Larry, Doug and I headed over to Bullshead to get some early season fishing in. Well the drive over went great until we started up the final stretch to the lake. As we climbed up into the Cypress Hills, a nasty snow storm dumped several inches of snow and made the road quite slippery. Once we arrive at Bullshead, the north west wind and snow made us look for every layer we had. Well we geared up and headed off. Bullshead was not that busy for the third day after its opener. I wonder why? Miserable weather! We teased Doug that he had to pay his dues for his first trip to Bullshead ever! Well the fishing was actually quite good on this snowy day. Lots of feisty rainbows to hand!
We took several throat samples that revelled that the rainbows were dining on scuds. That was not a big surprise. We caught rainbows with flashbacks (size 12), baby damsels (we think they thought they were scuds), MOP flies (black), Glenn's Leech, Bruised Leeches and Candy Corn Balanced Flies.
There was also a fish kill at Bullshead. We could not tell the extent of the fish kill but there were dead fish, many in the 3 pound range dead along the shore.
The three of us spent our 3 days exploring a lot of the lake. The water temperature was cold, real cold (38F). I suspect that turn over was imminent. The fishing was slow in the morning and as the water warmed, so did the fishing. We did catch several bigger rainbows. Larry caught perhaps the biggest rainbow I have ever seen at Bullshead. It was over 27 inches long. Fish in the 18 to 24 inch range were caught each day. We also caught lots of stockers. There were fish in both the small pond connected to the main lake and of course the big lake. The water level was high but we noticed that there was more weed in the lake than usual for this time of the year! That may have been a contributed to the partial fish kill. Some of the locals said that winter was quite a bit harsher than usual this year!
We did see Ralf and Chewy from our club out at Bullshead having a great time as well.
Bullshead may have lost some fish due to winter kill but the fishery still seems to be doing great! It is well worth the trip. The nice thing is the fact that you can fish from shore for about 6 weeks until the weed growth make that impossible.
Doug paying his dues to Bullshead!
Larry layered up and was quite comfortable in the snowy weather!
It was nice to see this memorial to Jeff Wilson, one of the big supporters at Bullhead, especially the fish rescue program!
Day Two was a beauty at Bullshead!
Chewy caught a ton of rainbows at Bullshead!
Ralf working the culvert between the main lake and smaller pond!
Prairie Crocus blooming!
MOP Fly was working great!
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