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I gave Saturdays rating a 5 star just because it was such a great day to be out on the river with my all time favorite fishing partner, my wife Sherie! Of course, a day out on the boat would not be complete without our dogs, who just have to personally inspect each and every fish caught by hanging over the side of the boat.

The water was 45.5 degrees, current was about average to fast sometimes but the water was dirty, clarity was good only to about 4 or 5 feet. Good ol' spring run off! We wound up bringing to the boat 12 fish for the day but we only kept 3 for the live well. We lost more fish than that, some on the long line release system. 2 on the really really long line release system!! For those of you that aren't familiar with those systems, you get a fish on, fight it for a few minutes or more, it takes a wild run just to make sure he wastes as much line of yours as he can before he breaks the line off, leaving one with only a half of a spool of line left!

We had one -6 pound fish in the live well for each of us and we didn't want to quit fishing so we released the rest during the day thinking it would be easy to pick up a couple more fish at the end of the day.....didn't quite happen that way. But, as the saying goes, the worst day fishing is way better than the best day in the office.

We were casting with lures to rising fish first thing in the morning. That is always fun, I love doing it and it produces fish and lots of action. Both of us were using spinners. We were casting just out in front of the state park, around well head 3, and again about 2 miles up from there. If you try this make sure that your reels are full of line because the fish rarely take a lure close to the boat and you have to be able to cast a ways past the fish so they are not spooked. In other words, long casting.

Went to the lower net pens and did some drift jigging that got us a few fish but it was slow. I did set an all time record though!.......I lost more jigs to snags that day than I think the whole rest of my life put together. If rocks were good for smoking and eating, I would have enough to last me the rest of my life after that day. I think the fish were after me, they see the red boat coming and say, "Lets show him what we learned in our school and tie his line to rocks!" Has anyone ever lost 18 jigs in one day of fishing??? I would bet not! I lost so many jigs that the boat was riding higher in the water at the end of the day.

But hey, it all fishing and fishing is all good whether its catching fish, loosing fish, getting snagged, staring into the sky, listening and watching the birds, getting rained on, or baked in the sun...its all good. Well, except for some things like a main motor not starting when your 30 miles upstream, Loui would know something about that.

Long winded as ever!! Went to the upper pens and tried around there a bit, talked to my friend Joe working on the third set of pens. He was nice enough to head me in the direction of where he usually sees them schooling around and we had a few on there, lost a very nice one to an anchor line, as if that has never happened before.

Went back down to catch our last two fish for the day and boy did they stop with the bite. Finally got one that was hungry in the eddie behind lone pine island, just tried that as a lark, very hard to fish because of current but we only got the one there.

Just another Fine day on the water.

mwdehaan

4/30/2012 1:30:00 PM

Fun read, thanks for the report!

blufin loui

4/30/2012 8:13:00 PM

Hello Outdoor Chris, it was great to see your report, and doubly good to see Sherie is supporting your hab...I mean hobby, and is right there yanking on the big ones. great report as always, and it brings back memories of 100 plus fish days on Rufus. What was the favorite color in the less than clear water for you guys. Look forward to seeing more reports. You and Sherie stay safe and well

sea-nile

5/1/2012 11:15:00 AM

Hi Chris, My wife and I was on the lake the same time as you and yours, looked like you all were having a great day, I did notice that the one dog would get up in the front of the boat with you and get excited when you were casting, it was fun to watch. I was able to pick up and extra lure this trip to add to my collection when I snagged. lol Have a great day

outdoor chris

5/1/2012 1:50:00 PM

Hi Blufin!! Olive was the color of the day, olive that matches the slime on the rocks. Tried black, black/red, red, blue/black, but always came back to good old olive. We were using olive 1/2 oz jigs to get to the deeper water and in the shallower water, 1' - 20' an olive jig with a weighted 3/8 oz. orange egg headed thing we got from Cabelas. The ones I tied using dyed rabbit fur with a few pieces of flashabou with the fur and a few olive feathers.

outdoor chris

5/1/2012 1:58:00 PM

hi sea-nile, with all of the tackle I lost that day I am surprised you didn't come up with more lures!!! If you got an olive jig, I will send a bill lol.

Thats our german short hair, he has to make sure he sees what everyone in the boat is doing, plus other boats close by! He will stick his nose in the water of the livewell trying to pull fish from it. Once when bass fishing on Banks, I was engrossed by the amount of fish in front of me and when i turned around, the short hair and the lab were having a great time, they had 6 bass out of the livewell and on the bottom of the boat and were trying to get more! Was about to throw the both of them overboard.....not really.

They are a lot of fun.

blufin loui

5/1/2012 8:55:00 PM

Thanks Chris, I'll tie up a few for next time. So much water to fish and so little time. LOL Keep the reports coming. Love a good read

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