Jan 3 Warm Creek

[ROSCOELAB]

Went to warm creek this morning looking for the school that a few had seen over the last week or two, got there around 9am, trolled the East side of WC by Wayne's hint pic, we found the school and started spooning for them, they wanted no part, changed spoon colors, added red flash, silver, bronze, nada.... They were not interested. We did end up boating 4 in 5 hrs, we lost the school around 10:45 and trolled around looking for them, got two of the fish trolling. 35-45 feet of water, every spoon in the box, a great day on the lake and good conversation.

 

[Reed]

Well sounds like your day was well spent. At least you got to be on The Lake. Crazy they would not hit the spoons. I am going to try Warm Creek this Saturday. You found a school so now I have to go...

 

[wayne gustaveson]

You could also check the back of Navajo or Gunsight if the Warm Creek School is uncooperative.

If you used anchovies on the Warm Creek School the catch would be tremendous.

 

[Guido]

I can say that I have used the anchovies in December to get the school fired up and by time we got tired of catching them we were throwing the occasional chum and jigs with no bait (empty hooks) and catching them 1-2 under the surface.

Now that was a hoot!

 

[Alfred E]

I had good luck in the back of Warm Creek on Dec 28. Spent about 1:15 minutes dropping spoons on a big school, landed 7 stripers, probably 1-2 pounds each, most all looked fairly healthy. I liked a heavier spoon because they stacked near the bottom in 50' of water and the bigger spoon hit the bottom quicker. Had trouble staying on top of the school with a light breeze being solo in the boat. Hooked into a big one that probably still has a spoon stuck in it's lip. My friend landed a 12 pounder in January 3-4 years ago in this area. Good luck!

 

[ROSCOELAB]

will take some chovies next time, figured we would be ok without bait this time of year, will try to scare some more on monday.

 

[Alfred E]

I hope you slay them Monday!
I haven't had the best of luck fishing when the forecast calls for chances of rain / snow. It might have something to do with the air pressure changes?
My best luck in Warm Creek in the winter over the last 5 years is to motor past the restroom around a mile (?), to the biggest canyon coming in from the right. I usually start trolling with lures that dive 15-22 feet at around 2-2.5 mph. Careful because there are some shallow, long skinny peninsulas coming off the right side (E) shoreline. Last trip I saw a number of schools on the graph, one school was definitely much larger, right around 50' of water, with fish stacked from 35-50'.
I look for the birds, which typically seem to be swimming on the surface in waters 40-50', which is the depth the fish seem to like in Warm Creek winter.

I really like Wayne's idea of throwing out the marker bouy over a big school (while trolling over them). For me it is worthwhile to "look around (at the graph)" trolling for a few minutes, what sometimes looks like a "big school", just a hundred yards away is much higher concentration of fish. And if I had anchovies I'd throw a chunk of one on the hook on the spoon.

Good luck! I'm excited to head up there when we get a couple calm days forecast.