With the lakes still not quite in fall mode we may have been better off fishing some favorite stretches of White Mountain streams, but my buddy Mike had a new pontoon to float – so that is what we did.
On Saturday we fished Carnero. It is still very weedy, of course. While we were unloading our boats a few guys were pulling out. Their report was discouraging:
“It is really slow.”
“We threw everything at them.”
Maybe it was all timing because we had far more success. Quite a few brought to hand were chunky 16″ fish which fought hard. A few were 10″ dinks. There was some topwater action and other anglers were having some luck here. Most of our fish came on size 14 hare’s ears and large c-mids hung about 4-5′ deep off the weedbeds. The evening was much slower than midday for some reason.
On Sunday we headed over to Reservation Lake. This lake has always been a favorite of mine. I have many fond memories of lots of fish in the teens with occasional larger browns. I am not sure what has happened to this lake, but the last couple times I have fished it almost all the catch has been in the 8-10″ range and that was the case on Sunday. Fishing was slow and so was the technique. Dragging simi seal leeches very slowly on the bottom produced. I started with an egg-sucking leech, but the fish were short striking, so I made the change to a standard bead head simi and the catch rate improved quite a bit. In the afternoon dries like EHC were producting strikes in the back of coves and by evening fish were rising all along the bank. I’m not too eager to return to chase the small bows, but will be back in a couple months to stalk the big browns cruising the shorelines.
Overall it was a nice weekend to be out weather wise and while that is sure to deteriorate over the next few weeks, the fishing should improve. Look for peak fall colors this coming weekend if the winds do not blow all the leaves off the aspen.