Del Valle 13 Nov 07

Fished from 9 am to noon.  AM cloud cover, air temp.  60, water temp 62.  Clear and sunny by noon, air temp 74, water temp 64.  Wind 0 to slight breeze from the west.  Trolled from the ramp to and around Swallow Bay and back to the ramp..  One Rainbow landed, 14”, 15 oz, on a Rapala F7 in rainbow, 50’ of line out, in the Narrows at 1.86 mph..  Had a hit but no hook set on a Rapala J7 in Firetiger, 80 ‘ of line out at 1.6 mph, in Swallow Bay.  Had another hit on a ¾ oz Kastmaster in Firetiger, 60’ line out at 1.5 mph coming back in the Narrows.  Most of the bait fish showed in the area off the ramp.

Heron


White Pelicans

Hey Grizz,

I enjoyed your good scientific report.   No pictures of the trout?   -Matt

well, your hook/land ratio went up! couldn't you troll a little faster with the F7, like 2.3? might help with the hookset a little?  maybe try a grub on a single hook for going that slow?

thanks for putting up with desk-bound fishermen (kind of like armchair quarterbacks!).

J

HobieSport,

Hereyago, the fish.



Jmairey,

I varied my speed up and down, from .5 to 2.5, but most of the time at 1.8.  Being new at this, I’m doing a lot of experimenting and trying to keep good notes so I can see what works.     

griz, thanks for sharing your experiments with us working slobs.

I had some limited experiments myself the last two years.

I caught fish at 2.3 on a shad rap 5, although that might have been in a turn... it also had some weighted flashers ahead of it so it sank when I slowed down.

I have never caught a trout on a lure bigger than 5cm, love hearing about your successes with the longer lures. maybe all the ones I have sitting in my tackle box will get their turn after all.

I pretty much only trout fish in the spring and in tiny "lakes" for DFG planters which seem to max out around 15", but are often 12". it seems like a really small lure or bait and some tiny attractor blades are the way to go there, but like I said, I did have some success with the shad rap.

del valle sounds like it has real fish in it! Is that your default lake or are you going to be trying others?

J

jmairey,

I just started fishing “flat land” lakes.  For the better part of the last 20 years, I fished Sierra streams and lakes, the last 5 or so, just fly fishing.  Before the Sierra, I fished the bays for striper and sturgeon for about 10 years.  I no longer have a cabin so now I am trying to learn how to fish warmer lakes.  I guess Del Valle would by my “home” lake, since it is only a half hour from where I live.   In reading up on Del Valle, they have Largemouth Bass (lake record is 18 lb. 2 oz), Smallmouth Bass (lake record is  5.75 lb), Rainbow Trout (lake record is 20.10 lb.), Channel Catfish (lake record is 30 lb), Striped Bass (lake record is 40 lb), Chinook Salmon (lake record is 9 lb), and they have planted Kokanee and King Salmon.  So I think this is a great lake to learn how to fish.  Right now, I’m fishing for Trout.  Soon I will be trying for bass, probably when I get skunked on trout.

Thnks for the port&pics Grizz!  you are doing WAY BETTER than my first 50+MILES of trolling(between my 1st. and 2nd trout)
 Way to get them!     

that lake has been TOUGH on ME!

Grizz, fast action rods may help with hook sets... which I've been pretty lucky so far in trolling for trout, stripers, and other species.

Great report!

LL

Ciraulo,

I’m trying to do double duty, trolling with my bass rigs.  Both rods are light action, but are strung with fluorocarbon which doesn’t have a lot of give.  Maybe I should try a mono leader or rubber snubber with a mono leader when trolling.     

griz, what about trolling with flies? my kid caught a nice looking but small (wild?) trout on a berkley micro-nymph (1" rubber nymph) last spring. not quite a fly, but close. I don't have much confidence in my bigger lures for trout anymore myself. jptroy seems to have good luck trolling a wooly bugger (I think that is who does that a lot, or is it pat r?).

I like using small flashers or a dodger and a small lure or bait now.

for that matter, what about trolling with your fly rod? that seems to work for some of the guys here.

With all your fishing experience and time to be on the water, I pity the poor fish  .

I was reading something yesterday and have seen reports on coastside of trolling a countdown rapala pretty quick, like 3 mph. maybe that is worth a shot at some point?

J

I was reading something yesterday and have seen reports on coastside of trolling a countdown rapala pretty quick, like 3 mph. maybe that is worth a shot at some point?

Boy, you want me to work up a sweat!   Maybe I’ll try that on a day when I have a good tail wind.

I have an assortment of Buggers, Clouser Minnows and Deceivers in my box, but, right now, it’s about learning new tricks so they are staying there.  I’ll probably try trolling them one of these days

griz, I have noticed that a stiffer rod tip allows a smaller or head-shaking fish to 'bounce' off the hook. you might set the hook better on a stiffer tip, but once hooked, the fish will stay on a softer tip better.

maybe I am missing some fish on the set that I don't know about, but I am generally landing the ones that are hooked, and using a very soft 2-8lb koke rod usually when trolling in fresh water from the yak.

if this is the case, and you are using bass gear (medium to medium heavy rods?) to troll for trout, maybe you set the hook just fine on those you lost, but they basically shook the hook during the fight?

J

I have a chunk of change invested in four new rods, so I'll have to learn to catch with these for the time being.     

Griz -

WTG!!! Beautiful trout.  If you want to soften the action on your rods for trout, you can use light mono with a flouro leader or try an in-line snubber. The less expensize slower action graphite (G2) rods or an old fiberglass rod are better for trout trolling IMO, especially pulling plugs. I picked one up at a garage sale for $5 and use it all the time.

Scott

Scott, a $5 garage sale rod? say it ain't so!

I have been getting the feeling that all your 400+ setups are super high-end!  .

now you are really ruining my image of you!

with all our yammering, poor griz, I hope he still reports next time he goes out,  .