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Friday the 13th @ Jordanelle and Deer Creek

2K views 11 replies 6 participants last post by  Moostickles 
#1 ·
JORDANELLE RESERVOIR

Over the years I have avoided the nelle, mainly for the consumption advisorys that are posted for the SMB's and Brown Trout. Utgolf wanted to see what the fish were up to in that lake, so a bright and early (5:15am) trip was planned. When we got the lake we found 3 spear fisherman that had good things to say about Deer Creek. We parted from the friendly guys and made haste for the water. There was tons of good structure, just no hungery bass......well at least for what we were throwing.


Tried flies, spinnerbaits, crawdad plastics, senkos...all gave no love. Finally I switched to a 2 inch Yellow Perch swimbait made by Storm. Got several small bass till I lost the swimbait on a snag. I switched to a CD 7 Yellow Perch Rapala and got more bass to hand, no of which were over 13 inches.


On our way to the inlet we tried everywhere else, with no luck. Just before calling it quits we stopped by the spear fishing trio....apparently they got a few dinks and a 17 incher. They told us they saw lots of small bass and tons of 1-4inch yellow perch hugging the bottom in 14 feet of water. Good to know!

DEER CREEK

Went to DC to see what we could get. I lost a good sized SMB on a large purple fly and just as we were about to leave, Utgolf scored a nice sized (for DC anyway) Largemouth. Of interest notice that his username is printed on his shirt.....when do I get me a shirt like that?
 
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#8 ·
Ton_Def said:
Not gonna lie! That first pic is cooool! :O||:
utahgolf said:
that first photo looks like a spooky halloween pic. nice edit job
Thanks guys....and Utgolf..it is the least I could do for taking me out on the canoe of yours again. I had a great time slayin the jumbo perch sized bass. Perhaps there is a different section of the lake that holds some hogs....like the northern section? Either way that lake is too big to not have any sizable bass.....just ask the spear gunners up there...they see em all the time apparently.

After talking with that spear gunner trio I finally put it together why people hate them so much.

1. The regulations up there call for 1 bass over 12inches and the othe 5 must be under 12in. So what do they do? Do they take a measuring tape to every bass before they take the shot?

2. For an angler, you must have the right timing, presentation, lures, ect....and you need the fish to be hungery/aggresive.....as a spear nut you just point and fire at will.

3. The consumption advisory up there claims that you should only eat a pack of cards worth of the SMB's and Browns. I doubt that the spear guys are eating each bass they take. When I asked the spearing trio if they were gonna eat their 17 inch bass they said, "sure".

In the end I guess I am on the fence about spear gunners at the nelle.....but hey I will be friendly to them on the beach and on the open forums.
 
#9 ·
EvilTyeDyeTwin said:
Ton_Def said:
Not gonna lie! That first pic is cooool! :O||:
utahgolf said:
that first photo looks like a spooky halloween pic. nice edit job
Thanks guys....and Utgolf..it is the least I could do for taking me out on the canoe of yours again. I had a great time slayin the jumbo perch sized bass. Perhaps there is a different section of the lake that holds some hogs....like the northern section? Either way that lake is too big to not have any sizable bass.....just ask the spear gunners up there...they see em all the time apparently.

After talking with that spear gunner trio I finally put it together why people hate them so much.

Don't knock it till you try it, spearfishing is a lot harder than most people think.

1. The regulations up there call for 1 bass over 12inches and the othe 5 must be under 12in. So what do they do? Do they take a measuring tape to every bass before they take the shot?

Spearfishermen have to be very selective about their shots and their targets. Every one I know will never shoot a fish they think is even close to boarder line

2. For an angler, you must have the right timing, presentation, lures, ect....and you need the fish to be hungery/aggresive.....as a spear nut you just point and fire at will.

With a maximum range of about 10 feet, or more likely 3 feet or less with the visibility, you have to stalk the fish or wait them out on one breath.

3. The consumption advisory up there claims that you should only eat a pack of cards worth of the SMB's and Browns. I doubt that the spear guys are eating each bass they take. When I asked the spearing trio if they were gonna eat their 17 inch bass they said, "sure".

Every spear gunner I know eats every fish they shoot. I know that doesn't mean those you met did, but give them the benefit of doubt.

In the end I guess I am on the fence about spear gunners at the nelle.....but hey I will be friendly to them on the beach and on the open forums.
You guys should try spearfishing , it seems like a sport you would really enjoy. If you want to go sometime let me know. I'll see if I can dig up a few other guns and we can make a day out of it.
 
#10 ·
Thanks for the flip side of the coin. Seriously I have absolutely no beef with spearfishing. Now TDT has a ear drum issue, so no diving for him, however even though we are twins.....I do not have that ear drum issue. So with that in mind I would like to take you up on your offer. It would be interesting to get into the shoes...or should I say fins....of a speargunner.

We can not go to Jordanelle, for I will not eat a Mercury marinated bass anytime soon.

Send me a PM when you could possibly take an "above water angler" out on your adventure and I will let you know if I can make it happen.

Thanks
ETDT
 
#12 ·
EvilTyeDyeTwin said:
Thanks for the flip side of the coin. Seriously I have absolutely no beef with spearfishing. Now TDT has a ear drum issue, so no diving for him, however even though we are twins.....I do not have that ear drum issue. So with that in mind I would like to take you up on your offer. It would be interesting to get into the shoes...or should I say fins....of a speargunner.

We can not go to Jordanelle, for I will not eat a Mercury marinated bass anytime soon.

Send me a PM when you could possibly take an "above water angler" out on your adventure and I will let you know if I can make it happen.

Thanks
ETDT
I've never speared Jordanelle and don't have any desire to, so you won't have to worry about that. It will probably be Deer Creek. I don't have any trips planned right now due to a temporarily very busy schedule, but I'll keep you posted when we are headed out next.
 
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