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Normally I would be eyeballing the salt right now watching to see if the Coho are starting to show..... so I have been having to find other fishing opportunities to occupy myself with. I've been to my normal haunts and had to still fish off the bottom, but I get bored quick. I actually enjoy the exercise of pedaling the kayak around. Baker Lake reports haven't thrilled me, so I looked around for a different opportunity. Diablo seemed like it fit the bill. A place I have always wanted to fish but haven't, and the colder water should keep the fish active.
Left the house at 4am, got there at 6am, and every spot to park was full. Crap. Long drive for nothing if I can't park the Jeep and trailer. Remembered that across the street is the parking for the Thunder Nob Trail, and the spots are deep, plus I had the forest pass with me. Sure enough, that would work. Unloaded, launched the Kayak, parked the Jeep, and starting pedaling up Thunder Arm. Waited until I got into at least 20 feet of water before I set my line down. Started with a size 6 green doc spratley fly, 00 double d dodger at 15 feet. Trolled all the way up the arm with no bites. Moved to 20 feet and trolled back down the arm, then the wind picked up, I mean really picked up. It was cold. Noticed that around the corner to the northeast end, the water looked calm, so I headed that direction. Trolled around there a bit, trying different depths to no avail. Tried a few different colored wedding rings tipped with a gulp worm, nothing. Tried a gold needlefish, both tipped, and not, nothing. Hmm... As the sun finally started to hit the arm, the wind died, so I headed back to the arm.
Switched back to a green doc spratley, went to a size 10, and shortened the leader from about 12 inches to about 8 to see if more of a wiggle would entice a bite. It did. First fish came at 20 feet in the upper portion of the arm in about 120 feet of water. Beautiful rainbow, maybe 14 inches. My intention was to bring home fish for the smoker, but once I saw how beautiful the fish was and remembering how many I still have in the freezer yet to smoke, I kept it in the water and gave it an easy release. Decided then any more fish would get to see another day.
No bites for about 30 minutes, but noticed a fish fairly large fish rise, so brought the rigger up to 10 feet, and got rewarded with another approximately 14 in fish. kept it in the water for another easy release. Stayed near the Thunder Point boat in camp spot and caught 2 more in the 12-14 inch range. Seemed to die down a bit, and as the sun was getting higher, the temps just shot up. (Temp was 53 when I launched, 92 when I pulled out) Not wanting to head home crispy fried, I started to troll back to the launch. As I got closer, saw more fish surfacing, so I brought the line up to 5 feet, and was rewarded again with what I would guess was a 16 inch fish. Biggest fish would come as I was contemplating pulling my line out of the water as I was in only about 15 feet of water and the bottom was coming up fast. As I was pedaling I noticed the tremendous view or Colonial Peak and Pyramid Peak again, and was getting lost in the view (this happened more than once) when I heard a loud splash behind me. That snapped my out of it and I noticed the line out of the clip. Luckily this fish stayed on, and actually pulled the kayak around a little bit. This fish was somewhere between 17-18 inches as a guess. VERY bright fish, almost milky like the water if that makes sense. Released it, and finished up my day.
Beautiful lake to fish. I wasn't too hopeful when I arrived, and even less so after about an hour of nothing. The scenery alone is worth the trip. The fishing picking up and me figuring a few things out helped. Would love to try this lake again when it's not quite so hot. The lake is still pretty full, but they should start drawing it down next month. Quite a bit a debris in the first portion of the arm.
Sorry no pics of the fish, none of them came out right and it was too hard to hold the net, hold the phone, keep the fish in the water, and take a pic. My one regret is that I forgot to insert the micro SD card into the go-pro, so no video.
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from JoshH.
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