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Post by Deleted on Jun 20, 2010 21:43:10 GMT -6
With an early taste of the mighty channel cat in mid May, I was looking forward to getting back into these brutes upon the wrap up of the Nationals. Upon my return to Winnipeg, I may have noticed a lake in the Headingley area that was not there one week before... We had Red River flood like conditions on our hands, but where there is water, there is fish. The following is a tale of fishing the Red through the late spring high flows, as ridiculous as it might have been. (no photo) June 1, First day back on the Red after a week of intense competition fishing. Conditions? Less than favorable.... Water is blasting through the spillway and the level is at least 6 feet above where I had left it. Looks like someone spilled a ton of coco powder into it too. With the very little bank space available, the decision is made to fish the NE side of the out flow. The back eddy created by the water being so high against this side of the control structure provided a beautiful 'whirl pool' like swirl that certain species decided to favor... should have had the wire leaders out today. First 3 hook ups.... fast jarring strikes followed by nothing... clean break. Must have been several toothy critters hiding out of the main flow, and after having their jaws decorated with feathers, disappeared. On from there, action not hot. Very few hits. Type VI sink tips were hardly getting the fly down in time. After trying several methods of working the current seam, I finally hook into a decent fish. A 25" drum, my first MA drum of the year. The fight is unbelievable as the fish utilizes the current to its advantage and will not give up as easily as its smaller brothers. Although the carp had moved in thick, and a few BIG fish hooked up and lost, none are brought to hand. A couple more small drum, and the sun disappears. A very tough go for one good fish. June 8 Getting to the River, a storm is brewing... and because of this, there are very few people on the water. The goldeye have moved in and it is a fish (or at least 3 strikes) every cast. As the storm edges closer, the rain begins.... And it poured, every old man was asleep and sawing logs on double overtime. As the lightening moves closer and closer, we make the dash to the car. With a visible sunny sky following the storm, waiting it out is a possibility. After a 30 minuet hiatus, we are back in action... The fish however, are not. The goldeye have their noses out of joint after the thunder and lighting and very few are caught once the front has moved through. Fishing hard into dark pays off however. Garret fights the flow. And lands a cat that is surprisingly small for the battle it put up. The fish itself is not small, but this fish certainly knew how to use the high flows to put the tippet to the test the way a fish of 10 or more pounds would do. Keeping the fly in the water and taking the time to figure out the specific retrieve is what it took to get into fish. June 10, Levels are the same today as they were 2 day prior due to the rain. Carp are everywhere. After a few foul hooks and bringing in several 'silver dollar' scales, I land my first 'fair play' carp of the year. Its a slender 27" but fun none the less. Continuing to fish, I am hooking up and losing fish after fish after fish. Not sure if they are fair or foul, I'm getting a little frustrated. Finally, a good solid hook up. Again, the size of the fish landed is surprising to the fight that had been put up. A very clean cat up for its photo debut. . The night goes on, and I lock into two monster battles that take me 50 or 60 feet into my backing only to disappoint with dorsal fin foul hooks. A cat and a carp, both of which dwarf my fair game fish, must have swam into the hooks at a great speed as both came on as a 'strike' and not that soft pull common to snagging a fish. I leave the river with a sore arm, and bad taste in my mouth. June 15, Islands are now visible, and creating very fishable seams and back eddys. The pelicans agree and we all start fishing. The SW side is a little crowded, but the drum are thick. Cast after cast, drum, drum, drum (for Garret) but no other species are showing up . A few cats are being caught from the islands, but the water is high, and space is limited. The move to the NE shore is made in an attempt to fish opposite of the islands and have a shot at a cat, but the current is too fast to get a proper drift. Shuffling around reveals where the goldeye were hiding, and locking into a cast-a-fish type rhythm is achieved. Casting the fly straight up stream and following it back picking up the slack only was the ticket. The night ends with a mixed bag of goldeye, drum, and white bass. It's great to see the levels making that final push to the norm. June 16, Arriving to the river, things look quite. River is sightly lower than the day before, and there is next to no water coming over the control structure. After two weeks, the conditions finally look favorable. We take charge of the islands and begin to swing. Its not long before some sizable fish are on the line. Casting into the seems and allowing the fly to swing back and forth between the contradicting current seams before slowly stripping back is the key to consistent hook ups. A 'fish-a-cast' scenario is established between drum and sauger. The drum are getting up there in size, with two MA sized fish landed and the suager are getting smaller and smaller with fish down to 4" being landed. A distinct strike and a solid hook set and I know I am into my first BIG cat in quite some time. With so many back eddys and cross current seams, the fish is not able to use the flow quite as much as the week before and is landed sans issue. Several more cats are hooked up, but are seeming to be able to spit the hooks. After a few lost biggun's and many drum and sauger, Rick finally lands his first MA cat, and a great MA it was at 37" The night ends on a good note as cats and carp are seen across the flood way and into the river. As the water continues to drop, ease of access to the bruits is much anticipated. June 20, After a weekend of rain, I am wondering how much of the above I will have to relive. Are we ever going to get some consistent 'summer like' weather?
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Post by Deleted on Jun 23, 2010 16:43:27 GMT -6
June 22, another storm front. The second the fly hits the water on my first cast, the clouds break open. POUNDING rain, the spill way begins to get murky and a the rocks that were just peaking above the water begin to disappear. A few flashes of lightening and cracks of thunder, but nothing too close. I fish on through the rain without a bite. As I decide to try the point as this is the first time I have seen it empty, the rain begins to lift. A few casts later and the sun is breaking through the clouds to reveal a beautiful rainbow in the SE sky. The fishing is not too beautiful as all I have caught is a few goldeye. I do some shuffling around and find myself on the NE shore. Again, carp everywhere, and I manage to hook into one. Fishing a buoyant fly off bottom with a moderate strip rate allowed me to find the hook in the fished mouth instead of its back. The fish continued to try and swim between my legs again and again without making any runs and managed to throw the hook on an SDR. I continued to stalk the shallows where I could see tailing carp, but did not manage another hook up. The fishing remained slow until I finally hooked into something big in what appeared to be a double header between myself and Joel. As both our fish got close, it was clear we had a double header of foul hooked cats. By this time the mosquitoes had gotten bad... really bad... I don't remember them ever being this bad before. Its pretty much time to call it a night, but I decide to flip the fly out a couple more times. In the following 5 casts, I land two small cats... the smallest I have ever caught in the Red, but at least the night ends on a good night. The cats seem to have started their spawn, or at least their 'courtship'. Fish have started to change colour and despite their dominant presents, there are not too many being caught. Still a few, but I think things will be picking up a bit better once they have finished their business.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 26, 2010 18:51:26 GMT -6
June 24 Water is up again, Islands are under 6" of water, but its slowly dropping. The sun is out for the most part, and its looking to be a nice evening to be outside. We get to the river and slowly navigate out to a safe spot on the islands at the exit of the spillway, with no portion of the island visible, navigation is only possible via wading staff. A couple of sticks from the rip rap will do. We begin to fish, its slow, only a couple small sauger... an inconsistent bite at that. Brent and I discuss the 'high dangle' as we fool around at the end of our retrieves and both lock into 20+" drum pretty much as the same time (and on a 'high dangle'). Double header! Not a bad at all, at least we are catching, and some decent size. The night continues as such, rather slow. And then, for whatever reason, the fishing gods smiled on us and the bite turned on. Not for drum or sauger or goldeye, but cats... all cats. My first and second of the night. The first one rang in at 34" and from there the 'bigger' ones ranged from 30 - 34". The smaller ones were a solid 14 - 16" and the medium ones held down the mid 20 range. Regardless of size, they were taking the fly. Brent with his first Red River Cat. Brent with his first MA Red River cat, tipping the scale at 36" and disgustingly fat. Late night kitty And my last for the evening, the look on my face explains how bad the bugs were.... BAD... But it was worth hanging on for. Our group of 3 landing 14 cats, myself having one of my personal best nights ever landing 10. The other two in our group also experience their personal best evenings, both landing their first Red River Cat, and Brent with 3 Cats, and his first MA as well as big fish of the night.. It was the right night to be in the river. HOWEVER, the fish were not everywhere, it took a specific cast, standing from a relatively specific spot. You had to follow this up with a specific swing... casting adjacent to the flow and making a few small strips ever 10 seconds or so, barley enough to move the fly. If it wasn't bouncing off the rocks, you were not catching. Being that they are definitely showing some spawn colouration, I really don't think pattern had much to do with it. I caught on tan, yellow, red/black. Others on brown and olive. The important part was what was underneath the dressing.... lots of led. Truly an odd night where you were more likely to hook into a cat than any other drum or sauger. We did catch both drum and sauger, but they were not nearly biting as consistently as the cats. Goes to show that being on the river 2 or 3 nights a week will eventually pay off.... I hoped.... and it did!
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Post by flyfisheranonymous on Jun 28, 2010 6:52:51 GMT -6
Really glad you guys are catching fish. As for me in over 10 hours of fishing down there 3 Drum with the biffest at 25 inches. Just not my year this year.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 28, 2010 8:19:17 GMT -6
Stu, have you fished the main channel this year?
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Post by flyfisheranonymous on Jul 5, 2010 10:15:40 GMT -6
Yeah I was fishing by the three boulders. Nothing, the water was ripping through the area. I'm going to try and get down there sometime in the next week.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 5, 2010 23:00:11 GMT -6
Made it out tonight after that little downpour in the city. Waded out to the middle island in the spillway and within 6 casts I had snagged my 3rd fly and then LOST MY #*$&IN 15ft type 6 SINK TIP! God dang braided leader loops! (I even used 10lb tippet to make sure that wouldn't happen!!) hahaha..
But after that, I was swinging some marabou coneheads on the floating line and seemed to pick up a goldeye or sauger every second cast which kept it interesting for a bit. No kitties tho.
And surprisingly, with the dead calm beautiful weather, there were no mosquitos!
If anyone happens to snag that sink tip, please let me know. It should still be attached to a beadheaded hex nymph hahaha.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 6, 2010 7:15:22 GMT -6
Ouch, that sucks about your sink tip... sounds like your almost ready to join the anti-braid loop crowd? I'll keep an eye out for you tip. I have brought about 40 pickerel rigs home.... if anyone has lost a pickerel rig, they can find it in the dumpster behind my place. Sounds like the fishing has been pretty much the same since last Tuesday, all sauger and goldeye. NO cats... Did you catch any drum? Been some nice nights out there though.
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Post by sedgehammer on Jul 6, 2010 9:36:08 GMT -6
I've been out a couple times this past week, only goldeye and sauger, no drum at all. I fouled and landed a 37.5 in. cat though.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 6, 2010 11:03:06 GMT -6
No sign of any drum, yesterday in there. Pretty weird. I didn't want to attempt wading out to the island near the point as I was by myself. Had one hook up that caught me off guard and took me to my backing inside the spillway, but I'm pretty sure I.. how do we say...
"Put that sinker, in a carps stinker"
Ah well!
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Post by sedgehammer on Jul 6, 2010 12:39:26 GMT -6
I have had an unusual season so far, I have caught nearly the same amount of cats as drum, the difference being one more cat.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 6, 2010 13:04:28 GMT -6
Thats an outstanding ratio Joel, I can only dream.
It would seemt hat I have curse of 'beef lips'... 10 - 16" drum that take my fly before it has the chance to reach the cats... time and time again... sure its fun to catch fish, but there comes a point when enough is enough... yet beef lips keeps showing up....
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Post by sedgehammer on Jul 6, 2010 13:43:28 GMT -6
I guess I cursed myself last year after complaining about catching too many drum. I haven't had one on my line since the end of May (though I don't mind), but I sort of miss those days of catching 20-30 fish... perhaps I should shut my mouth and be happy with all my cats. ;D
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Post by Deleted on Jul 9, 2010 7:10:50 GMT -6
The general slowness had not lifted from the river as of Wednesday night. Water temps are getting up there now.
Level was still just a bit to high to venture out into the main channel. Found a number of goldeye and sauger again in the spillway. Also found some drum. Saw one cat caught, but none for me.
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Post by flyfisheranonymous on Jul 17, 2010 13:05:10 GMT -6
Went down this a.m. with my son Kevin. I'm really at a loss all we got were 6 sauger 1 walleye and a couple of goldeye!!!! Most were caught by Kevin, I landed only 3 fish. I can tell you that my year so far looks pretty dismal, no Cats, no carp, 3 drum, 7 goldeye, and about 6 sauger. I'll never give up though.
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Post by sedgehammer on Jul 19, 2010 10:30:23 GMT -6
Stu, is it usual for there to be an absence (seemingly) of cats in the spillway at this time of the year? And how about the carp, do they stick around in there?
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Post by Deleted on Jul 19, 2010 11:09:19 GMT -6
Stu, how big was your walleye?
I am thinking at this point, you would recommend fishing the channel for the most part? Even down the river from a boat?
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Post by Deleted on Jul 19, 2010 16:00:57 GMT -6
Saw a post from a guy from Manitoba Anglers. He caught a 29" walleye right at the floodwat outlet/spillway last week. He was conventional fishing but interesting that it has been hanging around in there.
Nick
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Post by flyfisheranonymous on Jul 19, 2010 17:58:04 GMT -6
Kevin's Walleye would have been approx. 22-23 inches, a nice 'eye for this time of year. I think that with the flows in the Red the Cats are hanging in holes that will be between 12 and 20 ft and are found in the main river channel. When I was down there they had one gate closed which happened to be the first gate on the east side.
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