|
HANG
UP THE HUNTING BOOTS AND GET OUT THE FISHING RODS!
By: Ron Wilson
February 5, 2004….
I left the house in
time to arrive at my cousin Blaine Wilson’s house at 6 am. Blaine was
waiting to hook his boat to my truck and go trout fishing at Lake Don
Pedro.
I looked up into the
sky and there were stars everywhere. It was going to be a beautiful day on
the water, no wind and the sun shining, I thought to myself, "what a way
to start my first fishing trip of the year."
Blaine jumped in the
truck and we headed for the lake. A little chitchat about family etc, and
before we knew it, we were at the stop sign near La Grange.
I turned left and
informed my cousin that we were in trouble. The light overnight breeze had
pushed the valley fog into the foothills and I could see a wall of fog on
the hills above the lake. We arrived at the Flemming Meadows launch as the
fog was really setting in.
We launched and I
pointed the direction to the buoy line for Blaine to drive the boat. Once
there I pointed the direction to Rogers Creek Arm, I knew we could find it
in the fog.
It sure is nice to be
familiar with the lake. I could recognize every hump and bump of the dark
shadowy hills that were barely visible as we drove by them. I told Blaine
that we were lucky, as I have seen the fog set in so thick that you would
be lucky to see the front end of the boat!
We arrived at the buoy
line in Rogers Creek Arm and started trolling a topwater rod and two lead
core rods. I had a blue/silver Ex-Cel on one leadcore and a blue/pink on
the other. The lead core was three colors at the water line while the top
water rod had on a dodger, three feet of line and a blue/silver Ex-Cel
lure. These are my big fish favorites for Lake Don Pedro.
We trolled the humps
and bumps in the coves behind the buoy line with just two hookups and
landed only a small trout.
Not what I was looking
for, so we moved outside of the buoy line and started trolling in a big
circle, hitting the first three points out in the main lake.
There were birds
diving and 10 inch Kokanee jumping along with some trout in the area. You
can tell which ones are the Koke’s by the way they jump several times in a
row. The fish were on the bite and we were about to get into them.
Blaine reeled in fish
after fish on the top water rod that was out 200 feet behind the boat. You
can always track the distance behind the boat by putting a small piece of
masking tape around the line at 200 feet or whatever distance is most
productive. This enables the line to come in and out freely and lets you
know how far out without counting line pulls.
Most of the action was
by top lining the lure. However, the fish were disappointingly small. I
asked Blaine about the size, he said they were bigger than what he had
been catching at New Melones.
I couldn’t help but
think back a few years when the DFG lowered the trout limit to five fish
and promised us some nice plants to make up for it! These plants were all
in the 10 to 12 inch class, not nice plants in my opinion!
We played catch and
release and ended up with 9 trout in the box by 9:30 a.m. and then headed
out looking for one big boy to take home.
I had lures dragging
from 50 feet deep to right on top of the water, the sun was out as we
trolled up past Jenkins Hill and into Big Creek and through my favorite
area of 49er Creek without so much as a hit. I wasn’t sure if we had left
the fish or they had just stopped biting.
We had fished 3 hours
without getting another strike so at 1:00 pm I said lets call it a day. I
looked at the almost full moon that had been up since 9:00 am and couldn’t
figure out why the fish hadn’t went back on the bite by now!
Oh well we did ok for
the first outing of the year; we had lots of fun and caught and released
lots of fish, about twenty-five all together!
The small trout are
near the buoy line in Rogers and I know there are some bigger ones there
also. But we never got them to bite for us!
The Kokanee fishing at
Lake Don Pedro this year is going to be fantastic. For the last couple
years everyone has been pounding New Melones and leaving Don Pedro pretty
much alone. |
