On the water and fishing by 8:15. I put the first one in the boat at 8:30 and my fishing partner put the second one in at 8:45. We both thought we were on the way to quick limits, but that was not to be. We, actually he, continued to get hits every time we trolled through the spot we were fishing, but no further hookups. I had one other strike on my long line mono rig but that was it for the day.

I was trolling a leaded line rig out 140' with a Frisky Jenny "Lenny Special" tipped with a chunk of crawler and long lining a mono rig with a perch pattern Rip'n Minnow at 195' back. Rip'n Minnow didn't produce, so I changed out to a Rapala J-7 in perch and had one strike but no taker. Later on after the sun came out I changed to a dodger and purple Apex tipped with Gulp maggots. That combo failed to produce as well.

My fishing parner was trolling the same Frisky Jenny "Lenny Special" I was, tipped with a chunk of crawler, out the same distance as me. As is sometimes the case, one side just gets the hits while the other does not and that's how it played out. He had at least a dozen takedowns, but none stayed on.

Heavy overcast early morning and sun finally started peaking through around 10, and full sun by 11. Once the coulds were gone, the bite was done, even though I tried to keep us in shaded waters. We tried several variations of speed, tackle, changed locations, etc. but nothing produced. We called it a day at 2:30 and headed for the launch.

The two we iced were nice fish, mine going 1lb, 11ozs and my partners was 2lbs even. Outside air temp was 32° at time of launch and surface temp was 40° rising to 41.1° by late morning to mid-afternoon. Trolling speeds ranged from 2.3 - 2.8mph, with occasional forays above and below but with no changes.

Water level at Roosevelt has been fluctuating from 1280.3' - 1280.85' since 2/6, so the increase in reservoir level has mostly stablized. Reservoir level are projected to drop steadily to about 1274' by 2/24. The fishing typically improves with a decrease in levels.

With the high pressure, flat calm water, and bright sunny conditions, there wasn't anything I could do to trigger interest. These conditions are my personal nemesis at Roosevelt, and I have yet to figure out how to change my success rates when fishing them.

We did see two separate groups of bighorn sheep, one small herd of a dozen on the north shore downstream from Whitestone, and a separate group of about 30 on the north shore about half way between Sterling Point and Lincoln.

As always, any day on the water is a nice day, even when catching is slow. ;-)

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