Friday was the third or fourth visit I've managed to make at Round Valley this year. I really wasn't paying attention to the auspicious weather for fishing, but did think to try at the South Lot instead of by the main boat ramp. I walked downslope to lake's edge to talk to the sole angler fishing in the wind and rain, his hood up, traversing in orange gear between two light rods and a bucket of shiners. His excitement affected me immediately--oh yeah...I looked at the roiled water and barely visible shorelines as if I hadn't been aware at all in the moments just previous of the fishing potential. He had a 20-inch laker, 16- inch brown, and had just released a 15-inch brown in 45 minutes or so. "They're really hitting today!"
I fished 45 minutes and caught a 15-inch brown on marshmallow and mealworm, photographing the fish at my feet in water muddied by wind-blown little rollers. Trout have been caught steadily since October, but usually by numbers of one or two here and there, rarely lakers, more browns than rainbows. October was better with catches of a dozen on one outing possible. Merrill Creek Reservoir is good from shore too; I read a report in The Fisherman this past week of a six pound brown caught on an injected nightcrawler. Don't underestimate those Berkeley and Lindy Worm Blowers. My son catches more bass that way, but I certainly can see the effectiveness for trout too, especially with baby nightcrawlers.
Method
Some like to use slip bobbers for shiners. I've even witnessed a standard round bobber used effectively with a single salmon egg on a size 12 hook two and a half feet under the float over 10 or 12 feet of water in October, cruising rainbows rising from a couple yards or more deeper to take the egg without hesitation. But the most effective way to fish shoreline rainbows and browns is probably with m&m's (marshmallow & mealworm), a method of attaching one or two small marshmallows to a size six, light wire plain shank hook, then a mealworm, tying off a four foot leader (six pound test or lighter) to a small barrel swivel, and a half ounce steel egg sinker with the main line slipped through behind it. The marshmallows float the rig just enough so that the bait is clearly visible to trout in the reservoir's gin clear water; floatation will not pull additional line through the egg sinker so that the bait ultimately would float at the surface.
Otherwise, it's hard to say that shiners are any worse. And they will catch lakers on rare occasions, as well as largemouth and smallmouth bass, and pickerel. Use the same length of leader, line test, barrel swivel, and egg sinker to simply allow the shiner to swim freely right near bottom. Sometimes the shiner will find residual vegetation and foul the leader in it, or even tangle line among stones, although these instances are infrequent and may be remedied by adding a little Styrofoam to the line. Just slice the foam with the line so it holds in place above the shiner or use Lindy walleye floats you slip line through as you would a slip sinker. The shiner tends to swim erratically and attract trout anywhere from about 10 to 30 feet deep. In October I've witnessed rainbows in a foot of water.
For more about Round Valley, you can go to my other blog: www.littonsfishinglines.blogspot.com and click under labels on the right margin: Round Valley
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