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Posted: Apr 18, 2004 16:20 |
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Spring is springing with good fishing coming for all
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Vol. 3-3-04 “The gods do not deduct from man’s allotted span the hours spent fishing.”
-Babylonian Proverb-
“Nor the time spent thinking or reading about fishing, either.”
-Uncle Bud-
By Bud Larsen
Sure hope the current colder weather pattern overnight holds awhile longer to slow down the runoff … if not, it will be a long, hot summer again, with shallow streams and lakes.
Conversely, the warm weather that hit us in late March brought on a hatch on the Clark Fork that produced some trophy Kamloops for several lucky drift fishermen.
I missed a Clark Fork trip with our infamous river fisherman, Andy Eckberg, and his new bride-to-be two weeks ago. Sure enough, everyone in Andy’s boat hit (except Andy), with his lovely fiancée landing a 24-pound rainbow.
The Clark Fork early spring and late fall run is really beginning to produce some hog trout. Just make sure you fish with someone who knows the river, and can work the drift spots.
Ran into Jimmy R. the other day and with eyes shining, he announced, “did you hear about mom’s 28-pound Kamloop?”
Tangible proof that the weight of a trout does in fact gain four pounds two weeks after being caught.
Stocking for 2004 … some good news and some bad news.
The bad news is that the stocking of our lowland lakes has been postponed for two weeks, meaning we won’t get a boost in our catchable rainbow trout population until early next month.
The good news is that John Rankin and Bruce Thompson are busy stocking some 5-6” cutthroats in select lakes right now. Good fishing for next year and years to come. Here are the lucky lakes getting the cutts:
Brush –750
Smith –750
Cocolalla – 20,000
Spirit – 25,000
Hauser – 15,000
Lower Twin – 8,500
Hayden – 100,000(!!)
Fernan – 7,500
Here is Wildman Zach’s stocking level for catchable rainbows out of the Sandpoint Hatchery way point that should begin around May 1:
Fernan – 8,000 (via 3 trips of 4k, 2k, 2k each)
Round – 4,000 (via 3 trips of 2k, 1k, 1k each)
Hauser – 7,000 (via 3 trips of 3k, 2k, 2k each)
Lower Twin – 5,000 (via 3 trips of 3k, 1k, 1k each)
Kelso – 4,000 (via 2 trips of 2k each)
Jewell – 3,000 (via 2 trips of 1.5k each)
Smith – 2,000 (via 2 trips of 1k each)
Brush – 2,000 (via 2 trips of 1k each)
Robinson – 2,000 (via 2 trips of 1k each)
Sinclair – 500 (via 2 trips of 250 each - not good news for the Addie & Good Grief folks)
Post Falls Park – 1,000 (via 2 trips of 500 each)
Freeman – 1,500
Stoneridge Res. – 1,000
Upper Twin – 1,000
Bull Moose – 500
We’ll be talking about stocking the high mountain lakes in a couple of months to whet your appetite for a little volunteer back pack, ATV, or horseback work in support of this important stocking cycle. More information will be forthcoming as soon as Zach gets the rainbows stocked in our low land lakes. Please stay tuned.
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| What is the problem here? It's all in the knot. |
Gary Davis of Montana (please don’t hold that against him) put the buttonhole on me outside of Butch’s Far North Outfitters a couple of weeks ago. Gary was a little upset with me, to say the least.
I’m a staunch advocate of using TyGer Leader and talked Gary into trying some as tippet material instead of mono. After several arguments and claims that the sky will fall if he changes his way and uses braided wire as a tippet, Gary finally relented and agreed to try some Tyger Leader. (Sure, I had to give him some … Gary is like the farmer who doesn’t eat what he doesn’t grow.)
Anyway, Gary’s only complaint about TyGer Leader was that he could not get his dry fly to lay correctly due to always getting a small curve in the line just short of the eye. We talked knots and you name it, to no avail. We still wound up with a curve. Got to take this problem to a higher level.
Called Robert Sherman, TyGer Leaders main man, and we discussed the problem. Yes, we were using “the TyGer knot” (two-turn clinch) when attaching the leader to the fly. Were we cinching the knot using the long end? Nope, we cinched using the dead end.
Mr. Sherman was very gracious and did not call me a dummy, nor did he encourage me to give up fly-fishing. He simply said to “tug on the long end” and hung up.
So, it was back to Gary with my newfound expertise in tying TyGer Leader. Show and tell proved that you could cause a curve in mono tippet also by cinching with the dead end. See, and all this time you thought old Uncle Bud knew it all … he sure doesn’t.
Gary is a great river fisherman but is beginning to think that he owns the Kootenai River (Montana side, that is) so we’ll let him continue to scramble over the rocks like a chimpanzee in his quest for that trophy trout. Gary habitually fishes the tough spots that the LL Bean crowd shies away from, hence his need for using the TyGer Leader.
Fishermen and women alike get a warm feeling when they think back to the person who got them started fishing. My counterpart columnist, Aunt Judy down Coeur d’Alene way, sent me her father’s recipe for a batter worthy of your crappie, blue gill, and perch fillets.
-Vic Lee’s Thin Batter for Fish-
1 cup flour
1 tsp. Baking powder
½ tsp. Salt
1 egg
1 cup milk
¼ cup salad oil
If I have to tell you to mix the ingredients, something is wrong.
(Vic Lees, former Undersheriff of Shoshone County, passed away in 1990)
Judy further reports that her dad’s batter works equally well on finger steaks, as the batter has the propensity to stick to the meat better than most other batter recipes. Mmmmm … sounds like a corn dog experiment coming up. Thanks, Aunt Judy!
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| "I took Uncle Bud's advice!" |
Don’t forget Lake Pend Oreille Idaho Club’s K&K 59th annual Spring Derby, which runs from April 24 thru May 2. Over $19,000 in cash and prizes, category awards for everyone in your family.
In fact, kick off your derby days by attending the 33rd Annual LPOIC Pin Auction that will be held at 7 p.m. April 23at the City Forum on 3rd Avenue in Sandpoint. A fun and rewarding evening for everyone. To find out more, visit www.lpoic.org.
Tight lines to all!
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