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Almost a repeat of my last report, wet, overcast, light breeze, cool temps all conditions I thought were going make for a banner day fishing and expected limits in the boat by noon. Not.

Launched at 7:50, gear out, well one rig, at 8:10, hooked up on that one just as I was dropping the fly in the water on the second rig. First fish in the boat at 8:15! Re-set that rig, sent it on its way, then got the other 3 in the water. Bang! Another one hit the leaded line rig, but didn't stick. Then a hit on a long line mono rig, and it didn't stick either. And that was the story for a couple hours. We had so many "drivebys" I lost count, and by 11:30 when I anticipated us having limits, or nearly so, we only had 5. Debbie and I tied with 2 rainbows each and her with a bonus, a nice little silver about 13 1/2".

Decided to hit a spot that has been kind to us in the past and one we haven't fished for quite some time, so we left Sterling Point and headed to Split Rock. Pulled in, fired the kicker, set the speed, let the line out and before I could even get another rod out of the holder it was fish on! Short fight, quick scoop, and in the cooler. Again, I thought this will be a quick way to complete our limits, and again it wasn't. More drivebys, over and over.

I finally found a hole where they were holding and could guarantee a fish on every time I passed through that spot. Once I got that dialed in, we hooked up every time through. Getting them to the net was another story. Perseverance paid off, and we put the final 4 in the cooler in less than 45 minutes with Debbie hooking a very healthy 2lb 13oz carryover that went 19 3/4".

I used lots of gear today, and started with some flies from fellow WALaker Dave Browning. His orange "Kekeda" fly accounted for the first fish in the boat yesterday and another when we could get them to stay on. Not a fault of the fly, same held true for the myriad of patterns I tried, and there were many, yesterday. I started with bright colors of orange and Dave's version of perch. No bites on the perch, but the orange put 2 in the cooler. I tried pink, orange, orange and black, plain 'ol muddler minnow, and the results were the same, they got hit but didn't stick.

After moving to Split Rock, I went back to the Frisky Jenny perch pattern fly, and that seemed to get the most interest, and boated the rest of our limits.

I varied speed a lot today, from 1.8mph up to 3mph and everywhere in between. Seemed to finally settle in at about 2.8mph for the best action. Flies were on leaded line out 150' and tipped with a piece of crawler. I also trolled Rip'n Minnow plugs at 195' but they were not very productive. The one lone kokanee did come on a plug and maybe one other rainbow. We lost several on the plugs, either withing 20' of the boat or when they jumped 170' or so back. At one point I thought all my hooks needed sharpening, but several of the flies were brand new out of the package, so that wasn't the problem with hookups. Sometimes you just need to enjoy your time on the water which we certainly did. :-)

mtngrizz

11/4/2012 11:02:00 AM

Nice complete report, helpful to many for sure. Nice catch. Time with friends and family - spectacular.

hewesfisher

11/4/2012 1:11:00 PM

Agreed. For persepctive, the cutting board the three fish are laying on is 19 /12"wide and 15 1/2"high. We put 8 1/2lbs of fillets in the fridge last night and they along with the fillets from Tuesday's catch go in the brine later this afternoon. :-)

Anglinarcher

11/4/2012 3:49:00 PM

Great report. I swear, if they were steelhead you could use magnetic hooks. LOL If I ever figure out how to hook up and keep those guys that get off so easy, I will sell it for a million dollars.

One bit of advice, I believe that every hook needs sharpening out of the box. OK, Gami and KVD maybe not, but for the most part, I check them on my fingernail and if they aren't stick sharp, they hit the stone. That is my excuse, feel free to use it if you want. LOL

Kekedatackleco

11/4/2012 5:19:00 PM

Great report. Glad the flies got you at least a couple. You're probably right anglinarcher, maybe I should invest in some really good hooks and tie some more to see if that helps. Well, like always I'm a little envious but hopefully I'll get out there next weekend with my brothers for an overnight trip on Saturday. Thanks for the info, take care.

charlie h.

11/5/2012 6:41:00 AM

Awesome, nice catch !

Charlie

Two Brothers Fishing

11/5/2012 8:29:00 AM

Great report as always from you, we enjoy reading them. Every person we talked to out there Saturday said they had lots of fish on but lost quite a few before getting them close to the boat. Weird how that happens sometimes. as it did with us also. Thans again for so much information---really helps , Terry

hewesfisher

11/6/2012 5:33:00 AM

I'm happy to share info on our outings and even more pleased that others find it useful. Please continue to do the same. See you at the lake! :-)

blufin loui

11/6/2012 9:15:00 PM

As always Phil, Great fish and good pics, Thanks for your informative reports and sharing the trip through tale and picture. That Debbie is a Rosie Fish Slayer. LOL Say hi for us

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