So with all the nice trout I've been catching at one of my usual bass haunts, and with the colder temperatures, I decided, "Why not go to a reservoir that's managed for trout?" Well, I headed to Treasureton with only my fly rod this time, and this happened.
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I've never heard of bass coming out of there, so I was quite surprised. They even fought more like trout. Weird.
I missed about half a dozen fish that felt rather troutish, but they weren't loading up on the rod like they usually do. The water was quite murky and down to 48 degrees, it was pretty slow fishing overall. The area I wanted to fish had a whole bunch of tubes, pontoons and a canoe fishing it. I did see one guy catch a trout, but that was it.
Overall not worth the drive or the numb feet. I think I'll go back to my bass pond and catch some trout next week.
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Trout where the bass are supposed to be and bass in the trout pond. Sorry, but that really is a bit hilarious. [laugh][laugh]
Either way you still manage to catch some nice fish, even if they are the unexpected.
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I do seem to have a knack for catching fish that aren't supposed to be there. I'm just glad I didn't get skunked.
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Yup - in my book, any tug is a good tug - especially when it's a GOOD tug! Are those smallies?
Got a bud at work always talking up going to Treasureton, and he's a pretty trout-focused fly fisher.
Maybe all the canoe guys were on 'em.
Just goes to show - ya never know. Nice fishes all the same.
I was in I.F. a couple years ago to the Fly Tying Expo. After the show we hit the Snake at a section we always try. There are some Car the size of full grown Cocker Spaniels and 30+" brown. River was slow and deep, so...how about a Chironomid at 7' under an indicator. First cast, went bobbing along then under. It was a branch under water. Roll cast a little shorter to try to miss the branch. Indicator went down and I thought, okay, that is a bigger branch, but then it took off up stream.
It finally broke the surface with its back. I yelled to my nephew, "What the heck, are there bass in here?" Yup, 19" small mouth on a red with black rib Chironomid.
I was told they planted Bass in a lot of Idaho waters because then are such a hardy fish and people love the sport. I sure didn't mind[laugh]
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That's awesome. You wouldn't think of bass eating a chironomid, but I know they do. And 19" is a dang good one, better than any I've caught. I need to hit The Snake someday when I have more time for travel.
The thing that surprised me about the bass was that Treasureton is managed as a trophy trout lake, I didn't think they would want them in there. I don't mind, overall they're my favorite thing to catch.
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They're actually largemouth I believe. Their markings are pretty faint to non existent because of the murky water.
Maybe they did do better where they were fishing. I wanted to fish over by the inlet at the upper end because it seems like the fish are up pretty shallow in the weed beds right now, plus current is always good. It may have just been the cold and murky water too.
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I guess they figure they can co-habitate together. I know they did fine at Mantua.
And Jordanell. They are a blast for sure, and sorry I didn't get a picture, I really planned on it. It was laying in a small puddle between the rocks on the shore because it threw the barbless hook into my hand. After I removed the hook from my hand, I think we both realized there was no reason for that bass to stick around and it took off...DUH!
Seeing it scoot across the water with it's back out was so cool though
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Oh yeah, they don't seem to interfere with each other at all. A couple of my favorite bass ponds in the area have some very respectable trout as well. Like this one:
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I didn't get any measurements as I didn't want to over handle the fish in my cramped little tube, but it was certainly a surprise.
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