Bait

We stayed out late last night visiting family back home.  Rolled back into town just after 1:00 am, and didn't make it to bed for another half hour or so.  Morning came early and didn't feel too good.  I got up, sat there for a few minutes contemplating on how warm my bed was, but decided that it's better to go fishing and be a little tired than to stay home and feel like a schlub later.  My son didn't exactly agree with my decision, but still got up and ready pretty quickly.

My boy

Winter wonderland

So me and the boy hit the energy loop in search of a trout dinner.  After looking at the steep, snow covered hill leading down to electric lake (and no desire to drive around to the other side) we decided to back track a little and fish at Cleveland Reservoir.  A little bit of a walk down the north shore from the road, but not too bad, and we started throwing everything we had in the box.  I started with flies, trying nymphs, chronomids, and streamers all to no avail.  Kiddo started with bait, trying an unweighted minnow for a while before changing over to powerbait off the bottom.  It was the powerbait (orange twist flavor) that finally brought some action our way, he missed a couple hits but caught three that we invited home for dinner.  I changed over to my spinning rod to throw some spinners, and managed a few hits, but finally gave in to the powerbait to manage catching one fish before we came home.

Didn't know he was taking all these pics...

Quite the set-up

Usually, when I head out with the intention of bringing back dinner it brings on the bad ju-ju.  Either I don't have much luck at all, or what luck I do have comes in the form of fish too small to keep.  I usually practice catch-and-release, but enjoy a good eating fish every once in a while.  Some get upset about keeping fish, but I think they're delicious and as long as people don't take it too far keeping a few doesn't hurt anything.  In fact, I think it's a good experience for my son to bring home dinner for the family, and he was really proud to be able to.

Cleveland Res.

Proud fisherman

I filleted the rainbows as usual, but left the skin on - Del's request. She then baked them, with a little oil in the bottom of the pan and artichoke hearts with the marinade from the jar drizzled on top.  Some of the best trout I've eaten, and a simple recipe that we will have to use again.  Felt so good to get out fishing with the boy, even if we had to resort to bait...

Dinner

Had to take a picture of himself...