jaystraw

Well, if there were not fish on BOTH sides of the lake, that would work great. Thankfully, there are fish almost everywhere at this place. It's a matter of which side is biting better. This morning it was cloudy, so it did not matter much. When it got sunny, the shade was better fishing.

I have never caught anything on my buzzbait, but I'll give it a shot. The topwater bite has been pretty good at this pond lately. I've caught nice smallies on torpedos and jitterbugs. Oh, and the pond (small lake really) is primarily smallmouth fishing if that makes any differance.

Had some excellent smallie fishing today in the canoe. It was a little windy, but I still managed to catch a good amount of nice sized smallies. I caught them mostly on senkos, but I did catch a nice 2 pounder on a Heddon Torpedo (it drives the smallies crazy). I had a lot of other hits on the topwater, and even caught a bluegill on it. This is one of the smallies I caught on a senko. funny thing was that the smallies were VERY aggressive today (well more than they have been lately). They were also VERY shallow. I caught one in grass almost on the shore. It could not have been a foot of water where I tossed the senko, but it produced a big smallie. Here's a pic of a 2.5 larry I caught on a senko this morning..only larry all day, but lots of smallmouth : all fish were caught pretty shallow

When you are at a lake and are starting to fish, do you pick the side that is getting more sun or shade? I'm going to hit my local pond tomorrow morning, and I'm trying to decide which side I should fish first. Sometimes it's all about which way the wind is going to push my canoe, but I think it will be very calm tomorrow morning. So, would you fish the side that the sun is hitting first, or the side that stays darker longer? And for what it's worth, I seem to catch more fish in the shady spots and sides of lakes/ponds/whatever.

NICE FISH!!!!!!!

I never keep fish, that's why I have a camera and scale. I just do not like to kill fish if I can help it. I feel terrible when I gut hook them, much less if I killed it on purpose. But, I do not think its wrong to keep them, I'm just a wuss when it comes to killing anything. My friend kept a 13 oz yellow perch he caught with me and he said it was great.

I had been catching only a few fish, but the ones I've been caatching have been fairly shallow for the most part. I've also had a really hard time in the mornings before 9:00am or so. The last couple days have been better. I've also been catching more stuff on spinners (rocket-shad), and less on plastics. Also, the topwater bite has been on with the black jitterbug. I've caught both largies and smallies on the jitterbug lately. I caught this smallie this aftenoon. Weighed a little over 2.5 pounds and fought like a monster. I love smallies!

I read the article, and I'm not really for or agianst the whole thing...I just thought it was wild that they are going to poison a lake to get rid of a fish they do not desire. Seems extreme, but I've only read this article and do not know the whole issue. We have Pike up here and they do not rule the lake to the detriment of the other species, including trout.

Big Fish!!

I've done OK right up until it's dark, and then nothing. I wonder why.... The thing you helped me with most wagn was just having you show me how to t-rig the worm. I had another friend show me the exact same thing, but for some reason it clicked when you explained it to me. And next time when we go, we will both catch fish!! Plastics RULE!

Sounds like you've been doing good lately jay first a northern, then a 3lber not bad at all. Going to the "secret pond" tomorrow with a friend for the morning and most of the day hopefully will post pics of a new pb???? keep up the good work jay and everyone else The one day I did not talk about was the 2 dinks and a sunfish night with my buddy(who caiht a nice 3 pound smallie in deep water). Otherwise, yeah, I've been doing pretty well since I learned to fish plastics (a lot of the thanks goes to wagn for teaching me how to fish that stuff!) One thing I've noticed here in NH is that the LM's seem to be starting to get shallow, and the SM's are still fairly deep for the most part. I've caught all my 2+pound SM's in deeper water, and all my 2+ pound LM's in shallow water the last couple weeks. Seems to be holding true no matter where I go in the Southwest corner of the state.

Did a little early moring fishing at Gould Pond in Hillsborough today and it paid off nicely. Early on I caught a nice 1.5-2 pounder on a black jitterbug. About a half hour after that I caught another nice 1.5-2 pounder on a senko. About 15 minues after that I was paddling my canoe to another spot while trolling my ten shad husky jerk and I caught a really big red breasted sunfish. I mean BIG for a sunfish..I thought it was a bass the way it fought! About 10 minutes later I caught this pretty fish on a senko(which you can see just above the fish on the left side floor of the canoe..the thing on the right is a stick)). Weighed almost 3 pounds and was bigger than my good sized tackle box: Not a bad morning for such a small pond with so much pressure, and only fishing for a couple hours. Oh, and all the bass were larry's...could not find my smallmouth friends.

I just found this new story out of California. Apparently they are going to poison a whole lake to kill off Pike to stock it with trout...wow! Angling for a solution: Ridding Lake Davis of northern pike is more than a conservation measure. For the businesses of Portola, it's an economic necessity. Jon Ortiz Sep 03, 2007 (The Sacramento Bee - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- The northern pike infesting nearby Lake Davis is a predator so voracious that it sometimes chokes to death trying to eat other fish. As business owners in this eastern Sierra Nevada mountain town know too well, pike also can devour your livelihood. For more than 10 years, grocery stores, hotels and restaurants here have felt the pike's bite. The carnivorous fish has twice overrun Lake Davis, spoiling its reputation as one of the West Coast's premier spots for rainbow trout and bleeding the local economy of millions of fishing tourism dollars. State wildlife managers poisoned the lake in 1997 despite bitter protests and legal challenges over environmental and health concerns. After officials restocked it with trophy-quality trout, fishing boomed on the lake for about a year. Then, in 1999, the pike resurfaced in Lake Davis. Fishing fell off. State officials have worried ever since that the fish might escape, move downstream and devastate native fish in the Sacramento River and the Delta. Now authorities are about to shut down Lake Davis and poison it again. Local business owners whose income has dwindled with the lake's shrinking trout population are cautiously putting their faith in the state's $16.7 million plan -- but there are no guarantees. Many remember the promises a decade ago that poisoning Lake Davis would kill the fish for good. "Businesses are holding their breath and hoping for the best," said Suzi Brakken, director of Plumas County Visitors Bureau. "The lake has been sitting there, empty of visitors for several years. People are tired of the issue. They just want to get it over with." After the Department of Fish and Game and federal officials close Lake Davis this week and poison its shallow, weedy waters, they'll wait for the chemicals to disperse. Once the water tests safe for fish, they'll start restocking for next spring's fishing season and launch an aggressive marketing campaign to promote Lake Davis angling and area merchants. "I'm confident in DFG. My only question is, 'What the hell took so long?' " Sara Bensinger said recently during a slow afternoon at her 1,000-square-foot grocery store on Lake Davis' south shore. She bought the store, a restaurant next door and campground behind it eight years ago. Two weeks after she took over the business, officials announced that the pike were back. As the pike took over, trout fishing suffered. State monitoring showed in 2000 that it took about four hours, on average, to catch one Lake Davis trout. By 2003, it took nearly 10 hours. "It's even worse now. Before the pike, it was definitely a Grade A lake," said Dan Bacher, managing editor of the Elk Grove-based angling publication Fish Sniffer magazine. "Now it's a C, maybe a D depending on the time of year." As fishing dried up, Bensinger's sales plummeted. The campground is almost never full. "It got so slow that I closed the restaurant," said Bensinger, who keeps the business alive with money from real estate and other investments. "My sales have dropped 90 percent. This place has become a ... ball and chain." State officials and local business owners have debated for years how much Lake Davis means to the local economy. The dispute goes all the way to the California Legislature's 1998 approval of a $9.1 million settlement for businesses injured by what wildlife officials concede was a fumbled effort. "That settlement wasn't enough," said Fran Roudebush, a Lake Davis activist and former Plumas County supervisor. "Some businesses say that they've never recovered. I believe them." California State University, Chico, researchers estimate that anglers pumped around $550,000 into Plumas County in 2005. Restaurants, gas stations, hotels and motels hooked most of that business. But that's down significantly from what local businesses took in before the pike, said David Gallo, one of the Chico State economists behind the 2005 study. "Fishing visits to the lake have fallen 50 to 60 percent from the peak," he said. Roudebush and local business owners have argued the countywide study underestimated Lake Davis' value to the region, especially to Portola, which is seven miles from the lake. State officials, who have carefully cultivated better community relations this time around, responded by hiring an accountant to gather more data from merchants and an appraiser to analyze the pike's impact on local real estate values. Lawmakers could use the information to determine how businesses have been affected and whether to make payments to the local community. Wildlife officials note that there's no guarantee that the state will make another payout. "We're trying to walk a fine line between capturing information and conveying to people they're going to get money. That's not up to us," said Fish and Game project manager Ed Pert. "We want to make sure that folks don't have some perverse motivation to do this again." Experts think Lake Davis' pike infestation started more than 20 years ago when the fish was illegally dumped into Frenchman Lake, about 15 miles to the east. The fish swam to Lake Davis, where the lake's saw-toothed western edge, for decades a food-rich haven for fish, became a killing ground. Pike use the shallow water's heavy vegetation to lie in wait and ambush trout. The last time state officials poisoned the lake, Portola residents and business owners angrily protested. Other lakes, including nearby Frenchman, have been successfully poisoned to kill predator fish, but the 1997 stab at ridding Lake Davis of pike was the first time a town's water supply had been the target. This time the dissent is more muted. Business owners say they've been pummeled by the slipping fishing economy. The city in 1997 switched to well water, which state and local officials closely monitor. The most vocal opposition has come from Save Lake Davis, a group that blames the 1997 poisoning for some unexplained local illnesses, including higher rates of cancer and learning disabilities. Research has indicated otherwise, Fish and Game officials say. Like many parts of California, the housing boom earlier this decade brought in waves of transplants. They don't have the vivid memories from the first poisoning, unlike "the old guard that is trying to keep it a hot-button issue," said Portola Realtor Bob Lundquist. "I'd say 60 percent of home buyers know about the pike, and disclosure rules mean that sellers have to reveal any details that may affect their property," Lundquist said. "It doesn't keep people from buying here. This is a nice place to live." The upcoming lake closure and poisoning offers one immediate payoff: 550 state employees who will live and work here for the next month. Fish and Game has budgeted about $540,000 for food and lodging through Oct. 5, said department spokesman Steve Martarano. The state has contracts with four hotels and arranged food vouchers with several restaurants. "Those amounts will be augmented by additional staffing requirement before and after the treatment periods, so the total will be considerably more," Martarano said. Economists figure Lake Davis' return to glory eventually will inject more than $1 million per year into Plumas County's economy. "Good fishing would bump up visits pretty fast," said Chico State economist Gallo. "I think it will turn around, especially with positive publicity." Fishing guide Bryan Roccucci already is looking ahead to trolling next spring on a restocked lake free of pike. As the owner of Big Daddy's Guide Service, he used to load six anglers at $150 per person per day into his 23-foot Boulton boat for trout trips on Lake Davis. "The fishing was so good back then that you felt guilty about keeping a 4-pound rainbow (trout)," said Roccucci, a burly man with a salt-and-pepper goatee and a deep suntan from days spent on the water. "You knew that if you threw it back, you'd catch a 6-pounder in the next 30 minutes. It's not like that any more." Lake Davis trips once accounted for more than a third of his business. Now Roccucci rarely goes there. The downturn forced him to shift his focus to other nearby lakes. And last spring, much to the chagrin of state wildlife officials, he offered pike "catch and kill" runs on Lake Davis, hoping the fish's reputation as a hard-hitting fighter would recapture some of his lost business. "Don't get me wrong. I support eradicating the pike," he said. "But I've got to make a living

I've had decent luck all sumer here in NH, but last night we went to my favorite spot, and we barely caught anything. It had been cooling down up here in NH with 40 degree nights and 60-70 degree days, and I had seen big smallmouth bass busting through schools of bait fish in relatively shallow coves just the other night. Then, yesterday it hits 83 and hot, and I could not buy a bite from a big fish all night. My buddy finally managed to pull in a 2.5 pound smallie and a 1 pound smallie off trolling a white jitterbug that rattled (I had never seen one like that). I only caught 2 dinks and a red breased sunfish..not very productive for my favorite pond I was bragging to my buddy about, but not skunked either. 2 weeks ago, it was non-stop action.

40"!!!!!!!!!!!!!

nice fish! congrats!

whoops, I deleted my initial post by accident. Well, it was me and my 3 pound PB!

No picture...it was too small to really bother documenting the event. I considered it, but after I got the hook out and was showing my buddy, it moved HARD in my hands and instead of dropping it in the boat, I dropped it in the water.

I've been seeing fish occasionally puking up minnows lately too when I'm de-hooking them ...interesting...

I caught a pretty small, but beautiful Northen Pike yesterday in Northern NH on a Rocket Shad around 7:00PM. I had been catching smallies and pickeral, when I noticed the pickeral I had on was actually a 15 inch pike! YAHOO! A Pike!! Now to catch it's much biggger Daddy this winter. 8-)

Where is this little spot you are talking about? I fished Dodge Pond yesterday in Lyman NH. Caught a nice smallie (2 lbs) and a nice largie (2 lbs). Also caught numerous pickeral, but my catch of the day was a Northern Pike on a Rocket Shad!!!!! I did not take a picture because it was pretty small..maybe 1.5 lbs and about 15 inches. At first I thought it was another pickeral, but then I saw the spots instead of the usual pickeral markings. Wahoo! My first Pike ever, and it fought like crazy.

NICE FISH WAGN!!!!!!! Holy smokes is that a big pickeral!!!! It's much bigger that your son!!! LOL! And d**n, you and your brother could be twins. Now, for my NH fishing report from this past weekend: On Friday night, I skipped fishing to hang with my wife (which she was VERY happy about). Saturday I met a friend up at Post Pond in Lyme NH. We looked at a map and it was halfway between Northern Vermont and Hillsboro NH, so we went for it. I am glad we did becasue I caught 2 big smallies. One was 3 pounds (on a torpedo), the other was 2 pounds 10 oz (on a senko)...also caught numerous BIG rock bass...one was 13 oz!! Here are the pics of the smallies(cell phone pics..sorry): Here is the 2 lb 10 oz 3 pounds Sunday we fished Loon Pond in Hillsboro. Caught some nice smallies, but the funniest thing was catching 2 sunfish at the same time on the same lure, the F9 Rapalla. I threw it out under a tree and I thought a decent bass took it, but it was 2 sunfish teaming up on my lure: Sunday night was Kezar Lake in Sutton. Not a lot of fish, but a couple nice Largemouth.

Thanks! It's not gonna break any state records, but it's always fun to catch smallies!

1 word for smallies for me lately....senko. Rigged any way you like it. I just got back fom the river fishing from the bank this AM and caught myself a few smallies..all on t-rigged senkos. Nothing huge, but all nice looking fish around a pound. Usually I would promote black jitterbugs and Heddon Torpedos for smallies, but right now (past week or so) I cannot buy a bite topwater, so I'm fishing the original rapalla and senkos. I've had a lot of success lately with that combo on 2 rods for smallies in lakes too.

Thanks wagn! It felt good to finally get something good sized, and on a senko no less! I also did pretty well the other night. My buddy and I stayed out until midnight fishing, and I caught a nice 2 pound 8 oz. LM on a silver XRAP while trolling back to the dock around 12:00am. My buddy also caught one the exact same size trolling his lucky craft about 15 minutes befroe me. The bite has been really good the past week. I hope it holds through the weekend!