I’ve started to think of my fishing in terms of campaigns. In California we fished year round, but in Washington the freshwater season definitely ends and there is no ice fishing to do here because the local BoW’s don’t freeze over long enough to be safe. So now I have to think in terms of the 2011 campaign or the 2011 season. It’s kind of fun actually, sort of like a sports season.
I’ve had fishing fever really bad all winter and today the temperature was approaching 50 degrees Fahrenheit, the sky was overcast, and there was no wind. I purchased an electric trolling motor earlier this week, a Minn Kota Endura with 50 lb. thrust, and I wanted to field test it on my own pond in preparation for fishing this spring. So this wasn’t really a fishing trip, but while I was by the pond I stuck a shovel in the ground and grabbed a handful of nightcrawlers and decided to fish for an hour. I put a #6 worm hook 11 feet under a bobber and after about 10 minutes I hooked a 15.5 inch rainbow trout. This is the biggest trout taken out of my pond so far since I planted the initial 100 fish in 2008.
Before I started fishing I took a surface water temp and it read 38 degrees Fahrenheit. I know this time of year that water will be warmer deeper under the surface and I know that trout start to get active at 42 degrees Fahrenheit. I also know that my pond is 13 feet at the deepest point so I was hoping that somewhere in that 13 feet I would find 4 degrees of temp. I lucked out with that fish on the first cast.
This is a terrible video, but I was able to at least capture a few seconds of the first fish in the water.
I picked up another smaller 9 inch trout on the third cast and luckily that one was only lip hooked so I was able to release it.




