FISH CATCHING TRAVEL

Knockin Tail Lures by My CoastOutdoors

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Our weather is flat beautiful and with that comes the beginning of the melt.  So one lake I wondered about turned out to be open so I started getting the fishing stuff back together so I could hit the lake yesterday.  Turned out to be a good decision as the fishing was pretty good.

Who does not enjoy this view when fishing?

The wind was flat calm, and the water was clear but only 40 degrees when starting.  While this lake is the only local with bass and crappie besides trout, other than a spot or two I checked for bass the plan was to stick with the trout.  It was a good place for a shakedown cruise and the slow troll turned out to be the ticket though I caught some casting.  But the best thing, everything on the boat was working properly after sitting all winter.

The Pearl Knockin Tail was putting some nice trout in the boat.

It was a steady bite all day, but when the moon came up around noon it was on.  One thing I wanted to try today was trolling the 4″ pearl Knockin Tail and turned out the better fish loved it.  It was rigged with a 3/8th swimming jig head about 75′ behind the boat at 2 mph.  And of course, on fluorocarbon line, which on the clear water of these lakes is important.

Along with the Knockin Tail the brown trout colored Rapala did its usual damage.

But whether lake or river the Rapala is hard to beat.  One of the benefits of the Rapala is it comes in plenty of sizes so if you need it to run really shallow in the river or deeper in the lakes they have the bait.  And the color choices are plenty.  The original Rapala and the Rapala Shad Rap may be the most versatile baits ever made for all species of fish.

They cannot resist that Rapala.

It would be hard to guess how many crossed the gunnel today but it was a bunch.  And I kept a good limit for the smoker.  One more trip and I will have enough for a good smoke and with them being so pink should be tasty.  And one thing I have learned since being here is the lakes are better fishing before they stock.  The fish have had time to rest and grow over the winter and are solid.  And speaking of stocking…….

I wondered why I just could not get the Kokanee going on our local lake and it turned out to be because there are just not any to speak of in the lake after the last stocking matured.  But when I was at the Game and Fish office I asked about the stocking history and found out they put 20,000 1 – 2″ fingerlings in the lake last year to we should have a fishable population soon.  Will be interesting to see how they matures over the next 3 years.

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With the nice weather the big animals are starting to spread out and head back up in the high mountains.  But there are still plenty of elk around and we love seeing them.

We saw these girls in a valley where we have not seen them before.

With this weather there will be some roads that are passable soon and we are ready to start chasing them again.  And the bears will be out soon, so we expect to see them cruising by the house again.  It is our good fortune to have a house in a living zoo, you never know what you will see.

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Feathered Friends

It has been interesting watching the turkeys the last couple of years.  They fight and squabble, some are real bullies, and sometimes they just cannot help themselves and they get into random display battles.  And they have been showing off a ton behind the house the last week as the weather warms.

Strutting.

You can’t see me.

This is a big boy.

It would be hard to guess how many traverse the yard in a day.  Back and forth groups of hens and toms, though they still are not hanging together much.  But the boys are getting ready, hard not to push it when it feels like spring.  They are entertaining and rarely do you look out the window and there are not some there.

Sandhills

The Monte Vista Refuge has thousands of Sandhill Cranes come through every spring and the festival is next weekend.   We thought we would take a pass and see what had come in and suffice to say they are coming in mass.

Hard to get them all in the frame but you get the picture.

Unfortunately, we were there a little afternoon and everyone was either feeding or napping.  Usually the sky is full of tornadoes of birds, guess will have to had back this week nearer to either daylight or dusk to get those shots.

Big birds.

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The above is a good representation of how the week went.  The local ice is softening, and the creeks are already opening up.  The problem on the creeks is there is not much flow which does not bode well for the rest of the year.  The lakes are starting to thaw near the bank but there is still plenty of ice, at least according to the folks we saw ice fishing today.  I had to head over the mountain for open water and plan on making the trip again Monday.  So spring is shaping up nicely andit won’t be long before time to get out the Tenkara and the fly rods.  It has been a long hard winter but spring brings renewal and I am going to take advantage of every minute.  So kee stopping by and thanks for reading my stuff.

Good Luck and Tight Lines