Hagg lake 24 January 2023

[bass]

I hit Hagg on Saturday the 24th. It was a beautiful day on the water. Clarity was pretty good with almost 3' of visibility. I was stoked for a killer day. I started off bass fishing and did that for a couple of hours without any success and then decided to start trolling for trout. With the good clarity and plenty of midges hatching I figured there would be plenty of fish cruising out in the middle close to the surface. I trolled for about 3 hours changing things up constantly. I tried near the surface, down deep, slow and fast. I switched out one of my spinners for a small plug but still could not find any love.

Finally I realized that perhaps the fish were not cruising out in the middle of the lake and I started trolling along the shoreline. I was staying in 15-20' of water, I had 1/8oz on my droppers and I was letting out 60' of line. In the next 1/2 hour I missed 2 fish on the little plug and caught a 15" on my trusty roostertail + 1/2 nightcrawler!



I was ready to start doing some serious damage! I got rigged back up when my depthfinder battery died. tried to keep trolling but it was hard to stay in the good zone. After snagging up a few times I decided to call it a day. So I only ended up with the one 15" fish but it was still a good day.

I was also anxious to get home and figure out what the heck was going on with my battery. It turns out that if you accidentally knock the cord out of the brick that the charger does not work Oh well, it was still a good day on the water and the skunk is off for 2023.

 

[fromthelogo]

Thanks for the report. I am starting to get cabin fever and was wondering if it was worth a trip to Hagg. I've heard bass fishing there doesn't start warming up until April.

 

[troutdude]

Another groovy report and you got some rewards for your efforts!

@fromthelogo My bass fishing friend and I always wait for one full week, of high temps in the 60's (AIR temperature; not water temp). We sometimes make one earlier trip or two. But bass seem to be lethargic until that first week, with good high temps. Then it's FISH ON...literally!

 

[bass]

Thanks @troutdude and @fromthelogo. I have sporadic success for bass in the winter at Hagg. I have some brush and some of the spider block locations marked and sometimes I find bass around them and other times not (or least no biters). Last trip was a not, but they are catchable in the winter. The nice thing about winter fish is that usually the average size is a fair bit bigger. I am not sure if the larger fish have some kind of metabolic advantage but that was true in PA, NC and also in OR. Of course good bass fishing will not pick up for a while. Usually I like the water temp above 50. Water temp was 44 on Saturday, but you can't fault a guy for trying

 

[troutdude]

@bass it never hurts to try!