Blown out opening day for trout

[TimMurphy]

Chicken livers, and forget about it.

Dear wildtrout,

Garlic salted frozen shrimp covering a treble beats livers hands down. Don't get me wrong, chicken livers work well, but they need to be dried and seasoned, otherwise it's like trying put a booger on a hook! The garlic salt is the key!

I learned all ever needed to know about catfeeshin' from a guy that crewed on a shrimp boat when I was stationed in Florida in the USAF. He always got to take the crushed ones home and ran a trot line on the Yellow River in Florabama with the shrimp and garlic salt. Dude always had a full boat of catties slithering around his feet when he came back to the launch.

Man I miss those days!

Regards,

Tim Murphy

 

[krayfish2]

Probably a better fight tbh

And almost as mushy 🤣

 

[Kyle]

dont worry guys, i set up two rain barrels on my house. so we wont see rain for months now lol.

 

[kbobb]

Dear kbobb,

You may laugh at this, but cut up hotdogs heavily seasoned with garlic salt make an awesome bait for channel cats. Slice each piece halfway through lengthwise and stick them on a #4 treble hook. Put the hook shank into the bottom of the cut and slide the weiner down onto the barbs and toss it out there!

Regards,

Tim Murphy

Tim - not laughing at all - I was dead serious. When I was a kid I was fishing opening day of trout and it was cold - only got 1 fish. At lunchtime I stood on the stream soaking a honey bug and eating a garlic baloney sandwich. as I bit the sandwich a strip of baloney pulled off so I threw it in the creek - a trout grabbed it! I put a small piece on my fly and sunk it in the hole and bang - a trout. Just then my friend walked up complaining of being skunked. I said I'll catch one for you now and sunk the baloney fly and within seconds pulled out a trout. My friend couldn't believe it!

Those fish that love the garlic must be paisanos!

 

[dudemanspecial]

I am not a big fan of standing elbow to elbow, especially fishing with kids, so I waited until 1:00 to take my 11 year old son to a stocked lake in the Laurel Highlands. There was an inch of snow up there and the wind was whipping pretty good. He wasn't catching anything and it didn't look like anyone else was either, so we took a short ride to a remote small stream that I wasn't sure they still stocked. Well they did stock it, the water was perfect, and the crowd was nonexistant. He caught 2 decent sized rainbows right quick using canned corn for bait and was happy as a lark. Said he was ready for dinner and we packed up and that was that. It was a great day.

 

[JimKennedy]

Theres no better bait in muddy water than worms, no better. That said its been at least 20 years since i have used one

Muddy, stained, clear, high or low, nighcrawlers are the way to go. It’s a can of worms, and we fly guys would like to believe it ain’t so, but worms are the most consistent way to catch trout.

 

[blitzinstripes]

Fished for ten hours today. Only landed five my son landed six. I briefly connected with a large bow around 18-20". Very little pressure. The fish were there, just sluggish. We stocked the spot yesterday. Not one particular hot pattern today lol. Black overall was a good color. Will try again tomorrow for a few hours before we have to head home. Wore out now. Going to bed. 😉

 

[jifigz]

Red worns are the way to go.

Fixed it for ya. I do love nightcrawlers, but I think red worms are a more universal bait.

 

[TimMurphy]

Fixed it for ya. I do love nightcrawlers, but I think red worms are a more universal bait.

Dear jifigz,

Salted minnies for the win for this kid.

Regards,

Tim Murphy

 

[jifigz]

Dear jifigz,

Salted minnies for the win for this kid.

Regards,

Tim Murphy

I've never fished a salted Minnie. Maybe I'll have to try it out. As long as I do it on my fly pole, it's okay, right?

 

[TimMurphy]

I've never fished a salted Minnie. Maybe I'll have to try it out. As long as I do it on my fly pole, it's okay, right?

Dear jifigz,

Dude, it's the best way to fish them. Run the hook through the gill plate and stick the barb in the tail and you have an instant built in spinner! You can just lift them up and slap them down in a likely looking spot, and they only come off when they are eaten if you rig them right, unlike worms that can break on the roll cast.

Regards,

Tim Murphy

 

[globug15]

Great day out there. Fished with my father as is our tradition every opening day from around 11:00am to 2:30pm. Mix of wild and stocked trout the whole time. Stream was definitely pushing and stained, but the fish were active. Even saw a few risers.

Fishermen were out, but half the normal showing. Some ***hole a hundred yards up was chucking his fire ball shooters in the creek above me. Saw two bottles float down.. only able to retrieve one.

 

[sandflyx]

had a few in yesterday getting more flies, butter worm fly sold out along with mickey finns. most smaller streams fished well here.

 

[Javelin389t]

Hit Unami creek yesterday morning. There at around 7 and had prime spot almost to myself. Water was running fast , high , and less then a foot of visiabilty. Not a bite in the first half hr. with worms or spinners. , then Bam 💥 had good one hit a spinner that wallowed to the surface and came off. The next half hr or so I caught 4. lost anther one. had several hits and saw 2 flash me. I even tried drifting a big stonefly through the area where I was getting bit , but nothing on fly. All rainbows

 

[caddisflyer]

My friend and I fished a larger creek Saturday. Water was high and off color, verging on muddy. I caught trout on spinners and bait. It helped to add shot to get bait on bottom. I kept 5 chunky rainbows which I served to our guests at lunch Sunday. They were delicious. I fried them, medium heat for about 5 minutes each side. They will likely be the only trout I will keep this year. I enjoyed being out there. We saw a good number of anglers but certainly not crowded. Saw a couple rises ,probably stoneflies. Now my attention will start turning to hatches. Hope everyone had a fun first day!

 

[6xAdams(Jones)]

Section of Yellow Breeches I fished today was about unfishable. Especially with a fly rod.

Probably about half the crowd as usual and I did not see a single fish landed. By comparison, last year I netted 13-14 opening morning, this year didn't even have a bump.

Water was probably at least 2 ft above normal, off color enough you could not see the bottom and moving very swiftly.

My youngest son managed to catch a couple on the YB at Messiah... on a baby trout plug... He says "they still count."
He also said it was un-wadeable so he left the flyrod in the apartment.

 

[gulfgreyhound]

Salted minnies fish best on a rig made by using an open eye needle. Treble hook on a leader about a foot long with a loop tied into it. Put the loop in the needle and thread it through the anus and out the mouth. Put the loop in a snap swivel that's tied on your line . Add weights as needed. We used to fish them like a streamer. GG

 

[FarmerDave]

Tim - not laughing at all - I was dead serious. When I was a kid I was fishing opening day of trout and it was cold - only got 1 fish. At lunchtime I stood on the stream soaking a honey bug and eating a garlic baloney sandwich. as I bit the sandwich a strip of baloney pulled off so I threw it in the creek - a trout grabbed it! I put a small piece on my fly and sunk it in the hole and bang - a trout. Just then my friend walked up complaining of being skunked. I said I'll catch one for you now and sunk the baloney fly and within seconds pulled out a trout. My friend couldn't believe it!

Those fish that love the garlic must be paisanos!

I don't know. Did they make a wop wop wop sound in the bottom of the bucket?

 

[laszlo]

Went out Sun.I figured Yellow Breeches would still be too high, so I hit Mountain Creek, which was perfect conditions, Caught a dozen rainbows and 6 wild browns. Nearly all on egg pattern

 

[tomgamber]

Apparently it was worse than some thought.