Del Valle 11/8/08

Apparently the hot bite was last week, because today was tough fishing for almost everybody. I trolled and trolled all over that lake for three fish. One was a nice 3 or 4 pound fish, the others had obviously been stocked this week because they were tiny.

Although there were a lot of hookups for Del Valle posted this week, I only ran into Paul R and his boys out there. Paul was having an epic day despite the lack of success I had and was hearing about from all the power boats.

One bummer that probably limited my catch is that I was only able to troll with one rod. Once I got on the lake I noticed some strange little strings forming on my flouro leader on one of my rods. Upon closer inspection I realized I had a broken tip top that was shredding my line. I accidentally dropped this rod earlier in the week and thought there was no damage done, but today I see that I shattered the ceramic insert in the top.  This was the very first fishing rod I ever built and I love it, but since it was my first ever build it isn't the prettiest job in the world. I guess this is an excuse to replace the guides and re-wrap it! 

I got lucky today. The kids (Steven & AJ caught a couple of trout)
We kept most of the bigger ones to put in the smoker. Any good trout smoking advice?

#1  DA BOYS
#2  HUNGRY?
#3  DA CATCH

Thanks for the report Fishin-Jay. Sorry about your trout pole. I am sure the new
rod tip will be prettier than before. Thanks for taking some pictures PaulR.

Jedmo

Tough break, FJ - time for a new custom job.   

Cool pics, Paul.   

I saw Paul and his sons there but that was it. I saw one guy unload his kayak in the parking lot as I was getting ready to put my boat in the water. I pretty much focused my entire day north of the marina and didn't see one kayak until I was pretty much done for the day and back at the marina.

I started out trolling the narrows with two rods. One with a threaded nightcrawler and one with a broke back rapala. I trolled through the narrows with no hits. As I came up on Swallow Bay I got a short strike on my nightcrawler rod. I slowed down to let him catch up and got a few more short strikes. Thought I had him on for a second so I started reeling. He just followed my bait right up to the boat hitting it over and over again with no hookups. Oh well. Keep trolling north and catch one right on the northern end of the bay on the east side. Nothing huge so he went back. I continued to pick fish up pretty much all over the lake but did not find any concentrations of fish. I got 3 on the nightcrawler, 2 on the broke back and 2 on a hammered nickle lil cleo. I got my biggest fish on the nightcrawler. He ended up going a little over 3 lbs so I took him home for dinner. A 3 lb trout is a hoot on an ultralight rod. I ended up catching most of my fish between 1-2pm. Sorry for the lack of pics but my camera broke last week. I desperately need a replacement. So hopefully I'll have a new one by my next report. I'm going to try to make it up again as soon as I can. Maybe this weekend but it might have to wait till next weekend. I'll keep ya'll updated.

-FF

Nice work fellas.  Glad DV gave at least a little something to everybody.  I'm planning on making it out, not this Saturday, but next Saturday, the 22nd I believe.

Wonder how the Sunday guys did?

Michael

DV is a tough place for me....every point, drop-off and cove looks so fishy!
Good job on following the lastest hot-spot though Jay.
IgetREALLYfrustratedAFTERaSKUNKING! but then come to the reality of it, while loading up, to just be glad to have had the CHANCE!!