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Havalina

Havalina

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I just spent Thursday and Friday fishing. The bite is on, on, on! I had 36 fish in two days and the guys at the camp site were doing about the same. The avg size was 22 in. The walleye are all over Halls Creek. I never went anywhere other than bullfrog of halls. I was not marking a ton of fish or bait balls. The stripers literally look like wipers, just footballs. I cant wait until some of them get to the 10 lb range.

lure: anything white or uv.
speed was 2-2.5 mph
depth was 30-60 ft For the lures and any where from 40-120 ft of water.
best time was between 2-4 pm.
 
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Havalina said:
I just spent Thursday and Friday fishing. The bite is on, on, on! I had 36 fish in two days and the guys at the camp site were doing about the same. The avg size was 22 in. The walleye are all over Halls Creek. I never went anywhere other than bullfrog of halls. I was not marking a ton of fish or bait balls. The stripes literaly look like wipers, just footballs. I cant wait until some of them get to the 10 lb range.

lure: anything white or uv.
speed was 2-2.5 mph
depth was 30-60 ft For the lures and any where from 40-120 ft of water.
best time was between 2-4 pm.
Click to expand...
Nice report. Any pics?
 
It’s so exciting to hear that there have finally been some fish caught!
Were you running down riggers to get down to 30-40 feet?
Thanks for The report. Good on ya!
 
I didn’t take any fish pics this go around as I clean as I go. Having a raw water wash down is the best thing ever.
I was running down riggers and the other guys at the campground were using lead line.
It was absolutely gorgious on both days. I usually get rained on every time5AA818B8-FC63-4A88-A3FC-06943C73F748.jpeg I go to powell.
 
I was also on the water, Thursday, Friday, mainly Halls, saw quite a few balls of bait fish usually at around 40-50 feet,just off of the bottom, stripers didn't seem to be near them, had the down riggers at 28' and 38' using Storm floaters, and Rapala floaters also, usually in black, silver, clear. When the stripers were found it was pretty obvious on the finder, dropped 4-5-oz slab jigs, color really didn't matter as long as it had some white, blue, silver, black on it. Usually two at a time on ,when the fish were found. Saw a few fish in the cottonwoods , usually in the top of the trees. The fish we caught seemed to have empty stomachs, even though they were very heavy fish. Fish seemed to turn on around 2p.m. ,water temp. was 45-47 that I saw. Caught a few around where the grebes were.
 
What boat were you. I donated about $40 worth of lures to the cottonwoods in halls on Friday. I was the maroon thunder jet.
Never mind I just looked your avatar. You guys were the Boston Whaler. I caught almost all of my fish skimming across the top of the bait balls that you guys were jigging when I first pulled in about 1300 hrs and along that shore line on Friday, every pass was at least one fish and sometimes three.
 
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Stripers, I know that this will seem like travesty to some, but I use 10 ft light medium mooching rods for the fight. So, when the little tail nippers get hooked. I usually give the line a good jerk and pop them off. I can tell a walleye strike because the barely move the rod tip, while a striper will usually pull it straight off the release.They were driving me nuts in the back off halls.
 
Yep, those cottonwoods have a lot of cash hanging in the tops of the branches, about 6 years worth for me ! It seemed most of the fish we got weren't always near the trees, And yes the mooching rods I have found to be a lot better on the down riggers, better action, hold more line, the reels have super drags for larger fish. Definitely very good fish ! Last year in a spot close to there, I had two stripers on that were similar in size to what we were catching, when the third rod, the mooching rod that was on a down rigger was hit by a very large fish also at 40' that I was unable to even begin to control...gone!
 
Thanks for the great report. You make me want to get a down rigger. ;)
I am curious about your walleye comments. Please clarify how many walleye did you catch and were they all caught trolling?
 
Wayne,

I didn’t boat a single walleye. I probably hooked about 15 or so in halls. They have a similar strike to a small kokanee. Meaning that the way the rod bounces while still attached to the down rigger.
When the rods would say that a fish was on and that it was probably a walleye.

I would check the rod by taking up the slack and give the rod a quick snap. If it was a striper the fight would be on. If was a walleye, I give a small tug and they would just pop off. If it was still hooked I would go ahead and reel it in. I actually had about 5 that I had close enough to the boat to identify them. They all spit the hook as I was trying to net them.

I am always a one man band and trying to finesse a walleye in while the stripers are hitting is a recipe for disaster, because I can’t get the other line in. Last year I was trying to get a walleye in and had a 28 in striper hit the other rod. I boated both fish, but spent the next hour undoing that rats nest that was created.

I was trolling the whole time and I seemed to get a hit by the cottonwoods and on almost every point or rise where the water was going from about 60 ft to about 40 ft. I did however catch two of tbe biggest smallmouths that I have caught at Powell. They were both just about under 17 in and full of baby catfish. They were both caught in with the stripers open water about 45 ft deep.
 
The reason why I always fish with downriggers is that it allows for some precision. Once you figure you blow back of your weight at a certain speed and then the diving depth of a particular lure. You can get with in a foot of the depth that you are needing to be.

I actually use them anytime I am fishing more than 7 ft deep. It also allows me to apply KOCOA when fishing. I also have a fish hawk for the lakers and Kokanee so I know what depth to start fishing for those guys.
 
I’m too old school to do much with the digital age, but I’ll try and tell how I made a good, cheap, easy, and very dependable hook saver.
I start with a 2” key ring, add 6 pieces of 1/8” chain.
I cut them to about 6” long and cut the end link, and bend it in to form a hook on the end.
The last part is to put a chain repair link on the key ring too.
When I get a snag I open the repair link and put my fishing line in and close the repair link.
Then just slide the saver down my tight fishing line until it gets to the lure.
Most of the time the lure pops free as soon as the chains hit it.
If not I just keep the fishing line tight and then bounce the hook saver up and down until the treble hooks get caught in the saver’s chain, and then just pull the whole thing up.
It works really well. I save at least 90% of my snags.
I’ve gotten lures, and pop gear back from 120 FOW at the Gorge.
I’ll try and attach a picture.
 

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Havalina said:
The reason why I always fish with downriggers is that it allows for some precision. Once you figure you blow back of your weight at a certain speed and then the diving depth of a particular lure. You can get with in a foot of the depth that you are needing to be.

I actually use them anytime I am fishing more than 7 ft deep. It also allows me to apply KOCOA when fishing. I also have a fish hawk for the lakers and Kokanee so I know what depth to start fishing for those guys.
Click to expand...
I just got a FishHawk too - the one with bluetooth - I'm looking forward to using it.

I plan to use their app to make a fishing journal/log. My Garmin chartplotter can be driven by my cell phone.

With there 2 "apps" and taking a picture of the fish with lure attached I hope to be able to create a log that will tell me fishing depth, trolling speed, temperature at depth, species, lure presentation, date, time and some other stuff I forget.

Anyone else doing something similar?

Later at home I can "upload" this data to a map and create a visual journal of where fish have been caught and with what on past trips.
 
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