Trout for Dinner :)

I don't ALWAYS fish for stripers and saltwater stuff but sometimes you have to take what's available.

A couple of weeks ago I got a new fishfinder for my birthday, a GARMIN Echomap Plus. Wanting to hook it up and try it out right away like any new toy seemed to be a bit of a problem. The Feather is too low to navigate without knowing exactly how deep you are, and the delta is too far to go for just trying out the new finder, and the fishing down there hasn't been that good yet. So where else can I go close to home.

I just heard that Collins Lake had released a bunch of trout and things were going good up there. Perfect. I call Jim and ask if he'd like to take a ride and put the boat in the water to fish a little and test out the Garmin at the same time. Yesterday morning we headed out.

We didn't need to get there too early as this wasn't a serious fishing trip. Arriving about 7:30 the parking areas were almost full. Other folks had heard about the releases too.

As soon as we launched the water got deep fast. But my new finder showed fish everywhere,,,,,,,,, all deep. All forty or fifty feet down. Way too deep for our fly rods but we put them out anyway and slow trolled hoping something may be cruising up high.

After a couple hours of nothing we decide to move and try some other parts of the lake. We hadn't seen anyone take a fish yet, the bank or otherwise.

I put my rod down on the floor of boat, still dragging my fly, and continued to learn the features of my new toy. Suddenly there's a rattle bang sound and Jim jumps from his seat and grabs my rod just as it's about to go over the transom. Finally a hookup!. Jim hands me my rod and the fish is pulling,,,,, hard. On my 6 weight this feels heavy. After a bit of playing the fish comes to the boat and the net comes out. Yahoo! My daughter-in-law said to bring one home for dinner so this one stayed in the boat.

https://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b...psr2fokipp.jpg

We continue our trolling and a minute later as I'm stripping line out I get another good grab and hookup. This one feels the same and pulls hard too. Great fun on light tackle. As it comes to the boat we see it has lots of color and a nice square tail showing it had to be a carry-over fish. Beautiful, and this one gets released. We already had one for dinner.

https://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b...psq8bkjhld.jpg

We lost a couple more before the end of the day but it sure was nice to get out on the water. And, I even learned a little about how to read my new finder.
Tony

You look real good in that picture........so does the trout.

Despite what certain people think on this forum there ain’t nothing wrong with taking some healthy fish home for the pan.

Nice fish. When I get large Trout IE: filet sized I'll do boneless filets and do them on the grill. I've had non-fish eaters ask for more......

nothing wrong with a fish for dinner.


How did you like the new finder in deep water? Pretty crazy how well they read nowadays!

That finder is incredible. And it'll get better once I figure out how to work all the whistles and bells.

It came with all kinds of manuals and even an internal tutorial but it's hard to read and drive and push buttons all at the same time.

Sort of like drinking and driving. I'll figure it out :)
Tony

Garmin knows how to design and make things............ The quicker they get a full array of trolling motors on the market, including auto pilot and deployment, the better we'll all be.......

The "boys" at Lawson's Landing on Tomales Bay are way into Garmin now too.

Seems like just yesterday they got into the fish finder market?

Hey Tony, nice bow. Hope it was good. I like mine almondine style. Take some slivered almonds and blanch them in butter and then add some worstershire sauce. One question, did it hurt to have that rod in you ear like that? Don.

Thanks Mems. Didn't catch that earlier....