Clark County Lake Fishing Trip 1.14.12

Saturday was our first trip fishing for the year.  To make it fair, I called Dad to see if he wanted to meet me at Clark County Lake.  The lake is about halfway for us.  It takes me 2 hours to get there and Dad 1 1/2 hours. 

We got a late start, leaving the house at 11:00.  Neither Dad or I knew if the lake was going to be frozen or not.  As I was driving I passed streams and ponds and all of them were frozen over.  The temperature in the truck was reading 47 degrees though and we have only had a few cold days so far this year.  The nights have been below freezing.  We figured the coves may be frozen but the main lake should still be accessible.

As we pulled into the lake area I saw instantly that there were boats out on the lake.  That was a great sign.  I drove around to the back side of the lake on a rough trail road to meet up with Dad.

He was parked on the side of a big hill leading down to the water.  The water was shallow there but there was a trail to get down to the shore.  We hiked around the lake to an area we knew had deep water.  I tossed out some wax worms under a bobber on one pole and had a robo worm on the other pole and eventually switched to try several other lures.  Leo and Gavin had on crappie tubes under bobbers.  Dad was casting and reeling several different lures trying to catch a white bass. 

After trying on the main lake for a little bit, I followed the shoreline back into a cove and fished it with no luck.  When I got back to Dad and the boys he suggested we try the corner of the dam. 

We some some fish swimming around there but couldn't get anything to bite.  There was a layer of ice about an inch thick on the first three feet of rocks out of the water.  The boys had fun taking large sticks and busting the ice from the rocks.

We eventually called it a day with about an hour of sunlight left.  No first fish of the year yet!  The boys were really good at the lake and tried hard to catch a fish.  Gavin collected shells to take to his Mom and Leo tried climbing the canyon walls.  Gavin outlasted Leo on the fishing but eventually tangled his line up so bad I don't even know if scissors can get it undone.

It was fantastic fishing in January, not wearing a coat, and fishing open water.  It sounds like the weather is supposed to be nice most of this week as well.  I might have to slip out again this weekend.

A view of the lake from the cove.  The water was down quite a bit making it hard to find a place on the west side of the lake deep enough to fish.