Had a chance to get away for the weekend. Headed up to check out how Sunrise and Crescent faired over the winter….looks like all is well. Daryl and I hit Sunrise sometime after 8 am Sat and fished it until around 12. Found the fish at the dam area and didn’t really spend much time investigating other areas.
We caught several 20″rs and a 19″ on simis in dark colors. All the fish were shallow and still in spawn mode. One was spitting eggs as I released her. Water temps were low 40’s and the lake is a tad bit higher than last year.
We hit Crescent in the afternoon. The 273 rd is still closed so you have to go through Eagar. The road closed sign on 261 is still up but traffic is going through it. Crescent is as full as I’ve seen it and from the images on my fish finder, there was no kill. If there was a kill it probably was the rainbows and the lake is still loaded with brookies because I marked a lot more fish in Crescent than at Sunrise. We only caught brookies, though. Maybe the water’s not quite up to snuff for the rainbows yet…..hopefully. They were not the footballs of last Fall but were in decent shape and several pushed 15″s so they have grown a bit over the winter. Again we used simi’s on intermediate lines. One was caught trailing a small Copper John.
There is still quite a bit of snow left around the banks and the same is true with Big Lake. It is full and bank fishermen were doing well.
We hit Luna Sunday am and the lake looks great. It has been ice free for over a month now. The bite was off for me, but Daryl picked up quite a few, one that went 17″s. I found a bank that was loaded with big fish and I spent the majority of my time trying to get them to go, but never figured them out. We talked with an older gal that fishes the lake just about every day and she said this was the first day for much action yet. When the water gets right this will be one to hit because I marked a boatload of big fish on my finder. Looking forward to a great season in the White’s this year. We haven’t had conditions like this for a long time now.