Union Valley 11-10-06 (Pics)

Had to scratch plans to go to Anchor Bay because of the swell report so I decided to fish local and go to Union Valley.
Drove to the heliport to scope things out.
This is the peninsula area of Union Valley:


Union Valley dam area:


Ice House in the distance with Pyramid peak off to the left:


Lakes are LOW as you can see. Not a boat in sight. Lake was like glass.
Drove to the peninsula and launched from the boat ramp around 1pm.
I was trolling a dodger with a Mepps trailing and throwing a Kastmaster to rises with no luck. It was very frustrating as I was marking fish everywhere and in all depths.







This spot consistently showed the fish stacked up. No matter what I did I couldn't get a hit. I tried dropping a worm in the middle of them too. Nada!



I switched to a 2'' Floating Rainbow Trout Rapala and within 3 minutes I had my 1st hook-up. A nice 14'' rainbow.



Two minutes later another hook-up but I lost it at the boat..no net.

Things got quiet so I added a sliding sinker and a dodger and got hit right away with a dink. I am thinking this is a Kokanee. Correct me if I am wrong:



Ended the day with 7 hits. One lost at hook-up, one lost at the boat. One released and kept four.
The fish got consistantly smaller as the day went on. 14'', 12'', 11 1/4'' and 10 1/2''.
Looks like the skunk is finally off of me.
I never saw another person on the lake all day. It was awesome.
My final haul:

Great report Mike.  You picked a good day to go and get the skunk off.
Nice pics and fish.

Al

Cool report, fished there a ton as a kid.

sweet report!  great looking lake.

Jason

looks like a great day! were you wearing your row row's ?

chef

You bet I was wearing my RoRows. I don't paddle without them. Since I was trolling all day it really made it easy, especially when the 1:30 wind kicked up. You can almost set your watch to it.

Great report Tote. That place looks like a blast, great pictures especially of what you read on the FF.
Frank

Looked like fun, had the same frustration at Mendo, marking tons of fish but no action.

I'm not familiar with that lake but its definitely a salmon, the caudal peduncle (area before the tail or caudal fin) is too narrow/skinny/small for a rainbow trout.  Reminds me of Washington State where in a lot of loandlocked lakes where they stock king, coho and sockeye (kokanee) salmon to fish for like other trouts.

That definatly looks like a koke!  Nice report. Making me jealous to get out for trout.

-Brian G

Good work!

J

Cool report with good views of the lake.  Nice trout harvest - that Kokanee is a clean looking fish.   

Nice fish Tote. The reservoir looks beautiful. I love the clear water in the mountians.

Z

Looks like a beautiful place to paddle and fish.  Glad you finally found out what the fish were biting on.

John

WTG Tote!   Looks like you had a lot more fun than I had this weekend.