05-12-2011, 05:45 AM
Woke up this morning and stepped out on my deck over looking the clearwater to see about 20 boats in the mouth of the Clearwater my first initial reaction was YES!!!!!! it has begun.............. well i havnt really geared up yet or bought my tag so i opted to take my boy Burton down to Hells Gate and see if we could chase some small mouth because i figured it was getting warm enough for them to start prespawning a little. we got to hells gate around 10:00 am and started working the marina with our set ups (mind you my son is only 4 years old and he already fishes for bass like KVD he just has a hard time hooking them not tall enough for the leverage. but he has been able to ccast a spinning rod since was almost 3.) right off the bat i started hooking fish all good sized smallies. all around 1 to 2 lbs some a little smaller but i was suprised at the size of the fish i was landing in there. last year i only landed one 2 pounder in there the rest were all runts. my son was getting bites as much as i was but like i said he just cant get the hook set right and it frustrates him bad so i started hooking fish and handing it off to him. (which he didnt mind.) i was also equally suprised at how hot it was outside i looked over at my son and seen how red his arms and his neck was and realized i forgot sunblock so my son and i took a break and headed into the store at the marina and got a cold rootbeer and some fruit snacks and headed back down to the water. i hit 2 more fish right off the bat then the wind picked up and chopped up the water and started blowing dirt every where so we reeled em up and headed back in. there is a pic of the first fish i landed this morning right on the second cast.......well went home and sat in the cool house for a few hours and played video games with Burton and my daughter. well at about 5:00pm my wife was finishing up one of her finals so i grabbed both the kids and decided to go for a drive down to the river to see if i can find anybody bank fishing down by the railroad bridge got there and there were two people plunking down there so i stopped in and said hello and he turned out to be a very nice gentlemen. he told me he had been down there since 6:00am had not seen one fish landed out of all the boats and bank fisherman that were down there. he also said that fish and game had stopped by 3 times that day to heck fish and he asked them if they had checked any fish. the fish and game guy told him that he had only checked 2 fish all day and it was from a boat clear up by leanore!!!!!!!!! (What the Frick?) any ways thats the word. i figured a few more fish would have been caught today but it looks like it is gonna be any day now that it pops off with over 8000 fish over the lower granite as of yesterday. i think i will head out in the morning and see if i can catch a fish or see if someone catches a fish tomorrow morning.
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