10-28-2008, 12:28 AM
[font "Times New Roman"][#000000]Got ready thursday evening and headed to hit the Gorge on friday and over the weekend. It was a time of mixed feelings for me. I have been absent from the Gorge for over 3 months. [/#000000][/font]
[font "Times New Roman"][#000000][/#000000][/font]
[font "Times New Roman"][#000000]The plan was to hit it before this month ends so that I could catch the fall smallmouth bass bite. In years past, we have made a killing for good size smallmouth at our fall bass spots at the Gorge. This time, as you know, is also great for bows. I fished for bass, bows, lakers/pups, and tried for burbot.[/#000000][/font]
[font "Times New Roman"][#000000][/#000000][/font]
[font "Times New Roman"][#000000]On friday, I first started out looking for bass around Horshoe Canyon and the Sheep Creek area. Looked and fished shallow, surface, mid, deep, any way that I know to fish for bass. Couldn't believe not to find or score a single one, not even a dink. The water temp. there was about 52-53 degrees and one degree cooler in the morning cool. I would have prefered a morning temp in the 53-54 range, and afternoon around 55-56. Well, this has been a good range for fall smallmouth in the past. I couln't figure it and didn't land any bass. As I was casting different things at various depths for bass, the bows were hitting great. The only problem was that there was no good size to them this outing. Nothing bigger than 19 inches. But still lots of them. But it is normal for fall. [/#000000][/font]
[font "Times New Roman"][#000000][/#000000][/font]
[font "Times New Roman"][#000000]Friday evening I moved to Anvil Point to head out real early int the morning and look for big macks and pups. I was definitely planning to catch me a limit of pups. I started out trolling flatfish, Coyote spoons, crippled herring, Kokeking lures, and a few other things I can't remember. Again, all hits were bows and on the larger spoons and lures I didn't get any hits. This was the second surprise. When my dad and I were here at Anvil last we couldn't keep the pups off. I was very dissapointed and later in the day started to fish for smallmouth, and none of those came my way either. [/#000000][/font]
[font "Times New Roman"][#000000][/#000000][/font]
[font "Times New Roman"][#000000]I wanted to fish for burbot one of the nights, all night. Friday evening had been a little windy so I figured I would move to Squall Hollow Saturday afternoon and prepare to fish for the pigs all night from the boat. As soon as I got to Squaw Hollow the wind had settled down and I thought I would create a burbot massacre. But, the trusty wind soon came back. It was not bad wind so I launched the boat and started scouting for the good burbot spots around Squaw Hollow. I found a potential spot to try by the cliffs close to the ramps. I was marking fish in 70-115 feet about 50 feet off the cliffs. I put some weights on and started trolling to see if I could reel up a mack/pup or two. Again, the only thing I picked up was some bows in 35-50 feet of water. I then started drift fishing with tube jigs and spoons and caught some more bows close to shore before it got almost dark. [/#000000][/font]
[font "Times New Roman"][#000000][/#000000][/font]
[font "Times New Roman"][#000000]During the whole time I couldn't get any big bows. I would have liked one or two nice ones over 20 inches and 3/4 pounds. The wind, althoug not too strong, never let up all night saturday going into sunday. I decided not to fish for burbot off the boat and tried from shore for a while. All I got was some snags on the cliffs. Too bad though. I could see the fish on the finder coming in closer to the cliffs I talked about.[/#000000][/font]
[font "Times New Roman"][#000000][/#000000][/font]
[font "Times New Roman"][#000000]Well this is a pretty long report but I was very excited to fish the Gorge again and just had to tell what I did and try to do. I was very serious about fishing for burbot at night but I guess not serious enough. I hope next time I get one or more dead calm nights. I also have to build up some king of light sistem on the boat and prep it up for night fishing some how. Any suggestions?[/#000000][/font]
[font "Times New Roman"][#000000][/#000000][/font]
[font "Times New Roman"][#000000]All ramps, Sheep Creek, Anvil, Squaw Hollow/Holmes Crossing were in good shape. The docks/platforms should be moved a little deeper but its not a problem. Ended up catching four bows, and two small mackp pups before I left Sunday. The water temps ranged from 50-54 degrees. The coldest was Squaw Hollow, never recorded anything over 50.9 degrees. The Canyon area was 52-54, and Anvil was 51-52 depending on the depth. The rainbow fishing was great just like mosty any fall time at the Gorge. The scenery was as always, unforgettable. And I didn't get any lunker macks. I don't know what went wrong with the pups though. I mas certain I would get a limit.[crazy][/#000000][/font]
[signature]
[font "Times New Roman"][#000000][/#000000][/font]
[font "Times New Roman"][#000000]The plan was to hit it before this month ends so that I could catch the fall smallmouth bass bite. In years past, we have made a killing for good size smallmouth at our fall bass spots at the Gorge. This time, as you know, is also great for bows. I fished for bass, bows, lakers/pups, and tried for burbot.[/#000000][/font]
[font "Times New Roman"][#000000][/#000000][/font]
[font "Times New Roman"][#000000]On friday, I first started out looking for bass around Horshoe Canyon and the Sheep Creek area. Looked and fished shallow, surface, mid, deep, any way that I know to fish for bass. Couldn't believe not to find or score a single one, not even a dink. The water temp. there was about 52-53 degrees and one degree cooler in the morning cool. I would have prefered a morning temp in the 53-54 range, and afternoon around 55-56. Well, this has been a good range for fall smallmouth in the past. I couln't figure it and didn't land any bass. As I was casting different things at various depths for bass, the bows were hitting great. The only problem was that there was no good size to them this outing. Nothing bigger than 19 inches. But still lots of them. But it is normal for fall. [/#000000][/font]
[font "Times New Roman"][#000000][/#000000][/font]
[font "Times New Roman"][#000000]Friday evening I moved to Anvil Point to head out real early int the morning and look for big macks and pups. I was definitely planning to catch me a limit of pups. I started out trolling flatfish, Coyote spoons, crippled herring, Kokeking lures, and a few other things I can't remember. Again, all hits were bows and on the larger spoons and lures I didn't get any hits. This was the second surprise. When my dad and I were here at Anvil last we couldn't keep the pups off. I was very dissapointed and later in the day started to fish for smallmouth, and none of those came my way either. [/#000000][/font]
[font "Times New Roman"][#000000][/#000000][/font]
[font "Times New Roman"][#000000]I wanted to fish for burbot one of the nights, all night. Friday evening had been a little windy so I figured I would move to Squall Hollow Saturday afternoon and prepare to fish for the pigs all night from the boat. As soon as I got to Squaw Hollow the wind had settled down and I thought I would create a burbot massacre. But, the trusty wind soon came back. It was not bad wind so I launched the boat and started scouting for the good burbot spots around Squaw Hollow. I found a potential spot to try by the cliffs close to the ramps. I was marking fish in 70-115 feet about 50 feet off the cliffs. I put some weights on and started trolling to see if I could reel up a mack/pup or two. Again, the only thing I picked up was some bows in 35-50 feet of water. I then started drift fishing with tube jigs and spoons and caught some more bows close to shore before it got almost dark. [/#000000][/font]
[font "Times New Roman"][#000000][/#000000][/font]
[font "Times New Roman"][#000000]During the whole time I couldn't get any big bows. I would have liked one or two nice ones over 20 inches and 3/4 pounds. The wind, althoug not too strong, never let up all night saturday going into sunday. I decided not to fish for burbot off the boat and tried from shore for a while. All I got was some snags on the cliffs. Too bad though. I could see the fish on the finder coming in closer to the cliffs I talked about.[/#000000][/font]
[font "Times New Roman"][#000000][/#000000][/font]
[font "Times New Roman"][#000000]Well this is a pretty long report but I was very excited to fish the Gorge again and just had to tell what I did and try to do. I was very serious about fishing for burbot at night but I guess not serious enough. I hope next time I get one or more dead calm nights. I also have to build up some king of light sistem on the boat and prep it up for night fishing some how. Any suggestions?[/#000000][/font]
[font "Times New Roman"][#000000][/#000000][/font]
[font "Times New Roman"][#000000]All ramps, Sheep Creek, Anvil, Squaw Hollow/Holmes Crossing were in good shape. The docks/platforms should be moved a little deeper but its not a problem. Ended up catching four bows, and two small mackp pups before I left Sunday. The water temps ranged from 50-54 degrees. The coldest was Squaw Hollow, never recorded anything over 50.9 degrees. The Canyon area was 52-54, and Anvil was 51-52 depending on the depth. The rainbow fishing was great just like mosty any fall time at the Gorge. The scenery was as always, unforgettable. And I didn't get any lunker macks. I don't know what went wrong with the pups though. I mas certain I would get a limit.[crazy][/#000000][/font]
[signature]
