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[cool][#0000ff]Neither high_n_dry or myself were feeling good about the election results so we headed to Jordanelle for an attitude adjustment session. You can fish or you can fret...but you can't do both at the same time.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]We were ready to launch at the PWC ramp by 7 am. We both made false starts. I launched but had to come back in right away to adjust my new motor mount. Glenn had to trudge back up the LOOONG ramp to get the nightcrawlers he had left in his truck.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Air temp at launch was 34 and the water temp was 48...warming all the way up to 49 after a morning in the sun.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I didn't waste much time hooking up with a feisty fourteen inch bow on a black and orange "Jack-o-bugger" fly...trailing behind a black jig. Missed a couple of other short strikes. We cruised over to the NW corner of the lake to prospect...me for perch and Glenn for trout. Glenn got a nice high teens cutty on a Jakes pitched in close to shore. I had some rattle rattle hits from dink perch out around a tree in 40 feet of water. No more action for either of us for a while.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I motored up to the spot where I scored a nice batch of perch a couple of weeks ago. Started seeing some fish on sonar but they all had their little mouths closed and their middle fins upraised. Rude fish. Saw a lot more fish on TV than on my hook. Couldn't believe all the fishy marks and nothing showing me any love. No Mia Love neither. Too bad for her.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Finally found a small area with some active perch and started getting some bonks. Brought in several keeper perch, along with the usual dinks. Just began to hope that maybe I could harvest a nice batch again and then Glenn showed up. After having a previous hot bite shut down two times in a row after he gets near me I am beginning to think that the man ain't my good luck charm. Didn't hook another perch in an hour and a half fishing with Glenn in that formerly active area. Saw LOTS of fish on sonar but they would not hit worms or perch meat...fished on a variety of different jigs.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The Jordanelle Zephyr started to gear up about 10 and it became tough to hold position and to fish the finesse style necessary to seduce the perchies. It got colder in the wind too. So we reeled in the perch jigs and put out some troutin' stuff...dragging it slowly behind our wind-aided slow-motoring craft.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I picked up another rainbow...the twin to the one I had caught earlier. And Glenn also scored a bow about the same size...to join his larger cutt. He also discovered the area I had worked for small perch earlier in the day...trees coming up off the bottom in over 40 feet of water...with perch in and over the branches. He bagged a couple of dink perch and that was it for us for the day. Another half hour without further bites and we were ready for the ramp.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Definitely had both better and worse days on Jordanelle. But we managed to forget the election debacle for a while and tug on some fishies. I got the bigger perch but Glenn got BFOD (big fish of the day) honors. Good on ya. And thanks for the snackies. Your wife is already a pro with the new smoker.[/#0000ff]
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I came ...this close ....to hitting Jordanelle this morning
what area you at? Is launching easy?
Thanks for the report.
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[cool][#0000ff]We launched at the PWC ramp...on the south side of Hailstone. The ramp is still in the water and there is a small courtesy dock. You can back right up to the water...but it is a long walk back up to where you park your rig after you finish.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Heated restrooms for changing. Nice.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Here's a pic I snapped of Glenn launching this morning. Piece of pie.[/#0000ff]
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Thank you much!
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[cool][#0000ff]I like fishing this time of year up at Rock Cliffs. But as low as the water is this year it is tough to launch from that old roadbed...and the depth is too shallow in all the normally good spots.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]There are almost always some playful bows working along the shoreline from the PWC ramp around below the camping area and especially among the sunken trees. Some bigger trout cruise in the stickups, looking for the baby perch that also attract the bigger perch.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]There were quite a few "trout blips" on sonar today as we worked the area looking more for perch. A skilled middepth fly flingeress could probably have scored enough bendo to keep herself happy.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Right now most of the browns are up in the Provo River making babies. But there are still a few younger ones and some big spawned out ones that are also available if you find them. I had a big one hooked right near the ramp a couple of years ago that was a beast. And I have had them following the smaller perch up to the tube both two weeks ago and one or two this morning.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Water is scary low but the fish in the upper part of the water column are scattered over the whole lake and don't seem to mind about silly things like low water.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Two weeks ago was the first time I have fished the PWC launch area for a couple of years. But I have had good luck there consistently in the past. And it is only a half hour drive from your place.[/#0000ff]
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Nice job ^_^. If it wasn't going to snow so much this week I would be tempted on going down there this week to see if i can catch some nice bows or maybe some BASS just to make Bassrod happy but looks like jordanelle wont see me till next year maybe ^_^.
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Good to get out and catch a couple. Better than brooding anyway. You should have waited till today with the little breeze they are forcasting you could have trolled the entire length of the lake in 30 min. It sounds like you are finding perch even if they dont want to come home for dinner. Great post again.
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[cool][#0000ff]Thanks, Bro.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]One of the comments I made to Glenn while we were both donating jigs to the old sagebrush on the bottom without being rewarded..."I have NEVER seen so many perch on sonar without being able to even get a bite."[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]We were constantly seeing the fish, just like I did a couple of weeks ago. The difference is that they were not active. The bites were very light and you had to really work for the few you got. I actually scaled down to ice fishing type rigs...very light...in an effort to finesse them better. But the fish were in a post election funk...or whatever. Even the perch were unhappy about the election results.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I also had the opportunity to make the point...AGAIN...that sonar DOES NOT give the angler an unfair advantage over the fish. I have to laugh everytime some dimbulb non-angler sneers at our use of "fish finders" and expresses that stupid sentiment. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Sure, sonar[/#0000ff][#0000ff] can be a great tool in locating fish...and in avoiding fishless habitat. But I'm not sure that offsets the frustration and self-loathing that you get when you see a bunch of fish on the screen and can't get no love nohow. Sonar may help find fish but ain't no guarantees that you can ketch 'em.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]People often wonder about the little bubbles that come up to the top of the water while they are out fishing. Some say they are natural products of "decomp"...vegetation or critters. Some laughingly refer to them as "fish flatulence". My personal theory is that they are actually visible manifestations of fish laughter...when they know that some fool like me is looking at them with my sonar and trying to outwit them. With a REALLY GOOD sensitive sonar I am sure we could actually see those fish with their middle fins upraised toward the silly fishermen above them.[/#0000ff]
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Well I am still happy you are finding good numbers of fish. Hopefully we will see some age classes that have a bit of size. Eventually they will bite. I have had more than my share of days or hours when there were a lot of fish on the tv. Good thing cuz watchin tv was all that kept me from falling off my bucket as I dozed off. No bites, no bumps. Just that constantly moving blip on my screen. There have been times I was sure it was one fish swimming in and out of the range of my cone. laughing of course. But then there are the times when the entire bottom is moving up and down. Still good times
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I definitely donated more lead to the trees and sage brush this trip than any trip this entire season, but as you so appropriately state on a regular basis, "You can't catch them where they ain't". The problem was amplified when the breeze kicked up making a vertical presentation nearly impossible without a heavy jig head. I finally had to go to 1/4 oz gum ball to get anywhere near vertical and then the wind was constantly driving me off my small cloud of fish and dragging my line through the branches and brush instead hanging straight down in it.
Yesterdays fishing conditions highlight where a float tube has an advantage in the wind over a pontoon. It takes considerable more effort to stay put sitting higher on the water, and the pontoon constantly wants to go perpendicular to the wind direction which makes kicking to stay in place even more difficult. Not a big deal flinging a fly line in open water, but if you want to hold over structure in any kind of wind, the tube is the better way to go. Of course an anchor on the pontoon can help, but only if you bring it. This was the first trip this year I decided to leave my anchor at home since I haven't used it lately. That decision crossed my mind every time I had to go back around to find the fish again, and again, and again. That won't happen again. Just like the worms sitting in my lunch bag in the car. That won't happen again either, maybe.
I also thought about going to the vertical lure body jigs as you did, but I'm saving mine for the ICE, or at least until I fabricate up some of my own to donate.
I wonder if a weedless hook on your vertical jig would cut back on the snags in a heavy sagebrush area like we were fishing? Might be a worthy experiment unless you've already done that one. Probably miss more hooks sets though.
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[cool][#0000ff]When dropping into brush and sagebrush the type hook you use CAN make a difference. For example, when using the small casting spoons I usually use single hooks rather than treble. But on jigs the SIZE of the hook is more important than type. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]A large hook with only a little tipping of bait will find all the snags. But a small hook...mostly covered by bait...will act as its own weedless hook. That's why I usually make most of my jig heads with two or three different size hooks. And the problem with fishing heavier "store-bought" jigs is that they always come with larger hooks than you want or need.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Unfortunately, hooking the underwater structure is not the only way to lose tackle to it. I have lost several nice perch on my last two trips when they grabbed the jig, got hooked and then did two granny knots and a half hitch around the most convenient stickup in the area. They really seem to know how to use that brush for their Houdini routines. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Brown trout are even worse...especially under the ice at Jordanelle. I have lost count of the number of browns I have lost to wrapups and breakoffs. And they seem to instinctively know just where to go. On an ice fishing trip there about 4 years ago TubeBabe and I were fishing holes about 50 feet apart...a ways offshore from a steep bank. We each lost two or three browns that all headed in the same direction under the ice and wrapped us on an unseen submerged tree between us and the shore. We could look at our lines going down into the hole and each pointing in the same direction after every breakoff.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Your wife has the right idea for fishing the sagebrush...use a dropshot rig. Put a sinker on the bottom and a jig about two feet up. Active perch will come up after it. And, as we could see on sonar, there were plenty of fish higher off the bottom than that. Two weeks ago I caught quite a few fish...and fewer snags...by just dropping my offering down about mid depth and waiting for the fish to come up to it. But when they have lockjaw they won't even take a luscious bait bounced off their snotty noses.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I have had some good days fishing the sagebrush flats through the ice up in the north end of the lake. They are there also for the hordes of baby perch that swarm into the underwater cover for protection. And the predators hang around to pick off the unwary ones. I have watched on camera as perch work in and out of the cover...with the baby perch trying to swim out of the way to avoid them. Then I have seen big schools of big chubs sliding in...with some big browns hiding among them for camoflage. When they get close enough the browns break out and raid the grocery store...slurping up perch of all sizes. Scary.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Fishing that brush is always a challenge. It is where the action is but unless you use the right gear and the right tactics you will be bendo on brush more than fish. But you cain't ketch 'em where they ain't.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The most recent pics I have seen of the flooded sage brush would seem to indicate that there is not going to be much more of that kind of fishing in the near future. Sagebrush is not as tough as the old scrub oak and other structure in the lake. What remains is waterlogged and rotting. I have broken free a lot of small twigs of it even with fairly light line. But, for the time being, it is still there and still tough enough to win the tug of war with anglers.[/#0000ff]
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glad you got into some good perch even if they were bitin like they do sometimes, some nice slimers too. thanks for the post[cool][cool]
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[cool][#0000ff]Thanks. Definitely not toad class. But big enough to fillet and make some fish tacos or scampi over noodles.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]At least the average size is getting better and the numbers are increasing in Jordanelle. Lookin' good for ice fishing and the future.[/#0000ff]
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