3-6
Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2012 8:27 pm
After taking a day off from fishing to spend with the family, I was back at it today. I just wish the aches and pains would heal in a day like they used to when I was young and invincible.
Judging by the number of road killed skunks, spring is getting closer to being sprung. The geese are getting a bit more territorial and there is more insect activity. There are still some large flocks of birds hanging about adding thier cacophany of calls to the mix.When the 10 AM tornado siren test went off, I discovetred there were some coyotes a lot closer than i thought, judging by the yowls they don't like it any better than my lab. I saw three deer crossing a side channel and about a dozen turkeys hanging near the tree line in a sun flower field. There were carp and suckers rolling in a slack area behind an island. The highlight of the animal activity was a squirrel misjudging how much the wind was blowing and missing the branch on the tree it was jumping to. A wet, pissed off squirrel makes an ungodly amount of racket when it gets back on shore. If I hadn't seen it happen, I wouldn't have recognized it as a squirrel when it climbed out, definitely had a bad hair day.
Early on it didn't seem as warm as advertised with all the wind but by about 11 AM it started feeling better. the wind still made using a jig problematic but not a reason to go home by any means. Pretty much washed out , high blue skies but the sun felt good on old bones.
Flow rate about 5,400 cfs and dropping. Visibility 6 to 8 inches, never bothered to take water temps account CRS. You still can't wade every where you want but you can get enough access to catch some fish. Every crick I checked was on the low side but i did manage a crappie on a smaller husky jerk in a small hole up from the confluence a bit in one of them.
Other than the crappie all the rest of the fish came from the river. The first two smallmouth were holding on a current seam on the outside of a washout hole downstream of a warer willow bed/stubble. They both took a rattlebait swam slow and steady just off the bottom against the current. No real hard hits just the lack of vibration from the lure and a mushy kinda is it a weed or a fish feeling.
Next up came the hottest action of the day, 4 walleyes in the mid 20 inch range in about 20 to 25 minute span. They were holding right on the top edge of the channel along a cobble/chunk rock flat. They were in 3 to 4 feet of water and took a Cordell Deep Wally Diver retrieved slowly against the current. They hit harder than the two bass but not by much. An hour of pounding the surrounding area with a variety of presentation proved futile.
I tried a couple more seams caused by bridge abutments with cranks and jigs but there was no response by fish. I did manage to pull in some line I snagged, it had two spark plugs for weight and a size 8 hook attached. One less headache for the future.
I hit a series of eddies with crankbaits, rattlebaits, jigs and a spinnerbait. I got two more smallmouth on the outer seam at the head of two of the eddies on a weighted keeper hook with an Eire Darter.I snagged something in the heart of one of the eddies. It took off for the faster flow at a high rate of speed. Luckily the crankbait popped free. Even luckier it missed me and buried itself into a patch of muddy bank.Itdefinitely would of hurt judging by the noise it made whacking into the bank.
l The last stop of the day was a riffle area. I checked the downstream side first with crankbaits, rattlebaits and jigs. No fish.
I checked the upstream side and got two walleye on rattlebaits on a slow steady cross current retrieve. The rest of the lures got ignored.
Good day to be and the fish were cooperative.
Judging by the number of road killed skunks, spring is getting closer to being sprung. The geese are getting a bit more territorial and there is more insect activity. There are still some large flocks of birds hanging about adding thier cacophany of calls to the mix.When the 10 AM tornado siren test went off, I discovetred there were some coyotes a lot closer than i thought, judging by the yowls they don't like it any better than my lab. I saw three deer crossing a side channel and about a dozen turkeys hanging near the tree line in a sun flower field. There were carp and suckers rolling in a slack area behind an island. The highlight of the animal activity was a squirrel misjudging how much the wind was blowing and missing the branch on the tree it was jumping to. A wet, pissed off squirrel makes an ungodly amount of racket when it gets back on shore. If I hadn't seen it happen, I wouldn't have recognized it as a squirrel when it climbed out, definitely had a bad hair day.
Early on it didn't seem as warm as advertised with all the wind but by about 11 AM it started feeling better. the wind still made using a jig problematic but not a reason to go home by any means. Pretty much washed out , high blue skies but the sun felt good on old bones.
Flow rate about 5,400 cfs and dropping. Visibility 6 to 8 inches, never bothered to take water temps account CRS. You still can't wade every where you want but you can get enough access to catch some fish. Every crick I checked was on the low side but i did manage a crappie on a smaller husky jerk in a small hole up from the confluence a bit in one of them.
Other than the crappie all the rest of the fish came from the river. The first two smallmouth were holding on a current seam on the outside of a washout hole downstream of a warer willow bed/stubble. They both took a rattlebait swam slow and steady just off the bottom against the current. No real hard hits just the lack of vibration from the lure and a mushy kinda is it a weed or a fish feeling.
Next up came the hottest action of the day, 4 walleyes in the mid 20 inch range in about 20 to 25 minute span. They were holding right on the top edge of the channel along a cobble/chunk rock flat. They were in 3 to 4 feet of water and took a Cordell Deep Wally Diver retrieved slowly against the current. They hit harder than the two bass but not by much. An hour of pounding the surrounding area with a variety of presentation proved futile.
I tried a couple more seams caused by bridge abutments with cranks and jigs but there was no response by fish. I did manage to pull in some line I snagged, it had two spark plugs for weight and a size 8 hook attached. One less headache for the future.
I hit a series of eddies with crankbaits, rattlebaits, jigs and a spinnerbait. I got two more smallmouth on the outer seam at the head of two of the eddies on a weighted keeper hook with an Eire Darter.I snagged something in the heart of one of the eddies. It took off for the faster flow at a high rate of speed. Luckily the crankbait popped free. Even luckier it missed me and buried itself into a patch of muddy bank.Itdefinitely would of hurt judging by the noise it made whacking into the bank.
l The last stop of the day was a riffle area. I checked the downstream side first with crankbaits, rattlebaits and jigs. No fish.
I checked the upstream side and got two walleye on rattlebaits on a slow steady cross current retrieve. The rest of the lures got ignored.
Good day to be and the fish were cooperative.
:)