Fishing Report, Whitney Charters

What a weekend!

My fishing started Friday morning in 30 feet of water north of the piers. I spotted a few fish and a school of bait just as we were finishing getting set and we took a double right off the bat. Looking back we should've quit and pretended the rest of the weekend was going to be that much fun. By circling that one mark on my gps (a tactic that served us very well this weekend) we were able to hit 3 more fish in the next hour right there but by 9 am we were working west. We took a fish in 120 foot and several more in 200 but there was a lot of empty water in between. Widely scattered small pockets of fish were the story all weekend for everyone I spoke with. Amanda's report was spot on with what we saw for baits, silver/orange and gold/orange baits near surface and the Hello Darlin, Blue Veggies and Blue Dolphin Dreamweaver spoons down deeper and on copper lines from 175' to 250' out. The 8" white Spin Dr. with Mt. Dew and crushed glow tape coupled with a Pickled Sunshine fly was good for an occasional bite down deep too. The best fishing for us on Saturday and Sunday was between 100 and 140 feet of water. The bright side to the small numbers was the size of the fish with nice kings ranging from 8 - 15 lbs and steelhead from 3 to 8 lbs. On Sunday there was some very cold water from 180' and deeper and there was talk of some succesful steelhead fishing in deeper water fishing near the surface. It would be worth a try if your first spot doesn't pan out. Another tip, watch the bottom for bait no matter how deep of water your fishing. We found bait on the bottom in 200' Friday. The fish bit in the top 50 but their bellies were full of alewives. All of the fish we took in shallower water, with the exception of one chunky lake trout and several steelhead full of bugs, had empty stomachs. As conditions appear to be right for the presence of schools of bait and good spring fishing I'm not going to try and guess as to what's coming this week, I'm just going to go fishing and hope they are waiting for us when we get there.

For those of you that enjoy catch and release bass fishing the warmer weather has provided you with some great opportunities. My son and a couple friends took an afternoon last week and fished some of the bayous in Spring Lake and caught more than 50 largemouth up to 4 lbs. A lipless, floating gold and black Rapala twitched on the surface in shallow areas provided some great top water attacks while worms and jigs took plenty of fish near deeper structure. Consider pinching the barbs on your hooks while out having fun with these pre-spawn Bass. 

For more reports, click on the Fish on Bait and Tackle add and see what Captain Willis has to say.

Have a great week and remember, no matter how slow the fishing is it still beats working and cutting the grass!

Matt Whitney