chris61182

First off I'll start with the scenery as this is the lowest I have ever seen the reservoir. The first picture is from the parking lot looking down at where I was going, the second picture is looking back up at the parking lot, at more or less where I took the first picture from. Or at the very least that was my intention, and despite the two shots not being centered on each other they were close. Also in the second picture look for the person silhouetted against the dam, that should start to give a frame of reference for how much water is missing.

The third scenery shot is what I believe most of the shoreline of Green Peter resembles, where as the area shown in the first two is something of a major exception. Similarly it's probably safe to assume that most of what is still under water looks a lot like the third picture, which was my main motivation for taking the picture in the first place, and of course sharing it as well.






Now onward with the fishing!

The first fish was caught on a chatterbait and in just about the same spot that I always manage to catch a fish, less than 4 ft from the shore over a very Steep drop-off. To give a little scale, it's laying next to my size 11.5 boot. And while still alive in the picture, I sure wish someone was videoing while I was trying to give it the wood shampoo. I picked up a good sized stick laying near by, it felt water-logged but other wise sturdy, but when I gave the fish a whack the end just snapped off with out doing it's job. So I try this over and over again with the same results until I was just left with a nub of a stick left. Not my favorite experience when I'm trying to be as humane as possible, but at the same time I still find the scenario quite funny, and I imagine it was quite comedic to watch. (I wonder if it's related to a steelhead )

Fish #1



The second fish was the exact same, this one took the lure even closer to the shore, and ended up being about the exact same length as the first fish but was a little stouter.

Fish #2

still fish #2



Now this third fish ended up being quite a blast, same story as the first two, chatterbait within 4ft of shore. Only this time I think the fish and I both surprised ourselves. The water was a little murkier here so I didn't see my lure, the take, or the fish, when my retrieve was abruptly halted. Not feeling a head shake I just assumed I had snagged the bottom, well surprisingly enough I think the fish was just as shocked that his snack wasn't going down so smoothly. We both tugged at about the same time and both quickly realized things weren't quite like we first thought. The fish made a quick run, which even managed to take some line, but being so cold and still a somewhat small trout, it didn't go far. I didn't really get any good pictures because as I was working on getting the camera out he flipped off the hook and was wiggling and flopping for the water. Though thankfully for the sake of my dinner it didn't make it, and that's the best picture I managed in the moment.

Fish #3



So finally the entire catch all together, with the first fish on top, second fish middle, and third fish bottom. And remember my joke about steelheads above, I think the third fish also came from that family. Lets just say that I didn't use a stick this time but instead something else handy laying around which didn't break, and if you look closely in this picture you can see that the fish's eye is still pointed slightly down, it's still alive at this point!




The goal of my trip, while is always to catch fish, was to actually to play with some of my camera's settings and to closely document the bottom structure of the area surrounding the parking lot for when the lake fills back up. So with that said, to have caught 3 good trout in addition to my previous goals was certainly a fulfilling trip.

18406ej

Nice report- I enjoyed all of the photos.

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JTLunker

Thanks for sharing Chris. Good job on the fish!

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cully

nice report. Now to get some water back in GP so we can use those ramps. Come on early spring

jvc7

great work! i just have a couple questions regarding the chatterbait. first of how do you rigg it? troll it behind fenders? long lining? and what size and color? sorry to kill you with questions, just never fishing GP like that and am interested in taking a trip up there soon. thanks

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jvc7

Also,how were the roads?

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chris61182

Thistle creek is still usable, I believe it is just shy of having 10ft of water over the end of it.

chris61182

As far as rigging goes, it's nothing fancy, I just tie it to the end of my line and fan cast the area I'm standing at. Perhaps making a couple of passes over the most likely areas with a variety of speeds and retrieves, before I move a few yards down the bank and start it all over again.

For the trolling, I've never trolled a chatterbait so what I say here is pure conjecture. A chatterbait produces a lot of vibration and a fair amount of action on it's own, so you probably wouldn't want to put it behind a flasher that would impart any additional action, but other than that I think it would do just as well behind a gang-troll as any spinner would. Similarly I think it would work awesome long lined.

Of course I'll throw in another disclaimer, chatterbaits for trout are a new product in the first place, and likely even newer than that to me. I've only fished them a few times now, so my experience is quite limited, but so far I'm quite pleased. And another disclaimer is that I don't change lures very often when it's cold out, so I didn't exactly switch things up very much and may have only caught the really "special" fish on the chatterbait, other lures may work just as well or perhaps even better.

Oh and the roads up to the dam were just about as perfect as one might expect in the summer with not even the slightest hint of ice. I didn't have an opportunity to head further up to Thistle creek but I saw plenty of cars and more than a few trucks towing boats heading that direction so I don't think things were too bad.

jvc7

Thanks alot for the information. and pics. I hope i can get up there soon! ive be sure to update u if i do.

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fishslayer

Nice pictures, thanks for sharing.

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