Thread: Cotaco Creek, 1 April 2017

Had an absolutely wonderful day on the water. The day was crystal clear and the temp was comfortable. Water temp was 64-ish. Water clarity was stained. The creek has come up about 3 feet in the last week. There was a breeze that was on and off.

Catch: A bunch of shorts. I caught probably 20-25 shorts today. Big fish to measure were hard to find. I did box three 12-14 inch fish for dinner. A few others released.

Bait: 1/24oz plain lead head jig. Baits: BG Red Chartreuse Silver, blue ice, blue thunder, monkey milk, live minnow, glacier, pink pearl, mayfly. For whatever reason i did not use crystal today

Besides wanting to be on the water, one primary purpose was to get over Slabs April Fools joke . Actually, I bought a new rod and reel and wanted to try it out. The rig: Pflueger Patriarch spinning reel (9530x), 7 foot Fenwick ML rod, and spooled with Sufix Elite hi-vis 6lb test. This setup works great for my type of fishing. Worked perfectly. The Fenwick rod is extremely sensitive and the correct length. Full disclosure...this is an expensive set up. Cabela's had an awesome sale. Otherwise, I would not have bought this. I ended up paying about 1/2 retail price. Otherwise, there are great setups for much less.

Other purpose was to enjoy the day, and explore. I have heard many story's about Grindle hole...essentially an "oxbow" off Cotaco Creek. So, I wanted to spend some time exploring and look for the "historic" spring fed hole. Grindle Hole has been bone dry most of the winter. Since the creek had come up 3 feet, I was able to access it today. Depth in Grindle Hole yesterday was 1.9-2.9 feet...so it was slow going with the motor trimmed high. I found three other fisherman. One was spider-rigging for crappie. The other two were bream fishing. All were mostly catching catfish. One of the fisherman said there was a bald eagle flying around, but i did not see it...maybe next time. Since i was going so slow, I did long-line one jig and caught a white stripe. I did get within 100 yards of the "Grindle Hole" before the water got too shallow. Either way, it was fun exploring. It was fun fishing. It was fun catching...even though most were shorts. I will go explore Grindle again when it is full pool. Disclosure... be careful. It is shallow and there is a very defined narrow channel that meanders.

Below is an example of one of the shorts caught yesterday.

Keep at it Damion. Nature, water, crappie fishing = awesome way to spend a day. Glad you were catching. Sounds like it is mostly shorts for all right now.