Lake Davis 6/20-26/2016 TOAD'S

[gene goss]

After watching the weather go up and down for a couple of weeks, i decided it was time to get serious about catching a Lake Davis TOAD. The afternoon surface water temp was 63 degrees at the start of the trip, and 70 degrees yesterday so don't wait to catch a TOAD.
The catching was interesting, i only landed 10 fish in 6 days of fishing, 5 hrs in morning's and 2 hrs in evening's with some very long kicks in my float tube to get to the point between Freeman Bay and Cow Creek Bay, which seem to have the biggest numbers of fish and damsels if the wind was blowing 20+ mph across Cow Creek Bay. The wind and waves would push the water around the point and create a drift line into Freeman Bay of damsels.
For 2 days i found myself at the right place at the right time with these big TOADS swilling around looking for damsels and what ever else that was swept around the point, now the catching part was the hardest part for me, just because you can see them and get a cast to them doesn't mean that they will grab it, i gave up on my damsel fly and tied on my 3 inch 5 color UV marabou streamer on a floating line and hook a TOAD from shore .....WOW.
I never went back to using a damsel fly, all my fish were caught on the streamer except for the biggest TOAD of the trip on a floating line with a black wiggle tail one evening.

My biggest TOAD was towing me around.

In a big wind the shore fishing was fun.

3 inch streamer is where it should be in the corner of the mouth.

The damsels were hitching a ride with me.

Seen lots of Hex's

Sunset at Lake Davis

[Mark Kranhold]

Nice report Gene! No pics?

[SeanO]

Very nice!

You're going to need a bigger net next year.

[gene goss]

Very nice!

You're going to need a bigger net next year.

Your right SeanO.....i may have to use my Pyramid Lake net at Lake Davis this fall, with all the food in Davis those triploids (sterile) trout are going to be bigger.

[Mark Kranhold]

Awesome pics Gene! Beautiful fish , might have to hit it this week while I'm up at the cabin. Thanks again !

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Wonderful Gene......

5 Star post.....

Thanks for your great participation on our little message board.

[FRSam]

They are getting a little picky Gene, there's no question about that. I had one the other day I couldn't get my hands around...Big Fish! And I wholeheartedly agree with your tactic of throwing something different when you've got a pod of working fish and you're unable to take them on the working insects. We've got a fly we call the big ugly used to ant the hatch...it works! Great pictures!

[mattv-mcfly]

Very nice!

You're going to need a bigger net next year.

Anyone know how big did these fish get before the lake was killed?

[gene goss]

Anyone know how big did these fish get before the lake was killed?

Hi mattv-mcfly...The biggest trout i caught out of Lake Davis before it was poison, was 6.2 lbs on my scale.
The snail population before the poisoning of Davis was unreal, these big toads were so packed full of snails that there bellies felt like it had gravel in it, the growth rate of these toads made them look like a football, little heads, with a fat short body.
After the poisoning we almost lost the snail population, the snails are trying to make a come back but its a slowly taking its time.
But the good news is that the damsels are back, and we now have the Hex's population that we didn't have before the poisoning.
Here is a picture of a friend of mine with a 6+ lbs he caught before the poisoning, you can see the little head and big belie.

[Troutstalker55B]

Hey Gene,

Here is a 5.5 pound rainbow the day before the 1st treatment in 1997.

We left a little something for Ca DFW, a headstone, and two pike hanging off it! - J.