# Pretty Good Day with the Troop



## LOAH (Sep 29, 2007)

My wife wanted to fish with me this week and I thought we could really use an all day trip to a far away land and hopefully, some fine fishing as well.

Ever since a mid-summer's trip to Rex Reservoir (near Salina), I've felt the need to go back in the fall and try my luck with shallower fish and cooler temps/water. After consulting the wife, it was as good as done and we were on the road by 5:15am, Sunday morning.

Upon our arrival, the plan was for me to get in an hour or so of tube time while Sonia and James napped in the car. This way, I could get my floating fix and they could catch up on the sleep that they didn't make up for on the way in (since I woke them up at 3:00 :wink.

As we rounded the last bend, we came to a good sized clearing with a trench squirming through it. Rex? Is that really you? Luckily, there was a side road that led us around to the side where all the water was hiding. :lol: I was surprised to see how much water was gone, but I guess that's life in the junipers and sagebrush.



















Sticking to the plan, I got my tube pumped up and all of my gear situated in time to shove off before the sunlight kissed the water. Trolling the shoreline, it wasn't long before I got a timid hit on my bugger. I missed the set, but had more hits coming shortly thereafter. I couldn't hook these bites though! I don't know what the problem was, but these fish wouldn't hang on. Perhaps the tail of my bugger was too long. It didn't matter since I snagged a rock and broke my leader at the fly line anyway.

After re-rigging my fly rod, I thought I'd give my new spinning rod a shot at flipping a Blue Fox around. First cast, fish on! Unfortunately, it shook itself free while I was messing with my drag. At that point, I remembered my last visit to Rex; those fish were escape artists and fought to the end. I had lost about as many as I actually got to my hand that day.

I cast out again and within a few seconds, had another taker. It fought bigger than it was and it gave a good surface fight, but I was a little disappointed with the size.










Definitely nothing to brag about, but I was sure that I would see more of its buddies before too long. I also remembered seeing some pretty nice sized fish last time.

Well, I won't lie...This fish were crazy about my black Blue Fox, but I couldn't get anything bigger than 13 inches or so. I caught fish on every cast at times. The really fought hard, but only the first one got off. Looks like I fixed my problem. I even got a really colorful cuttie to pose for me:



















The fly rod was still giving me fits though, despite the steady bites when I tried. There was a moment that I had it set aside while casting my spinner and a fish decided to bite my bugger while it was hanging just a couple of feet away from me. It was too bad that I wasn't holding that rod at the time, so another opportunity escaped me.

Finally, I latched onto one when I was actually reeling in to set the whip aside again. Go fig. :lol:

All fish caught were cutthroats with full fins and a wild attitude. I couldn't buy a rainbow though. I guess all the planter bows fell to the mighty hand of powerbait throughout the year or something. It would've been nice to see one of the rumored browns I've heard of, too.

By now, my family was stirring about and I'd had my fun on the water. After a couple more shots from the tube, I headed back to shore:



















It really is a pretty nice place. Too bad it gets drawn down so low.

My wife requested her usual getup: worm under a bubble. She cast out into a spot that was sure to get her a quick taker and, sure enough, scored a small companion for the one I kept on the stringer. She rigged another worm while I hurried to try one of my favorite methods to weed out the hogs from the dinks, a minnow.

Trying the minnow method was sure to either get me a fat boy or nothing at all, right?

Wrong. :roll: A 12 inch cutt swallowed it and ended up joining the other two on the chain.

Sonia's 2nd cast brought #4 to its demise.

By now, Sonia was starting to understand the benefits of using hardware with both of us at half our limits after only a couple of hours at the pond.

We decided to try another place in a different setting that was somewhat nearby after getting our pics taken with the "mighty" feast (they look so much bigger when she's holding them, hehe):

(Notice the bun in the oven?)









("They're humongous!!!" :lol: )









After about a 20 minute drive, we were at the parking area for a smaller, walk-in fishing hole. Now we were gunning for brookies amongst the quakies rather than settling for tiny cutts amongst desert shrubs.

It wasn't a long hike by any means, so I was sure Sonia could handle it. In fact, I was told to make the trek alone before hand to verify my own claims and also to ensure that there were no bears waiting for us. :| I was there and back in 5 minutes.

Despite my reassurances, she wasn't having a good time and couldn't relax enough to enjoy the nice spot we were in. Add a fussy toddler to the mix and it was time to go after only one quick C&R:










Bummer. My fishing libido had not been fulfilled yet and I was really looking forward to seeing a brightly colored male from there. Oh well, pack it in. The pregnant lady always wins in this situation.
-~|-

While driving back toward Salina, I sweet talked my way into another fishing hole and we continued north on HWY 89 instead of cutting back toward Scipio. I still wasn't sure where we were going, but I knew there was more water to the northeast than along I-15.

My craving required some place I could hook into a bigger trout with a minnow and the best candidate would have to be Palisade Reservoir. Just like our last trip to Rex, we had to drop in on Palisade as well. Nice. 8)

Driving along the barrier at Palisade was even more shocking than seeing how low Rex was. Talk about drained! My heart sunk when I saw the water level, but it was nice to get an idea of the bottom structure for future reference.

Definitely not what I'm used to seeing when parked here:










Wow. -)O(-

Well, I wasn't about to be dissuaded by that after driving the distance, so off I went to try a spot that caught my attention (a gap in the weeds?) while driving by as my wife handled the boy's lunch break.

Still armed with the black Blue Fox, I buzzed it through the hole several times with only a tiny bump and the flash of a follower to show for it. Perhaps another color? I knew they liked the vibration, but the cloudy aquamarine colored water would require something a little more visible.

A firetiger colored BF was selected and I simply dropped it into the water for a moment before a scrawny rainbow swooped up and grabbed it.  That was easy.  I couldn't feel good about keeping that poor thing, so back it went to finish starving. :lol:

Just a few casts later, a 15 inch tiger showed up for inspection and was also turned back. It seemed as though I'd figured out a good pattern to use and I made my way back to the car to get us ready.

We got to a promising puddle and went to work. Surprisingly, Sonia decided not to use the "worm rod" that she's so fond of. Instead, she opted to try my spinner after watching me catch and release a couple of 14-15 inch planter bows. :shock:

For some reason, I'm reminded of the movie Airplane. ("Jim _never_ has a second cup of coffee at home.") :mrgreen:

With Sonia throwing hardware, I tossed out a minnow and quickly had something pulling out line. Too bad it was only a nub-finned rainbow of about 13. :x What gives? Aw well. I took my boy and walked over to the steeper, rocky side of the lake to try our luck there. It was pretty neat to see the rest of this tree that I've floated by a time or two:










The only excitement by the rocks was a couple of ducks that got really close to us and gave James the giggles. He learned the work "duck" and we went back to Mama.

Sonia worked at the spinner for quite awhile, but just couldn't get a hit. She seemed to be following my instructions, but nothing ever came of her efforts. Finally, she set down the rod and accepted her perpetual Palisade skunking (she's _still_ never caught a fish there).

With my fishing time running out (wife is finished and skunked...2+2 = ???), I hurled my BF out a couple of times and got slammed by a healthy tiger from the same hole Sonia was working.  (Poor girl...Palisade just hates her, I think.) 16 inches and sturdy...Much better:










A few casts later and I had the longest fish of the day by quite a margin, but at 20 inches, it probably only weighed a pound and a half.










These fish must be running out of goldfish to much on! I'm used to nice pudgy fish at Palisade, not famished snakes. This is kind of disturbing to me. :?

Well, with that last one, it was time to call it a day. James gave a little pose while I was taking some goodbye shots and I just want you all to see the current status of the Palisade Puddle:



















Despite the lack of size in my catches today, I sure caught a pile of fish and that makes me really happy! I got to spend all day with my growing family and we all had a good time too. That's always a plus. What's more, I started the trip with a full tank of gas in my Sentra and put exactly 300 miles on...I only burned about 7 gallons all day! At $3.15 per gallon, that's only $22.05!

(That means we can still afford a decent dinner for our anniversary on Wednesday. :wink: :wink

Happy Fishing, Humans.


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## netresult (Aug 22, 2008)

Great report and beautiful pics as usual LOAH! Happy anniversary and good luck to you and your wife on the bun in the oven!


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## Nueces (Jul 22, 2008)

Great report, trip and photos. The 21" fish does look skinny. Maybe it will find some goldfish to munch on over the winter and fatten up.


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## orvis1 (Sep 7, 2007)

Sounds like another LOAH day! Good to get the family out before it turns nasty weather. Sure wish it was only $25 bucks to get my boat out to the lakes I would be there every weekend!


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## Ifish (Aug 22, 2008)

Great report and nice pics! You just have to love getting out with the family. Hopefully Palisade will pay off for your wife one day in the future. Thanks for the shots and good luck adding to the troop!


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## .45 (Sep 21, 2007)

Hey !! Nice trip LOAH !! 

And........congrats to the 'little' Mrs. LOAH !! What a trooper she must be... 8) 

It looks like a few more months and poor LOAH will have to stay home more often.......that's what ya get for mess'in around !!  

Congrats to you both....


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## threshershark (Sep 7, 2007)

Nice LOAH -- looks like recruitment isn't a problem in your household! Congrats.

Some nice coloration on a few of those cutts. I didn't see any minnows, are you slipping?


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## LOAH (Sep 29, 2007)

Oh, I used the minnows. 8) I caught a 12 inch cutt at Rex with one and a 13 inch rainbow at Palisade with another. :roll: 

It wasn't a typical minnow day for me at all. I had other fish playing with my minnows, but something always seemed to go wrong and spook them before they swallowed. My line got caught up on some rocks a couple of times, some ducks came over and scared one fish off, someone's cast crossed my own...good stuff.

I think I need a good Scofield day to fulfill my inner minnow madman. Maybe in a couple of weeks.


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## RnF (Sep 25, 2007)

Looks like a nice outing. Good luck with the one on the way!


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## mjschijf (Oct 1, 2007)

Nice report LOAH! Good to see you got out with the family. That is pretty weird that the smaller fish were biting the minnows. It still looks like a great day overall though. 

By the way, I'm lovin' the beard. :lol:


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## LOAH (Sep 29, 2007)

mjschijf said:


> By the way, I'm lovin' the beard. :lol:


'Tis the season. :wink:


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## Hellsangler69 (Sep 26, 2007)

Wow all that way and only 22.05 in fuel . I think my truck burns that much to start . I'm with ORvis on this one . Good to see your trips to places I have never been . Is that long skinny fish a cutt ?


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## LOAH (Sep 29, 2007)

No, that was a sad, hideous tiger trout. Almost no color, body mushy, big head,..

Cause for worry, although the previous tiger was nice and healthy. The rainbows I caught didn't look too good either.


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## Golfish (Oct 14, 2007)

Way to go getting the Family out with you.
Nice to see that your getting the one on the way started early for the Fishing trips. :wink:


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