[work2fish]

I headed to the lake about noon, with my son and nephew along. My nephew, 3, had never been fishing before and so I was not sure what I was in for. On top of that, he has always been a little scared of me (doesn't like beards?) and so I had to gently coax him to play along. When we first got in the boat, he was a little timid and didn't want us to go fast or "make big waves". I went fast anyway.

The two boys sat up in the front of the boat and played while I tried casting to walleyes. The water temp was between 58-60 degrees. No luck, but a few follows in stickbaits. I figured we were a little late and so around 2:30PM I decided to go for trout instead. I rigged up one pole with a Kastmaster and as soon as I caught one, the boys started to show interest. I was surprised to learn that my nephew did not even know how to reel a fishing pole, so I had to spend a little time with him. We proceeded to troll back and forth over the same area and caught 7 stocker sized trout and lost at least that many. The kids really had a blast. Here is my nephew with his fish:

I had planned to let them all go, but they insisted that we have a fishfry. So we brought them home and I took this "olde time" pic:

They helped me clean the fish and then we had our fishfry:

So I hope I made some progress with my nephew's shyness. It was really nice to have his company so that my son was occupied for a change and I could concentrate on fishing (jk, he and I actually have a great time).

P.S. I think I am becoming the King of Lost Fishing Poles. This time, it was my son's fishing pole went overboard because of my negligence :-[. And I thought fishing was getting expensive because of the gas prices!

 

[Walking Eagle]

Another excellent fishing story. I am really getting to like these.

Have you spent any time trying for the splake out at Carter?

 

[work2fish]

W.E.,

Hey, thanks! No I haven't tried to go for splake yet but I definitely want to this season. Knowing how long it takes me to learn new things at a lake, I'm thinking this is best done without any kids along so as not to force them into boredom

How about you?

 

[Walking Eagle]

I have been planning an attack on the splake for a long time now and still haven't put a boat on the water out there yet. But it's gonna happen.

 

[work2fish]

W.E.,

Let's make a point to meet on the water someday this season, then. I'm going to try to get away more in the middle of the week this season as it is an awfully nice time to go. Today I think there were 4 boats on the lake...

Has anyone else gone for splake at Carter?

 

[Fish Fondler]

Yes. Have caught lots and lots of splake out of there. However, I have not fished it much the last few years. Used to do well trolling with downriggers just off the bottom in 35 ft. of water along the west shore. Flashers with a tri-colored needlefish used to do the trick. The splake I caught were always full of crayfish, so I am sure a crayfish imitation lure or jigging with crayfish colored jigs along the bottom would work well also. I usually did the best in July and August on Carter. They were excellent eating out of there with bright colored orange meat. Good luck and let me know if you get into any out there this year. I might put my small boat on the lake and try it at some point myself. Just bought a new 22' Larson for Granby!

 

[work2fish]

FF,

Thanks for the feedback. I've heard the crawfish jigging method before but your downrigger trolling method is interesting and I would like to give that a try.

Good luck in the new boat! A 22 footer should be a sweet platform for Granby!