Brian in OR.
Life of the Party
So Billy's earlier post with him catching some slabs got me motivated to check out some reservoirs that are rumored to hold some nice fish. I left Thursday and headed to the first spot after a long drive in the middle of nowhere....
It had snowed the day before so there was still a little bit left hanging around.
Got the the reservoir around 1pm and maybe a few exploratory casts to see if i wanted to get the float tube out.
After catching 3 fish like this, I got the tube out and went to town.. Fished in 4-6' of water stripping a couple leach patterns and had a great afternoon. Hook around 20 fish from 16-20" and were great fighters...
Finished the day off by making camp and settled into the evening. Had my Starlink with me so fired it up to check in with the wife and update her on the next days plan. Woke up to a chilly 25 degrees, made some hot cereal and headed to my next spot
The next place was a couple small reservoirs a mile apart. The upper one was turbid and didnt catch anything there. Went to the lower one and the water was much better, but only caught 4 or 5 fish the biggest being 14"
Was still early in the day so made tracks to the next spot. i had 2 ways to get in. One was a shorter but nastier, the other longer but the road looked a bit nicer. Decided to go the longer route and that turned into a 2 hour drive but what a view...
Finally got to the reservoir and was somewhat disappointed. Smaller than i thought and did not catch any holdovers only 5 or 6 10" fish
Still had an hour of daylight so i changed plans and went to a well known reservoir a couple hours away. Got there in the dark, made camp and went to bed
In the morning got the float tube out, went to the upper end and fished a few hours in 4' of water and hooked 5 fish all cookie cutter 16 inchers. Really needed the boat to fish it more effectively so decided to bail and hit one more place i had in mind.
Got to the last place in the afternoon and had some wind blowing 5-10. Launched the tube and headed towards the leeward side and found a nice weed patch where the deep water abruptly shallowed up to 4'. Fished along the weed line and found some nice fish. They ranged from 16-20" and they fought like browns, bulldogging down to the weeds not really making any long runs like the other fish. The water seemed colder and i think that had something to do with it. As usual i lost the biggest fish of the day when he hit the fly and jumped out of the water head shaking and threw the fly... Oh well... Had some camera issues so most of them didn't turn out to good but got one decent pic.
Was going to stay the night but the forecast the next day was calling for rain and increasing winds so decided to call it a day and make the long drive home.
Overall it was a great trip with 2 of the 6 reservoirs putting out some nice fish. Have some more reservoirs to explore but looks like mother nature is bringing in low temps with rain and snow so will have to wait till next year. The upside is that they should be bigger next spring.....
It had snowed the day before so there was still a little bit left hanging around.
Got the the reservoir around 1pm and maybe a few exploratory casts to see if i wanted to get the float tube out.
After catching 3 fish like this, I got the tube out and went to town.. Fished in 4-6' of water stripping a couple leach patterns and had a great afternoon. Hook around 20 fish from 16-20" and were great fighters...
Finished the day off by making camp and settled into the evening. Had my Starlink with me so fired it up to check in with the wife and update her on the next days plan. Woke up to a chilly 25 degrees, made some hot cereal and headed to my next spot
The next place was a couple small reservoirs a mile apart. The upper one was turbid and didnt catch anything there. Went to the lower one and the water was much better, but only caught 4 or 5 fish the biggest being 14"
Was still early in the day so made tracks to the next spot. i had 2 ways to get in. One was a shorter but nastier, the other longer but the road looked a bit nicer. Decided to go the longer route and that turned into a 2 hour drive but what a view...
Finally got to the reservoir and was somewhat disappointed. Smaller than i thought and did not catch any holdovers only 5 or 6 10" fish
Still had an hour of daylight so i changed plans and went to a well known reservoir a couple hours away. Got there in the dark, made camp and went to bed
In the morning got the float tube out, went to the upper end and fished a few hours in 4' of water and hooked 5 fish all cookie cutter 16 inchers. Really needed the boat to fish it more effectively so decided to bail and hit one more place i had in mind.
Got to the last place in the afternoon and had some wind blowing 5-10. Launched the tube and headed towards the leeward side and found a nice weed patch where the deep water abruptly shallowed up to 4'. Fished along the weed line and found some nice fish. They ranged from 16-20" and they fought like browns, bulldogging down to the weeds not really making any long runs like the other fish. The water seemed colder and i think that had something to do with it. As usual i lost the biggest fish of the day when he hit the fly and jumped out of the water head shaking and threw the fly... Oh well... Had some camera issues so most of them didn't turn out to good but got one decent pic.
Was going to stay the night but the forecast the next day was calling for rain and increasing winds so decided to call it a day and make the long drive home.
Overall it was a great trip with 2 of the 6 reservoirs putting out some nice fish. Have some more reservoirs to explore but looks like mother nature is bringing in low temps with rain and snow so will have to wait till next year. The upside is that they should be bigger next spring.....
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. Nice fish and nice report, thanks for sharing. 
