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I went out with a friend to test his new fishing kayak set up. We got to the mud creek launch around 9 am... to a windy snowstorm. Looking at the clouds I guessed the weather would blow over and we should eat some breakfast. By 10 am the weather had slowed but the W kicked up. We decided to cast from shore before calling it quits. We fished for a half hour before the wind died and the sun came out.
With this new weather we immediately readied our vessels and kicked out to fish the ice shelf. I tried every color, depth, and size wolly and leech patterns with no avail. I decided I was going to switch to bait and plastics... still no bites. I give up on the ice shelf and decide to lob my white zonker and brown bugger out to troll the northern shore. Shortly after I Left the ice shelf I got a hit, I set the hook fight the fish for a second and the line just goes heavy. I kick over to where the line was and find a snagg so bad I had to break the line... there went the only fish of the day between two. We stayed until DARK with no action. There were large fish rising just by the ice when the sun went down, I could not tempt them with any of my lures.
With a complete skunking stinking up my room I have planned a trip to blue lakes, Where I am hoping the warm springs will if nothing else wash the skunk smell off me and my gear.
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[cool][#0000ff]Sorry about the poor results. Strawberry can be fickle. Right now the fish are all transitioning to winter mode and nobody is really whacking them like they were a couple or three weeks ago.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Plus, you were fighting the double whammy of weather and moon phase. At least that is the excuse I would use if it was me.[/#0000ff]
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excuses are just that excuses. I have no excuse, nor do I feel I need one for this trip. if nothing else I was able to get out on the water and start using my tube, and my friend was able to test out his kayak set up.
Now I can focus my energy to fishing the Blue Lake. Any advice on what to tie up for fly patterns?
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[cool][#0000ff]First of all, you don't really need your tube. If you fish the big lake you have to walk quite a ways on a sometimes iffy "boardwalk"...across the muck. Better to just walk the shoreline and cast near shore for the bass. You can walk clear around the lake. Any streamer, bugger or leech will get them. Smaller patterns for bluegills and small dark green or black wets or nymphs for all species...including tilapia.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The smaller and shallower ponds, as you enter the area, have more tilapia and smaller fish but are easier to fish and you can fish near your vehicle without worrying about vandalism or breakins. Again, small dark patterns, a few feet deep, will probably work best. Sink tip of slow sink line.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]If you don't have to worry about your vehicle, with divers and others there to watch your gear, you can go to the far east side of the big lake and follow the canal/outlet for a ways out into the desert. A lot of fish leave the lake and go down there to forage for the water bugs. That is a good place to throw those flies but it is clear shallow water. Just like fishing for spooky browns on a spring creek.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]If you don't take the tube, at least take some boot foot waders. The banks are steep and deep in some spots but you can get in and wade at other points.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Good luck.[/#0000ff]
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Myself and many other long time fishers don't think of the Full Moon as an excuse but a fact.[cool]
I think the tube is a great idea as I read that lake is like 40' deep. Maybe the big guys are a little deeper.
I look forward to your return report.
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Thanks for the advice. I will be sure to leave a report when this happens. Looks like wed and thur are the days. Hearing multiple people tell me things about vandalism I think we will probably camp out in the desert and Drive to the lake each day.
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[cool] [#0000ff]I'm guessing that you have not personally fished Blue Lake. I took my tube the first time and wished I had not. Over a hundred yards of trudging gear over broken slats in the boardwalk and then having to launch off the divers steep bank site and a ladder. Not conducive to tubing. There are a couple of other spots you can launch but you can't find those by walking around the shoreline. It is a strait down drop about 6 feet most of the way around the lake. And, once you are afloat most of the fishing is within a few feet of the shoreline. We didn't catch anything that we could not have caught from shore. Getting back out through stinking black mud was worse than launching from a vertical bank. And I almost sank out of sight in a sinkhole before getting back to the divers area.[/#0000ff]
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I take it that was fairly recent. No I have not been there, but have fished some waters that as you say, drop off and it is jump and hope you hit the seat, and getting out a challenge to say the least.
It helps if you can take flippers off while in the tube.
I have no idea on the size, and the fact the fish are close to the shore line, but they got to be out deep also, and at times those are the biggies, at least from my experience.
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I will heed your advice TD. I will let my friends know the situation as well. As long as I get into some fish I do not care if it is dont floating or not. We are prepared for cold weather, and warm water.
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"I have no idea on the size, and the fact the fish are close to the shore line, but they got to be out deep also, and at times those are the biggies, at least from my experience."
[cool][#0000ff]The fish are NOT trout. They are "warm water" species like bass, bluegill and tilapia. They tend to stay shallow in warmer waters because that is where their food supply is. They usually only go deep in cold winters when their food supply also goes deeper. And that never happens in Blue Lake.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Another consideration is water chemistry. There are warm springs that boil up at the bottom. The water is highly mineralized and almost totally devoid of oxygen after many years underground. The most oxygenated water is nearer the surface.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]It is possible to find some fish deeper, but strangely they usually only go deeper when the divers are in the water. That is because the fish are conditioned to being fed by the divers. They often bring out pressurized cans of cheese spread for the fish and those wacky fish seem to love it. [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]As I previously mentioned, one of the main food sources for all species is a small water bug like this one. Even large bass are sometimes full of them.[/#0000ff]
[inline "BLUE LAKE FISH FOOD.jpg"]
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[#0000ff]They are found in the shallow water vegetation and in the roots of the rushes around the shoreline. That is where the fish go to hunt.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Of course all species also feed on the eggs and fry of the other species. Survival of the fastest and fittest.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Very few other invertebrates in the food chain. It is amazing that the lakes support any life at all.[/#0000ff]
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