Another Holiday Monday Report....

[The Urban Fisherman]

The resevoir opened up for the season this weekend and with bad weather an plenty of work to get done around the house I was only able to sneak out for a couple hours Monday morning.

 

Fished a micro jig for panfish the first hour or so and managed a mixed bag of rock bass, perch, bluegill and OOS largies. For the most part the bigger bluegill have already moved back out into deeper water. Any weed edge produced a few fish.

 

Eventually my hands couldn't take the cold anymore and I decided to try trolling for bow's. With ZERO experience I tied a 4lb fluoro leader onto my 7' spinning rod and tied a 2" original floating rap to the end. Started trolling, just poured myself a warm cup of coffee was about to take my first sip and my rod goes nuts, drop the coffee and reel in my first ever trolling rainbow - a perfectly pan sized 17 incher! Put up a decent fight on light tackle.

 

Next up was this suicidal bluegill.

 

Fished for another 45 minutes - had three more hits but only landed 1 more bow.

 

Cleaned them up and had fresh fish on the BBQ for dinner. It was my first time keeping, or eating rainbow trout. One fish had a much stronger taste than the other. Could 1 be a stocker and the other a home-grown?

 

Anyways - it was a short outing, and I look forward to learning more about trolling for these little resevoir trout.

Any tips are welcome!

 

 

Cheers,

UF

[The Urban Fisherman]

This is the second time I've "previewed" a post, then hit "post" and it's come up twice.....

[snag]

You sure do get your Omega 3's.

 

With all that brain food, you'll be taking over the world soon.....uh......master?

 

Always the provider.

 

S.

Edited May 20, 2008 by SNAG

[Rich]

Nice!!! Gotta love the early season at that reservoir, water's still cold so no need to go deep for them.

 

Great stuff man. If I ever get a weekend off in the next 2 years I'll be sure to let you know so we can have a mini tourney - Bass Hound vs Tooner Hound, LOL

[Victor]

Looks like you're having great success off your sweet ride!

 

Never kept/ate rainbow before so i don't know about the taste, but they sure seem tasty though!

Edited May 20, 2008 by Victor

[Musky or Specks]

That reservoir does have both stocked fish and naturals in it. Haave you got any browns yet? They are in there. To bad they dont put lakers in there anymore.

[Rich]

Funny you mention that Musky or Specks - we had never caught a brown there ever, then went ice fishing for perch and the ladies both caught browns. Beauty 18 inchers, both of them.

 

As for the difference in taste, I find the longer you let them sit, the more the taste of their slime gets into the meat. The worse tasting one was probably the one caught earlier in the day.

 

I always "scale" my trout. I don't actually remove the scales, just simply remove the slime with my knife - most important to get it off their backs. Makes the meat taste 100 times better, not sure why. A trick my father in law taught me.

[Musky or Specks]

Funny you mention that Musky or Specks - we had never caught a brown there ever, then went ice fishing for perch and the ladies both caught browns. Beauty 18 inchers, both of them.

 

As for the difference in taste, I find the longer you let them sit, the more the taste of their slime gets into the meat. The worse tasting one was probably the one caught earlier in the day.

 

I always "scale" my trout. I don't actually remove the scales, just simply remove the slime with my knife - most important to get it off their backs. Makes the meat taste 100 times better, not sure why. A trick my father in law taught me.

The browns there seem to really patrol a certain section of the shore. Go some evening when the bugs are hatching they really give themselves away.By the by did you guys know that thats Ontario's only true Highland Reservoir.

Edited May 20, 2008 by Musky or Specks

[Cookslav]

Did you put the First fish out when you put it on the Stringer by chance?

Its an age old arguement with some folks I know...

Some think its better to keep the fish alive, and "fresh" on the stinger, some think different

 

If the fish are kept fresh on the Stringer(AKA Alive) they "stress" and release more Lactic Acid into the meat.

A Quick kill limits saturation and thusly has a milder taste, not unlike Hunting Game(only sub lactic Acid for adrenalin)

A quick kill Deer will be WAY less Gamey then one you need to track down, and the same hold true with fish....or some would say

[The Urban Fisherman]

Nice!!! Gotta love the early season at that reservoir, water's still cold so no need to go deep for them.

 

Great stuff man. If I ever get a weekend off in the next 2 years I'll be sure to let you know so we can have a mini tourney - Bass Hound vs Tooner Hound, LOL

 

Just let me know dude - not often I get to share the water with other people - toner's always ready to go on weekends....

 

That reservoir does have both stocked fish and naturals in it. Haave you got any browns yet? They are in there. To bad they dont put lakers in there anymore.

 

They used to stock lakers in there?!? no way! It'd be the perfect lake for me if it had some walleye in it!

 

The browns there seem to really patrol a certain section of the shore. Go some evening when the bugs are hatching they really give themselves away.By the by did you guys know that thats Ontario's only true Highland Reservoir.

 

I think I'll be chasing trout until bass opener so who knows - might hook into a brown or two...and call me a deush but I don't know what a Highland Reservoir is by definition.....

 

 

Did you put the First fish out when you put it on the Stringer by chance?

Its an age old arguement with some folks I know...

Some think its better to keep the fish alive, and "fresh" on the stinger, some think different

 

If the fish are kept fresh on the Stringer(AKA Alive) they "stress" and release more Lactic Acid into the meat.

A Quick kill limits saturation and thusly has a milder taste, not unlike Hunting Game(only sub lactic Acid for adrenalin)

A quick kill Deer will be WAY less Gamey then one you need to track down, and the same hold true with fish....or some would say

 

Nope - tragged 'em around the side of my little pontoon all mornin - not a whole lot of room on it for a cooler full of ice!

[fishindevil]

Awesome fishing man !!!!. ..those trout look great,and im sure they tasted even better,well done,nice reward for putting up with the cold too....cheers