Fished Friday with Russ Johnson, Paul Dubriske and his son Ben. The Dubriske’s are the owners of Cut2Spec, innovators of the G2Jigger balls, Ski2jig and of course the Cee Dee Streamers. They came to Squam to bring us the prototype Ski2jig planer board to test. (see prototype page on their web site www.cut2spec.com)
The Ski2jig worked super and had many bites and several fish on, however not a one made it to the boat, lol. Seems the Dubriske’s (as well as many other Keene area guys) use strictly Braided Steel line and fly reel (1 to 1) They were not used to level wind (5 to 1) with lead core and/or mono as they had not used them in years. Quite a difference I can tell you as I can’t seem to get used to using steel myself.
At any rate I was a little nervous about how they were bringing fish to the boat but kept my mouth shut, who the hell am I to tell folks from long line of fisherman how to reel in a fish. The best fish came off the G2jigger ball jigging a “Ten-Ten” fly tied by Paul, I had it set on a real short line (back of the boat), I should have advised Ben that the fish would be real fresh and not be ready to be landed as it was a short line.
BTW, Cee Dee Streamers are super, very unique and effective streamers not to mention very rugged, check em out and try a few, they are not throw away streamers..
The next day at the same spot, fishing with Roger, I caught a 5.4 pound, 22” 2 yr old Salmon with the same “Ten-Ten” fly, set up the same exact way off the jig ball. That fish was the only decent fish landed all weekend, one other Bow Saturday and one small Bow Sunday.
So it seems Squam is in hibernation with all the heat or just plain fished out, fishing has been super slow the past few weeks with maybe one (usually decent) fish each 3 day weekend, not good.
The 2 year olds are just not showing up in the catch rate that much this year, the ones that do are now 22 to 23 inches, over 5 and fat. Unless they find allot of surprises in the nets this fall, Squam is in for a very rough year in 2010. The bite size 3” Salmon, they put in this year and last, are just not making it well and with low stock rates there are not many left it seems.. Other small lakes are having similar problems I’m told.
Unless we get a decent fish or hear of one getting caught, this will be most likely our last report this year, nothing to report..
BTW, if on Squam the next few weeks, note all the rocks you have been driving over all year, lol.. Every year they draw the lake down 2 months earlier than they are supposed to and the rocks are popping out everywhere, not to mention how many fish go out the river in the draw down..
Exactly, well they are allmost 3 yr olds now, we have caught a dozen or in this range and year class this year, some others may be a couple of inches smaller, but all at least 20"+ by now. Hard to believe I know, but we check the fin clips on every fish caught.
At first we thought they were natives because of no fin clip, but Fish and Game assured us they were from the 2008 stocking and were in line with net numbers from fall 2008 net totals.
Why do you think the call Squam the "Land of The Giants" Have you ever caught a small Salmon in Squam ??? There aren't any, they hide (or get eaten)and by the time we see them as 2 yr olds in the spring they are minimum 18" long and growing.
That small Bow you caught earlier was only 6 weeks old, lol.
