6-19-20
Last night, a friend and I went fishing at Cleghorn, Silverwood. I haven’t been to Cleghorn in about two years, as I know that the last time I did I assisted my 8-year-old daughter in catching 8 Rainbow Trout, a day she will always remember because she caught more than her daddy. At first, I was a bit hesitant to select Cleghorn for fishing because of two reasons: it’s been so long that I’ve been there, and I have been having a lot of success in other more familiar places at Silverwood.
With that on my mind, I also knew that to become a better well-rounded fisherman, I need to have more challenges that push me to the limit. This was a good opportunity for me to try the lures that I have been consistently using and catching on in this new area. Once we parked the car near the Vista Point turn out on Highway 138, we hiked about 1 to 1½ miles down the side of a hill to get to our destination. We passed all kinds of people fishing, and since I am rather friendly, I spent time with some of those fishermen talking and sharing knowledge about what works for me and how to catch more fish.
Since there wasn’t a lot of places available to fish, we kept on hiking the shore until we got a little further away from most of the people at the lake. So, from about 6 PM-8PM, my buddy and I fished and really didn’t have much success. I know that my buddy caught a Cat fish during that time, but I maybe had about two bites, not much success at all. The park ranger came by in his boat and announced that the entrance/exit to the lake would be closed at 9 PM. I mention this because when you hike into the lake, the lake is open all night, as well as the fact that usually at this time the lake activity drastically begins to die down.
Once the lake activity died down, it was on!!! I was able to land 9 Striped Bass, and one Largemouth Bass from 9-11 PM on a good old fashion jerkbait. Once I caught my 10th Striper, I knew that I reached my limit for the day, and I could only target others types of fish. Most of the fish I caught were about 30-40 feet out from the shore and weighed anywhere from 1 ½ to 2 pounds. I kept getting a short strike on my jerkbait casting parallel to the shore about 20 feet out. I continued to cast in this one area because I wanted to catch a bigger Largemouth Bass.
Surprisingly, I landed a nice Largemouth Bass weighing 3 pounds 12 ounces (My New Personal Best) to basically finish the night. I used two different jerkbaits on all of my catches this night. I learned that patience is key as the bite did not start right away, but approximately took about two hours into my fishing journey. The spot we choose was further away from most other people, and since I’ve never basically fished there before, I also learned to keep “the hope” that it would produce. I’m glad we stayed because my buddy caught his Striper limit too, as well as a 5 ½ pound Catfish on a Texas rigged creature bait. Overall, we landed 23 fish altogether: 20 Striped Bass, 1 Catfish, & 2 Largemouth Bass.
Please do me a favor, and go out and buy some jerkbaits to use on any of your future fishing trips. If you need any advice, please contact me at my Gmail account. Let’s Go!!!
