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PAY ATTENTION, THE FISH
WILL TALK TO YOU!
By: Ron Wilson
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Here's Harold with a few of our fish! |
July, 6, 2009.... After retiring last
year I learned pretty quick to control my fishing dollars so I could
fish more than a couple times a week. Putting a little pencil to some
paper I quickly figured out that
lake Don Pedro would be my stomping grounds for the year.
After several
black bass trips there and having paid the gate fees I have
gotten down my daily trips for gas and fuel for the boat to $25 dollars
a day of fishing for two. I don’t know about the other sports but for
fishing that’s about as cheap as I could get it.
This year things have really come
together for me. The Lake is almost full, the bass, trout and kokanee
fishing has been damn good. Here is a sampling of what we have been
doing for the last month.
We were pounding the bass, trout and
kokes at
the lake. Harold Wiley and I would start at first light fishing
for black bass for our dinner and put a few fish in the live well and
then around 10 a.m. we would switch to trout and kokanee. We would troll
around Jenkins Hill where the fish usually stacked up in different areas
according to which way the wind was blowing. Here we would pattern them
and we usually had our limits of kokanee and trout by noon and call it
a day.
As usual in June the bass started getting
harder and harder to catch and by July it was almost impossible to catch
enough black bass for dinner.
One thing I like about fishing is that
the fish will tell you what they want if you pay attention and get in
tune with them. Here are a couple things I learned last week.
Last Monday Ex-Pro
Black Bass Fisherman
Mark Seaters and I hit the lake for some koke action. Mark’s wife loves
to eat them and Mark is a all around fisherman like me who will fish for
anything and just loves to be in the outdoors.
The night before I rigged the boat and
added ball trolls, one side I had Vance's silver and gold blades and on
the other I chose some old cowbell blade ball trolls I had. The larger
blades throw out lots of vibration down there that draws the salmon to
them so I figured the large ball troll blades should do the same for the
smaller salmon, the kokanee. Well after my best koke lure a small pink
hoochie never had a hit behind them and the other side caught two kokes
I knew that the ball trolls were to much for the fish and they did not
like it. I took the blades off and downsized that side with a gold
Vance’s slim wiley and it was game on and we had our limit by 9 a.m.
I don’t like fishing, I like catching! With the black bass bite being so
tough I decided to forget fishing for bass and fish for the hard
fighting aggressive little
silver fish, the kokes!
Last Wednesday I took my son Donald to
the Lake for some R&R away from his plumbing business, Wilson Family
Plumbing. Like most businesses its slow and he is constantly worrying
about the two guys (friends) he has left working for him. I keep telling
him to kick them to the curb and he and my grandson Derick can handle it
along with me until things pick up. I guess that is the old way of
thinking. Anyway its fine with me that way I can stick to what I love to
do hunting and fishing.
I set up four rods on my downriggers and
we struggled all morning. A fish here and a fish there but no fast
action on the rods I had out. I used all kinds of lures and stuff and
around 11 a.m. I thought hey wait a minute the fish Monday didn’t want
to much junk in the water so I took two rods out and this did the trick.
The fish started to hit the cooper top spinner and small pink hoochie
like they were suppose to. I guess all the other baits in the water
scared them or confused them. The fish were talking to me again and
being hard headed it took me a while to listen. Guess my boy is a chip
off the old block.
My son had a great day and we let him
reel in all our fish. Don’t forget when your fishing kokes you don’t set
the hook, the fish have already set it for you. You don’t pump the fish
as they have tender mouths and you don’t want to add excessive pressure
and when they make there hard fighting runs free spool the line and let
them take it when they want until they tire out! Your there for the
fight so just relax, enjoy the fight and go with the flow.
Thursday Harold Wiley one of my fishing
friends likes to bake a trout for dinner about once a week so a lead
core line was added to the trolling setup.
We had been catching an occasional trout
while fishing for kokes at 50 feet. With this information and the depth
finder I use seeing suspended fish I knew that the trout were down at
least 30 feet so we would let out 5 or 6 colors of line on the troll for
them.
We stopped at the bait barn and Harold
was surprised when I grabbed a box of night crawlers to take with us.
I informed him that I knew what the trout
wanted all year long, a green spinner with a half
night crawler but being hard headed and set in my ways I didn’t
want to go there.
We set up at Jenkins Hill and started our
routine. Like dummies we had the lead core line rod setting in a cup
holder between us and not watching just waiting for the sound of the
clicker to go off. The first hour we caught a couple kokes and every
time we reeled in the lead core line we found no worm on it. The fish
were just eating it off and we never knew it. We finally put the rod in
front of us in a rod holder and then we could see the action. The large
kokes and trout would just nibble at the worm until they got it or they
finally got hooked. The biggest trout was around 3 pounds and he hit the
lure 3 times before he got hooked. Whereas the bass would slam it. Bass
yep, smallmouth, largemouth, crossbreds they were out suspended in 100
feet of water and chopping on the smaller 6 inch kokes that were in the
area. I guess the smaller silver dodger was attracting them and then
they would see the spinner and worm trailer and hammer it. We soon had
limits of trout and kokes and enough black bass for dinner.
Here I am 65 years old and the fish are
still taking me to school! |
