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I could see the uneven color bars on this fish even before he ate my fly, and immediately wonder if he was covered in fungus (although I have never seen fungus fish in this river. But he was sore and fungus free. But he was post-spawn for sure as he had clearly lost a lot of weight.Quote:
Originally Posted by neckdeep
What kind of fish is that ?Quote:
Originally Posted by Underoos
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Sheepshead. They're weird as fuck.
The idea of landing fish that big makes me tired, they are comically large.Quote:
Originally Posted by Underoos
I started working a part time job a couple weeks ago, which has put a damper on fishing as much as I NEED to, so today I got gussied up after getting home, hoping to hit that time of day that produced so well the other night. On my first cast, as I slid with the current to where I wanted to be, I let my line strip out for a very long drift, and as the line was about to drag, the bubble got sucked under, and my hookset met with a meaty resistance provided by a beautiful rainbow troutfish.
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I caught it on the same type of nymph which was killing the other day, but after that fish, I didn't get another bite. Eventually I left and fished the confluence in the waning light. I caught a wiggly whitefish who made me take a bad picture.
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I caught one more whitefish at the confluence before working my way back to the truck. I stopped and threw some more casts where I'd caught the trout earlier, but no luck. It had been a little over and hour when I got back to the truck, I'm so glad I went.
So, I decided to go fish elsewhere, to a place I had never gone before, I guess I MUST have been thinking, I need to find me a place to catch moar, bigger.......whitefish! So you see, it was a stroke of genius that sent me to exactly the place where I indeed caught moar (13 of 'em), bigger whitefish! Genius!
It started out small, but I quickly caught three small whitefish, which helpt toward the moar, though not the bigger.
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So I moved on to another place, and on my first cast my bubble sunk, and voila, a bigger whitefish!
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Then, again I moved, and again, another bigger whitefish!!!
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After moving further up river, my whitefish expedition was rudely interrupted by a rather large rainbow trout, who grabbed my nymph, had a tussle with me over it, jumped out of the water to taunt me, and then rudely broke off my loverly Northshore stonefly nymph.
I will digress now to extoll the virtues of Northside stonefly nymphs. How well do I love the Northshore stonefly nymph, let me compare it to a, well, some other nymph that caught 37 fish in four outings (21 trout and 16 whiteffish) which I bought out of the bargain bin at a local flyshop! How smug am I to have had such success in the catching of the fish with said nymph! Very smug indeed! Digression over.
The sky got bright for a while.....
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......and I continued catching moar whitefish, but not always bigger.
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Bigger!
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So you see, when one really tries, one may find moar bigger whitefish, and avoid catching rather large rainbow trout, which jump athletically in expression of mockery right in one's face, before stealing one's Nothshore stonelfy nymph!
The end.
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With 4 WDFW officers patrolling about 80 miles of the Columbia River and tributaries in Stevens and Ferry county,
most whitefish I see landed end up with their throats slit and "released" back into the river
as they compete with trouts and eats trout eggs
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Mountain whitefish and native trout species evolved in the same waters, and have lived in equilibrium for millennia. I don't think killing whitefish helps much with trout stocks, but do think it is a waste of life. While I'd have preferred catching big trout today, I quite like catching whitefish as well, and when they're bigger ones, like some of them I caught today, they pull hard, and are otherwise feisty, and why you hatin" on the whitefish?
On Friday I caught 21 trout and one whitefish. It's a where and when thing; there are plenty of trout in the river.
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I think you misunderstood me ....
just passing on an observation, not making a judgement
what few whitefish I land go back, intact
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Oh, OK. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by romeo tango
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sentence of structure my best not is ....
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Well, my fishing stalled out for a few days while we had subzero weather, the rivers frozen from bank to bank. Then the weather warmed up Wednesday, and I thought for sure that the temps, now sweltering in the upper teens would have the fish frisky and ready to eat. Wrong! Not a bite on Wednesday.
So I went out Friday. the temps now up into the twenties, I thought for sure the fish would be on the bite. I was half right, I repeated my Wednesday performance of four hours and no bites, but a fisherfriend, who I saw there that day, landed an 18+ inch rainbow; he tends to have the Midas touch ( that is if everything Midas touched turned to fish). He showed me a photo of the gorgegous beast, and consoled me by saying it really was very slow that day.
Today I returned, seeing as it was in the thirties and partly sunny, and after first reading the Book of Ezra (I must needs be faithful in my studies), I prayed on whether I should fish or not (glory be, the answer was yes). For a while it looked grim, and I got no bites where I expected. However eventually, after fishing up the confluence about half way, my prayers were answered as my bubble got sucked under, and the hookset met with meat. Not huge, but a pretty fish, and a lot better than getting skunked again.
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soul fishing
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It's fun to catch a whitefish while trout fishing here in the CO high country.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rasputin
Half the time i feel like i hook up on a log or the bottom, reel a bit, tug a bit. That's not the bottom, it's a whitefish!
I'll take a pic next. They are big and chubby on the lower fork.
subscribing! strong work already all.
I went out last Sunday hoping to find midges coming off. Instead I found slabs of ice that, despite some warmer weather, hasn't receded much since the sub-zero temps we had a couple weeks back. Couldn't get trout to do more than lean toward a nymph or dry. Managed a couple solid streamer eats but my hook sets, slowed by the cool temps and inactivity, where just not good enough.
skied deer valley last friday and stopped by the jordanelle res and got a few splake to eat
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Quote:
Originally Posted by I've seen black diamonds!
It's been my experience, on the west side of the Pass at least, that a couple warm days isn't enough. I look for a rain event that puts valley floor snowpack into the river. The water needs to bump up enough to pull out the ice and add a little color to the water. Then the streamer bite can be pretty damn good. IMHO, takes more than a subtle increase in water temps to bring on a good winter bite.
Yeah, since the subzero weather came through, I've had one bite in the fives times I've gone (around ten or eleven hours of fishing). It occurred to me yesterday as I watched my indicator peacefully drift, that the Clark Fork in Missoula still has ice most of the way across it, and the warmer days are bringing fresh snowmelt into the stream, so the warmer air temp is not able to offset the cold melt water, so far.Quote:
Originally Posted by neckdeep
A bit of winter angling advice I can give you is that, in my experience, whitefish will hold in relatively swift water when its very cold but trout usually move to slow water. If you're mostly catching whitefish, that should tell ya something.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rasputin
I went fishing this afternoon, and tried a different route to a stretch of river I fished before. I ended up doing a lot of walking and little fishing, as the side of the river I was on (the south bank of an east > west flow, had quite a lot of ice. Getting out on the ice was dicey, as it was partly sunny and in the mid forties today. I eventually bailed on fishing there, and hiked back, to the boat ramp, and then to the closest place I feel confident in catching fish usually. It was the same no bite doldrums, and a few switches of nymph rigs, for and hour or so, but eventually the float dipped below the water, and I caught a small, raggedy-tailed trout fish.
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I covered several miles in today's trek, and my aging feet have informed me that wading boots are not actually hiking boots. I would have preferred to catch more fish, but I was out stomping through the woods, crunching snow and ice, exploring where I hadn't trod before, and it was a pretty day.
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This deserves another big congrats!Quote:
Originally Posted by The Reverend Floater
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Dad sent me a package, said he had an extra:
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Ice out fishing, again!