COAF Field Team Vlog #5 - "Local Ponds and Denison Dam"

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Road is open again!
Road is open again!

This round we do a quick recap of the local ponds fished this past week – Bethany Lakes, Sonic Pond, Eagles Nest aka “Pond Behind In-N-Out Burger”.  And then, we go into Saturday’s trip to Denison Dam. Was a tough go but did catch and release a couple of Carp as well as hook into two nice Striped Bass!

Bethany Lakes was a quick trip where we fished  a Foam Grasshopper and caught Bluegill and one Bass. Sonic Pond had us missing strikes but did land a little Bass on a Neare Deere. Eagles Nest was interesting as we had not fished it a while; no Bruiser Bass but did get a nice Bruiser Bluegill!

Saturday's Pattern!
Saturday’s Pattern!

As for the fishing trip to Denison Dam, on a whim decided to make the run to the Tailrace as we noted the Realtime Release and Generation Schedule showed no water flow and no scheduled generation, respectively. With those conditions, the pools and runs would be ideal for wet wading and fly fishing! (see our archived post for more on the Realtime/Generation Schedules).

Some key takeaways from Saturday’s fishing trip to Denison Dam:

  • The lake is turning over, so anticipate the sulfurous smell.
  • Lots of Carp in the pools; do wear polarized sunglasses!
  • Striped Bass are there… specifically, where the bait fish are is where the Striped Bass are!
  • Bait fish had a dark back and white body with a silver stripe; fishing fly that worked had a dark green back, white body with a silver stripe.
  • The road washed away when the lake went over the spillway is open now! No more detours!
  • It’s true… watch the birds. In this case, we saw Egrets and Herons lurking over a run waiting for the Striped Bass to feed on bait fish. The birds would then eat the “leftovers” from the Striped Bass.
  • The Generation Schedule showed no planned generations; 2:45PM they started generating which reinforced why we use the Realtime Schedule to see a pattern from the past few days. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t but it’s better than blind luck!

 

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