Monthly Archives: July 2009

Round Valley Fishing Report – Lake Trout

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I got Teddy out on the boat July 24, 2009 much to the delight of both of us. The weather reports were calling for thunderstorms, but as the pictures show, weathermen are idiots.

We started out by the north tower and drifted east with the wind. We hooked up with a few small bass suspended about 30 feet down and then in 75 feet of water, fishing the bottom, something fierce inhaled my herring.

It was the lightest pole on the boat, a real noodle spooled with 6 pound test. I knew it was a nice size lake trout so I had Teddy standing at the ready with the net and just then the other rod goes off. Another smallmouth bass. Teddy reeled that one in and got back on the net just in time to get a 20″ lake trout head first into the net.

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Pete showed up later and caught a ton of smallmouth bass.  Nothing big enough to photograph, but we did see the biggest Bass any one of us has ever seen cruising in about 15 feet of water in Ranger Cove.   Couldn’t tell if it was a largemouth or smallmouth.

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Trolling Live Herring

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Great day on the lake today.  On a solo mission I caught 4 Rainbow Trout, 1 Brown Trout, 7 or 8 Small Mouth Bass and I missed about as many.  As you can see below I caught a monster Smallmouth Bass… where was the bass assassin?  Tubing?

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Time: 6am to 11am (the fish bite died at 10:30am)

Weather: Sunny 75degrees in the early am no wind, later wind from east/ northeast

Bait: Live Herring.   I was able to keep 2 dozen alive for 5 hours in a 5 gallon insulated cooler that I added handfulls of ice to every half hour or so.

Location: mostly around the North Tower and around the outside of the northwest cove.  I had every intention of scoping out new grounds, but I kept catching fish and getting hits.  The drift was non existent (no wind).

Method: Since there was no drift, I had to create one.  I hooked the Herring under the chin and out a nostril and suspended them behind a 1 oz. egg sinker.  I set two rods in the stern and set the trolling motor to 1 or 2 (slowest and slow).  It seems like I got most of my hits going slowest though.  See the pic below for the boat setup.

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There it is… the poor mans downrigger.  Add weight or let out more line to go deeper, that’s it!  I need better rod holders though, I lost a lot of fish due to being unable to lift the rods out quickly and cleanly.

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Summertime Night Fishing at Round Valley

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Jason Foehsel

Jason Foehsel joined us for our first foray into night fishing at Round Valley.  We put the boat in the water at 8pm.

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Using the ridiculously hideous and large Hula Popper above, Pete cleaned up in all the usual bass spots.  We fished this way till ~930pm when it was too dark to see anything.

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Capt. Pete motored us out into deeper waters near the South Tower.  There was almost NO wind so we didn’t anchor up and just drifted around for a few hours.  Using live large shiners fished at ALL depths, we caught absolutely nothing.

We moved to the north tower area after a while and repeated the above, no fish and all.  Our hummingbird was signaling fish at all depths and we even heard and saw a few fish jump nearby.

I’m sure we were doing something or maybe even many things wrong.  I’ve read and heard of people fishing at night anchored up.  They chum and fish with shrimp.   We didn’t have shrimp.  Some even use lights to illuminate the lake and attract smaller fish and Gammarus.  We didn’t have a light.

The next time we try this, we need a better battery.  Ours died from the draw of our running lights and illuminated fish finder.  We also need to bring Scrimps.

Around 1:30 in the am at the north dock while pulling the boat in we saw Two big catfish and watched as one chased and inhaled a small bass.

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