My brother (Skittles) and I fished a 1/2 Derby this weekend. 5am til 5pm Friday and 4:30am til 11am on Saturday. Had to go work at some ol' coots house after that... LOL. Just kidding Saltmeister!
We had a great time as usual. Some weird stuff sure does come across the vhf during derby weekend, doesn't it???
We targetted lakers Friday, since we haven't seen/heard of too many big salmon yet this year. Hoped our chances would be better to catch a big laker. Well, we found the lakers... big quantity... but nothing over 21 in the boat. Actually, I lost one that was an enterable fish... shook the hook... but he doesn't count. Only caught two salmon while hunting the lakers in the morning.
After 11:30 the laker bite died right off for us... so we went in search of salmon. It was so flat and bright, we had a heck of a time hooking up. Managed a few more fish til 5pm and then called it quits.
Saturday morning we had no plan. Just hoped to spread the lures through the water column and find some biting fish. It was a lot slower than Friday, but we did find biters... nothing big again.
All our fishing was with flies and lures. Mostly 2 and 3 colors of lead produced. However, we did catch fish on flat-lined mono (both salmon and lakers right on top), 1/2 color, 1 color and 8 to 20 feet on the riggers.
Most fish were found from 15 to 30 feet of water for us.
Unfortunately, one area we found the salmon and trout also held spawning bass. Luckily, we didn't interupt many of them. LOL. Was kind of wondering if the cold water species may be feeding on the bass eggs??? Anyone know? We weren't marking much for bait pods in those areas.
Funny thing was... we marked a lot of bait pods in deeper water, but usually no fish in or near those pods.
We didn't keep a single fish. Anyone cut one open to see what was in their bellies this weekend? We saw a lot of finning salmon on Friday, but couldn't entice them with trolled goods. They were sipping flies off the surface, several times right beside the boat! I'd have paid good money for a dry fly at that point!! LOL.
No entries for us, but definitely a good time. Was good to be at the awards and see many familiar faces claiming prizes.
It was a very good time, that spot you put us on really produced a ton of fish, although the ton was BASS!! haha
It was neat seeing thr Salmon finning on the surface and we pulled in a bunch of lakers form this spot. Its funny, my previous 2 years fishing the derby, we never caught a single laker. This year more than 15 of them....I dont get what we did differently??
Regardless, it was a great time and I am already looking forward to next year.
I caught a 3 lb 20" rainbow on Friday. When I opened his belly I found 3 snails, 1 wasp, and 1 cigarette butt. I almost hooked a cigarette but on a hook Saturday when the bite was slow.
