Winter Saugeye Trip

With the snow coming down outside it makes me want to be fishing now more than ever. I had been dreading this winter and the long stretch of not being able to make it out fishing.

I did make it out the weekend before Christmas to try some Saugeye fishing in a river running out of Hoover lake. There is a little pool that I heard had produced a few years back this time of year. I was bored and couldn't handle being in the house any longer so Mizike, Gene and I decided to give it a try.

We got out of the house late around 2. By the time we stopped by Gene's house and waited on him forever to gather all of his supplies we made it to the river about 3:30. Only a couple of hours of daylight left.

We had 2 pairs of hip waders so I waded to an island and took mine off and Gene waded them back to Mizike so he could get out to the island then I got them back and waded to the middle of the stream.

I used a green twist tail on a 1/4 oz. head and cast and drug it along the bottom back to me. After a bunch of casts I tried a white twist tail still with no luck. The water was down a little and it had been a while since they would have let a lot of water out of the dam. I think there were not that many fish in the pool.

It started to snow while we were out there and the view down there was pretty awesome. I could see the guys were starting to get a little ancy so I said at least I usually snag something outta here when I fish this spot. A couple casts later Gene said I got something and his pole was doubled over.

He got the fish to him and lifted it out of the water. He had snagged a carp in the dorsal fin. It had been so long since we had caught any fish Mizike and I were pretty jealous. We started ripping out lures through the water where Gene had released the carp.

It was getting late and I had to take my kids to see Santa so we got ready to leave. I waded over to shore and acted like I was going to leave Mizike stranded on the island. He yelled out "I knew you were going to do that." I took off my waders and slid them down the bank to Gene so he could wade them back across. We were joking about dunking the waders so Mizike would have to get wet anyway but that would have been really mean.

Gene started across the little stretch of water between the island and shore and went to throw the waders the rest of the way. The wader caught the only branch around and landed in the water. Mizike complained the whole way home about his wet frost bitten foot. It wasn't really frost bitten but I'm sure it was cold from the temperature of that water and then the air on the hike back to the car.

It was good to get out even for just a little bit. I am thinking that after this snow melts and they let some water out of Hoover lake the fishing in that spot will really be hot. I might have to sneak back and give it a try if the conditions are right. Ice fishing is probably in the near future as well as Indian lake is getting snowmobile traffic already. I heard a report that a couple guys made it out for 3 hours the other day and both limited out on saugeye.