August 29, 2010 - Sunday - Stillwater Fishing

I'll be honest, I didn't sleep at all - sure I closed my eyes, but I woke up at least a dozen times to glance at the clock, each time it inched closer to when the alarm was set for. But I never made it, I never do - my eyes popped open at 4:15am and I decided that was close enough - turned off the alarm clock and got dressed in the dark. Pretty standard rituals for us guys who want to hit the waters not so close to home. Some of us do this every day just to get to work - I don't know how you do it Darren!

I pulled out of the driveway at 4:35am, the truck already fully packed the night before. Now it was time for the 2 hour journey to South Park. I hate making these trips alone - I usually need a second mate to blame the trip on (you know - "I went because Werms wanted to go"). I tried for about the first hour (almost all the way to Kenosha Pass) to talk myself into turning around, calling Scott and telling him I wasn't going to make it, then crawl back into bed with the wife. I tried, but no success. After Kenosha Pass I had decided that I was past the half way point, and it was going to be dawn soon - so the trip would get easier. It really didn't. Sure, I was awake, awake with anticipation of a good day - but in the back of my mind I was always thinking - what happens if I get skunked? It could happen.

I pulled into the North Boat Ramp at Spin at 6:35 - no sign of Scott and Scotty. Maybe they ain't coming. I'll kill'em. I call Scott's phone, and he answers - finally - bastard didn't pick up all Saturday when I wanted to know how the fishing was with Werm (yeah - where the hell is the report and pics??). He's right behind me - and we are pushing off from South Ramp - so I peel out and head to South. We pull into the lot together. Exchange handshakes and a couple quick barbs at Jr and before I know it we are on the water. It isn't cold, but it isn't warm. Wind is already up a little, not a good sign for the rest of the day.

We head straight to the other side of the lake - into a nice little cove area in the NW corner. Scotty starts dragging a big Club Sandwich trying to imitate a big ugly caddis skittering along the water. He manages one huge hit - but land nothing. We decide to hole up right next to a weed bed. It was quiet for a long time - Scott had two on, but lost them, Scotty had two on but lost them - I managed the only fish of the morning a nice 20 inch rainbow.





We decided to move south along the shoreline, not much to tell for the next couple of hours - lots of misses, no fish in the net. It appeared the fish were not in the shallows and we could see them on the fish finder when we moved from spot to spot in the deeper water. So we decided to hit a huge weed bed out on the middle. We anchored down and Scott hooked up right away - a nice fight, but soon the fish broke him off. It was not a good sign for the day - in fact I could see Scotty and I's day about to head for the shitter if Scott didn't land one of these big hits soon.

The phone rings....Werms! Dude - we got nothing - 1 fish and Scott is pissy, I gotta go. A few minutes later Scott's phone rings - it's the wife, she'd meeting us and is almost there, come pick her......wait, I have a fish, I have to go. Then bang - another fish pops off. We decide to go get Kelly at the dock. A quick trip in and a quick return right to the same spot. We need to get Scott into a fish or we might all die.

About 2 minutes later Scott is hooked up, and as I'm getting the camera ready to film Scott landing the fish I feel a tug and next think I know we have a double. These fish were twins (not technically, Scott's was a 1/2 inch bigger and a lot fatter) - and it was a nice break from losing fish. Maybe we were onto something.





I'm a big fan of harassing Jr, I mean the poor kid better get used to it. The problem is when the kid slams back to back 22 inchers in a matter of 15 minutes it makes it a lot tougher to pick on him. Don't feel too bad for him, the kid can dish out the shit too. Like father, like son.





Although we had some luck, we weren't exactly lighting it up, we spent about an hour and a half in the hole with not a ton more success after the initial few fish - so we decided to move to the bluffs. We never actually made it to the bluffs - Scott was watching the fish finder when we did about 100 mph over a ton of fish, so we scooted back to a nice shelf that looked promising. I don't have a whole lot more to say then WOW. We didn't "kill them" here, but we caught some of the biggest fish we have ever caught in here. Between the 3 of us we fished from about 12:30 to 3:30 and landed about 10 pigs. The largest being a 23 inch almost 5 lber by Scott and I had 23 incher that was slightly skinnier, here are some of the pics:







We lost a ton of good fish - I had on a nice looking colorful pink rainbow that I lost at the net. I missed a pig of Scott's when I hooked the top fly in the net on him (sorry bud). Scott also had a fish sink him - straight into the weeds. It stopped fighting and Scott was still hung up on the bottom - just waiting - he had to break it off. So strange. Lots of other unbuttons, but that is pretty typical day.

Oh, and our last fish of the day - by the pike slayer:



Not a knock'em dead day, but it was pretty damn good. The morning SUCKED! But the afternoon more than made up for it. About 15 fish boated - only 4 were smaller than 18 inches, 5 were at least 22 inches. Unreal.

Flies of the day were size 14 orange scuds and a size 14 damsel. I had some on chiro's but not consistently. Water temp was 62 in the AM and 65 when we left. Lots of big clouds, but partly sunny temps were about 72-75 degrees.

Thanks for the great trip Scott and Scotty and thanks for putting up with all of us Kelly!