Available Fishing Guide:
Website: YJ Guide Service
Headed to nearby Silver Lake to see what the action might be on a Monday. As usual at this site, arrived at Thornton Sullivan Park at 6:00 AM (the posted opening time for the park) and waited until 6:45 for the cretin who opens the gate. Finally made my way to the lake at about 7:15. Already six anglers at the lakeside who had walked in or had ridden a bicycle. Temp was 51 degrees at the outset, cloudy with a persistent breeze from the southeast. Water temp was at 64 degrees at 15' deep off the pier. Began fishing with a nightcrawler under a float on one rig, chartreuse Power Eggs on the other (4' leader). Began having bites on the 'crawler almost immediately, but couldn't buy a hook-up. Fish were sucking on the worm, but not taking it aggressively. Finally able to get the hook into one nice fish of 13" to 14" but after three or four leaps it spit the hook... had another in the 17" range that spit the hook at the pier, just as I was reaching for it with the net. Finally was able to set the hook on a bite and reeled in what happened to be an 8" Yellow Perch. Meanwhile, the PE rig had produced "zip". Had tried various colors of PE with no success. Thinking that all my action had been near the surface, and that I had seen many fish splashing on the surface, about 9:30 I lengthened my leader to 8'... hard to cast, but deadly effective. Choice color today was pink, and within fifteen minutes I had my first Rainbow to the net... a chunkster of 12". Action was pretty much non-stop from that point, missed a good number of hits, but had my limit by 11:00, including one Rainbow of 14"... the others ranged from 11" to 13". Always a challenge to net a feisty Rainbow at the end of a 8' leader! Did try to find more Perch near the shoreline with the worm and float, but no takers.
Saw another 12 to 15 anglers come and go during the morning, saw perhaps 8 or 10 other fish caught. Disturbs me that some who catch smaller trout and obviously are looking for larger, throw the fish to gulls and crows along the shoreline. Did see an Osprey swoop down to retrieve one trout off the beach. Shows a remarkable lack of respect for these magnificent creatures that provide the angler with so much joy! PTL!