12-10-2003, 01:17 AM
We got an early start this morning and arrived at Scofield before the sun was up. We were the first people near the shacks. For some stupid reason I listened to my buddy and tried driving my car down to the lakes edge. Part way down I realized that it was one of the stupidest things that I"d ever done! After more than an hour of trying to get back up the hill and the scoffing of several "not so simpathetic" fishermen (Thanks buddy, I already knew I did a stupid thing), a highway patrolman in a 4x4 drove by. He helped pull me the rest of the way out.
So, we finally got on the ice by about 8:30 and I then realized that something was wrong with my auger. The only thing I can figure is that I put the new blades on upsidedown. A really nice guy helped me out with his power auger and we were finally good to go.
I think we just caught the last end of a good bite because the fishfinder was beeping like crazy and we could hardly keep our lines in the water they were hitting so fast. But, that only lasted about 15 min, then it was dead for almost two hours! About 11:30 another 15 minute bite came on and the finder went wild, but then it died again. We ended up landing 15 fish, but I can't help but think that we'd of done a lot better if we would have had that 90 min back.
The coolest part of the day was when I hooked into what very well may have been the biggest trout that I've ever had on the line. It was a monster of a rainbow that I fought for about five min. I never saw his whole body at one time through the hole because he was so big. I know he had to be at least 4#, but I that's a conservative guess. I got his head up to the hole and and he gave it a hard head jerk and there went my line! DOH!! I think the whole lake heard me cry out in agony! All I wanted was a measurement and a picture with him! He would have gone back afterwords, if only he'd known! When fish get that big, I find them to be less tasty anyways.
We were using paddle bugs in pink and white tipped with a piece of crawler and covered in Crawdad smelly jelly. Because we didn't have an auger of our own, we had to stay close to where the nice guys were fishing. I wanted to search out the river channel that IFG talked about, but I guess that'll have to wait until next year. We were over 18 feet of water, but fishing in 13-14 feet.
Can't wait for Strawberry to freeze. That drive to Scofield was brutal for me, so I think I'll just stick with the duck hunting until then. It seems like the latest I remember Strawberry freezing was January 11th or so, hopefully it will harden by the time the New Year comes this year!
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So, we finally got on the ice by about 8:30 and I then realized that something was wrong with my auger. The only thing I can figure is that I put the new blades on upsidedown. A really nice guy helped me out with his power auger and we were finally good to go.
I think we just caught the last end of a good bite because the fishfinder was beeping like crazy and we could hardly keep our lines in the water they were hitting so fast. But, that only lasted about 15 min, then it was dead for almost two hours! About 11:30 another 15 minute bite came on and the finder went wild, but then it died again. We ended up landing 15 fish, but I can't help but think that we'd of done a lot better if we would have had that 90 min back.
The coolest part of the day was when I hooked into what very well may have been the biggest trout that I've ever had on the line. It was a monster of a rainbow that I fought for about five min. I never saw his whole body at one time through the hole because he was so big. I know he had to be at least 4#, but I that's a conservative guess. I got his head up to the hole and and he gave it a hard head jerk and there went my line! DOH!! I think the whole lake heard me cry out in agony! All I wanted was a measurement and a picture with him! He would have gone back afterwords, if only he'd known! When fish get that big, I find them to be less tasty anyways.
We were using paddle bugs in pink and white tipped with a piece of crawler and covered in Crawdad smelly jelly. Because we didn't have an auger of our own, we had to stay close to where the nice guys were fishing. I wanted to search out the river channel that IFG talked about, but I guess that'll have to wait until next year. We were over 18 feet of water, but fishing in 13-14 feet.
Can't wait for Strawberry to freeze. That drive to Scofield was brutal for me, so I think I'll just stick with the duck hunting until then. It seems like the latest I remember Strawberry freezing was January 11th or so, hopefully it will harden by the time the New Year comes this year!
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