This report is for 11/8 and 11/9. Fished Rufus Woods in the afternoon of 11/8. Caught our limit in abut 4 hours (4 fish for two anglers). Method was trolling with downriggers 15 to 20 feet on the wire. Brass and orange and silver and orange needlefish tipped with night crawler was the lure of choice for most of the day. Switched to perch pattern Kekeda flies late in the day and caught the last two pretty quickly with the flies. Nothing huge this trip. Fish ranged from 14 to 19 inches with the biggest at 3.5 lbs. One of the fish was a nice 17 inch native. We have become friends with the tribal fish checker (great guy) and he let us know that the lower nets pens are now out of business. This is unfortunate as this is where the tribe purchased their large triploids for planting in the lake. For now the fish plants are coming from the tribal hatchery and average 1 to 4 lbs in size. You can definitely tell the difference between net pen fish or fish that have been in the lake for awhile and the hatchery fish. Hatchery fish flesh in a lot paler in comparison. There are sill a lot of older net pen fish in the lake however and with the weather starting to cool those fish will be hungry soon. Weather was sunny and a pleasant 45 degrees. Water temp was 60 degrees.
Stayed Saturday night in Wilber. Got up early and had a great breakfast at the Corner Café in Creston (highly recommended) and launched at Lake Roosevelt (7 Bays) a little after 7:00 AM. Lines in the water about 7:45 AM. The fish were very scattered in the lake. Could not find any significant concentrations of fish. We fished from Whitestone all the way back to 7 Bays. Caught a fish a Sterling Point. Caught a few just north of Hawks Creek on the marina side and caught the rest in Hawks Creek which seemed to be the best spot for the day. We did mark any significant concentrations of fish anywhere. We were able to boat 9 fish between the two of us in 7 hours of fishing. Fished mainly leaded line out about 4 colors with the perch Kekeda and a Frisky Jenny Trick or Treat, both tipped with night crawler. Late in the day we added chartreuse garlic power eggs to the flies and this seemed to increase the bite. Lost several fish at the boat which is strange considering the trailing treble on the flies. Over the years I have had very few fish come unpinned using the Kekeda or the Frisky Jenny. All and all a beautiful calm day on the water, just had to work hard for the fish. We were determined to limit out and actually had the last one to boat before it came unpinned. Right after we lost the last fish a the squall blew through and it got really nasty, really quick so we called it a day. Fish ranged from 14 to 18 inches with most in the 15 to 16 inch range. Caught two nice carryovers around 18 inches.
Met a nice fellow at the launch in the morning and as we were talking he indicated that they lost a lot of fish in Saturday. I gave him one of the perch Kekeda flies and told him that typically the fish stay hooked with these flies and that they have been my top producer. Little did I know that the fish were just biting light. I am confident however that the Kekeda I gave him probably produced the most bites.
