they get awesome colors in this tailwater. very colorful and bright. they’re feeding down river from spawning browns, very easy fishing right now.
Not helping my urge to blow off work in favor of fishing......72 here after a cold snap, saw stuff hatching yesterday afternoon. I can't imagine there's a heavy feed going on, but I would just about donate a kidney to find out. Have to believe it will be a good spring for trout, as much rain as we had last year. (Set a record of over 5' for the first time, Central VA.) Never did settle on a 3wt last year, so I guess that needs to happen. Anybody know or throw the new Sage small water rod? Saw it in an ad the other day but can't remember the model name.
Caught the biggest Lane Snapper I've ever seen yesterday. Weighed in at over 5 lbs on the Boga Grips, 21". Spoiler Was disheartened when I saw red coming up from the deep, then saw yellow stripes and yelled "holy shit"
They are definitely out of all the different fresh water species I've caught. Fucking lunatics and I love it.
Go on a fishing trip with a good buddy every year and we caught 7 between 17"-19" in 4 hours of fishing last June. I boated 3 over 18 inches and those things will peel line. Most superior bass species.
the two big smallie rivers i fish have been averaging a few feet higher than any level i have fished them at. can't get anywhere right now to wade or canoe. :(
His first largemouth 16" Didnt have a scale This is taken right after he had to wipe away some major tears because i told him we were putting it back in the lake
Jake Scott has definitely caught a thing or two in Jacksonville. I dont think it had anything to do with a fish though. HTH
Really need my ass kicked for not being on the lake more. Crappie bought to pop down here. Bass already are.
next weekend should be a full weekend of fishing for me. im tempering my expectations as weather has been shit for so long
just drove over the James and its looking much less fucky. hoping for a dry spell to get the smallie rivers in good shape.
tva had the tailwaters bumping for about 3 weeks after the last run of storms. it finally slowed down to average flow now, still no relief from Duke at their tailwaters. pigeon and tuckasegee have been running 24hrs a day for the past month.
DNR will be socking the hooch starting again this week, Lanier is a foot and a half above full pool but they’re slowing down on the generations from he dam.
Good: Caught 7 trout on 3 different streams last Sunday. 4 natives and 3 12"ish stocked rainbows. Released them all. Less good: Snapped my "smaller" rod, an old Daiwa Kevlar/Graphite 8'6 that had come down through the family. Wasn't some major trauma or stupidity, just an old blank. It didn't owe me anything. Silver lining: Excuse to buy a new rod!
North Fork Buffalo Upper Pedlar Greasy Springs Bead Head Nymphs, and one on a light Cahill. Dry action should continue to improve as it warms up a bit. Spotted one rise and switched to the Cahill at the very end of the day.
Caught this slab today on a chatterbait. Not uploading right now. I’ll add it later. Monster crappie.
White bass run starting outside of Little Rock. Got boat out of shop this afternoon. Iffy weather tomorrow ggrr
My fiancé and soon to be 3 1/2 year old bonus son came up to stay at my house boat last night. Got to take him for the first time ever this morning. He caught 10 bream in about 40 minutes thought his face was going to get stuck in the smile he was wearing. So awesome.
A little more story to the above picture. 32 teams and only 5 fish weighed in, 4 from my brother’s boat. Upon launch, the outboard on my brother’s $2000, 20 year old boat would not start, starter went out. They had to staying within trolling motor range of the boat ramp to fish the tournament. They watched as all the other mostly $30-$60k boats tore off across the lake. My brother was extremely embarrassed but little did he know all those other teams were going to get skunked. He said at least outwardly, my nephew and his teammate stayed composed and just went about business. They qualified for the state tournament 1st weekend of May. And a 5.5lb smallmouth is legit.
First couple of catches for me and my buddy from early March on our ~80 acre neighborhood lake Spoiler: 3lb 7oz Spoiler: Chartreuse ChatterBait Spoiler: 3lb 10oz
First fish in the kayak. I was pretty proud of myself as I just kinda figured it out on my own. Definitely, have the fishing bug now.
Bought the 7'-9" TFO Trout Finesse 3wt on Friday. Feels like 90% of the Sage Dart (wet dream, imo) for about 500 less. Maiden trip in a couple weeks.....
the girl in their videos is a guide in Broken Bow and she's fishing about a half mile up river from the cabins I just bought on the lower mountain fork
Opening day for inland trout tomorrow, will post the inevitable results of being skunked after 6 straight days of heavy rain and blown out streams