Just got back from the gorge on tuesday. This was my first time out there and boy, what a place! I can see why the fish grow big there. Not that we did all that great, but boy what a good time. We fished Anvil Draw on Monday. Had one on as soon as we got down the hole and we both lost it. Fished every where that day from 80' to 20' using everything in the box and with any bait we could think of. No fish. Talked to a couple of guys from Green River Wyo. they had 2 pups -22 to 24 inches- and had been there all morning. They caught them in shallow and were using marabou jigs and mealworms. They also said that it had been 10 years since they had seen ice like this on the lake. It is frozen clear up past Buck board. We moved over to just south of the pipiline, and had some hits but never hooked up. Got up the next morning in Green River, and it was -13.[shocked]Thought we'd freeze our [url "mailto:a@@es"]a@@es[/url] off but by the time we got back to the lake it was a balmy -1. We fished alot deeper that morning -120'- and I finally hooked up. Got it part way up and lost it! Almost chucked my pole in the hole. Five minutes later my second pole hooked up and I managed not to screw this one up and put a 24 incher on the ice. Not the big one I was hoping for but by that time I was ready to fish for rainbows.... My buddy had a hit right then too but couldn't keep it on. This all happened at about 11:00 in morning. We were using big glo bucktails, tube jigs, chub minnows on anchovy hooks, you name it we tried it. I had all of my hits on a bucktail tipped with sucker meat. Never saw alot of fish on the fishfinder but learned alot and I'm ready to try again. Ice was well over a foot thick and clear under what snow is on top. Drove my truck anywhere we wanted to go but a wheeler would have been nice and no problem to move around with. We'll try and go again before too long.
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If you reel a mack up a ways and have it get off, don't throw your pole, or even reel on up -- immediately drop your jig back down, and you may get him on a second, third, or even more times. I have hooked the same mack multiple times at Bear Lake, even one hit it a second time, after I reeled it up at least 20 feet.
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I tried to get him to hit again. He apparently moved over to my second pole and I caught him there. But I've noticed that too up at Fishlake that most times they will come right back if given the chance.
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Your kidding right? [
] they will hit again even after feeling the hook, and being reeled up 20 or more feet? thats incredible. [cool]
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Dead serious, and many other fish will also do this when one is vertical jigging. I had a cutt at Strawberry hooked for a brief moment, and get off at least 10 times, one night last summer at Strawberry, vertical jigging with a minnow.
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Yep, if i get a hit vertical jigging, 9 times out of 10 I can put it back to him and he'll take it. Do it all the time with trout, any trout. We float tube on the Boulder and jig for BIG brookies and thats the best way to entice them. They can't stand it for long. If you keep putting it back, sooner or later they'll decide they've had enough and get serious with it. Caught some dandies that way there. Its murder through the ice too.
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[font "Arial"][size 2]Had the truck on the ice, or just getting around the lake? Thanks for the report I have always wanted to go try to get a big mac from the Gorge. Only fished there once for smallies in the spring, that was a blast.[/size][/font]
[font "Arial"][size 2]Troutboy[/size][/font]
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One of funny things that I have watched while fishing with BLM is him trying to get a pup cutt or mack to get off of his line. He will reel it for a few turns and then let his line go totally slack. Often, the fish will get off when the line goes slack, and then turn around and hit his jig again and get hooked. This would happen repeatedly with some fish. I haven't caught the quantity of large fish that he has caught, so if I hook a fish 20 inches long or so, I am going to do my best to reel him in. He will likely get put back into the water to be caught another day, but I still get pleasure in landing them.
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Not quite that brave!!! We could get the truck down to where we wanted to go out on the ice everywhere we went. Not a ton of snow up there. But then, it doesn't look like that country would get a bunch of snow anyway... Nothing like southern Wyo. to make you wish for a tree!!!!
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[cool]Hey Brookie,
You should make sure your reel is set right, that would probably help thing out when you set the hook!!
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Oh, you one funny guy!!!! Who oout fished whom?????????
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