Good bite on at Del Valle

Got up this morning and made the hour long drive to Del Valle and was on the water by 8:15. The boat inspection was pretty painless and as they explained to me the only thing that would fail a kayak would be a dirty/muddy boat or water inside the hull.

Once I arrived I met up with Storm Scrambler (James) and after a slight delay for him (forgot his paddle) we were on the water. I was trolling J-7 Rapalas and had my first fish within 5 minutes. I trolled north of the marina first and then let the wind push me down through the narrows where I picked up another nice fish.

At this point, the wind started HOWLING. I decided I wasn't going to be able to stick around in the stiff wind and I started fighting my way back to the marina. It was miserable, but just as I got to the marina, the wind died and I picked up another fish! 

I figured I would paddle around a bit more before I pull out. About 15 minutes later I'm thinking I'm ready to go. The wind died down some but was still blowing and it was raining pretty good. But suddenly the bite turned on. I started picking up fish consistently on Rainbow and Brown Trout pattern Rapalas and then a Striper Boil starts up nearby! It was mayhem. I was landing nice trout after nice trout and James is hooked up on topwater in a striper boil just 50 yards away! 

Needless to say, I stuck around for a while longer. I ended up landing 10 or more trout with as many hits that didn't stick. I never was able to get a striper, but I didn't try until the boils had already subsided.

I think it's safe to say that Del Valle is hot right now. 

The launch...


Lots of fish on the finder just about everywhere north of the marina...


When the sun was out...


Some of the catches, all fish released...

Awesome! Thanks for the report guys.

Jeff

wind was bad at first, then rain, then wind and rain, then stripper boils, first cast into them hooked one got to the boat and fell off, second 18-20" landed him hot lure entangled in net  , then we paddled over to another boil, threw out a kast master and bam started taking out line and real hung up and snap , few more cast and not much going on so we headed in. Good day of fishing

Nice hard work Fishin-Jay. Thanks for the report and beautiful pictures of the
trout. I noticed some bank anglers are at it as well.

Jedmo

Man, solid job FJ!  Jealous I couldn't make it.   Something inside said it would be off the hook, glad you got to experience it. 

Michael

Strong work!

Nice job in perservering in the less than favorable conditions, and chunky rainbows too!!

Nice size trout there, Jay. How long did it take you to paddle back to the launch area, against the wind?

FnJay - I think the paddling against the wind was only a bother until you got some fish on, Bro!  You've got the power!     and I gotta say, chiming in with the "hot bite" word is a top quality report - WTG!     (sorry to all those "hide the secrets" folks!  )

FnJay - I think the paddling against the wind was only a bother until you got some fish on, Bro!  You've got the power!     and I gotta say, chiming in with the "hot bite" word is a top quality report - WTG!     (sorry to all those "hide the secrets" folks!  )

I think for folks that know about Del Valle there isn't much of a secret that the bite turns on in the fall/winter as soon as the water temp drops, but I'm glad we were lucky enough to be there on one of the first good days. 

But, both James and I were talking about how we had never seen striper boils like this at Del Valle before. It was wild with fish breaking the surface all over the place. What seemed to trigger it was the rain. The fish were nowhere to be found when it wasn't raining, but each time a squall passed over the lake the fish would start boiling.

I plan on heading out there again next Saturday. My WAF account is full for that weekend since my wife is doing an all day scrap booking event with her friends. Hopefully the temperatures stay cool and the water temp doesn't increase so trout will remain as active next week as they were yesterday. 

I'll likely post another hookup later this week 

Hojo: It took me about 45 minutes to paddle back to the marina from the far side of the narrows in the wind and whitecaps. I'm kind of glad I didn't do it faster otherwise I might have missed the improvement in the weather and left before things got good.

Jay:

Nice trout dude.  I might join you next weekend.  I needs me a trout.

Jim

WTG Jay!!! Nice report and fish. A couple of questions.... did you try the original silver and black J7 and about what time did the bite turn on?

Thanks! Scott

Way to go Jay!!! sorry didnt make it....congratulation.



Kiel

I did try the silver J-7 and also the fire tiger, but got no love on either of those. The bite turned on @12:30 pm, I think.

Thanks for the intel Jay. Great day on the water. I'll be there this weekend.

-FF