2014 trout opener

[acabtp]

set out with three buddies today for the season opener... started the day off at a smaller river to see if we could find any stockers.

finished off our coffees (bagels, no donuts, gotta stay mobile haha) and were in the water for the 8 am start. the sections with good road access were absolutely packed with fishermen but we only had to walk 2 minutes to have the rest of the river to ourselves. unfortunately it seemed last night's cold front really put off this morning's bite, and we didn't get even a nibble in two hours. none of the other fishermen that we talked to had caught anything either. headed back to the trucks and decided to change things up. on the way out we did see one guy with a decent stringer hung off his tailgate, but nobody else.

headed over to a lake, where again plenty of people at the sections with good road access, but very few people elsewhere. around 11 am, i finally hooked up with our first fish of the day, which turned out to be a nice rainbow. it put up a good fight and was the first trout the 5' ultralight st croix i picked up this week has hooked into so i was pretty pleased


we worked our way around different parts of the shoreline without any more luck until around noon, when the action really picked up. here's sigma1073 with his first fish of the day, another nice rainbow


my next fish was a nice hook jaw male rainbow


and then another smaller, but still very decent rainbow


real nice colors on this rainbow for mike (starting to see a pattern?)


one more


last one wearing a nice full set of fins


so yeah, all big rainbows sure put a bend in our rods and smiles on our faces. no browns, no brookies, no cookie cutter rainbows... we didn't even see any little stocker trout caught by anybody, but this lake did get them. i think the weather just had the smaller fish not feeding today. at least some (maybe all?) of these fish we did catch were holdovers from earlier stockings. by 2:15 the wind was blowing something fierce, casting into it became impossible and we called it a day, stopped by the deli and headed home. i'd post a picture of the sandwiches, but YOU KNOW hahahaha.

how'd everybody else make out today?

[Roger A.]

I was so excited at the beginning of the day in that first picture....wish I had better luck for the opener...at least the sandwiches were beast.

[AndyS]

NICE trout, glad you guys had a great day !

[JimmyLivebait]

Nice rainbows! No donuts! Oh man i gotta have my two chocolate frosted in the morn

[FASTEDDIE29]

Great catch and great pics. That wind definately made casting a task. All in all a good opener for alot of anglers.

[acabtp]

thanks guys, love those cold water trout

Originally Posted by Roger A.

I was so excited at the beginning of the day in that first picture....wish I had better luck for the opener...at least the sandwiches were beast.

hey, look who's got a NJF account! don't worry we'll get back out there soon and find you some... i know i'll be counting the hours until the next zesty trout session