When is the best time to go fishing?
For me, the best time to go fishing is when I can free up a block of time away from my busy schedule. While I hesitated to go fishing today, I made the most out of a bad situation.
Yesterday, my main motor gear shifter quit working. I was thankful that I managed to keep the motor running until I made it back to the launch. After a few phone calls and a quick check up from a local mechanic, my motor is temporarily out of service which made getting to my chosen fishing spots out of reach for today.
I started today with a game plan. My plan was to use my oars and row to and from different spots during the day. To my surprise, I was happy to row around chasing rainbows. It brought back memories of rowing my 1 man Fish Cat pontoon boat that I used to have. The only difference was that I had more room to move around and my feet stayed out of the water so I was able to fish longer than if I was in the water.
As I rowed away from the boat launch, I picked up a few fish here and there. I found a few spots that fished well and hooked into a few decent sized fish.
Towards the end of the day, I hooked a fish that was not going to make it and so I kept it as part of my limit for the day. I hope they do not taste like mud at this time of the year still.
As I was making my way back to the boat launch, I decided to turn on my electric motor to get back a little quicker than rowing. All of a sudden, something smelt like it was burning. I glanced at my electric motor and it had stopped and was smoking as if it was ready to catch fire. I still can’t believe it! Not one, but two motors quit working on me this weekend.
When I got home, I was actually excited to gut my fish. I have been fishing spoons in the fall for a few years now and believe that these Dragon Lake rainbows are gorging on goldfish. I had a few fish in the past puke up small goldfish, but what I found inside this fish was amazing. There were no bugs or aquatic invertebrates inside. I only found 4 decent sized goldfish and possibly another 2 or 3 that were too far digested.
Now that I’ve confirmed that these fish are feasting on goldfish, it gets me even more excited to get back out on the water and “match the hatch.” When is the best time to go fishing? For me, anytime!