I went to Rufus Woods from Wednesday afternoon through Saturday afternoon. 11/4-11/7. The fishing on Wednesday started out with a bang going up the shoreline closest to the first pumping station. I hooked and caught a rainbow close to 4lbs on my 2nd cast. I was excited at what the day would have in store, however, to my surprise I only hooked 4 other fish and landed one. I fished Brandts landing - 0 fish. I then went another 5 miles upriver and fished some nice rocky structures and had a few bites and a bunch of follows. It seems as though the fish just weren't into an aggressive bite on Wednesday, however, there was interest in the spoons I was throwing.

On Thursday, I went about 12 miles up river from the Dam and started fishing the same rocky structures that I fished the day before. Again, first few casts I threw and I caught two fish. One was about 2lbs and the other about 3lbs. Then I went down the bank to no avail. I decided to troll a cut plug herring and had a fish of about 8lbs or better hit the rig and immediately leap about 5 feet out of the water and throw the hook. It was more like a steelhead leap from a tripploid. It was cool. I then casted spoons and tried black jigs for a while and caught 2 more fish over 2 hours both of which were 1 lbers.

Friday was the best day for biters. The morning was very windy and I fished the lower areas below pump 1, Brandts landing and the walls above Brandts landing. On this day, the fish were biting, but the conditions were so rough that managing the boat was difficult. I had my best action trolling a wooly bugger way behind the boat 7 feet below the surface and in about 35 feet of water along the far shoreline from the can line to pump 1. I caught 4 fish and they were all small fish at 1-2 lbs. I also tried casting this shoreline and hooked another 4 fish that way. The largest fish was about 3lbs. I then moved up to Brandts landing and caught nothing tossing spoons. I then moved up to the walls just above the Landing and hooked two fish in between 30 mph wind gusts and 3 foot waves. It was along these walls that I caught the largest fish of about 4lbs. I had an absolute monster follow my spoon. It had to be over 10lbs. It just wouldn't bite. By 2:00 in the afternoon I had to leave the lake due to wind.

Saturday....it was calm in the morning but the forecast was for heavy winds in the afternoon so I decided to go up to the walls above Brandts landing and I didn't catch a fish after 2 hours of fishing. By 10:30 the wind was so bad i decided to leave after finally catching a dink of less than a pound.

Hopefully, the fishing will improve in the next few weeks as the water cools down.

The Quadfather

11/10/2009 10:06:00 PM

How cold is it over there at this time?

blufin loui

11/11/2009 12:25:00 AM

Great report steelhead64389, Sounds like you were doing pretty good, but I understand the difficulty you were experiencing. It always amazes me to see those Big trout follow your offerings, it's quite the adrenaline rush. Over the years I have had better luck on the Brants Landing when the water temps drop into the lower 40s. It sure is a large flats area there. My hats off to you for your efforts on the windy days, make for some tough fishing.
Thanks for your report and I look forward to reading about your future success stories.

steelhead64389

11/11/2009 10:12:00 AM

To the Quadfather. The water temps are between 56 and 58 which is hgh for this time of year from speaking to people. That undoubtedly is why the bite was off also. The temps in the water have to go down a few degrees. The air temperature was mild for this time of year as well. the afternoon temps were between 40 and 50 degrees. the mornings are a bit colder.

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