Hi ya'll,
Shelly and I fished the wonderful lake Crowley for the past three days(8/12-8/14). It was a good trip, with the overall fishing being on the slow side. The bright side of things we landed our first contract for the "other" site.
On the 12th we started out by renting one of the flat bottom skiffs equiped with 30 horsepower Honda motors, from the lake tackle shop. We arrived at mcgee bay by 07:30 to find we were definatly not the first on the lake. Being saturday this wasn't a surpise. The fish started biting right off, with alot of short bites and drive-bys. This morning we plopped the anchor down in 13 feet of water, twenty feet off the edge of the main channel. My second fish of the morning ripped my indicator from the surface followed by a trail of bubbles. The trout fought doggedly and made me immedatly think cutthroat, maybe a brown. After a few short runs and one rod pass under the anchor line, the pig of a rainbow came to the big net. It measured a solid 22" and was thick across the shoulders. At 10:30 we picked up and started looking around different spots on the lake, but to no avail, except for a perch and one trout caught by Shelly over at little hilton.
Steve K, took Shell and I out to dinner at the fabulous Convict lake resturant. High class all the way. I even had to put on a button down shirt for this occasion. Thanks Steve.
Early in the morning on the 13th, we meet my friend and long time fishing companion Bob(hronk) at the front gate. Bob just recently purchased a 19' Bass Tracker, so the three of us had plenty of fishing room. He took us to a spot that he had been railing them at the past couple of weeks. Ten feet of water, but further off the channel. As Shelly and I are still fooling around with our tackle, he throws out and is immediatly on. Way to put the pressure on buddy! The morning went the same as the day before with alot of short bites. We had numerous doubles, and had a wonderful time yukking it up in front of the crowd. The best was watching Bob and Shelly, both with fish on, going over and under the same anchor rope and one of the rainbows doing back flips at the same time. Shelly landed a nice cutthroat, while I came away the lucky one with a fat 19iner. for big fish honors. The wind came up at 11:10.
That night we got the chance to BBQ with Tom and Michelle Loe, Owners of Sierra Drifters, and finalize our aggrement.
We really wanted to get into the float tubes on this day, the 14th, so we decided to hit little hilton. Not many fish were landed, but I did land a handful with most comeing on a Sierra Drifters punk perch in the new light color #14. The biggest was a brown going about 18".
After the wind came up, we hoofed it over to Hot Creek. The small caddis are still comeing off, but with so much wind there wasn't a top water bite. All of my fish this afternoon came on the Lafontaine sparkle pupa emerger size 18 or 20 and fished on the swing. Big fish was a 19" and then landed another half dozen smaller 10"-14". Of course later that evening I got the report from Tom and he and the rest of the guides crushed them at Mcgee before the wind came up!
It was a good time. There are some pigs comeing out of that place this year. I would suggest not dropping below 5X tippet. The 5X, Rio fluoroflex plus we use breaks at 5lbs. and these fish will put all of that to the test. Our hot flies were the grey or olive gillie in size 18 olive pupa in 16 on a tiemco 2457 and punk perch in size 14, either the standard olive or the new light color.
Big Fish Happen,
Bruce A. Smith
Headed out to the boat for a 2, a 1. a 1, a 2.
I will check in on you guys when I can!
Shelly