2002 Freshwater Fishing Reports

September 6, 2002:
South Fork-Platte River, Colorado / 10:30 am
While visiting Julies Grandpa Chuck Jones & his wife Quay in Colorado they took us up to their family cabin near the Platte River. Julie hooked up first cast on a pheobe to a healed over but heavily damaged stocker with 1 eye. After releasing that fish I caught a nice holdover fish shortly followed by a nice brown on the Pins Minnow. Chuck hooked up solid on a crawler & after a long fight on tiny tackle I netted the fish of the day, a 22 inch solid rainbow with great color. The bite slowed after a few missed fish & followers so we headed to the cabin for lunch. Around 2:30 we returned to the river but started a mile or so downstream. I decided to try out my new 4 weight Leapin' Bass Custom fly rod. As I fished my way upstream they took the car up to the original hole. I should have spent more time practicing w/the fly gear before breaking it out in such perfect trout water. I spent the next couple of hrs. missing/losing fish after fish on a green woolybugger. The only one I landed was my biggest of the trip, a fat 21" rainbow. A little frustrated with myself for loosing so many fish I grabbed my spinning rod & caught 4 or 5 nice trout in about 10 minutes before being pulled from the river. Chuck had been catching fish consistantly the whole time up at the original hole but it went wide open as we left near sunset. The last fish I caught was Julies 1 eye fish in the same hole about 6 hrs. later where he was released again, along with all the others! Next trip will be devoted to fishing!

August 30, 2002:
Shore / 6:30 pm / Pyramid
Lance & I went to the same area armed with little Rapala's & Pins Minnows. It was a little tougher fishing with a lot less bait & boils but still some around. We picked a fish every 10 minutes or so with a better bite coming after dark on the little minnows twiched along the surface. We watched lots of vicous surface attacks but few of them sticking to the tiny lures. Not to many 12 inchers, mostly Stripers around 3 to 5 lbs. after dark and a few sm. Lg. Mouth (all released). While I was landing one of the Stripers a 4-5lb. Lg. Mouth came up & bit his tail as if to chase him away. We stayed until 10:15 pm.

August 28, 2002:
Shore / 6:15 pm / Pyramid
I got off work a little early so I gave Ed Zubiate a call to see if he was up for a little fishing. Shortly we were on the road along with his girlfriend Mittsy. We arrived in the Vista del Lago area around 6:15 pm & it wasn't 10 minutes before I had my first tiny striper on the hopkins spoon. The 12 inchers were thick just outside the weedline & you would get bit everytime you could hang the bait just beyond the weeds. It was a little tough to do from shore & the wind blowing in our face didn't help. Working a point I also caught 2 smallies 11" &13", the larger one shot 3' straight up out of the water as soon as he hit my spoon. When the sun started going down these little stripers started pushing tiny smelt right up against the rocks & boiling at our feet. A good show but we only got a few bumps out of these boils. It happened to fast to "match the hatch" & our spoons/rat-L-traps were to big. I spotted some much larger boils a couple hundred yards down the shoreline, again right up against the beach. I ran over, flipped my spoon into the middle of them & was locked in after jigging it a couple of times. After a nice tug-o-war in about a foot of water I beached our only decent striper @ 7 lbs. Mittsy walked directly up to the boils & dipped her rod in but they sunk out. I ran back to get a topwater bait & by the time I got back Mittsy was hooked up on the rat-L-trap to her first striper, a 20" fish off a point a little further down the beach. We started fishing that point each getting a few of the 20" models as it got dark. I know Mittsy caught 1, Ed got at least 3 & I caught 8 or 9 stripers & 2 smallies. I could have caught quite a few more because they were eating the spoon real well as it got dark but I spent alot of time trying to get a topwater fish but never got a strike on the surface. All fish released! We were out of there by 8:15 pm.

August 11, 2002:
Mini Striper (14' Aluminum) / 8:30 am / Pyramid
After forgetting licenses, flat tires, huge line @ the gate, etc. Ed Zubiate, Homero Sandavol & I finally launched for some striper action. After some hunting around & dodging pleasure craft we finally settled between the island & the dam for about 25 sm. stripers (1-8lbs most released) & a nice channel cat. We tried working the area with jigs & spoons but around noon we gave in after watching a couple of people hooking up on bait. The 3 of us caught all our fish in a 2.5 hr. period on crawlers & sardines, suspended down around 30 to 40 ft. There wasn't any surface action besides skiers but they didn't seem to bother the fish. We started out near the SE corner of the island & would drift towards the SE corner of the dam. Once the wind picked up we tied up to the 1 big white buoy 1/2 way between the island & the dam. Other guys were doing well holding in place against the wind with their trolling motor. The bite slowed tremendously when we were drifting very fast. 6lb. outfits were perfect with standard nightcrawler hook & med. splitshot 2 feet above the hook. For some reason we didn't get bit very well while the bait was drifting or sinking in freespool. The best method seemed to be nightcrawler or sardine chunk cast out, put in gear then let it sink until the line is straight up & down. If that wasn't bit in 2 or 3 minutes let it sink five or ten more feet & put the reel back in gear. Just repeat this process until you get bit & almost every cast was bit. Large & small pieces of sardine seemed to get bit equally well but I preferred the crawlers. Off the water @ 2:30.

August 7, 2002:
5:30 am (8-7) I made a final quick solo run to the canal before packing up & heading home. The browns were waiting form me, my awesome tiny trout rod (thanks Pete) & little little rainbow stick bait. Total was 7 browns & 2 rainbows 12 to 15" in 1.5 hrs.

August 6, 2002:
5:30 am we awake for our hike to a lake Matt had fished 11 years prior with excellent results. Today our group consisted of John Powers with his 2 sons JohnJohn & Nicholas, Matt Truman with his daughter Rael & I. This is a barely marked sm. wild trout lake that I promised would remain nameless. After a good hike a couple of fences & cow pastures we come to a sign stating that this is wild trout water with a 16" minimum, 2 fish limit using barbless artificials only. We all spread out fishing our way around the lake without a sign of life. About 1/2 way around I hooked up good on a kastmaster but after some surface shakes & good runs it threw the barbless hook. I had 1 more bump in the same area but nothing else after about 2 hrs. & almost circling the whole lake. Working around the mud & tules of the low water level Matt & I came across John crouched over a trickle of water coming into the lake. He gave us the universal "quite lg. fish sign" so we stopped & watched him miss a hungry 20" brook trout. I casted a sm. jointed rapala in which was boiled on immediately but missed. Matt threw in a white roostertail & stuck what would be the largest of many trophy brook trout to follow for all of us. We spread out along the creek channel that opened from a 3" creek to a 5' wide 6' deep channel entering the lake surrounded by thick tules. There was almost always one or more of us hooked up for the next 1.5 hrs or so. I personally caught 7 losing twice as many 16"-21" fat spawning trophy brookies & none of us had a camera. We almost lost 2 of the kids & a couple of shoes in the quicksand/mud. Rael tried to jump across what looked like a sm. puddle but her launch pad broke away & she ended up in up to her ears in muck without letting out a sound. She really showed how tough she was when she hopped completely in & washed off in the freshly melted snow water. I was only in up to my ankles & was freezing. By far the best natural trout fishing I've seen in CA. The brook trout there were bigger than I thought they got in ca.  Click here for picture.

August 5, 2002:
Andy, Julie & I got up @ 6:00 am to go fish the canal again. This time I brought my new 4 weight Leapin' Bass Custom fly rod & no experience fishing a sm. stream with it. It was very tough at first but once I caught my first fish on a worm imitation It was on. I dug out a little white streamer that was easy to see & work in the moving water that the browns really wanted. It was awesome to see so many fish rise or boil on this little ball of fuzz. I usually ended up pulling the fly away to soon because it was such visual fishing. I ended up breaking off my only 2 white streamers on better fish setting the hook to hard during the excitement. As the sun came up we got to watch the trout put on a great show during a hatch of tiny white bugs. I only landed 3 fish out of the dozens of bites but lots of fun. That afternoon the whole group headed up to Pickle Meadows for some more fishing. I caught my first fish on the first cast, usually a curse. It was a beautiful 4" cutthroat & would be my only fish in this river. Julie & I hiked way down stream without ever seeing a person or fish. When we came back up to the group John had a 20"+ stocker with a tag on the stringer. Shortly after he caught another around 18". Some of us headed back to start dinner & John & Matt took the kids to 2 more spots along the West Walker for a triple hookup on 18" stockers.

August 4, 2002:
We got up @ 5:30 the next morning to go check out the canal. Rael Truman, JohnJohn & Nicholas Powers, Julie & I hopped in the van & searched for a place to access the river. Finally we found a spot to get down the steep banks so I brought 1 rod & a Mystic minnow. First cast was bumped & the second cast had 2 followers. With the confirmation of fish the kids were there in seconds with night crawlers in hand. JohnJohn caught the first fish first cast. We had a good bite on 10-15" rainbows and a nice brown by Rael for the first 1.5 hrs. until the sun covered the water & fishing slowed. Julie's uncle Andy showed up today & joined us for an evening excursion to the canal along with Matt & John. Everyone caught a fish but it was a little tougher this evening until just before dark when everyone else had given up. I was a little further upstream & had a wide open 15 minute bite on almost all browns that shut down once it was totally dark.

August 3, 2002:
2:00 pm / Topaz Lake, NV
My wife Julie & I were the first of her relatives to arrive so we picked out 3 campsites & set up ours. I spent about 2 hrs. fishing the huge rock outcropping near the launch ramp for nothing. The next morning (8-3) I launched the float tube around 5:30 am. Within the first 1/2 hr I caught a 15" rainbow on a silver pheobe. I worked various other lures for nothing. Over the next hour JohnJohn & Nicholas Powers showed up on the shore followed by their father John in a float tube. Finally I hooked up solid on the pheobe fishing deep. I couldn't do anything to slow it on 4lb. line & ended up chasing the fish around for about 15 min. before my huge trout excitement faded into the slow pump of a 15lb. carp tail. Very disappointing but fun anyways. We worked the lake pretty hard fornothing else. John learned about a canal exiting the lake from a guy on the shore. After some mandatory exploration in the rental car it turned out to be the West Walker River.  Click here for picture.

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