Miscellaneous Fishing Articles
Another awesome fall in North Idaho
Sep 30, 2004, 10:42

Vol. 3-9-04

“The gods do not deduct from man’s allotted span the hours spent fishing.”
-Babylonian Proverb-

“Nor the time spent thinking or reading about it either”
-Uncle Bud-

By Uncle Bud,

Harvest moon, crisp bite to the air after sundown, maples turning on their disco lights with aspen and poplar trees beginning to follow suit … another beautiful North Idaho fall is shaping up to be a winner.

Burst of color to set the fall pace for other trees.

Did not get to wet a line while back east in the Carolinas but managed to make up for it upon returning home to the Promised Land … North Idaho's Panhandle.

I was finally able to slip away the other morning to fish a private pond that a gracious sportsman gave me permission to fish a couple of years ago. Wasn’t really focused on catching some fish, just wanted to get away and reflect upon the travel of the past three weeks and bask in the early morning sun.

It never fails … the priority is just to get away by yourself to do some serious thinking, (My editor will dispute the foregoing sentence as she doubts my ability to do any thinking; let alone some serious thinking) and the fishing action turns hot and heavy. (Uncle Bud, it's not whether you can think, it's what you're thinking!)

Bobbers are traditionally red and white so you don’t go cross-eyed staring at them.

Line is in the water baited with some mean worms. (Always ask if the maggots and worms are mean and aggressive before paying for them.) Favored hook for this type of bank fishing is a No. 4 long shank with barbs on the hook crimped but the barbs on the shank are left alone to hold that mean worm better.

First cast, ripple rings disappeared … wham! Bobber was taking off like a great white had grabbed it. Bass? Nope, a large red ear sunfish, a mean one at that, took the bait and ran with it. Went through this same pattern several times, so I switched to maggots (white ones). Nothing. Okay, let her just float out there and we’ll try something else.

Noted some dark dragonflies active along the shoreline so I figured I might try some top water to see if the small mouth had already gone to sleep this early in the fall. The poppers and chuggers along with the tiny torpedoes did not impress any fish, but when I tied on the old standby, a hinged Rapala, we got some action! No size to brag about but enough action to keep me busy.

Normally I like a little chop on the water to break up the direct sun when fishing top water, but watching the “v” wakes just under the surface as bass after bass arrived to check out my hinged Rapala … was a priceless treat.

A refreshing morning well spent. (Other option for the morning: rake pine needles.) Tough choice to make. Hope she has it done before I get home.

Both mountain lake stocking and fall cacheable Rainbow stocking was successfully completed earlier this week Close to 16,000 nice fat cacheable Rainbow trout were released in the following lakes:

Fernan – 4,000, Post Falls Pond – 1,000, Mirror Lake – 2,000, Antelope Lake – 1,000, Robinson Lake – 2,000, Smith Lake – 1,000, Sinclair Lake – 700, Hauser – 3,000, and Freeman Lake – 1,000.

Kokanee …On Oct. 22 the hatchery team will be picking up an estimated 2.5 million early spawning Kokanee eggs from our Canadian hatchery counterparts as part of the four-year early spawning revitalization plan.

You may remember that last year the hatchery team transported an estimated 3.2 million early spawning Kokanee eggs and raised them to fry release size at the Cabinet Gorge Hatchery. Quality eggs given F&G’s usual TLC so there were no reportable problems from last years’ early spawning effort.

Bull Trout by-pass is in place at the Granite Creek trap with the full Kokanee weir trap scheduled for installation beginning the week of Oct. 18. (Got to get over there and get in Bruce’s way again.)

Missed the important Lake Pend Oreille meeting hosted by F&G on Sept. 15 at the Sandpoint Community Center, so I called to bug Ned Horner, our Regional Fisheries Manager about the feedback. Ned was out of town, but Chip Corsi, our Regional F&G Director advised me that they were still in the process of sorting through the questions and written comments. He did mention that they feel a change in the meeting format by having a formal facilitator present made for a better flow of questions and answers from and to the audience. Told Mr. Corsi we await F&G’s executive summary of the meeting and will publish the results of that all-important public meeting upon receipt of F&G’s report.

Getting close to the LPOIC’s annual fall derby. We’ll try to make their October meeting to gather whatever advance information is available on the derby.

Hungry trout in our lakes, Slim's reporting great stream fishing, … what are you waiting for? Speaking of our Slim (Onthefly with Slim Pickens), his articles will be the featured mid-month report to you on our awesome trout fisheries. Read him, or answer to your Uncle Bud.

Tight lines to all!

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