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My wife and I went to Chatfield today from 11a till 3p.
Weather was beautiful as usual. When we got there nice and calm, little if any breeze.
Started trolling from the north boat ramp. Between the wife and me we used 3 lines. Ran at about 1.4-1.8 mph.
Hers, chartreuse wedding ring rig tipped with half a crawler
Mine, chartreuse crawler harness tipped with a minnow and a shad rap on the other.
Over the past trips I have noticed that strikes were not happening close to the boat, so we long-lined all three. Running probably 150-200 feet back had the first hit on the shad-rap. lost it on the way in.
then we started getting hits on the worms and minnows. Hits on he worms were probably 2:1. I switched the shad-rap to a crawler on a #2 hook about 18 inches behind a barrel sinker.
Our productivity for the day was a half a dozen rainbows landed running 14 to 16 inches. Nice hard fighters. No bass or walleye. Several fish lost reeling them in. Tried short-lining for a while but no action.
About an hour before we left the wind came up it got really choppy, let the wind push us from the handicap dock to the damn. Wind had a drifting at .8 mph.
Great day on the water. Still seeing lots of shad and bass busting the schools. i did not even try to entice them today concentrated on the trout.
It seems the trout are very active at this time. I caught them along the dam, open water and by the bridge. I am hoping the walleye and bass will soon have eaten enough shad to make it a bit easier.
Dan
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Weather was beautiful as usual. When we got there nice and calm, little if any breeze.
Started trolling from the north boat ramp. Between the wife and me we used 3 lines. Ran at about 1.4-1.8 mph.
Hers, chartreuse wedding ring rig tipped with half a crawler
Mine, chartreuse crawler harness tipped with a minnow and a shad rap on the other.
Over the past trips I have noticed that strikes were not happening close to the boat, so we long-lined all three. Running probably 150-200 feet back had the first hit on the shad-rap. lost it on the way in.
then we started getting hits on the worms and minnows. Hits on he worms were probably 2:1. I switched the shad-rap to a crawler on a #2 hook about 18 inches behind a barrel sinker.
Our productivity for the day was a half a dozen rainbows landed running 14 to 16 inches. Nice hard fighters. No bass or walleye. Several fish lost reeling them in. Tried short-lining for a while but no action.
About an hour before we left the wind came up it got really choppy, let the wind push us from the handicap dock to the damn. Wind had a drifting at .8 mph.
Great day on the water. Still seeing lots of shad and bass busting the schools. i did not even try to entice them today concentrated on the trout.
It seems the trout are very active at this time. I caught them along the dam, open water and by the bridge. I am hoping the walleye and bass will soon have eaten enough shad to make it a bit easier.
Dan
