JonLaura08
9/13/2011 7:51:00 AMsturgeongenerall
9/14/2011 8:28:00 AMSG
Available Fishing Guide:
Website: MoonsGuideService
Man, the bite at Potholes this weekend was ON! Temperatures were in the upper 90s and the sun was killer in the middle of the day. Pika206 and I headed out there and started fishing at around 6pm on Friday night. First cast yielded a bluegill bigger than my hand on a black rooster tail. I thought, this is a good sign...and it was! The roostertail got one LMB for me but then stopped yielding fish while Pika and two other friends were pulling in fish left and right with either poppers or worms, so I switched to Berkeley Power Worms. I had this old pack of biodegradable earthworm-colored ones that I wanted to use up. They worked like magic! Pulled in four LMB on those. I lent my graphite Quantum rod to my friend, who was a rookie fisherman which turned out to be a mistake, given that this is Potholes! He snapped it pretty good 3/4 of the way up the rod, and I wanted him to have a complete Potholes fishing experience, so I gave my 7' Ultra Light Ugly Stik and switched to my fly rod. Threw a grey popper and landed a nice 2.5lb LMB before calling it a day a little after dusk and eat dinner.
Saturday morning, Pika and I woke up early and fished the lake with top water stuff. He used a spinning rod popper and a Spook, while I used my fly rod popper. I got another nice 2.5-3lb LMB on the fly rod at about 9am. Pika, meanwhile got 3. Switched up to the brown Berkeley worms, which were doing great. One strike was particularly satisfying. I missed the first hit and the LMB was about 5 feet from the boat, so I could see him. I pulled in the worm and recasted it behind him and he turned and gobbled that up quickly. Another 2.5-3lb fish. Sight fishing is awesome! By 11am I had 5 LMB for the morning. We moved farther down the lake to another spot and I caught the largest LMB of my life. It was a 19-incher and she was a fatty! We didn't have a functional scale so we estimated it to be about 3.5, maybe 4 pounds given the length and girth of the fish.
At the end of the trip, I C&R'd 12 LMB + 1 bluegill and Pika outfished me by a ratio of 3:2, so he had close to 18 LMB, all in the 1-3 pound range with the exception of a lone 1/4 pounder.. We really don't know for sure, since we stopped counting after 10 or so. All in all, it was the most exciting fishing trip either of us had been on. Great fishing and great tim to be with friends! Thanks to Nick_Barr and others for the inspiration to hit up this awesome fishery. Tight Lines everyone!