We were out the door at 9:30 and in the water at Diablo around 11:30. Because of a persistent breeze we decided to fish the Thunder Creek arm. We started our adventure by setting a couple baited crawdad traps at different depths. Traps in, we moved out to the deeper water between the bridge and the log boom and then set up for fishing. Running both downriggers we started with one of my custom tied beaded spinners running behind a green and gold dodger. Initially we ran this rig 25 pulls behind the downrigger ball, running at 21’. On the other side of the boat we ran a gold and red Cyclops spoon with a large worm impaled on the hook. The spoon was running 35 pulls behind the downrigger ball and I was chasing meter marks so the depth varied as the day went on. We started catching 12-14” rainbow almost immediately we had consistent action the entire time we fished.

With the gusty wind it was very difficult to maintain a given trolling speed so our trolling speed varied between 0.7 and 2.0 mph. The water temperature was running 45.6-46.8 degrees. The last fish and highlight of the day was a 7.6 pound dolly. It hit a beaded spinner at 21’. After a lengthy fight, it posed for a few pictures and an unofficial tare weight, weigh in before swimming off unharmed. After the dolly we decided that we had had enough of the wind and picked up the crawdad traps. As usual they were empty. With the corporative fish and scenery it was another great day on the water and we got to stop at Cascade Burger in Concrete so the day was perfect!

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