Lets Go Fishing!

[Terri Yaki]

I?ve tried a variety of baits and I found that 1/2 of a crawler on a hook works best. Cast and retrieve or get in the middle of the water flow on a creek and let the current pull the bait out as far as the creek allows without getting snagged. For a lure, I like a smaller rapala clown fish. If they haven?t quit making them. I bought a few of them the last time I found them.

[Lesgold]

Don?t take up fly fishing. It?s just as addictive as beekeeping. Heaps of fun flicking off flies, hooking up with trees and long grass and occasionally a nice trout.

[Terri Yaki]

Lesgold, you must be doing it wrong.

[The15thMember]

Cast and retrieve or get in the middle of the water flow on a creek and let the current pull the bait out as far as the creek allows without getting snagged.

"Without getting snagged" is the key.  Snagging is really common in our river.  It seems worse this year too for some reason; I have lost more hooks to snags this year than any other summer.  There seems to be more branches and sticks in a lot of places.  We did have a pretty significant flood not last year but the year before, so maybe that has something to do with it.   

Don?t take up fly fishing. It?s just as addictive as beekeeping. Heaps of fun flicking off flies, hooking up with trees and long grass and occasionally a nice trout.

But Les, you make it sound like so much fun! 

[Terri Yaki]

Getting snagged is part of the program and they all stock gobs of hooks for a reason. One other trick to my trade is...no sinkers. It does limit casting abilities but when floating the stream, it reduces snags. You just have to find stretches of creeks where snagging is minimized and don't go down as far as where the snags occur.

One time I was fishing with a know-it-all fisherman who 'taught' me all about what sinker to use and where to place it. He shore fished off of a peninsula and I went upstream and waded out onto a rock and fished the flow. I was literally fishing right in front of him and quickly nabbed three nice rainbow trout and had them on a stringer. Since I pulled them upstream to me, he didn't even know it was happening. He came waddling up after a while with a, "No fish, eh?" LOL

[The15thMember]

My dad usually rigs rods with 2 split-shots, but maybe we should try none or one.  Distance casting isn't usually that big of a necessity in our situation, since the river isn't very wide, and it's pretty easy to wade as long as the water is not too high.  Although I'm fairly certain nothing will work until we get some rain or they release some water from the dams for some other reason and the water level gets a little bit higher.  There are some places where there isn't even enough water to hold a fish right now.  And like they say on the fishing podcast I listen to, fish need water!     

[Terri Yaki]

Fish are always there unless they've been fished out. Trout like cold water, bass like warm water. Try no sinkers and stand in the middle of the river and let the current take your crawler out. After it's out as far as you're willing to go, slowly bring it in and work it to entice the fish. I use spinning reels and don't know how well that would work with a baitcaster. Why do they call them baitcasters anyway? They should call them birdsnesters.

[The15thMember]

The problem I think is that because the water level is so low, the water temperature is too warm, and then the trout are stressed and don't want to eat.  You always hear that the technique on a low water day is to fish the deep pools, and some days I see trout in the deep pools, but they just won't bite.   

[animal]

WTH !!! ? BIRDSNESTERS ?

Thou shalt not disparage the baitcaster; for it is good.
It marks the fisherman with flattened thumb and smooth callus. It layeth the lure between  knees of bald cypress and under the low hanging boughs.
By it's grace, the rod is imbued with accuracy and range. By it's strength, the largest of fish is hauled in. By it's simplicity, it's user becomes skilled. For the line must be felt as it feeds out, lest the cast go awry.
And Yea, though you might venture into salt water, it remains unvexed by steel leaders and heavy lures.

.... pretty sure that's in the Bible

[Terri Yaki]

The problem I think is that because the water level is so low, the water temperature is too warm, and then the trout are stressed and don't want to eat.  You always hear that the technique on a low water day is to fish the deep pools, and some days I see trout in the deep pools, but they just won't bite.

As I said earlier, there reaches a point where trout won't eat anything but a fly. I took my nephew fishing with me a couple of times in NY and he taught me something that you might want to try...He made a float/weight out of a dried stick and tied a fly onto his casting rod and tossed it out and fish hit on it. Since you know what those pools are and where they are, you'd have nothing to lose by trying that method.

Oh, and stand upstream of the hole and let the current drag your rig down into it.

[The15thMember]

Thanks for the tips, Terr.  I'll do some experimenting and see if my luck changes any.  We do have some rain on the horizon (supposedly), so maybe that will help too.