Barrett Opener boat report

[dakicka]

Arrived at 4:30am and seemed like perfect timing. No dust, no vehicles driving in at that time and rather wide open parking. Learned that they are now only doing 15 boats (with 5 on deck for backup/emergencies) versus 25 in years’ past. Noticed a slew of tubers but because of the lake being so full there was little to no congestion all day.

Our morning started out very slow in areas that have otherwise been very productive for me. Hit the deep submerged trees and standing timber. Jigs and t rigged creature baits and senkos. The main problem with our morning setup was that I packed only 3/16 oz and lower tungsten weights and 1/4 oz and 3/8 oz jigs. The lake being so high our rigs were taking way too long to get down and I think it completely eliminated any reactionary bites for us. Later when we hit even more shallower water we faired much better as the reaction bite was more prevalent in 2-3 ft of water versus the surprisingly 6-8 ft of submerged timber which used to only be a couple feet deep.

Didn’t see much of any breaking fish in any cove, creek, or open area. Saw loads of fat bluegills everywhere. Saw TONS of fry being guarded by recently pregnant long bass that were probably 3+ lbs heavier last week before dumping off their offspring. Saw several bass And bluegill spawning beds. Lots of seasonal overlap. Didn’t get any bites off the beds but did get some hard reactions from the ones guarding fry near standing timber and vegetation.

Weather was FANTASTIC. I did shorts and t shirt the entire day and only a thin windbreaker an hour in the morning when the wind picked up. Saw lots of people in winter type clothing and was perplexed lol.

We caught 75% of our fish between 1-3pm which is counterintuitive to our typical adventures where first bite goes off. I got 10 and my friend caught 8. We fished from about 5:40-3:00pm. We were going more for mid to big fish though, swinging for the fences. I broke off a monster. Prob 8-9 lbs. As soon as I set the hook I knew it was a giant. One hard head turn and snapped me off. Ugh. He lost 4 good ones 4-5 lbs. I used 12# fluoro which was plenty sufficient for the timber. He used 10# and had no issue either. Perhaps we would’ve gotten more bites with 8#, not sure.

My best was just under 5 and his best was just under 4.5. But our avg clone was a solid 3 #. We only caught 2 under 2 lbs. So all were good fish. All healthy and had a Beautiful dark green coats with a super fluke pearl like belly. Nice and fat. Didn’t yet find any coughing up swollen senkos but of course that will happen as the season carries on.

I talked to a few people on the lake and they all were boisterously talking like o yea we’re killing it. We each got 40+ in the boat already (9am) and I don’t believe most of them. Unless they were going for quantities of dinks with light weight finesse tactics which seems boring to me. When I asked the employee after packing up for the day he said most of the people that had finished told him they caught between 8-12 each, so we were right in that mix.

So we started near a lot of trees to the furthest right of the lake. I’ve had great success out there in the past. We only caught 4 all morning. No top water bite whatsoever. Everything was on black and blue or black with red flake senkos or green pumpkin with chartreuse jigs. We caught 1 on a pearl super fluke which blew my mind only 1 on a freaking fluke.

Senko was the only ultra reliable thing for us. Was shocked. Not exactly the toss anything out and get bit days of double hookups and back to back catches at Barrett but still a fun day.

The new motors are fantastic and start immediately and can be used in a pinch as a mini trolling motor if desperate. Shout out to the lake in that regard. No more pulling 20 times, pumping gas, toying with the choke, etc. just make sure you have her in neutral and the handle turned to the proper “restart” setting versus “start” and it’ll start right up!

All in all beautiful weather but we didn’t slug them like I’m used to. Nothing beats a day on the water whether catching 50, 10, or even 0. Enjoy nature, clear your mind, and have fun with your friends while we’re still here. Wishing everyone a great outing this weekend!

PS - major shout out to Ish for letting us borrow your trolling motor & battery and Travis for the swapping tickets with us for the opener! And if anyone knows how to rotate those the photos that are sideways let me know.

[Pond_prowler_619]

Sounds like you have a blast. Even thought a lot of fish wasnt caught,those are nice quality fish.

[Seaway]

Thanks for the Report...!!!

[MaxZmus]

Thanks for the honest report, great write up!

[VinnyBass]

Great report and really enjoyed all the details. I could visualize so much of your day on the water.
Pics are fixed and looking forward to seeing more posts from you.
Tight lines.

[Surferjohn]

Just keep moving when you can't find fish. They are there in bunches. A 10 fish day can quickly turn in a 30 fish day in a short time.

[DarkShadow]

Just keep moving when you can't find fish. They are there in bunches. A 10 fish day can quickly turn in a 30 fish day in a short time.

And don't be afraid to fish that 20 foot range, and don't let the runts in the shallows eating anything they can fit in their mouth make you lose focus on the larger fish.

[Queue]

CDFW got the boat motors in working order for the SHARE event...