August 16 Fishing ReportWritten by Phil Lilley on August 16th, 2009
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The best fishing seems to be in the afternoons after the Corp starts releasing water from Table Rock Dam. Drifting from just above Lilleys’ Landing down well past Cooper Creek Access is the best area, drifting night crawlers or Gulp power bait on the bottom using drift rigs. A drift rig is a rig that’s wound on a small card, pre-made for easy application (cause you tend to lose alot of them!). They simply are a section of line from 36 to 48 inches long with a hook and a bell weight tied on each end. A loop is tied about 12 inches from the bell weight, that’s where it’s attached to your line via a snap swivel. The construction of the rig makes the bell weight bounce the bottom while the bait floats above the bottom as you drift downstream in current. Most rigs are made with 4 pound line, #8 short shanked hook and a quarter-ounce bell weight. A snap swivel, tied on your line, it attached to the loop in the rig. When drifting, keep the boat basically in the middle of the lake, off the side where you’ll find more snags on the bottom due to fallen trees and other obstructions. A trolling motor is a great tool to also keep the boat side ways in the current, letting everyone on the boat drift in a way as to not get tangled with his fishing buddies.. Feeling the difference between the weigh bumping the bottom and a fish bite is always THE big question when drift fishing. The best answer is… experience. Once you’ve hooked a couple of rainbows, you’ll know the difference. You’ll feel the weight bouncing along the gravel – bump, bump, bump… most of the time bumping and letting go, even if the bump sticks little, it will let go. A trout will pick up the bait and pull, not bump. It may shake its head — that may feel like a bump but it will be a pull – bump – pull… it won’t let go. That’s your signal to set the hook! If you’re using a night crawler, hook it one time in the collar, break off the tail and let the worm hang off each end of the hook. Don’t wind it around in a ball like you do for blue gill or catfish. Make it look natural. Hiding the hook doesn’t help. Now setting the hook when using worms is different than when using power eggs. Eggs, you set the hook immediately. Night crawlers, you have to let the trout take the worm a little. I usually keep me rod high in the air when drifting and when I get that bite, I let the rod down slowly, actually letting the fish pull it down as he’s biting, then set the hook. Try it both ways and see what your success rate is. Contrasting colors of eggs seem to work best. White and another color — pink, orange, chartreuse — are the best. Berkley’s make other colors of eggs that will work too. Anglers are more picky about their colors than trout most of the time. Try running an egg up the hook and then add a small section of a worm to the hook. Generation patterns have been keeping consistent this week. Water off in the mornings, coming on about 2-3 pm and running till dark. Most days, they’ve been running 3-4 units at 10 feet, which is quite a bit of water.
I noticed a gentleman trolling a small nickel spoon downstream yesterday afternoon in front of Lilleys Landing and catching rainbows. He was doing pretty good. Fly fishing continues to be fair – from a boat in the trophy area or wading below the dam. I’ve heard reports, anglers saying they see lots of rainbows just below the dam but can’t get them to bite on anything. One thing about that account… to see lots of trout means there’s no wind, no chop on the water’s surface. That’s not good. Trout do get real fussy when it’s that still, and it has been still in the mornings here. Now, in saying that, the areas below the dam where there’s moving water (above outlet #2, rebar and some of the water above the boat ramp), trout will feel more at ease and tend to take a fly without reservation. We tend to strip soft hackles, cracklebacks, woolies and other streamers in these areas. Also, drifting midges and scuds work here too. And as mentioned before, dropping in line size is a must – 7x fluorocarbon best. Throwing jigs above Fall Creek is still a good way to catch a few fish. Two-pound line, 3/32 oz sculpin jig and work it off the bottom. Other colors are brown, black, olive, white and combination of sculpin/ginger and brown/orange. One-sixteenth jigs will work too. When the water starts running, go to 1/8th oz. I got this evening for an hour before dark. They had been running 3 units but were starting to drop it out by the time I boated to the dam. I drifted, working 1/8th oz sculpin jigs off the bottom and picked up 2 quick rainbows at rocking chair, then 2 more close to the boat ramp. Back up for another drift – caught 3 more bows before running out of daylight. Fall Creek is shoring up their bank in preparation for reinstalling their dock.
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Catching has improved this week. Is it because of the cooler temps? Or is it because MDC has stocked more rainbows… hungry rainbows!! Either one, catching is much improved this week.
Still fishing was been tough. Mornings have been still – no wind – and it’s usually tough getting trout to bite under calm conditions. Any fishing is tough when it’s dead still, but not impossible. We’ve been telling our clients the best chance to get bit now is to drop to 2 pound line. Keep moving around when fishing from a boat, or even if you’re on the bank or a dock, throw your bait in different areas. Don’t leave it out more than 10 minutes in one spot. I’m not a fan of constantly moving your bait though, like slowly reeling it in or pulling on it every 10 seconds. Trout seem not to like that, in my experience. Float your bait — inject air in a worm or use power bait that floats.
