A couple of fellow BFT members joined me for a redo at Electric Lake. Arrived at the ramp and threw out my two minnow traps. Only caught one minnow in one trap, but the other trap, in less than 20 minutes, caught enough to supply us for the day.
It took us a few hours to find the fish, but when we did it was fairly steady action until the bite died off about 4 PM. We caught about an equal mix of tiger trout and yellowstone cutthroat. The largest fish went just over 17 inches and many were nice heavy fish. All but one fish were caught on tubes, tipped mostly with cut bait red-sided shiners. A little surprisingly, the top color for tubes was yellow. Casting and retrieving only yielded a few fish, but dropping straight down (my favorite method of fishing for trout) was working. Always fun to fish for tiger trout, because they are so aggressive. We had many fish follow our tubes right to the boat. I wasn't paying close enough attention, when I reeled in once, and had one jump out of the water, chasing my tube as I lifted it out of the water.
Nice day of fishing with Neldon and Nate.
No fishy pictures, but I did get an interesting shot of a shoe tree near Thistle.
[inline "Thistle shoe tree.jpg"]
And here is a link to some better pictures.
[url "https://www.flickr.com/photos/hauntedmind01/17374698991/in/photostream/"]Link [/url]
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It was a great day fishing even though I didn't catch my share. I especially enjoyed the wind, rain, and even a little sun.
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Sounds like you had a real fun trip to Electric. I've never taken my boat up there. Is the ramp such that I could easily launch alone, and tie up the boat while I park the truck?
That's a pretty impressive shoe tree.
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The ramp is concrete, narrow (you have about 2-3 feet on each side of of the tires before they fall off the side of the ramp) and fairly long, but it is straight. There is no dock. If it is not too difficult to access your boat from the bow you could launch it by yourself, walk down the bank a little ways, or just leave it on the ramp, and throw your anchor on shore to hold your boat while you park your tow vehicle (along the side of the ramp).
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I forgot to add that on the days I have launched from there (Friday July 3rd and last Saturday) there were less than a dozen boats each time using the ramp, so you don't need to worry about having to get out of the way so someone else can use the ramp right away.
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Thanks for the report. I'm heading down that way next week and am trying to decide which BOW to visit. Is that a good place for shore fishing, too? And was your minnow trap homemade, I'm curious?
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I have done OK shore fishing up there using whole minnows under a slip bobber. If you shore fish head past the boat ramp down near the end of the road, or at the end of the road. The water is deeper down there. You can also access it from the road on the south end, and you should be able to fish from the shore on that end.
No my minnow traps were not homemade, except that I spray painted them a dark green.
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Thanks for the info Kent, that's just what I needed to know. I'm going to plan on taking my tent and doing an overnighter at one of those FS campgrounds. Too hot for me down here in Utah Valley! And it'll be midweek, so maybe not many people around at all.
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Sounds like a great trip Kent, I guess you did not try for any Kokes?
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[#0000FF]Nice.
What seemed to be the best depth where you found the fish?
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[quote wiperhunter2]
...I guess you did not try for any Kokes?
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You guessed correctly.
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[quote TubeDude][#0000ff]
What seemed to be the best depth where you found the fish?
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Anywhere from about 28 to 32 feet deep. Not sure the depth was as critical as fishing in the right hole. We found a few scattered fish but very few and zero hookups until we finally moved to a hole that had treated me fairly well on my earlier trip. We caught every fish within about a 100 foot radius. A really strange trip in that regard.
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Love that show tree.
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[#0000FF]I had a similar experience on my last fishing trip to Electric...before they enacted the mussel restrictions. I found a small area where one of the little springs came in and the fish (all cutts at that time) were stacked up around there like a hatchery pond. They had a ball of shiners corraled and a cast into their midst was almost guaranteed to get a whack. But twenty feet away...in any direction...and you din't get nuttin'.
Fishing can be more like hunting sometimes.
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Yep, there was a small spring running in where the fish were. I also figured it was likely the reason the fish were concentrated in that small area. I also thought there may have been an unseen spring underwater.
We experienced the same thing the trip before; however, besides the two concentrated areas we found more scattered fish on the first trip.
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I had a great time. Thanks for taking me with you Kent. I had a lot of fun catching them on the tubes and cut bait. It's always fun to learn new ways of fishing.
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Thanks for the report! I will be up in that area from the 23rd to the 29th and plan on giving Electric Lake a try. Does anyone know if you can launch a tube/toon on the south end?
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[quote T2EK]
Does anyone know if you can launch a tube/toon on the south end?
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Depends upon your definition of the "south end". I wouldn't recommend you try carrying one down the dam, but you could take the old road that is west of the dam and drive right down to the water.
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This helps a lot. Thanks!
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There is a sign as you start down the road by the dam that says you cannot launch from anywhere but the top end of the reservoir because of the AIS.[unimpressed]
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