Splashed the boat in at 0700 and started the troll. We started off with whats been working for me all season which is powerworms. We were trolling pink, chartreuse, and white. We did one lap starting from the dam all the way to mountain springs and ended in the back of Doney bay without a single bite! We saw a decent amount of fish rising around the entire lake, but saw a few more at the the mouth of Mountain Springs and the mouth of Jackson. Was watching birds diving on the water all day picking up stunned shad on the surface. I was figuring trout were smashing them about 5-10 below the surface and the injured ones floated up where the birds could get them. I didn't ever notice a concentration of shad in one area around the lake I saw them everywhere so fishing where the bait was was not a way to really pin point where the trout were.
After not getting hit on Powerworms we switched it up to Kastmasters and grubs. We made another long troll into the Carson Arm and back out all the way to Mountain Springs again for one short strike on a Kastmaster. After that it was near 1100 and we still don't have a fish in the boat. I was seriously stumped. The only other thing I thought we could try that might work was Rapalas, but unfortunately I don't have any. Made the choice to switch back to Powerworms, just because I have some serious confidence in them. Trolled back to Jackson and on the way I noticed there was a group of fisherman that beached their boat on a shallow shelf and were soaking bait, I'm guessing powerbait. We watched them for 5 mins as we trolled by and saw them land 3 fish. Most action I had seen all day, seemed like bait was the way to go.
As I was thinking about doing the same one of my rods with the pink Powerworm doubles over. Seeing the hit on a 1wt fly rod while trolling is absolutely insane, especially with the way these cut bows hit and fight. setting the hook on it can be a little tricky, but the fight is way more fun. Got him in the boat and finally got the skunk off of the boat. We kept trolling and Robert had two solid hits on a Kastmaster, but wasn't able to connect on either of them. Made several more passes in the same area and managed one more fish on the worm and a few hits no stick. Our bite there died off after a while, so we trolled out way back into Jackson to see how the creek was looking.
Water is getting fairly high but there weren't any fish back here. Hopped out anyways to stretch the legs and do a little bit of exploring. The whole area back here is shaded and out of the sun and even at 1200 in the afternoon the balmy 40 degree weather allowed for there to be a lot of ice still back here.
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Found one of the coolest looking things I think I've ever seen in some time and it makes for a pretty cool picture.
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If that doesn't say it's cold then I don't know what does.
Also found a small deer skeleton back here.
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Had our fun, did some sight seeing, stepped in some cow shit, no fish but its still very cool to see. I always love coming back into Jackson and seeing how things look back here. Headed back out trying to get Robert on his first fish of the day. Trolling out of Jackson we had a few more hit no sticks and then finally Roberts rod with a chartreuse Powerworm doubles over and he gets his first of the day.
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Fish today aren't huge, but the average size has gone up which I'm pretty happy with.
After that I was completely committed to the powerworms. The bite wasn't hot, but they were working. We kept trolling till 1630 for a few more short strikes, but no more fish. Tough day on the lake, but still rewarding.
Our line up at the cleaning station.
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The fat fish on the bottom was loaded with shad.
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All of this (17 shad + some) came out of that one fish. They are getting fat on shad, which makes me surprised the Powerworms were working and the Kastmasters hardly had any action.
Back at it again Tuesday with my Dad. My dad brought the Raps today which I was hoping would be with hot ticket with the fish feeding so much on shad. Trolled Raps and grubs for 2 hours without a bite. Still saw some fish rising, but not as many as the day before. Again I saw people fishing on the same shallow flat I saw yesterday and we watched them land two fish while we trolled by. My dad said hell if you can't beat em join em, so we found our own bank spot with some fish rising around and tried soaking some Powerbait to get our first fish of the day.
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30 mins. into it I managed to get one on rainbow Powerbait about 20ft off of the shore. Gave it in all a little over an hour for only the one fish. Probably could have got more if we stayed longer, but it wasn't really worth waiting around for. Made the switch over to trolling Powerworms again and 5 mins into the troll after switching I popped another. Went bite less again though for the next two hours. Tried changing it up and tried fast trolling Raps for an hour for one short strike, but nothing else. Slowed it down for one more fish I got on a power worm and my dad managed to get slammed slow trolling a CD-7 silver and black Rapala. Off of the water at 1600.
The best bait for me was the Pink Powerworm. I caught fish on Chartreuse too, but pink had way more hits. White never got touched. All around I saw more fish caught on powerbait off of the shore more then anything. Even everyone I talked to at the cleaning station said they just beached their boat and caught all or most of their fish on Powerbait, which still makes no sense with the trout focusing on shad so much. Serious mind puzzler for me.
Today's line up.
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Amador has been pretty tough lately, but fish are getting bigger so that's a big plus.
Till Next Time Guys
Mark
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