5 Species Suprise! 4-7-2012

Our incredibly warm weather in March has given way to more seasonally normal (cooler) weather in April.  I woke up Saturday morning, looked outside to see a good breeze, clouds, intermittent drizzle.  Dreary conditions.  I asked myself, "If I were going to go fishing today, WHERE would I go?"

That really warm March weather warmed local water temperatures FAST.  A nearby lake, Lake Petocka, that had been stocked with trout during the winter offered up some good trout-fishing immediately after ice-out, but the fast-warming shallows caused the fish to drop to waters further from shore...difficult to reach with fly gear.  I thought maybe this cooler weather might encourage some trout to come back in near shore again.  So...Lake Petocka is where I thought I would try.  I mentioned this to my wife, and she said, "Go."  I had to be home around Noon.  I arrived at the lake a little before 10am.  Total time fished was 2.25 hours.

Wind was from the South.  I fished from the North shoreline.  I started at a spot that produced a fair number of trout when I last fished the lake.  I didn't get any strikes there.  I moved down the shoreline a bit further, and got something on my line!  It wasn't a good sign that the first thing I happened to catch was...a clam shell!

 I worked my way down the shoreline.  While at one spot, I noticed a large area just a bit further down the shore that looked like a bunch of fish or baitfish just crashed the surface.  So I moved down to that spot.

I saw a silvery fish slash across the surface.  I started casting.  I was using a beadhead woolly bugger.  After a few casts and a few missed strikes, I got a solid hookset.  A fantastic battle ensued on my 5wt.  I was surprised when the fish came in that it was a nice White Bass!  I shouldn't have been so surprised...My friend Dale G. reported that had caught some on his last trip to the lake a few weeks back.

Let me take a step back here and explain that in all the times I've fished this lake, I have caught MOSTLY Trout (Rainbows and some Brookies), maybe a half-dozen or so Bluegills, a couple small Green Sunfish, and a few small Largemouth Bass.  Without the trout, there really aren't enough fish in this lake to make me want to pick this lake over the dozens of other choices I have closer to home.

Back to the fishing.  I measured this White Bass at 14", and it was a nice healthy fish.

I decided to switch to a Clouser.  I selected a gray-over-white one from my fly box.  I was so excited to get back to fishing, I dropped the fly and started casting.  I quickly realized I hadn't actually ATTACHED the fly to my line!  Total Rookie mistake!  :)

I thought I had chucked the fly into the water, so I didn't look for it, I just dug another one out of my fly box.  The next one I selected was a chartreuse-over-yellow version that was sort of large...in the 3"-4" range.

I caught another white bass.

 I love catching White Bass, so I was pretty excited already (obviously).

Next, I hooked into a different fish.  It looked like about the size and shape of a trout, but the flash was yellow.  Couldn't be a brown trout, they've never been stocked here.  I got it closer to shore.  Yellow Perch!  No way, this couldn't be happening!  It measured 10.75"

That Clouser was a big bite for this fish!

This spot died...so I continued on down the shoreline.  Next fish was the species I had come here targeting, a Rainbow Trout!  I measured this one at 12.5".  

The Clouser was a pretty big bite for this fish too, even though trout DO have large mouths.  Nevertheless, I was still sort of surprised.

I continued moving along the shoreline.  At one spot I got a couple missed strikes, had a nice fish on briefly, and then lost the Clouser to another good strike.  I switched to an unweighted deer hair streamer in a similar color scheme to the Clouser I had just lost.

 Next fish was a Largemouth Bass.  Nothing big, but it fought well.

Next fish was another White Bass.  I didn't measure the last two, they probably weren't quite as big as the first one, but they were nice fish, probably more like 13"+/-.

I quickly fished my way back to the spot I first caught fish.  On the way, I caught another Largemouth Bass.  It wasn't much different than the first bass.  No picture.

I got to that first spot again, and it seemed pretty dead.  I did get a couple small strikes, and then caught a little Smallmouth Bass!

It was time to head home.  I was really excited to have caught 5 Species from this lake in one trip...3 of them were species I had never caught from this lake before, and the White Bass and Yellow Perch especially were nice fish.  I had some excellent battles with fish today.

I had the lake to myself the entire time, with the exception of the last 20 minutes, when another angler with spinning gear arrived, but was fishing a good distance away from me.

I have to wonder if this combination of species has ever been caught before on a fly rod from one lake on one trip?

Fly-Fishing for Trout at Lake Petocka, 10-25-2011

The 10-day weather forecast suggested that this MIGHT be the last 70+ degree day for the year.  Such a nice day should be spent outdoors FISHING, so I took the day off from work.  I had stayed up until almost 1am the previous evening tying flies for the day's adventure, so I was tired when the alarm went off at 6am.  I went back to sleep until almost 8am.  I looked out the window, and the remaining leaves on the trees were still...it was very calm.  ALRIGHT!  I figured that would help me located some trout near shore once I got to the lake.

I quickly got dressed and descended to the kitchen.  I looked out the back windows and...WIND???  Darn!  I knew it was coming (forecasted 10-15mph winds), but I hoped I would be at the lake before it started to blow. Oh well.

I ate breakfast and quickly got the few items I needed into the car and headed to the lake.  When I arrived, there were already 4 cars parked around the lake with fishermen scattered around the shoreline.  I parked, and decided to walk around the lake until I saw signs of trout, or otherwise found a spot that looked worthy fishing.

I had walked about a 1/3 of the way around the lake, when I saw some boils and swirls.  TROUT!  As I got closer, I could see a dark patch about 20' off shore, which was a pod of trout.  I had a yellow Boa Yarn Leech on my line from fishing for bluegills, crappies and bass the previous evening, so I tossed it out beyond the edge of the pod.  I didn't want to cast or retrieve directly through the pod in case this would make them scatter, so I tried to pick fish off the edges.  I caught the first Rainbow Trout of the day on that Boa Yarn Leech.

Since I had a good visual on the pod of trout, and found them to be willing to hit flies, I switched to a Blue Thunder streamer pattern, originated by Ian James.  I didn't have purple Flashabou, so I used pearl Krystal Flash under a thin topping of purple bucktail.

This was one of the patterns I had tied the previous night, and I wanted to see what the trout thought of it.  Turns out....THEY LOVED IT!  I was catching fish or missing strikes on nearly every cast for quite some time.  I caught both Rainbows and Brookies on it.

Although the streamer was holding up really well to catching all those fish, I eventually I had to take the fish-shredded remnants of the streamer off my line and try some other patterns.  I caught quite a few fish on a beadhead softhackle nymph pattern:

And a few Rainbows on an olive Woolly Bugger with black hackle:

An angler who had been fishing unsuccessfully about 70 yards away with spinning gear and an in-line spinner noticed my success, and he moved his gear down to the opposite side of me. He fished there for a bit, but wasn't catching anything. He was amazed at how the fish were going after the fly I was using. He came over and asked what I was using. I said I would show him, and just then missed a good strike. My line, leader, tippet and fly flew out of the water and wrapped around John's (that was his name) spinning rod. I laughed and said, "Well, there it is!" We disentangled our gear, and he looked at the streamer. He said he has a fly rod, but has never really used it. He was amazed at how I was able to catch fish on nearly every cast (a slight exaggeration). I told him how I had spotted the fish, showed him the darker patch of water that was the pod of trout, and told him how I was trying to pull fish off the edges of it. I also told him to go ahead and walk down beyond the pod, so we could each cast to the fish from opposite sides. Over the next hour or so, he caught 5 trout on his spinner, compared to around 30 that I caught on flies. He got more and more interested in fly-fishing, and would sometimes just watch what I was doing, and ask questions. I tried to get him to try casting my rod, but he refused. I told him I at LEAST wanted him to see what one of those trout feels like on the end of the fly line, so I cast out about 20 times, and let him work the fly back in (by this time, I had a beadhead nymph under a strike indicator). He missed a few fish, but he eventually hooked, fought and landed 2 Rainbow Trout. He thought that was fantastic! He was saying how he was going to have to dig out his unused fly rod and start learning how to cast, so he could do this on his own. RIGHT ON! I also told him how fly fishing also works really well for Crappies, Bluegills, Bass, Catfish, Carp....just about everything!

John took this picture of me with a Brook Trout:

Anyway, the action had declined, but we had spent a good hour talking about fly-fishing and whatnot. He had kept his limit of 5 trout, which he wanted to give to his neighbor. He needed to get home and clean the fish, so we parted ways.

I had already caught 43 Rainbow Trout and 4 Brook Trout by this time. I moved to the opposite side of the lake so I wouldn't have to cast into the strong wind anymore. There wasn't much fish activity over there, but I stayed and fished. I caught a few more Rainbow Trout, then tied on a foam Chernobyl Ant/Hopper. I caught a couple more Rainbows and a Bluegill on it. It wasn't floating as well as I wanted, so I put on a larger foam Hopper. I caught a Brook Trout on that, which I thought was just fantastic!  The two pictures below are of the same fish.

Final fish tally was 48 Rainbow Trout, 5 Brook Trout, and 1 Bluegill. What I had hoped to achieve this day was to catch a good number of trout (did that) on fly-fishing gear, I wanted to catch at least a few of the Brook Trout on fly gear (did that), and catching one on a surface pattern was really icing on the cake! Although the action had started off very fast and then tapered off to almost nothing...I was very pleased!

My buddy Jay called and said the White Bass were hitting really good at the local reservoir, so I decided to give it up on a GREAT day of fly-fishing for trout at Lake Petocka.  I left at around 3pm, stopped by my house to pick up appropriate White Bass fishing gear, and headed for the reservoir to meet up with Jay. But THAT report is in the NEXT blog!

Lake Petocka, 10-16-2011

I made it back to Lake Petocka on Sunday evening, fished from 4pm-6:30pm, caught 6 Rainbow Trout (AGAIN! Third time... must be my lucky number?) and 1 Brook Trout.  All but one were on a Kastmaster, the other one was on a fly rod microjig.

Wish I would have caught the Brook Trout on my fly rod....I've really been wanting to add that species to my "fly rod" list.  But I was just glad to catch one on any gear.

Once again, I didn't photograph any rainbows, but did take pics of the Brookie, which happened to be a gravid female...she started squirting out eggs as I was photographing her (but not in THIS picture).

Female Brook Trout

She laid on her side in the shallows after I released her, but she soon righted herself and swam away.

Trout Stocking Day at Banner Pits and Lake Petocka, 10-14-2011

Because of the wind forecast (20-30mph gusts) and the lack of any sort of wind break around Lake Petocka, I decided to fish the trout stocking at Banner Pits, which is further away.  It was windy, but not too bad there since it is surrounded by trees.

I arrived at Banner Pits a couple hours early to get a "good spot" to fish from.  I knew I wanted the wind at my back if possible, and as much open casting room in front and behind me as possible since it can get crowded and I didn't want to accidentally hook someone that was walking behind me.  So, I chose to fish from the end of a short dock next to the boat ramp where the DNR would be dumping the trout into the lake.  I saw a handful of fellow Central Iowa Anglers (CIA) members, and we all had plenty of time to chat for a bit.  I helped one of our Members launch his pontoon boat, and learned (from his depthfinder) that the surface water temperature in the lake was 63 degrees F.  A bit warm for trout coming from the 50-degree hatchery water.  That plus the bright sunlight...the stocked trout wouldn't be hanging out in the shallows by the boat ramp very long!

Then the DNR Fisheries Biologist for our area, Ben Dodd, arrived to help with the stocking (although the stocking truck which came separately was 1/2 hour late).  We had a great talk about local fisheries.  I always seem to learn a LOT in a very short time when talking with Ben.  I think I know the fisheries pretty good from the sheer amount of fishing I do...but Ben always has the absolute most current information from ongoing studies, stockings, sampling results, current and up-coming projects, etc.  He also expressed his gratitude towards Central Iowa Anglers for the fish-habitat placement projects we had done this year at Lake Ahquabi, Blue Heron Lake, and Saylorville Lake.

As the stocking truck started dumping trout into the lake, I caught my first fish of the day!  Except it was a small Green Sunfish, which I turned and handed to a small boy that was standing behind me on the dock.  He thought that was pretty cool!  I was hoping to catch the first TROUT of the day, but that honor when to the older gentleman standing next to me.  He wanted his limit of 5, so he could take them home to his trout-loving wife to cook up for supper.  Fishing was pretty slow, however.  He caught 2, and I added two to his bucket.  He left with those 4.  I eventually caught another off the dock, all on fly gear with a microjig under an indicator.  When the fishing slowed, I tried other fly patterns, some spinning gear with lures, and even PowerBait Honey Worms.  The PowerBait didn't get ANY strikes at all.  I moved off the dock to a different section of shoreline, where some of my CIA buddies were still catching a few fish.  They left with their limits, and I caught 2 more on flies and one on a Mepps spinner.

I ended up catching 6 Rainbows by the time I left Banner at 3pm. Yeah, it was SLOW!  It was about what I expected for this early in the Fall season.

Then I headed to Lake Petocka, which wasn't far out of my way on my return trip home.  I was surprised to discover just ONE angler there fishing.  Turns out he got there about 20 minutes before I did.  It was FREAKING WINDY and COLD!!!!  Way different than Banner!  I've heard it said there is a beautiful woman behind every tree at Lake Petocka.  Maybe they should plant some trees there!  Because of the howling wind coming from the WNW, I didn't try the fly rod, I just used a plain silver #1 Mepps on spinning gear.  I saw trout scattered along the shorelines.  Some were really dark.  Turns out those were Brook Trout.  The first fish I caught was a bass.  Then I caught a really NICE Rainbow...probably 15" and VERY fat.  I was getting my camera out to take a picture of it when the other angler walked over.  He was a friendly younger guy who had recently returned from a tour in Afghanistan with the Army National Guard.  We talked for awhile, and instead of getting a picture, I just gave him the trout.  He said he had caught a nice Brookie.  I went back to fishing my way along the north shoreline of the lake.  I ended up catching a total of 6 Rainbows at Petocka (plus the bass), and also foul-hooked a Brook Trout in the chin.  I took a few pics of that one because it was so pretty, then released it.  I had a handful of other trout on that didn't stay hooked.  It was rather slow too, but despite the wind and cold, I enjoyed it more than the fishing at Banner for some reason.  I left Petocka at 6pm.

Brook Trout at Lake Petocka, Bondurant, Iowa

Total for the day: 12 Rainbow Trout, 1 Largemouth Bass, 1 Green Sunfish...and the one foul-hooked Brook Trout.

Ben said the trout that went to Banner and the trout that went to Petocka were from different hatcheries.  I thought it was AWESOME they brought some brookies to Petocka!  From what I saw, the Rainbow trout at Petocka averaged slightly bigger, while the trout at Banner had better colors.