I fished Rufus Woods at the net pens shore fishing up and down the river all last week and knocked em silly. C&R easily 50 plus fish a day. Fish all ran from 14-20 inches. Largest was one about 3.5-4 lbs. I didn't know you could camp at the net pens, so I camped at Banks Lk and did the 30 min commute from there everyday. Moved camp mid week and stayed at the net pen campground ($35) for 3 days. Lots of kids are out on spring break, so the normally empty weekdays were very busy and the campground full.

April 1st the new regs went into effect and if you catch and release you must use single barbless hook. F&W agent told me they weren't going to issue warning tickets or give people a grace period. "It's on the books and we are going to ticket people" I was told it was ok to camp on the lower level by the river and sat there for several hours enjoying the warm sun and watching people catch fish. There are no signs anywhere saying it wasn't ok to camp there, but later in the day the F&W told me to move or he was coming back in a hour and ticket me. Bit rude I thought, but oh well.

. If I were a F&W agent I could have given out at least a dozen tickets. Almost everyone fishing bait were catching and throwing fish back. There are a gazillion fish in there, but most are smaller in the 14-16 inch range. Nice fish, but everyone is cherry picking and over their limits. I saw several carloads of kids show up and their parents catch their limits. 4 young guys that must have caught 40-50 fish using bait then switched over to lures and caught another 20-30 more. I saw quite a few dead fish everyday I was there floating down river and on the bottom. There is no excuse for all the garbage and junk being left along the shore. There are garbage cans how hard is it to walk 50 ft!... My dog was tangled up in hooks, fishing line, cut paw and eating who knows what.

I mostly used a homemade spinner I make up. Barbless and never have to touch the fish to release it. Quick shake and they fall right off. Fished various roostertails and they all worked, but the chartreuse black spots and yellow skirt was by far the hottest on one day. Couldn't keep it in the water without a fish on or vicious strike. I'm not a big lure fan, so gave some of my never used ones a try and just about everything produced a fish or strike.

I fished one day for several hours from my kayak around the net pens and across the river. 3 guys were fly fishing by the pens in pontoon boats and were doing well. Fishing wasn't near as hot from my kayak, but did catch 15-20 in about 1.5 hrs. Largest fish I saw caught was a HOG in the 12-15 lb range. Camping neighbors over the 3 days caught several in the 8-10 lb range from their boat, but everyone that had been fishing here for years said it's the poorest fishing they've had for bigger fish.

I also fished with a black rubber 2 inch jig that worked well until it was shredded. That was after about 10 fish. Guy gave me some maribou jigs and they caught at least a dozen fish. Insane fishing there right now, so I'll definitely be heading back over soon with the fly rod. The week I was there it ranged from heavy snow to into the low 60's by weeks end. Nightime temps were in the low 20's much of the week. I heard that the water temp was 37 degrees. Buffalo Lk that opens this coming weekend was still frozen. If anyone has some updated info. on that I'd appreciate a post.