Big (and Rough!) Water Smallies

[Paul Roberts]

Got an invite from a buddy, our UPS driver up here and one heck of an outdoorsman. I'd spend a day in a boat or hunt camp with him anytime. And did. We hit a local high elevation canyon reservoir hoping for a jerkbait bite. It's a steep sided water plummeting to 100ft quickly. ST was 52-54F and 50F at 10ft. When the wind came on strong ST's eroded to 51-52. Fished those steep sided shorelines where there was large chunk rock. Predominate prey we looked for in the main lake were schools of smelt, evidenced by sonar and wounded smelt floating near the schools. Smelt were mostly in 20 to 100fow. We caught our fish where smelt, and structure, met inside of 20ft. Seemed to be few fish any shallower.

 

But... the wind made it hell on us, despite a drift-sock and Spot-Lock. Too much of the time, when the wind kicked up heavy, we weren't actually "fishing", despite lines in the water. Kinda had to hope the fish would hook themselves. Caught a couple in between blasts in the main lake, then as the whitecaps grew we headed for a cove. But the NE wind came down the pipes of that cove too, flushing the pontoon boats out of there. We found a lee below a big cliff, creating a big eddy, and started marking fish. I thought stocked trout, but some, at least, turned out to be smallmouth. We then spied a point bar with the wind blowing on it, set the Spot-Lock on, and whacked 4 right away, on a jerk and a small swimbait. Then the troll motor batteries went, and with it our boat control. So we called it a day and ran back on whitecaps. Very cool outing. Awesome lake.

 

 

Just before the blow...

 

Wads of smelt.

 

First fish in the boat.

 

A good one for this lake.

[Tennessee Boy]

Beautiful lake and some nice looking fish.  Thanks for sharing.

[A-Jay]

Nicely Done Paul ~

Congrats

A-Jay

[roadwarrior]

[The Bassman]

1 hour ago, Paul Roberts said:

Got an invite from a buddy, our UPS driver up here and one heck of an outdoorsman. I'd spend a day in a boat, or hunt camp, with him anytime. And did. We hit a local high elevation canyon reservoir hoping for a jerkbait bite. It's a steep sided water plummeting to 100ft quickly. ST was 52-54F and 50F at 10ft. When the wind came on strong ST's eroded to 51-52. Fished those steep sided shorelines where there was large chunk rock. Predominate prey we looked for in the main lake were schools of smelt, evidenced by sonar and wounded smelt floating near the schools. Smelt were mostly in 20 to 100fow. We caught our fish where smelt, and structure, met inside of 20ft. Seemed to be few fish any shallower.

 

But... the wind made it hell on us, despite a drift-sock and Spot-Lock. Too much of the time, when the wind kicked up heavy, we weren't actually "fishing", despite lines in the water. Kinda had to hope the fish would hook themselves. Caught a couple in between blasts in the main lake, then as the whitecaps grew we headed for a cove. With the odd NE wind it came down the pipes of that cove too, flushing the pontoon boats out of there. We found a lee below a big cliff, creating a big eddy, and started marking fish. I thought stocked trout, but some, at least, turned out to be smallmouth. We then spied a point bar with the wind blowing on it, set the Spot-Lock on, and whacked 4 right away, on a jerk and a small swimbait. Then the troll motor batteries went, and with it our boat control. So we called it a day and ran back on whitecaps.

 

Very cool outing. Awesome lake.

 

 

Just before the blow...

 

 

Wads of smelt.

 

 

First fish in the boat.

 

 

A good one for this lake.

And I especially like that baitcaster. (mid 80's Shimano?)

[Paul Roberts]

1 hour ago, A-Jay said:

Nicely Done Paul ~

Congrats

A-Jay

Thanks, Andy. It could have been MUCH better. I tried RW's chant to calm that wind, but for some reason it didn't work.

1 hour ago, The Bassman said:

And I especially like that baitcaster. (mid 80's Shimano?)

Yes! Bought it new in... ~'84? The rod is also that vintage, a prototype a Berkley rep gave me. It was a pistol grip but my wrists couldn't handle it, so I lopped a handle off a small downrigger rod and made my first long-handle casting rod. Also in the boat with me was a Skyline M spin rod I bought new in 1981 for $65; A lot for me then. Both outfits are GoTo's to this day. In fact, all my fish on this outing were caught on those two outfits. Viewers on my channel will comment on my vintage or "retro" gear. I respond, "That's not retro, that's just my stuff!"  When my buddy commented on them in the boat I told him both rigs will go with me to my grave. I have big after-life plans you know. :))