Being a local, I have fished Medical's north end for at least a few hours in each of the five days since the March 1st opener. Surface water temps are holding at 42-44. Chironomid hatches have been nearly non-existent. Feeding periods have been sporadic and short-lived, usually only lasting 20-30 minutes. The fish seem to be most active between 10:00 and 1:00. I managed 8 fish on the opener but only 1-5 on the following days. While the occasional fish can be gotten on a blood worm or other chironomid pattern, leech and nymph patterns fished on a sink line have been most productive. Rainbows I've seen are running 16-22", browns 14-19", with the occasional tiger thrown in. All are incredibly fat and healthy looking.

Poachers continue to hammer the south end of the lake on a daily basis. I walk my labs there every morning and see worm containers, power bait and marshmallow jars, wads of monofilament and the associated beer cans and fast food packaging. Why can't the GWs and local PD correct this?

bazzdude

3/6/2010 9:21:00 AM

I thought that medical lake was no bait and single barbeless hooks only. The trout slayers are welcome at west medical lake i thought? You fly fisherman kinda have the whole medical lake to your self. I do agree that the scums need to pick up after them selves that is just wrong and i will turn in any litters that i see they should get fined. baby ducks and turtles etc. get cought up in trash like that and that is a sad sad thing to see. anyhow nice report post some pictures for us all to see next time.

saspinwall

3/6/2010 1:53:00 PM

Last year I called in to the poacher line a report of a father and son fishing with bait off the shore on the north end of ML. I continued to fish for 4-5 hours and the poachers were still there when I left! Unlike in the distance past, I don't see the ML police patrolling around the lake. I believe that they could respond to a call about a fishing violation, but I will bet they would pass the call off to the WDFG or the State Patrol.
I fished the south end of ML on 2/5/10 and while there were several bank fishermen, they all looked legal using lures. Fished for 2 hours in the afternoon using bloodworm and other chironomid patterns. Only caught 1 fish, a 20" Tiger using a grey chironomid under a strike indicator in 8 ft of water.

raffensg64

3/9/2010 12:52:00 PM

Just yesterday, there was a fishing report on Medical, one that administrators have since deleted. The youngster that submitted claimed that his dad was taking him to W. Medical but found the gate locked....of course, it's not open yet (can you tell this adult has no intention of reading a regulation pamphlet?). So they launched at Medical instead and caught and killed three large rainbows, all caught trolling with wedding rings and worms, according to the report. Many concerned anglers, about 7-8 of us, lashed out.....it was good to see that kind of solidarity. However, the poaching will continue unabated without enforcement and education. Just yesterday A.M., I walked my pups again on the south end and saw two different areas where people were using marshmallows and powerbait..

james griffin

3/9/2010 1:31:00 PM

Try and call the game warden and let them know its a daily occurance there and maybe they will make frequent stops there. We need to stop this before it get out of hand. Im a avid fiserman and hate to see people cheat, ill let them know when i see them.

raffensg64

3/10/2010 7:58:00 AM

P.S. Just in case you're wondering, I have no problem with people retaining trout at Medical per the regs. I see many fishermen, a few of who I've talked to on occasion, fishing spinners with single barbless hooks and retaining a fish or two, once again in accordance with the regs. While most of the people who visit there are fly guys, it's not a "fly fishing only" lake. Just leave your bait at the house when heading to Medical...it's illegal.

Mackey

3/13/2010 10:07:00 PM

Have fish and game read the report 3 slots down. Power bait on Medical lake

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