Fishing Forum

Smoke from a neighboring valley pushed me out of the house, so I went off to explore a little. I made a loop with a few side excursions for a couple of days. Had to dodge a few thunderstorms and wind on Tuesday afternoon, but I did get to fish a while at Weston and Deep Creek.

The trout were hungry at both reservoirs, and I think there must have been a new planting as some were fairly small. Oddly enough I didn't catch as many of the little bass or perch that are in Weston. I think it may have been the storms coming in as the wind forced me off of there. Then the weather got really nasty for the evening!

Deep Creek was low, but Weston is very low.
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This trout was nice enough to spit out four of these nice reddish brown chronimids for me to see. He was munching a very selective diet. [inline Trout&chon.jpg]


I also got a chance to explore a few smaller rivers and creeks off of the Bear River. I caught some nice little wild Bonneville Cutthroats. Frankly I am not sure what the differences are between the different cutthroats, but at least now I know I have caught Bonneville, Yellowstone, Snake River, Coastal cutts and Searun cutts. Side by side I might be able to pick out the differences, but for the most part I am pretty clueless! I have to go by what is exclusive to the area.

Here is one little Bonneville Cutthroat:[inline "Bonneville Cutt.jpg"]


Glendale was nice. I was there for the morning and there were only two other boats on the water. The water is very low, and if you want to see where the channels are in the upper part of the reservoir, now is the time. I looked for a place to launch in the upper part, but the water was quite a ways away from most of the usual places.

I launched at the boat ramp and stayed mostly up closer to the dam end. I think I should have gotten more ambitious and headed further up until I found the gills and crappie. I didn't catch any of them. I caught some nice trout and bass though. The bass ranged from about 13 inches up to about 16 inches.

[inline Bass.jpg]



The trout were from 10 inches to about 15. Most were 14ish.
This trout had some kind of parasites or baby leeches? on its fins. Anyone seen these before? Ishy ick!

[inline "Icky trout1.jpg"]

[inline "Icky trout2.jpg"]

Driving up through the Oneida Narrows was outstanding! The trees were in their fall colors and the river was nice and clear. I only saw one fisherman in the river and I didn't see anyone else fishing there or in Oneida Reservoir.

Pictures don't do the colors and scenery justice!

[inline Narrows1.jpg]


The Bear is lower and clear, but quite mossy.
[inline Narrows2.jpg]


The only fisherman I saw was this guy, who you can barely see, on the opposite side of the river and up on the corner.
[inline Narrows3.jpg]


Oneida was low but it sure was colorful and nice.
[inline "Oneida low&colorful.jpg"]

Oneida gave my two other "firsts"-- my first walleye on a fly and my first mirror carp on a fly. I caught several walleye, and they were all about the same size about 12 to 13 inches. The carp were so plentiful they were distracting. I would be focused on casting and WHAM--SPLASH a carp would jump right beside me. A few of them startled the heck out of me. The fish finder was a waste of time as it showed fish all over the place. Unfortunately it couldn't tell me the difference between a carp and a walleye or bass.

[inline "Small Walleye.jpg"]

My big fish of the trip:

This carp was a hoot to catch on a 5 wt fly rod and 4lb test line! She was really powerful and drug me all over the place. I don't know what she weighed, but she was over 26 inches long, and she did not fit in my net. I thought the pattern of scales on her was really kind of cool.
[inline MirrorCarp.jpg]



It sure is a beautiful fall!
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Sorry the post was so long! It wouldn't let me edit and fix the trout and chironomids picture so I thought I would put it here.
Hopefully changing the name fixed it.
[inline Trout-chon.jpg]
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Wow, you've been busy! I have to say I'm a wee bit jealous, but thanks for sharing. I've caught quite a few bass with the small leeches on them in the area reservoirs. Most of the time with the bass I find them in their mouths. I usually pull them off with my hemostats before I let the fish go. What part of Oneida did you fish? I may have to go up further away from the dam the next time I go up there.
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That was the first time I have fished Oneida, so I am certainly not an expert. I didn't catch any of the perch or sm bass there that I was hoping to.

I launched from the Maple Grove Campground Beach and just kicked along the shore up from there. I mostly fished along the rock points and faces northeast of there.

I drove out on to the beach and parked as the water was so low. Spent some time beach combing an amazing array of trash off of the beach -- from golf balls to sunglasses but mostly broken glass. I hate glass on a beach! That is such a nice shallow sloping area, I know kids wade it.

[inline MapleGr.jpg]

Nice rock faces -- I used a couple of other flies for a while, but a fly that was more crayfishy in color and size, bumped over the rocks did better.
[inline Oneida.jpg]
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To bad you didnt go just a couple hundred yards on east, up the res at glenndale. This time of year is when the gills and slabs are generally bitting like heck there. Its also where I nabbed my 6lber a while back. Good pics though and nice!
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thanks for the awesome post ! i have to go over there sometime. very cool looking area !
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I know that in retrospect I should have gone up Glendale further instead of spending my time in the deeper half. I was thinking that I would have to kick my way a long ways up to get to the better bass and panfish. I was still mentally picturing the reservoir as being full sized instead of half empty. Dumb! [blush]

How deep are the crappie and gills?
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Nice report! Glad you got into some eyes, just wishing I could get into some bigger ones.
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I take it that is the usual size then - about 12 inches for the walleye? I was hoping for some small mouth bass or perch too. The numbers of carp were unreal!

As I was driving out, I stopped and looked at the channel in the upper part of the reservoir in a couple of places. I didn't fish it as I didn't have time and was on my way home, but I did see some nice fish that weren't carp hanging close to some holes and structure in the stream. It definitely looked interesting.
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Sounds wonderful. I still haven't fished Oneida. I want to spend a couple of days there getting to know it.

Windriver
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I fished it for yrs and that's the sized I found to be normal. When I was up I seen some REAL nice size fish that didn't look like carp either. I would like to get back up their n see if any of them are biting.
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When I was fishing we trolled and I dont think much over 7-10 feet at most and a lot up higher. They seemed to come up and take what we were fishing with no matter the depth. At least thats what they were doing on my FF watching them.
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Thanks, I was curious if the fish I was seeing at 30 ft on the ff was them and they weren't biting, or if it was the trout that I was catching. The bass I caught were in shallower water too, so it figures.
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Im actually thinking that it was perch you were seeing at that depth there. Most trout I was catching at the same time were at the same levels as the gills and slabs. A few deeper, but even the 6lber i got was about 7-10 ft, but just a guess.
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I didn't even know that there were perch in Glendale. If I had realized that I would have made an effort to catch some. True,all the trout and bass that I caught were above about 12 or 15 ft. I will have to go back and spend a little more time!
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Depending on the day and time of year can get some nice perch there. Biggest Ive caught was right at 12". Not a lot but nice ones when you do get into them.

I think its the general for Glenndale, it seems to really produce nice size fish no matter what you get. Pretty steady fisheries even with all the ski boats that affect them. In some ways, Id love to see a motor size restriction on that resevoir. Would protect the banks and dam and even help the fisheries down the road, but probably will never happen. Where it has the bass size limit, I think it is helping, but, maybe a slot limit is better off. Catch a fair number under that, but, some of the smaller ones would be great to harvest so they dont over populate. Yet, there seems to be a great variation of feed for all the fish in there. To me its one of the better all round fisheries in the area.
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awsome report!!! im glad to see someone is able to get out and do a bit of fishing... to bad it takes something like a fire but i hope all is well. keep the reports coming guys i have had to do my fishing threw you guys pictures and storys for the most part this year
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