12-24-2003, 02:05 PM
[cool][size 1]I promised a report on our trip in "Zonie-Land". It was more of a fishing trip than a catching trip. But, any fishing is better than whatever...including Christmas shopping.
Shrimpboy drove to my house and we hit the local burrito stand before heading for the lake. Sometimes that's not a good move, if you are going to be tubing and wearing waders.
Arrived at Saguaro Lake before 12:30 and were all launched by 1 PM. Water temp in the shallows 64. That was warmer than the 60 I had predicted. But, it cooled quickly to 58.4 as we moved into deeper water.
The wind had been picking up, ahead of an approaching front, as we drove to the lake. When we got there, we found a steady offshore breeze, which is easier to fish but tends to blow the fish out into the lake...if there are any there to begin with.
We both marked a few fish on the sonar, but not the quantities that stack up in there when conditions are just right. We worked hard for only a couple of taps and no hookups.
It was a good birdwatching day. There were several hawks soaring over the cliffs beside the lake, and a spastic blue heron that kept squawking and flapping around, trying to find a meal along the shoreline.
About 2:30, the "Toonerville Trolley" (mini hatchery truck) showed up and flushed about 100 pathetic hatchery pet rainbows into the lake...for the bottle bait brigade over Christmas. The heron was delighted. Looking like he had done this before, he flapped in near the dump site and proceeded to wolf down several disoriented little troutskis.
Within a half hour, the new arrivals had dispersed around the big cove we were fishing, and someone rang the dinner bell for the resident largemouths. In spite of a "shut down" from the front, several big bass began herding trout and dining with big splashes and a lot of noise. [/size]
[size 1]It didn't last long. I barely had time to tie on a noisy topwater trout imitator before the feeders had their fill on the easy pickings. I got one good boil behind my lure and that was it. Shrimpboy tied on a topwater from my box but neither of us had any further interest, although there was an occasional depth charge near the surface as another little trout became bass chow. I saw one largie leap clear of the water in pursuit. It was easily 7 or 8 pounds.
On one cast, I had a minor snag. I got free and was reeling my little Roadrunner in fairly briskly to check for weeds on the hook. Wham. A chunky little holdover rainbow grabbed my hook...maybe in an attempt to escape something even more deadly in the water below. After showing Shrimpboy that I had got the skunk out of my tube, I sent the trout back to meet his fate.
All the conditions conspired against us having a banner fish catching day, but it was great to meet another BFTer from Utah, and to show off some of the tackle and techniques applicable to tubing. I think Shrimpboy kinda liked kicking around in that tricked out Fat Cat.
I do need to send him back to wader repair 101 though. He lost a wrestling match with a barbed wire fence last week while duck hunting in his waders, and he didn't find and repair all the holes. So...he got to enjoy a nice cool sitz bath in his lower extremities. The good news was that because he sat so much higher in the Fat Cat, he did not suffer a cold chill on more sensitive parts of his anatomy. [/size]
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Shrimpboy drove to my house and we hit the local burrito stand before heading for the lake. Sometimes that's not a good move, if you are going to be tubing and wearing waders.
Arrived at Saguaro Lake before 12:30 and were all launched by 1 PM. Water temp in the shallows 64. That was warmer than the 60 I had predicted. But, it cooled quickly to 58.4 as we moved into deeper water.
The wind had been picking up, ahead of an approaching front, as we drove to the lake. When we got there, we found a steady offshore breeze, which is easier to fish but tends to blow the fish out into the lake...if there are any there to begin with.
We both marked a few fish on the sonar, but not the quantities that stack up in there when conditions are just right. We worked hard for only a couple of taps and no hookups.
It was a good birdwatching day. There were several hawks soaring over the cliffs beside the lake, and a spastic blue heron that kept squawking and flapping around, trying to find a meal along the shoreline.
About 2:30, the "Toonerville Trolley" (mini hatchery truck) showed up and flushed about 100 pathetic hatchery pet rainbows into the lake...for the bottle bait brigade over Christmas. The heron was delighted. Looking like he had done this before, he flapped in near the dump site and proceeded to wolf down several disoriented little troutskis.
Within a half hour, the new arrivals had dispersed around the big cove we were fishing, and someone rang the dinner bell for the resident largemouths. In spite of a "shut down" from the front, several big bass began herding trout and dining with big splashes and a lot of noise. [/size]
[size 1]It didn't last long. I barely had time to tie on a noisy topwater trout imitator before the feeders had their fill on the easy pickings. I got one good boil behind my lure and that was it. Shrimpboy tied on a topwater from my box but neither of us had any further interest, although there was an occasional depth charge near the surface as another little trout became bass chow. I saw one largie leap clear of the water in pursuit. It was easily 7 or 8 pounds.
On one cast, I had a minor snag. I got free and was reeling my little Roadrunner in fairly briskly to check for weeds on the hook. Wham. A chunky little holdover rainbow grabbed my hook...maybe in an attempt to escape something even more deadly in the water below. After showing Shrimpboy that I had got the skunk out of my tube, I sent the trout back to meet his fate.
All the conditions conspired against us having a banner fish catching day, but it was great to meet another BFTer from Utah, and to show off some of the tackle and techniques applicable to tubing. I think Shrimpboy kinda liked kicking around in that tricked out Fat Cat.
I do need to send him back to wader repair 101 though. He lost a wrestling match with a barbed wire fence last week while duck hunting in his waders, and he didn't find and repair all the holes. So...he got to enjoy a nice cool sitz bath in his lower extremities. The good news was that because he sat so much higher in the Fat Cat, he did not suffer a cold chill on more sensitive parts of his anatomy. [/size]
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