10-18-2003, 05:29 PM
[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]Tightline, my friend Ron, and I met up Friday to try our luck on the Bear and see if we could persuade the spawning macks to bite. Now ,I don't know if any of you have fished the spawn before but it can be a time of year when you maybe able to hook up on a big mack close to shore or it can be a time of frustration because the fish are not really interested in anything else but reproducing. Hunger or eating is not a factor. With that in mind, you need to try a few different tactics.[/size][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]Tightline got to the marina around 2:00am and fished the dikes in front of the marina. I'll let him report on his early fishing. We met him at the marina at around 6:15am and preped the boat in the dark. We discussed what we wanted to try and how we wanted to fish it. With that in mind we head out of the marina watching the crowd on the dikes trying to latch on to a spawning lake trout from the shoreline.[/size][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]We headed for the rock pile, a typical area used by spawning macks and checked it for fish. Sure enough there were fish at the base of the pile as you move out into deeper water you could see abundant amounts of fish to about 65 ft deep.[/size][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]Since the weather was so calm, we decide to drift and jig, using the slight breeze to drift from 65-70 ft to the rock pile and repeating the process several times. It seemed as the day grew on, the fish moved to deeper water.[/size][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]Since the macks were spawning, and not eating, jig selections were made to induce protective or annoyance strikes. I used a Mega-roadrunner made by TD, Tightline used a tora glow tube and Ron used a standard tube. Needless to say, the large glow tube got more strikes than anything else. At times, yes, size matters. After tightline got a few strikes but no hook ups we added a trailer hook to the hefty tube and bang! Hook up! Here's a pic of the 7 1/2lb mack he caught.[/size][/font] [left]![[Image: gforum.cgi?do=post_attachment;postatt_id=1103;]](http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?do=post_attachment;postatt_id=1103;)
[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]We fished into the afternoon varying our our drift area and throwing out a drift sock when the wind kicked up to slow us down. With all the fish we saw, you'd think we would of gotten a few more strikes.[/size][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]Towards late afternoon, we decide to do a little trolling and made a few runs through the macks with a variety of lures. We hooked up on a small cutt with no other strikes dragging lures right through their noses.[/size][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]When the sun was just above the skyline we went back in and got on top of the fish in 50ft of water. The breeze was enough to blow you off them so we anchored up. I got several strikes but could not hook uo on them. Hit and run! We did see a couple boats that were fishing the top of the pile. Since the weather was so nice, they were using the electric troll motors, just like on Flaming Gorge, to position over the fish. They caught a few but none of the big jmbo size fish everyone is after this time of year.[/size][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]I wish I had an aquaview. It would of been fun checking out all the fish.[/size][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]Anyway, as I was saying, The spawn can be a killer time to land a big fish in close but it can be a very frustrating time also. It is definitely worth going out and trying your luck especially with good company like tightline.[/size][/font]
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[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]Tightline got to the marina around 2:00am and fished the dikes in front of the marina. I'll let him report on his early fishing. We met him at the marina at around 6:15am and preped the boat in the dark. We discussed what we wanted to try and how we wanted to fish it. With that in mind we head out of the marina watching the crowd on the dikes trying to latch on to a spawning lake trout from the shoreline.[/size][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]We headed for the rock pile, a typical area used by spawning macks and checked it for fish. Sure enough there were fish at the base of the pile as you move out into deeper water you could see abundant amounts of fish to about 65 ft deep.[/size][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]Since the weather was so calm, we decide to drift and jig, using the slight breeze to drift from 65-70 ft to the rock pile and repeating the process several times. It seemed as the day grew on, the fish moved to deeper water.[/size][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]Since the macks were spawning, and not eating, jig selections were made to induce protective or annoyance strikes. I used a Mega-roadrunner made by TD, Tightline used a tora glow tube and Ron used a standard tube. Needless to say, the large glow tube got more strikes than anything else. At times, yes, size matters. After tightline got a few strikes but no hook ups we added a trailer hook to the hefty tube and bang! Hook up! Here's a pic of the 7 1/2lb mack he caught.[/size][/font] [left]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]We fished into the afternoon varying our our drift area and throwing out a drift sock when the wind kicked up to slow us down. With all the fish we saw, you'd think we would of gotten a few more strikes.[/size][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]Towards late afternoon, we decide to do a little trolling and made a few runs through the macks with a variety of lures. We hooked up on a small cutt with no other strikes dragging lures right through their noses.[/size][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]When the sun was just above the skyline we went back in and got on top of the fish in 50ft of water. The breeze was enough to blow you off them so we anchored up. I got several strikes but could not hook uo on them. Hit and run! We did see a couple boats that were fishing the top of the pile. Since the weather was so nice, they were using the electric troll motors, just like on Flaming Gorge, to position over the fish. They caught a few but none of the big jmbo size fish everyone is after this time of year.[/size][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]I wish I had an aquaview. It would of been fun checking out all the fish.[/size][/font]
[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]Anyway, as I was saying, The spawn can be a killer time to land a big fish in close but it can be a very frustrating time also. It is definitely worth going out and trying your luck especially with good company like tightline.[/size][/font]
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to think about after comparing it to years past. It gives me my big fish fix for a little while though. I will head up again later in the week and let everyone know if it picks up. What we really need is cooler temps. The water temp is just too high.