Hit Chesterfield early this morning. As we were driving through Lava my windshield wipers couldn't keep up with all the rain but the showers soon moved south. We didn't see the sun till 10:30, then it got roasting hot. The bite was on right away but the big guys were not biting. We landed over 40 in the 12-18 inch range. Around 1:30 my dad hooked into a monster. He uses a 9 foot steelhead rod with 26lb. lead line with a 12lb. leader. Not very fair you may say, but not much gets away. This fish was ripping his line out so fast and hard he couldn't get his rod out of the holder. So I stopped the boat, still couldn't get rod out of holder, finally....battle on, after 10 minutes it just popped off. I heard my dad make a whimpering noise and asked him what was that? He said that in 75 years he has never hooked a rainbow that big, once in a lifetime fish. He felt over 10lbs., never had my dad make a comment like that. Anyway he says why don't you turn around and go back through that hole again. Lightning never strikes twice right? CRACK, BOOM, WHAM, down goes his rod again, I didn't touch a biggie all day. This time I cut the motor, reeled all lines in and we landed this one proper. 5lbs. 7oz. by the scale, very respectable. No better way to spend the day than fishing with the old man! Here's a picture.
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Nice fat fish. Congrats to your dad!
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What a beaut!
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Nice fish!
Too bad water levels are LOW.....I wonder what the forecast is for the fish(survival) and water levels at the end of the year......
Daniels looks low too....
I found all the little fish in those resevoirs last week nothing over 14" for us....
thanks for the report....
Match
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It was a shock to see the docks completely out of the water already. Can't be much ramp left under water. The deepest spot we found in the hole lake was only 26 feet. It will be a mud hole by the end of summer. Is there any laws the allow for it to be drawn down only so far?
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Unfortunately there is nothing stopping them from a complete drain, there is a mutual agreement, but that agreement says if needed they can completley drain reservoir. They are well on their way as well as the portneuf, it seems high above lava but only because it havnt entered the ditches yet. From the marsh valley canal down is just barely moving along.
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Just tried a new pecan crusted trout recipe on the fish from Chesterfield. Egg, ground pecans and flour, fry fish. Made sauce with rosemary, tyme, white wine, lemon zest, shallots, heavy cream, and orange juice. Lordy me! Fantastic.
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Dang, you could cook a piece of an old tractor seat with that recipe, and it would taste good!!! With trout it must have been amazing!
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Nice report and nice fish. Can't believe the reservoir is so low and can possibly be drained past a survival level. Seems like a travesty.
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Unfortunately, being drained used to be an every other year occurrence at Chesterfield. It has been better the last 5-10 years. I know that F&G and many others have worked to get a survival pool, but I don't know if they got it, or got enough water rights to cover really bad years.
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