FINALLY! A couple of chonkies from the Gorge
Posted: Mon Apr 29, 2024 5:07 pm
Today was the day that I decided to try out a spot that I had scouted out back in February at Flaming Gorge. It's always trout season up here, but spring brings the smallies around the rock piles, and I have always wanted to catch a small mouth bass, especially seeing as how I miss the green bassies of home so much.
So....this morning, I pulled the 8 lb rig off the rack and headed down the highway to my intended spot. Overcast, windy and temps in the high 50s out at the mouth of the cove that I had picked. There, I tied on a Ned rig and gave it several retrieves, slowly hopping and pausing it along either side prominent rock point jutting out into deep water that I thought looked like a perfect bass hangout. Unfortunately, I was wrong about this....probably because it was such a recognizable feature on the lake, and boaters probably pulled up to it often. Off to the right of the point was a much smaller secondary point of rocks though, so I meandered over there and tossed the bait in. This time, I switched up my retrieve, not letting the lure rest at all....kind of a hop-glide motion. Sure enough, I got slammed by an eager chonky li'l bronzeback! I was so excited to catch my first smallie, and took a couple of pictures of it. He must have been close to two pounds....so that ain't half bad. Another cast and retrieve brought one that was close to double the size of the first one. This fish pulled hard, and came to the shoreline spitting out bits of crawdad parts.
After that, the Ned Rig caught a rainbow trout, and then the bite for anything seemed to shut off, no matter where I moved to around the shoreline. Still, it was great morning for me, and I took a couple pictures of each bass to share here.
I sure hope I find more of these fine fishies up here. They are beautiful, and fun to catch! Now, I just need to catch some bigger ones.
So....this morning, I pulled the 8 lb rig off the rack and headed down the highway to my intended spot. Overcast, windy and temps in the high 50s out at the mouth of the cove that I had picked. There, I tied on a Ned rig and gave it several retrieves, slowly hopping and pausing it along either side prominent rock point jutting out into deep water that I thought looked like a perfect bass hangout. Unfortunately, I was wrong about this....probably because it was such a recognizable feature on the lake, and boaters probably pulled up to it often. Off to the right of the point was a much smaller secondary point of rocks though, so I meandered over there and tossed the bait in. This time, I switched up my retrieve, not letting the lure rest at all....kind of a hop-glide motion. Sure enough, I got slammed by an eager chonky li'l bronzeback! I was so excited to catch my first smallie, and took a couple of pictures of it. He must have been close to two pounds....so that ain't half bad. Another cast and retrieve brought one that was close to double the size of the first one. This fish pulled hard, and came to the shoreline spitting out bits of crawdad parts.
After that, the Ned Rig caught a rainbow trout, and then the bite for anything seemed to shut off, no matter where I moved to around the shoreline. Still, it was great morning for me, and I took a couple pictures of each bass to share here.
I sure hope I find more of these fine fishies up here. They are beautiful, and fun to catch! Now, I just need to catch some bigger ones.
