If you all remember THIS article from a few weeks ago, I went to a well-known lake in Northern Arizona. This lake is known for its trout, but I wanted to target its smallmouth and largemouth bass populations, along with panfish of some sorts. This particular lake holds areas of underwater trees and stumps, of which have to house some bass – bass rods and tackle ready, I was ready to rip some lips.
Upon arrival at the lake, the first thing I noticed was that the lake was down; the water level was quite a few feet away from where it was before, which created a problem. The recently formed bank was now a mud pit, grabbing any person that dared to step into its grasp, and this mudded area was 10-15 feet wide. Fishing this far from the bank in this area was just not feasible, and I decided to resign from the bass-focused mission.
It just so happened that the cove that I was in held a decent amount of trout, of which were constantly jumping out of the water. I decided to move away from the mudded area a short distance, and threw out 2 trout rigs fitted with some good ole Powerbait.
Time passed as the trout continued flying out of the water, all while my baits remained untouched. I knew that I had to wait for the sun to come over the trees, and that then the bite may or may not activate.
Just as a ray of light came from upon the trees, one of my rods started to move. Sure enough, I had a fish on.
This fish was a decently sized rainbow trout, and would be the first to be put upon my stringer.
I kept at this same spot, and the action continued. I was getting bites within 5-10 minutes of my bait being thrown, though I lost quite a few fish due to poor hooksets, poor quality hooks, and overall missed fished.
I finally hooked up with my second fish, this one much smaller. Note – unless you can safely remove a hook from the side of a trout’s mouth, than don’t release trout, as the odds for their survival is not in their favor. I kept this small fish because it swallowed my treble hook.
I kept at the same spot and, sure enough, caught another decently sized fish, the third to be added onto my stringer.
Just as the action suddenly came upon me, the action receded just as quickly. I couldn’t catch another fish no matter how long I left my bait out or with any sort of modification I made. At this point, it was getting warm, and I decided to call it a day.
While walking back to the truck, I came across a smaller garter snake – I immediately dropped my rods and fish, and took off my tackle backpack…
Which was a mistake, because a buckle on my backpack caught on my handgun holster, essentially holding me back like an anchor. As I freed myself from the buckle’s grasp, I watched the snake slither under a stack of fallen trees, never to be seen again. I went home snakeless, and with only 3 fish in hand.