Category: Fishing Reports

Well I finally got a chance to get out and chase some Saltwater fish on the Fly. Those fish are pretty cool and they do pull hard. Roosters can be a very frustrating fish, but when you hook one it is well worth the effort. John, Zach and Jeff were very patient with the rookie and I learned so much. I am looking forward to my next shot at some more Saltwater action.
Day One-We got picked up at our place on the beach and rolled north in the boat to find some bait and hopefully some Roosters. Within 15 minutes John had one on in the other boat. Within an hour I got my first fish on the Fly in Salt, a 3-4 lbs Ladyfish. After another couple of Ladyfish landed, Zach hooks into something and his reel starts screaming. A few minutes later he brings in a 6 lbs Sierra Mackerel.

Check out the chompers on this fish.

After that we headed out to a different spot to try and find some Roosters. We pulled up behind the Giggling Marlin and found a large school of some smaller Roosters. The next hour was awesome. Hooked 6-7 fish landed 3, Zach probably caught as many or more. It was really cool to get into them that quickly, I thought it was going to be easy at that point, the next couple days showed me that it was anything but easy. After that we headed out for some billfish, had a Marlin come up, but it would not eat. Just an awesome first day, it was hard to sleep that night as I could not wait to feel the tug of those fish again.

Day 2-We hung out closer to Rohmer’s and Debrown’s boat in the morning, those 2 were into them. They had the bait and switch dialed in and it was educational to watch them work. They had a couple of doubles and boated 15 Roosters in the 3-5 lbs range. We were a step behind and had many chases with a couple of eats, but me being a rookie probably cost us some fish. It was still a lot of fun to watch. From there we headed out for more billfish. Within 10 minutes Zach had a nice 20-25 lbs Dorado on, a couple jumps and it was off. We had a couple of close encounters with some Marlin, but left the water with nada day 2. The beer was still cold and tasty…

Day 3-John and Zach were messing around on the beach before the boat came and within 5 minutes Zach hooked into a ladyfish. It must have been the saltwater version of the first cast curse, because we did not catch another fish the rest of the day. There was some illegal netting going on the night before as well as a full moon. None of the other boats did anything either, we had some close calls and I pulled the trout hooks set out for 2 fish, which we probably would have hooked if I did not pull the hook out of the fishes mouth.

All in all a great trip. I wish I would have caught a few more, but learned so much and will be much more prepared for what is happening next time. Thanks to John, Zach and Jeff for their patience. The place was sweet and Jeff took us out for some great local food. Zach and I spent a decent amount of time walking the beach, but it was just a little too early and the big schools were not in yet. I can’t wait to go back.

Hit Lake Pleasant today before work with JG. Got on the lake about 4:30 this morning and fished until 8:30, we launched from 4 lane at Castle Creek. I was just curious if I could do this and still make it through a day at the shop awake. So far, so good. The fishing was a bit slow today. I was surprised to see that the water was still only 67-68 degrees, a month ago it was 64. I did not mark the large schools of fish on the normal reefs. We did mark a few and we caught a few, just not fast and furious like the last couple of times out. Most of the bait and stripers I saw on the finder was 30-50′ deep. We caught them on the usual UFO in Shad color with 300gr sink tips. I will probably try to do a pre-work outing every couple of weeks over the next couple of months and some night time trips when the water warms up a bit. A couple of photos…

Started on Earl Park Sunday morning. Saw some shop customers at the launch as well as a few risers. Headed to the backside of the lake and picked up a few small rainbows on midges about 8-10 feet under an indicator. The others on the lake were picking up some fish here and there on buggers and Simi Seal Leeches. Emerson showed up about an hour later and it was good to see and fish with him again. He hooked 4-5 fish pretty quickly. It slowed down for me for a bit, but then I saw a riser, kicked over to it and caught my best fish of the couple days I was up there, only 16″ inches though. Headed over to another spot on the lake and landed a half dozen 8-10″ fish with one decent fish at 15″.

After talking with Emerson a while at Earl Park and having some lunch, I decided to go check on the Greer Lakes. All these lakes are full and the water looks good. Was going to hit River, but the wind was howling. I put out on Bunch and caught 6 stockers in an hour, all 8-10″ bows. Set up a quick camp and decided to go check out the Dam at Sunrise to see if anything was happening. Emerson mentioned that there had been a couple reports of the bait guys catching some nicer rainbows at the dam. No official word out on if the lake had winter-killed so I figured it was a good way to kill an hour before the sun went down. Saw pods of tiny fish and an endless amount of risers at the dam. Hooked another 4 fish there, all small Apaches that looked to be recent stockers.

Monday I decided to check on River Reservoir with no wind as I heard there had been some nice Browns that came out recently. Spent an hour on the lake with not as much as a bump. I also saw about 100 cormorants(sp? Big ugly birds) in the trees there and only 1 fish rise. With all the great reports about Becker, I bagged it and headed down the road. Becker was good until the wind came up about 10ish. Caught 4 fish all good size and strong fighters. Got 2 on Simis and 2 on Zebras.

I think we are still a couple weeks away from Prime Time in the Whites. It was not as good as last year at this time, but much more water up there and just taking a while longer to warm up.