The Hatchery Dust Challenge

Don't know if I mentioned this stuff in a previous post. Hatchery Dust, the label says "Should be illegal to use". Label says "Your bait into a hatchery pellet!! What could be better".

OK, I'm game. I met a gentleman out at North Shore Camanche a while back and he showed this to me. I dipped my Power Bait into it and put it out. Didn't get anything that day, but didn't get anything that day on anything else either. He said you could get it at Walmart (he got his in Lodi).

So I scoured Walmart's from coast to coast looking for this. OK, I went to Walmart here in Jackson, the one in Folsom, and the one in Rancho Cordova, but the stuff wasn't anywhere to be found.

Saturday I was down in Sacramento and stopped by Fisherman's Warehouse and Voila, there it was. The only catch was, there wasn't just Hatchery Dust, but Hatchery Dust in flavors. According to Lip Ripperz there are five flavors. Fisherman's Warehouse had three so to give it a fair chance, I bought all three to the tune of $5.99 a pop or about $19.00 total with tax.

Three flavors

My plan (I always have one, but you know that) was to go out to New Melones on Tuesday (that would be tomorrow) and do the Hatchery Dust Challenge. That was right up to the time I found out it's (please sit down it you're not) going to rain.

So I emailed Yuki and said, let's go today and we met at 9:00 at the launch ramp below the Highway 49 Bridge.     

Today, this would be me and Yuki instead of Jim and Yuki

I show the above picture because a couple guys had the launch ramp taken and there was nowhere for us.

Before I get into the challenge, I wanted to show you the underside of the bridge. You see the strip just under the bridge itself? That is the high water mark of the lake. 

10X from where we were

 In the picture below, you can see just how low this lake is.

Regular power

Unless you're there, you just can fathom how far it is from the top of the bridge to the lake. A couple hundred feet, maybe?

On to the challenge. Two rods out, side by side, slip sinker rig, same amount of leader (about 12"), same weight, same treble hook, same jar of rainbow Power Bait. One rod with plain rainbow Power Bait and the other with Garlic Crawler Hatchery Dust.

Fish #1 - Plain rainbow Power Bait. A Rainbow about 14".
Fish #2 - Missed the hit on plain rainbow Power Bait, but caught it on the Hatchery Dust rod. That rod was the only one out at the time. A Rainbow about 14".

Switched the Hatchery Dust rod to Garlic Mealworm flavor.

Fish #3 - Plain rainbow Power Bait. A Rainbow about 14".
Fish#4 - Plain rainbow Power Bait. A Rainbow about 14".

Switched the Hatchery Dust rod to Super Cheese flavor. 

Fish #5 - Plain rainbow Power Bait. A Rainbow about 14".
Fish #6 - Plain rainbow Power Bait. A Rainbow about 14".

My take on Hatchery Dust? I wasted $19.00.

This is 4 of the 6 fish, the other two were on Yuki's stringer. 

4 of 6

When Noon rolled around and the score was me - 6, Yuki - 0. Yuki sent me home so he could try and catch fish.  the Yuki hex and all.

BUT, being the fair fisherman I am, I'm going to give Hatchery Dust one more try out at Lake Camanche North Shore later this week. If it doesn't prove itself, then I'll throw it into the trash can.  

Stay tuned.