A Day of Trout Fishing

Today, I got up excited to get out and get some fishing in.  It's the second day of trout season and I've been excited all night because not only was I going trout fishing, but I would get to fish from my kayak as well.  No cold waders and jockeying for a good spot, just paddling up, anchoring in and fishing.

After having breakfast with the family, I decided to head to Proud Lake with nothing but trout on my mind     

Forty-five mintues later, I parked and unloaded my kayak while watching another guy paddle in.  He said he hadn't caught didn't any trout, which seemed strange at first, but then made sense when he also said he was out at midnight of opening day and the trout had gotten hit pretty hard that evening.
                             

After getting everything situated in my kayak, I paddled upstream to a hole most people overlook when fishing for trout at Proud Lake.
About 7 minutes into my paddle, I rounded the bend to the spot where I wanted to fish only to be greeted by a huge swan's nest with papa swan sitting there eyeballing me.

Although swans are absolutely beautiful, they can also be very aggressive if you get too close.

My initial thought was to find a new spot but, after a couple seconds of watching me, the swan laid his head down as if to say I won't start any ruckus if you don't.  With that, I decided to anchor in about 8 feet from his nest and fish away.  After all, I've had worse fishing partners than this guy.  Besides, having him as a fishing partner might keep other fishermen at bay.

It only took a few minutes to bait up my Berkley Power Bait rod with pink and white berkley trout bait and my it into the water.  It took about 15 minutes of waiting before I caught my first trout measuring 14 1/2 inches. The second trout came a bit later, after I saw it surface about 8 feet to my right, directly in front of my fishing buddy.  So I hurried an reeled in my bait and pitched it about a foot in front of where I saw the fish surface. Thirty seconds later and FISH ON!  This guy wasn't as easy to pull in because I was anchored so closely to some brush and the he decided it was best to run straight towards it.  After playing a mean game of dodge the branches, I had my second trout in the yak and it was time to hit a new spot.

After stringing up my trout I noticed my fishing buddy had decided it was time for a change of scenery. So, I took a minute to admire him as he swam away.  I paddled down stream past a few guys fishing with full stringers and another yak fisherman fighting a stud of a trout. As for me, it was time to get to the blow downs that I knew should be holding a few trout.

I took me a couple of minutes to back my kayak into an area of slack water and get situated once I got to the blowdowns. I cast the power bait under a blowdown only to notice that the current in this area was just too fast to fish in this way.  So, I grabbed my ultra-light ugly stick with the wooly bugger spinner tied on it and started casting.  About 3 cast in I got hit just below a downed tree.  This trout wasn't like the other two. This one decided it wanted to take me for a sleigh ride.  With only two pound test line on the ugly stick, I figured it was best to let take me on that ride, within reason.  After a few minutes of letting the fish tire itself out, I found a good spot to back the yak into and started reeling the fish in.  Two minutes later, I was excitedly talking to the fish for thinking he could get away.

I had reached my limit of fish. So, I left my spot to the two guys wader fishing and headed to the car excited and tired.

Below are the stringer with my days catch and the wooly bugger spinner I was using but in chartreuse and black pattern.  I wish there was a way to put my enjoyment on a stringer to show you that too.  But, this post will have to do.

Thanks for reading and tight lines.