12/27/14 Season Winding Down but Bite Going Strong

2014 by the numbers:
It's been a long and excellent 2014 fall Trout season! from 9/29/14 till 12/27/14 I got out targeting Trout 15 times. Out of those 15 trips I got 71 Rainbows into the boat. This is an average of almost 5 fish a trip. I had several skunks which is unusual for me but I also had 5 trips where I caught 8 or more fish during a single trip. During my best trip I ended up catching 12 Trout. The vast majority of the fish I caught this year were this years stockers between 14 and 18 inches in length. I caught no Brown Trout this fall which is extremely unusual. Last year I caught 12 Browns. Their absence is a mystery. I'm sure they are still in there and will show up when I least expect it.

12/27 Trip:
Mike and I got to our favorite Trout lake in the early afternoon. The wind was blowing from the Southwest at a pretty good clip. We stuck to the South shore to avoid some of the rather large waves that were present on the North shore of the lake. I caught a few fish here and there to start the day but really got into them during the last hour of light. At one point I had a fish take my right side rod. I got that fish in, released it, and began to paddle back out into the lake with my other line still in the water. Before I even made it back to deep water, I had a fish on the other line! I got that fish in and released it. I set my lines again and had barely started to paddle when I hooked and landed a third fish. All three fish came within a matter of minutes! I got the good fortune to see not one but two adult Bald Eagles while on the water. They are so neat to see and really add to a trip. The wind was starting to shift and was coming straight out of the West and starting to increase in speed even more. I was now paddling directly into the wind. I had a fish hit the lure on the right side of my boat without getting hooked. I then had a fish hit the lure on the left side of my boat without getting hooked. I finally hooked up on the third strike on the right rod. As I was fighting that fish my kayak was drifting at a pretty good pace due to the wind. I almost had the fish in when I realized that a fish had taken my second lure and I had a double, my first of the year! I got the first fish in the net and wedged the net between my boat and my leg. This kept the fish already in the net in the water while I fought the second fish. I grabbed the second rod out of the holder. The fish had plenty of slack line so I wouldn't have been surprised if it had been gone by the time I got to it. I reeled up the slack line only to see that as I was reeling my rod was getting that familiar bow to it! The fish was still on and after a short battle I had two beautiful and nearly identical trout in the net at the same time! The two could have practically been twins. I released those fish and reset my lines. I was paddling into the wind again when I got a jolting strike from a fish. It stripped line about 5 times before I even had time to recover and before I knew it, it had me into the backing on my fly rod. I was hoping this was going to be as good fish by the way it was fighting and it did not disappoint! It was a massive Rainbow that looked more like a small Steelhead than the stocker Rainbows I had been catching all season. After several more runs and some thrashing around the likely last and certainly nicest fish of 2014 was in the net. The photos from my carmera did not turn out too well unfortunately. The pictures below are stills from my GoPro camera and are not extremely high quality. The fish was a beautiful female with her spawning colors. I did not measure the fish as I wanted to get it back into the water as soon as possible but I would estimate it's length at well over 20 inches. What a great way to end a great trip! I ended up catching 9 fish out of 12 strikes. All of the fish were caught in shallow water with Clouser Minnow flies. I had to paddle out against 2 foot waves with white caps and it took me a full 30 minutes to get back to where I had parked. What a great 2014. I'm looking forward to an amazing 2015!

These two fish were my first double of the year and were practically twins!

GoPro shots of my nicest fish of the year.

Couldn't have asked for a better fish to catch as my last of 2014!

12/21/14 Will it ever stop? Yo - I don't know



As I was driving to the lake yesterday, I was getting more and more worried. Every lake and pond that I passed was frozen solid with no sign of open water. Keeping my fingers crossed for open water...I arrived at the lake to find quite a bit of ice on the lake but open water all the way to the shore where I was going to launch my kayak. Whew...open water still! I got on the lake and quickly got into some fish on the windy side. As I was fighting one fish, the wind was pushing me into the shore. I got that fish in and released it. I started to paddle back out into deep water while I still had my other line out and got a fish on the other rod! The action was pretty consistent throughout the day. I ended up having my best day of the year (so far) landing 12 of a potential 18 Rainbows. I caught most of my fish up very shallow in only a few feet of water on clouser minnows. Later in the day, I met up with another kayak angler on the water. He had put in at the public access and was only able to get on the water because some duck hunters had busted about 75 yards of ice when they came and went earlier in the morning. Nice to see another person out enjoying the decent weather and good fishing. The sun came out later in the day and the fishing slowed down a bit. By the end of the day, all the ice had broken up and pushed off the lake. Looks like I may get one or two more chances if the weather stays warm for a few days. If you're getting out, good luck and be safe!

  

Check out all the ice on the lake!

This is what heppens when you take a picture of a rainbow facing into the sun. All the colors get blotted out with silver!

This is what happens when the sun is behind you, not much better. I hate the sun for getting trout pictures!

12/13/14 & 12/14/14 Beautiful Weekend for Trout

The weather this weekend was absolutely perfect to get out and chase some trout! I did extremely well both days and I would describe the trout's mood as borderline suicidal. They were extremely aggressive and action was frequent and consistent. Between the two days, I got 17 fish in the boat and lost or didn't hook up well on at least that many more! I landed several nice fish pushing 18'' and lost one right at the boat that would have gone over 20 inches. Mike landed what I'm sure is his personal best trout to date. It was the biggest fish I've seen since I started fishing these lakes. Most fish were up shallow near the break lines. I caught all these fish on clouser minnow flys. It will probably not be long before the lakes are frozen so if you have the opportunity, get out as soon as you can. The fishing is amazing and you will not regret it! I got some great video but with my computer out of service, I can't get it edited yet. Enjoy the pictures and check out the trout section of the website for tips and tricks to help you get into some trout.

 

Absolutely beautiful 18''er. The colors showed up really well in this picture.

This was a really nice, fat, healthy 17''er. It was extremely beautiful, but the sun blotted out some of it's colors.

Small stocker caught on the "Short Strike Special" clouser minnow.

"Short Strike Special" Clouser Minnow

This is an overview on how to tie a modified clouser minnow. I developed this pattern to catch short striking trout. I based this fly on patterns that people use when spey fishing to Salmon and Steelhead. Once the braid loop is added, this fly is tied exactly like any other clouser minnow. The hook rides from the middle to the back of the fly depending on how long you make the braid loop. Hope you enjoy and get out after some trout. The fishing is hot right now!

Materials Needed:

140 Ultra Thread

Size 1 Streamer Hook

Size 6 Short Shank Hook

Craft Fur (various colors)

Flashabou (personal preference on color)

Small Lead Eyes

Stick-On Holographic Eyes

Head Cement

50lb Braided Line

Tie on and add a base of thread to the hook shank. Move thread back up to the eye of the hook.

Cut a 6'' piece of 50lb braid. Loop it in half. Put the two tag ends through the hook eye and tie it in.
Make sure to leave enough of a loop to fit the hook at the end of the process.

Wrap the two tags ends under the hook shank and tie those in at the hook eye.

Trim the tags ends of the braid and wrap the braid in back to the bend in the hook.
I apply a coat of head cement at this point but I don't think it is entirely necessary.

Tie in the dumbell eyes making sure to tie them in on the opposite side of the shank from the braid.

Add a small clump of craft fur to the bottom of the fly.

Add a decent clump of flashabou and a clump of craft fur to the top of the fly. Build a neat head for the fly and whip finish.

Add stick on eyes to the fly. Apply head cement to the head and other tie in points to get more life out of the fly!

Cut the hook off behind where you have material tied in using a pair of side cutters.

Add the hook by pushing the braid loop through the hook eye then running the hook through the loop.
 The fly is now finished! Make sure that when you do this, the hook is riding point up as pictured above.
This will help to keep you from getting snagged and will help to hook fish in the top of the mouth to aid in release.

This fly has been extremely effective for me! Good luck and tight lines!

12/6/14 Silver Fish on the Bite!

Unfortunately my computer is on the fritz and I haven't been able to put together the pictures and videos that I have collected over the last several outtings. With that being said, I've got a lot of great video of trout fishing and as soon as I get my computer back to running I'll have a lot of video and some photos to post! The last several trips I have taken to area trout lakes have been very good. The bite is hot right now and the last 3 trips I went 3/6, 8/16, and 4/6. All the fish were caught on minnow imitation flies. Fish are right in the top of the water column and easy to get to right now. Keeping my fingers crossed on getting my computer fixed soon! Mike was nice enough to take the photo below of me with a nice 18'' holdover Rainbow that was released shortly after this picture was taken.