06-13-2005, 12:55 AM
[font "Times New Roman"][size 3][black][/black][/size][/font][font "Times New Roman"][size 3][black]Fished Henry’s Lake from about 7am to 4pm yesterday. I would have liked to start fishing before 6am and fished until 9pm but wasn’t able to do that yesterday. The surface temp of the lake was close to 54 degrees every time I checked it. The fishing for us was still very good at Henry’s but I would say our catch rate was only about 2/3 of what it was on the opener. On the opener we caught fish all day long but yesterday we caught most of our fish by 10am. I talked to several other groups of fishermen at the boat ramp and all of them said they had caught at least a few fish. Other fishermen said they had caught a few on bait and flies but the most productive method seemed to be trolling. Everyone that was trolling seemed to be catching fish on different lures. I think the location of the lake, depth that the lure is ran at and speed of the lure is important than the specific lure used. One guy told me that a 12lb fish was caught out of Henry’s on a worm/marshmallow on Friday (6/10) but we didn’t catch any fish on bait after about 45 minutes of bait fishing. In the past we had done very well fishing Henry’s with bait in mid June but we still found trolling to be the most productive method for us. I’m guessing that this should soon change as the water continues to warm up but that is only my opinion. Unlike the opener we caught many more fish in the 16”-20” range with a good number of hybrids around 19”. The smaller fish were also still well represented in our catch as well as several larger fish. I didn’t get a measurement on the largest fish of the day. My brother just had me quickly unhook and release the fish he caught.
I did loose one hawg hybrid when it broke the split ring on my crankbait [unsure]. After hooking the fish I thought I could get away with tightening down the drag a little because I had 30lb braided line![[Image: bang.gif]](http://floridasportsman.com/art/bang.gif)
. At least the tighter drag helped encourage the fish to put on a good show for us by jump right behind the boat several times[
]. The picture in my mind of that big fish coming 3 feet out of the water will be something that won’t forget any time soon.
We kept a couple foul hooked fish this trip (20 1/2" hybrid and a 23” cutt) and thought I some you would be interested in some of the observations that I made about them. Their stomachs weren’t nearly as full as I expected but they were still very healthy fish. I would guess that their metabolism rate has increased as the water has warmed up so it just appears they are getting less food. If we had kept different fish then maybe we would have found some very full stomachs. In these two fish’s stomachs I found midge pupa, damsel fly nymphs and freshwater shrimp. The 20 1/2 hybrid that I caught still went 4 1/2 lbs so the hybrids still looked like footballs. The larger cutthroats that we caught weren’t as fat as the hybrids but they were still healthy. The 23” cutt weighed 4 1/2 lbs which is what I consider typical weight for a healthy 23” trout. The 23” cutthroats that we caught spilled out some eggs but had very few eggs left in its stomach which seems a little late for it to be spawning. I only took 4 or 5 pictures this trip but will post a few when I get the film developed. It might be a couple weeks or more before I finish off the role. I’d get a digital camera but for now I would rather spend my money on other fishing & hunting equipment[]. [/black][/size][/font]
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I did loose one hawg hybrid when it broke the split ring on my crankbait [unsure]. After hooking the fish I thought I could get away with tightening down the drag a little because I had 30lb braided line
. At least the tighter drag helped encourage the fish to put on a good show for us by jump right behind the boat several times[]. The picture in my mind of that big fish coming 3 feet out of the water will be something that won’t forget any time soon. We kept a couple foul hooked fish this trip (20 1/2" hybrid and a 23” cutt) and thought I some you would be interested in some of the observations that I made about them. Their stomachs weren’t nearly as full as I expected but they were still very healthy fish. I would guess that their metabolism rate has increased as the water has warmed up so it just appears they are getting less food. If we had kept different fish then maybe we would have found some very full stomachs. In these two fish’s stomachs I found midge pupa, damsel fly nymphs and freshwater shrimp. The 20 1/2 hybrid that I caught still went 4 1/2 lbs so the hybrids still looked like footballs. The larger cutthroats that we caught weren’t as fat as the hybrids but they were still healthy. The 23” cutt weighed 4 1/2 lbs which is what I consider typical weight for a healthy 23” trout. The 23” cutthroats that we caught spilled out some eggs but had very few eggs left in its stomach which seems a little late for it to be spawning. I only took 4 or 5 pictures this trip but will post a few when I get the film developed. It might be a couple weeks or more before I finish off the role. I’d get a digital camera but for now I would rather spend my money on other fishing & hunting equipment[
]. [/black][/size][/font][signature]