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THE
WEATHER ISN'T THE ONLY HOT THING AT DON PEDRO
By Ron Wilson
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Donald with two Pedro trout in the 2-pound class
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August 14, 2003.... As an outdoor writer
I have an opportunity to meet everyday people with the same passion and
love of hunting and fishing as I do.
Last Friday I met another outdoorsman,
Thomas Hall M.D. Not sure how well he can fillet a fish, but I know
first hand how skillful he is with a surgical instrument.
The good doctor had to do a little minor fillet on yours truly!
People who enjoy the outdoors come from
all walks of life and what I have found over the years is that they all
put their pants on one leg at a time. The outdoors more then anything
brings people to the same level. There are no rich or poor, smart or
ignorant, just a group of individuals with a common interest.
Saturday I stayed home, took it easy and
did a little yard work.
I’ve been having a ball at Don Pedro
the past few weeks, so Sunday I called my son Donald to see if he wanted
to go catch a few trout.
We got a late start, but since he works
hard all week with his plumbing business, I let him get some rest.
We arrived at the lake at 9:00 a.m. and
headed towards Jenkins Hill. I set up everything with Blue/Silver Ex-Cel
lures. Last week I found this bait worked best and the magic depth was
50 feet.
We started at the narrows and trolled
toward the separation between Ramos and Rogers Creek.
I’ve made a mental note in my mind from
many years on Don Pedro. I can still envision the creek channels running
together there. The trolling pattern would be from the point at Jenkins
Hill to the Ramos Creek channel and back.
Donald was soon fighting his first trout.
It was a nice one in the 2-pound class. A couple jumps and he was in the
net.
We put 5 nice trout in the box and then
the bite just died.
The shad balls were present and we could
mark fish on the graph, but they just were not interested. They would
look the lures over but that was it. We could watch the fish on the
depth finder; they would come up to our lures but then just turn off
without a strike.
Donald tried a shad pattern Apex but the
fish didn't want that either. We just kept plugging away, trying to
figure out what shut off the bite.
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A nice Chinook Salmon to go along with the trout
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As I made a turn off the point at Jenkins
Hill we finally had a fish take the lure. This fish was different as it
just dug deep instead of coming to the surface. When he did finally show
himself, it was a nice salmon in the 2-pound class.
Donald quickly hooked and released a
couple more salmon as I trolled back toward Ramos Creek.
We had been catching trout that were
feeding on inch long shad at 50 feet, and now we were hooking salmon in
the same area.
I don't know where they were all morning,
but at 11:30 they started biting!
We caught and released a few more salmon,
and then suddenly the trout started biting again! And we were still
trolling in the same area!
We finished out our limit of fish and
called it a day.
It was a great day. Nothing quite beats
spending time with my son, catching fish, talking about business and the
future.
Donald’s goal is to make enough money
so he can retire at a young age. My goal is just being able to retire
and play when I want to.
I play hard so it’s going to take a
fair chunk of change in the bank for me to quit working and just play
like I want to!
I may not end this game
a rich man, but nobody will ever accuse me of not playing hard and
enjoying life!
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