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Left Spokane at 8am and fought the fog from Airway Heights to the cutoff road, sometimes with no more than 50yds visibility if that. Always amazed at the number of drivers I see in those conditions with their headlights OFF and yesterday was no exception.

Anyway, fishing. I had purchased a new prop and wanted to swap it out to check it out, so made the swap and then headed for the launch. Boat in the water right at 11am and decided to run up to Two Rivers and try there. Nice calm water, clear, sunny, lots of boats and probably a couple dozen shore anglers enjoying the nice weather. We trolled around for about 30 minutes with only one hookup that made it within 15' of the boat before spitting the hook. Since I'm not fond of "heavy" traffic, we pulled the gear and went downstream.

As we rounded the bend just above Lincoln, I could see white capped water ahead. Alright, better fishing conditions! Nice wind chop and only a couple boats. With the wind as it was, I ran downstream so we could troll back with the wind.

The bite was slower for us yesterday, and not particularly good from noon on. Told Debbie it would probably pick again around 2 and at 1:45 we hit three in a row (5 in the cooler) before the wind blew us out of position. The dog needed a shore break so when we reached the end of our troll, I made a run to Sterling Point. Just can't seem to get her to piddle in a bucket. :-)

Back to the "spot" and again hit 3 in a row, but only 2 made it in the cooler, leaving us with 3 left to complete our limits. I trolled on to a couple other spots that have produced for us in the past, and one more went in the cooler. Gear up and back to the starting spot one last time and 15 minutes later our limits were in the cooler.

Gear stowed and heading for the launch just before 4pm. We long lined Rip'n Minnows in perch 195' back and a Kekada perch fly and Frisky Jenny Trick R Treat on leaded line 150' back. Flies were tipped with worm Trolling speeds were 2.8 - 3.5mph. Water surface temp ranged from 40.9 - 41.6.

Boat stowed away and heading for home at 4:45. The fog was just as thick on our return, maybe more so. I thought I was 3 or 4 miles north of Davenport when I saw the reduced speed ahead sign. That's what no visual cues will do. Oddly enough, the fog lifted before we got to Fairchild and was almost completely gone by the time we reached Harford Rd.

Seven Bays launch is in good shape with lots of gravel, but still wise to pull your boat out and let it drain/drip at water's edge instead of up the ramp. Just a nice courtesy for other boaters. ;-)

downriggeral

12/29/2013 9:35:00 AM

Morning Phil,
Thanks for the report. Lenny Special and bright colored Rapalas did the trick for us. They seemed to like orange on the plugs. Sure violated the dark day dark color rule! Guess that's why they call it fishing. We also used a Rip'n Minnow in gold with an orange back, totally strange and unexpected for the cloudy day. Two colors did the job on those.

two brothers fishing

12/29/2013 10:14:00 AM

Very good report as usual from a true fisherman. You always have a good detailed report on your outings. thanks again. We were down at Sterling Point area on Friday and did well also. The color for us was yellow and also red/oranges also The size of the fish seem to be getting bigger the last couple of outings for us. Can't beat Roosevelt fishing. Good fishing to all and be safe.

hewesfisher

12/30/2013 5:11:00 AM

I do dark day, bright color and just the opposite on bright days. Matter of fact, I almost changed flies as it was slower than I expected early on with the sun shining. I had the black fly sitting in my hand when we had a takedown. I never changed over, and as the afternoon wore on, it clouded up and the bite was on. It was a bitter, cold wind though, very deceiving while sitting inside with the sun on the canvas. Was 13° - 15° east of Reardon to about 20 miles north of Davenport. Was glad to see sun and warmer temps at the lake. Good fishing to you guys as well. :-)

MotoBoat

12/30/2013 12:18:00 PM

Phil, in the fish picture, is the bottom fish a Cuthroat ? The jaw sure appears to extend past the eye of the fish. The other two fish do not exhibit that feature.

charlie h.

12/30/2013 5:32:00 PM

Good report Phil, did the new prop perform well for you ? I know what you mean about car's driving in the fog with no lights on, even in a white car !

Charlie H.

hewesfisher

12/31/2013 9:01:00 AM

Moto - No, just a real healthy Roosevelt 'bow. It happened to be the best fish of the day at 2 1/2lbs.

Charlie - New prop is "ok", but not what I expected. It is correct pitch for recommended rpm range, but compared to my other prop, have lost 2 - 5mph at all of my normal use rpms. Will run it for awhile and collect data, then decide what to do. My gut feeling is I'll replace it with one that has 1" more pitch, time will tell. I lost count of light colored cars/trucks in the dense fog with no lights on. I never want to meet one sliding on the road in my lane. At least I'd have a chance if I saw headlights swaying in the fog, without that, no chance at all except for the grace of God.

Good fishing to everyone in 2104!

MotoBoat

12/31/2013 1:40:00 PM

Does Roosevelt have Cuthroat trout? Phil , could you verify if that trouts jaw extended past the eye (looks to in the picture)? Now I am curious how often a Cut might by part of your catch. I know you meant good fishing in 2014. Cause by the time 2104 rolls around, most members will be taking a dirt nap...

hewesfisher

1/1/2014 6:26:00 AM

2104, doggone dyslexic keyboard. The ones pictured are net pen raised fish as evidenced by the clipped adipose fins. All net pen raised trout are, to my knowledge, rainbow and kokanee only. There are cutthroat in Roosevelt, but I've never seen one. Here's a good read on the history of Lake Roosevelt fisheries programs - http://www.lrf.org/Env/Env-History.html. :-)

kenbarb

1/1/2014 12:43:00 PM

Always enjoy your reports hewesfisher. Check around your area for a shop that rebuilds props, they can probably tweak that new prop for the best performance, they can change the pitch a small amount, and will be a lot cheaper than a new prop.

hewesfisher

1/2/2014 6:46:00 AM

Precision Prop in Spokane can probably fix me up Ken. Wanted to get more than an hour's run time on it before deciding. Yesterday's trip convinced me the new prop is not staying on our boat. At 4krpm I'm only seeing 27mph where I was seeing 35+mph with the other prop. If I could find a way to keep the speed of the 19 pitch and the motor rpm of the 17 pitch, I'd have a winner.

I enjoy reading your reports too Ken and look forward to reading more in the future. Happy New Year to you and Barb. :-)

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