LOAH
09-01-2008, 11:41 AM
With the holiday weekend promising heavy traffic, I made plans to get the family up on Skyline Drive to hit some water that we've never seen. As the weekend crept closer and the weather forecasts seemed more credible, Skyline started looking worse and worse.
I couldn't decide where to go, but my wife had wanted to fish Scofield all year, so that's where we went.
Once we arrived, my wife chose to stay in the car with our sleeping boy until he woke. Meanwhile, I ran down to find some trout. :wink:
I had my tube in the car, but there was a pretty steady wind and the sky looked ominous. Shore fishing again, I suppose. :( My wife even gave me a "float pass" for an hour, but the opportunity never presented itself.
The fishing was pretty slow near the dam. I threw many different lures in all direction and I had a minnow soaking too. Nothing. Finally, I grabbed a fat little tiger (about 12") with a Jake's lure.
Eventually, my wife came down with James and threw out her worm/bubble rig. I continued to cast hardware and reel in crayfish with my minnows. Scofield gave us the shrug. The only fish caught was a small tiger that's still swimming.
Electric Lake would be our next destination. I knew the North end would be full of weeds and I seem to have my best luck from the dam, so after a nice drive along the energy loop, we arrived.
The water level is still high at Electric. It's only about 5 or 6 feet below the high water mark. My first cast with a Blue Fox got a good hit, but a miss. My second cast sent my only BF of that color (chrome/pink) out to the tower with a *pop* of my line.
My wife was still using the worm/bubble rig and after a long wait, hooked up with our only (and her first) fish from Electric:
http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii272/justisaurusbucket/IMGP2788.jpg
Nothing huge, but it was a very welcome sight after our drought. We tried for another hour or so and the only action for us was when a fish picked up my minnow only to spit it out after only a few seconds.
Next stop, Cleveland Reservoir. Again, my wife waited in the car while I tested the water. Surprisingly, I got a quick hit from a black Blue Fox and reeled in a tiny planter rainbow. After that, nothing.
It's too bad that I don't have better luck at Cleveland since it's in such a pretty place. I'll have to keep after it.
http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii272/justisaurusbucket/IMGP2793.jpg
We still had quite a bit of daylight left and Huntington was right up the road, so we off we went for some scrappy tigers.
http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii272/justisaurusbucket/IMGP2804.jpg
http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii272/justisaurusbucket/IMGP2803.jpg
We stayed right on the fringe of rainstorms all day, but never ended up getting rained on. At least luck was on our side in that regard.
Reports at Huntington were of slow fishing, but I was determined to get something going. It wasn't very long and I had a decent sized tiger from a worm. It was about the same size as Sonia's cutt from Electric (no pic).
Shortly thereafter, my krocodile lure picked up a bronzy tiger:
http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii272/justisaurusbucket/IMGP2802.jpg
They always start coloring up pretty early at Huntington, I've noticed.
With dinner in the cooler and the sun getting closer to the horizon, we set off for home. En route, my wife finally got to witness the magic of being at the summit of the Energy Loop:
http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii272/justisaurusbucket/IMGP2808.jpg
http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii272/justisaurusbucket/IMGP2810.jpg
It seems like every time I take this route to go home, the view is always breathe taking. Forget the fish, just being there at that moment was reward enough.
Looking to the North, I could see that the rest of the drive would be somewhat less peaceful:
http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii272/justisaurusbucket/IMGP2813.jpg
Despite the lack of fish in hand, it was still nice to get to the healing grounds again.
Happy Fishing, Humans.
I couldn't decide where to go, but my wife had wanted to fish Scofield all year, so that's where we went.
Once we arrived, my wife chose to stay in the car with our sleeping boy until he woke. Meanwhile, I ran down to find some trout. :wink:
I had my tube in the car, but there was a pretty steady wind and the sky looked ominous. Shore fishing again, I suppose. :( My wife even gave me a "float pass" for an hour, but the opportunity never presented itself.
The fishing was pretty slow near the dam. I threw many different lures in all direction and I had a minnow soaking too. Nothing. Finally, I grabbed a fat little tiger (about 12") with a Jake's lure.
Eventually, my wife came down with James and threw out her worm/bubble rig. I continued to cast hardware and reel in crayfish with my minnows. Scofield gave us the shrug. The only fish caught was a small tiger that's still swimming.
Electric Lake would be our next destination. I knew the North end would be full of weeds and I seem to have my best luck from the dam, so after a nice drive along the energy loop, we arrived.
The water level is still high at Electric. It's only about 5 or 6 feet below the high water mark. My first cast with a Blue Fox got a good hit, but a miss. My second cast sent my only BF of that color (chrome/pink) out to the tower with a *pop* of my line.
My wife was still using the worm/bubble rig and after a long wait, hooked up with our only (and her first) fish from Electric:
http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii272/justisaurusbucket/IMGP2788.jpg
Nothing huge, but it was a very welcome sight after our drought. We tried for another hour or so and the only action for us was when a fish picked up my minnow only to spit it out after only a few seconds.
Next stop, Cleveland Reservoir. Again, my wife waited in the car while I tested the water. Surprisingly, I got a quick hit from a black Blue Fox and reeled in a tiny planter rainbow. After that, nothing.
It's too bad that I don't have better luck at Cleveland since it's in such a pretty place. I'll have to keep after it.
http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii272/justisaurusbucket/IMGP2793.jpg
We still had quite a bit of daylight left and Huntington was right up the road, so we off we went for some scrappy tigers.
http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii272/justisaurusbucket/IMGP2804.jpg
http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii272/justisaurusbucket/IMGP2803.jpg
We stayed right on the fringe of rainstorms all day, but never ended up getting rained on. At least luck was on our side in that regard.
Reports at Huntington were of slow fishing, but I was determined to get something going. It wasn't very long and I had a decent sized tiger from a worm. It was about the same size as Sonia's cutt from Electric (no pic).
Shortly thereafter, my krocodile lure picked up a bronzy tiger:
http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii272/justisaurusbucket/IMGP2802.jpg
They always start coloring up pretty early at Huntington, I've noticed.
With dinner in the cooler and the sun getting closer to the horizon, we set off for home. En route, my wife finally got to witness the magic of being at the summit of the Energy Loop:
http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii272/justisaurusbucket/IMGP2808.jpg
http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii272/justisaurusbucket/IMGP2810.jpg
It seems like every time I take this route to go home, the view is always breathe taking. Forget the fish, just being there at that moment was reward enough.
Looking to the North, I could see that the rest of the drive would be somewhat less peaceful:
http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii272/justisaurusbucket/IMGP2813.jpg
Despite the lack of fish in hand, it was still nice to get to the healing grounds again.
Happy Fishing, Humans.