West Medical Heads Up

[raffensg64]

Gents, with warmer weather arriving W. Medical will soon "grunge out" and begin tough to fish. For those of you looking to hit it before this happens, use black patterns initially. While fish can be caught on nearly any pattern, many will draw only strikes without hookups. But black carey specials, doc spratleys and black krystal buggers will get very consistent action if fished in the top 15 feet or so of water. While most of fish are small, we did manage a few 19-22" fish yesterday. The bite lasted for 5 hours, from 9:00 until 2:00.

[Marc Martyn]

Thanks for the heads up, Raff. I may try it this weekend. I was planning on going to Amber and Medical, but if Medical is slow, I may jump over the hill and try West Medical. Been to Medical lately?

[raffensg64]

Marc,

I last fished Medical 4 days ago. It was SLOW for me but a partner of mine got the "trifecta" (bow, brown, tiger) while fishing chironomids vertically in 25 feet of water. All takes right off the bottom. It was a day for me like some of those you related....same pattern, same depth, same technique, but no love for the Raff! I'm thinking it should begin to pick up soon. Like you, my best days have been in June. This time last year I was getting them suspended with a type II sink and leech patterns. But as you know, that's one finicky lake and so is it's trout population!

Fished W. Medical again this morning. The only patterns I could consistently get fish on were a black doc spratley and a black flash bugger, with most coming by way of the bugger fished 10-12 feet down. Mostly small fish again except for a 20"brown that picked up just seconds after the cast, maybe 3-4 feet down....not your everyday occurrence! When the action slowed I got it going again by getting the bugger deep and stripping it to the surface as fast as I could. That got their attention!

Am heading to Amber tomorrow morning. Hopefully it'll continue to fish. We did OK there last Sunday. I just hope there is some wind...it's gonna be hot enough already!

Raff

[Marc Martyn]

Raff-
I think that things are going to change in the next few days. I have looked back through my reports and noticed that the activity increased dramatically once the surface temp. reached 68 degrees. Last weekend it was 63 degrees. We have had some warmer days and the sun in unobstructed. I believe the starting gate will open in the next 48-72 hrs.
When out on Medical this last weekend, I located most of the fish laying right on the bottom. That makes sense with you guys fishing vertical.
Let me know how you do at Amber. I am heading out there Saturday morning. I want to shoot another video and of course do some fishing.