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My first trip to Bosworth. Was looking for a place to be away from all of the power boats and jet skiers. Bosworth first the bill with the gas motor restrictions on the lake. As it turned out, with the fairly steady rain I probably could have went anywhere I wanted and been fine. Was nice to discover a slightly off the beaten path lake. It didn't hurt that the fishing was completely off the hook. I had expectations of having to mess around a bit to figure out the lake. As it turned out, I had zero time to figure it out. Fish started hitting my lines as soon as I got them in the water.

I started 1 line with and Olive Woolley Bugger, 16 inches of leader off a Mack's Double D dodger, set at 25 feet on the downrigger. The other line and Elgin Fishing God's Tooth Spoon, Brown Trout Pattern, also set at 25 feet. My plan was to start at that depth and move down. Turned out 25 feet was absolute money. I tried a little bit deeper at times with nothing, soon as I move back to 25 feet, feet on. Towards the end I threw on a Green Doc Spratley, and the fish liked it just as much. Trolling speed was between 1.15 - 1.5 mph. I started at 7am and called it quits at 10am. I would have stayed longer, but the rain just wouldn't stop.

I wound up losing count on how many fish I released at 25. I would guess I released between 30 - 35 fish, kept 5 that were either bleeding badly, or were clean (more on that in a moment). Only 2 other boats on the water. One guy was bass fishing (he got one that he told me about) and someone else trolling trout (not sure how he did). I spent more time reeling in fish, releasing fish, and getting my lines back down than I actually did fishing if that makes sense. Longest pause between fish was maybe 5 minutes. I've never had this much action with trout this deep into summer with surface temps hanging around 76 degrees. All fish were rainbows except for 1 land locked Coho, which looked like it was about 10 inches that came on the God's tooth. I may have to go back and try targeting them sometime.

When I mention that I kept fish that were clean, almost all of the fish had copepods. A few had them pretty bad, most had just a few. I like to keep fish for the smoker. Today I had to be real selective. None of the fish looked sick, and I didn't notice any with their gills infested. All of the fish I cleaned were clean and healthy. I did notice when I cleaned the fish that each had a selective diet. Their stomachs were either filled with blood worms (these fish cut a nice deep orange) or they had 2-3, 1-2 inch largemouth bass in their stomachs.

All fish were 12-14 inches that I kept. Nothing I released was any larger than 14 inches. Video shows a lot of the fish I got today. I actually ran out of space on the go-pro (that was a first) On 1 clip I show what was probably the worst fish as far as having copepods. Also watched an Osprey nab a fish about 20 yards from me. Was pretty cool to watch it fish. I apologize for the length and rain on the camera lens on some of the clips. I tried to keep the lens as clean as I could.

ElginFishing

8/14/2017 4:17:00 PM

Nice work and great video despite the rain. Excellent report too! Looks like your shoulder may be sore for a few days:). Gotta love those 30-35 fish days!!!

JoshH

8/14/2017 4:55:30 PM

Now I know a little bit of what it's like to be you some days :) A few times I was getting fish on while hold the line in my hand trying to get it into the clip. I don't know if it was the rain that turned the fish on or what, but I've never seen a bite like that this deep into August. I never got a chance to try other spoons, they just hammered the brown trout pattern. Thinking I may have to try a kokanee set up to see if I can get into more of those coho. Reading some past reports from here, looks like it's possible.

ElginFishing

8/14/2017 6:05:15 PM

I didn't know there was landlocked coho in there. Yeah, I would run a dodger with the kokanee rig and start with 50/50 gold. My next guess would be 50/50 blue then either pink top or green top after that:) Too bad you couldn't try some other spoon patterns but maybe next time, hehehehehe. Wait till you get into some 70+ fish days:)

barbarossa13

8/14/2017 7:46:41 PM

Nice work and great video! I talked to you briefly at the lake Goodwin boat ramp a couple weekends ago. Those copepods look pretty nasty, is it a worm of some sort? Btw it was nice on Goodwin Sunday morning also, kept the jet skis away for a while!

JoshH

8/14/2017 8:28:41 PM

Nice! Goodwin can get completely unfishable this time of year with all of the skiers and jet skis. End of September through early November is my absolute favorite time on Goodwin. Really looking forward to it.

The Copepods are very similar to sea lice. They don't hurt the fish unless they get in the gills, and it doesn't hurt the meat at all. Some of these fish had more than what I am used to seeing, a couple of fish I actually felt bad for they had so many. Fish I kept were clean of them, clean meat and overall healthy fish.

N E 1 FISSION

8/15/2017 5:42:40 AM

Great post & video, very cool!!

JoshH

8/15/2017 8:21:12 AM

Thanks!

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