Tingley Catch and Release - April 11, 2009

Andrew and I hit Tingley beach this morning despite the wind, rain, and cool weather. Fished with our pellet fly rigs from about 7:00am to about 9:30am; then took a food/warm up break and drove over to Blakes for a breakfast burritio (#1 with green chile is usually what we get). Went back to Tingley for more fishing and fished until about 12:00pm. Each of us caught about 30. I actually caught a brown trout out of that pond this morning. Didn't know the pond had any browns in it. But then again, the browns probably don't usually hit pellet flies.

Cochiti - April 5, 2009

This was the first trip out with the new (used) 16' Alumacraft. We knew Cochiti is always tough and especially tough at the tail end of a cold front, but we just wanted to get the boat out.

Got the boat in the water about 1:30 and out of the water about 4:30 or 5:00. We trolled, drifted, and fished a few coves on the east side. We managed one hook up while we were trolling. Actually, we weren't paying attention and we finally heard the drap zipping off the reel. My first reaction was that were hung up or snagged, but when then I started to gain line and felt a few head shakes I knew it wasn't a snag. I fought the fish for a probably another 10 or 15 seconds before it came off. Not sure what it was, but whatever it was it was big! My oldest son caught a Northern on a silver X-Rap out of one of the east side coves. My youngest boy had a good hit on a swimbait (Yum Money Minnow). I fished a plastic Texas rigged in some of the coves to no avail. Overall though - we had fun and it was nice to get the boat out; although I really wanted to see what it would do and can't do that at Cochiti.

Tingley Beach - March 6, 2009

I fished Tingley's catch and release pond from about 6:35 until 11:00 AM. I actually hadn't planned on staying that long, but the fishing was good and never really slowed down. The only reason I left when I did was because I had other stuff I had to attend to that day.

I fished with an ultralight spinning rod and reel (Okuma) with 4 lb. test. I was throwing a rig with two of my infamous hand-tied trout pellet flies on a three foot (Berkley Vanish Fluorocarbon 4lb) leader behind a bunjee bubble half filled with water.

I didn't count the number of fish I caught, but it had to be over 50; mostly rainbow trout, with a few golden trout here and there. The biggest was about 16 inches. I talked to someone there who said they had been feeding them just about everyday. I think they were primed and ready for my pellet flies. Great fun.

Bluewater Lake, New Mexico - 6/16/2007

We had heard that fishing for Tiger Muskies at Bluewater was good. We enjoyed tiger hunting last year and thought we'd give it a try.

Here's a summary -- Patrick, Andrew and I got on the lake at about 8:45. Had problems with the gas motor so we quickly switched to the electric. Started fishing about 9:15. . We were fishing just south of the no wake buoys on the east side of the lake and Patrick caught a 32” Tiger Muskie almost right away on a Rapala X-Rap (XR-12 in rainbow). Thought fishing was going to be great since we caught that one on about our fifth cast, but we didn’t catch another one until afternoon. Not even a hit. We ended up catching three more - one about 32” on a jointed Rapala (Brook Trout pattern), one at about 24” on a perch colored deep diving X-Rap and another about 18” on a orange deep diving X-Rap. Andrew caught the 24" fish. All three of these were caught between south of the big rocks on the east side of the lake. At various times, we tried fishing the damn area, the area around the orange buoy, and an area in the middle of the lake where we had caught many before. Besides the Rapalas, we also tried PMs (Pather Martin spinners), spoons, and a few big Storm swim baits. The only thing that produced for us were the X-Raps and the jointed Rapala. Both of these have been good at Bluewater for Muskies in the past. Pulled the boat out of the water at 2:00 p.m. Slow day, but had a good time with the boys.