hook was too big. Once I switched from a size 6 to a size 10 the two little ones I'm not going to mentioned came to hand.

While I was fiddling with the first fish one of the guys over on the dam had apparently hooked a good sized one, but couldn't get it up to the top. Guys should look into a pier net if they plan to continue fishing off the dam when the water is down where it was today.   

When the lake is full, the water is up to the dark line.

As usual when I'm standing or sitting around with my finger up my nose (that means I have nothing to do at that time, not that I actually stick my finger up my nose) I took a couple of pictures of the lake just like the ones you've already seen a dozen times.

Another across the lake shot.

Because I was on a time constraint with the furniture move this afternoon, I packed up and headed home at 11:30. It's nice to be able to run up the road the 20 miles to the lake and fish for a couple of hours and then just run back home.

In the picture below you can see the obstacle the guys on the dam were working with. You can also see how easy it would be to net a fish with a pier net. That's not the reason I took this picture though. I took it for two reasons. One, while the guy with the fish held it against the dam (and it must have been a pretty good sized one) while one of the other guys walked down the front of the dam holding a rope and brought the fish back to the top. I missed that action, but I did ask them if they would do it again so I could take a picture. Wonder why they laughed so hard?

The second reason I took the picture was the gentleman next to me said that was where the beer was. Had I been a consumer of adult beverages, I just might have joined them up top. 

This is where the beer was.

Enjoy your weekend and I'll be back on the water next week.

Mark