The browns are finally starting to turn on. This is excellent news for those venturing out this weekend!

I decided to hit Ktown for a couple of hours after work today, and see if I could work some magic with a lighted bobber. Goal number 1 was to catch something, goal number 2 was to catch something with caviar! My stock is running low on the ktown gold and I definitely need to beef up if I were to harbor fish this weekend.

Today was also Keith’s birthday. I gave him a special present; a free ride to ktown and a monster energy drink. He also received a Cabela’s employee discount card. Can’t beat that!

We got started around 8pm-ish, and on my very first cast, I got wrapped up on a floating dock. My hook was buried deep, so I decided to just say the hell with it and snap my line. I gave the line a tug above the rod tip, and pop, the line went. I looked down, and so did my rod. I managed to snap my micro lite rod in half. Fist cast, and I had a lost setup and a broken rod. Not cool…

I went back to the car. I had a 7′ one piece premier, and my 8wt fly rod. Decided to throw my spinning reel on the fly rod and give it a shot. Casting was a little difficult without a good rod butt; however, it would suffice.

Keith and I worked brown spawn at various depths on our floats for a good hour and a half without a nibble. The fish were around, but were not taking the bait. I then decided to mix it up and go artificial. I put a 1.5″ pearl white crappie tube on a 1/16oz jig head under a float and set it to 4′ deep. Casted out, gave it a few pops, and watched my float disappear into the depths. A swing of the fly rod, and I had my first fish on.

This was a spawned out hen, close to 6lbs.

It wasn’t long before the second brown fell victim to the fluttering tube magic -

Keith decided to switch gears and he slapped on a tube jig. Yup, definitely a tube bite tonight…

Keith’s fish was a hen packed with ktown gold. This one was harvested for some fish smoking and spawn making purposes.

Shortly after, I had another strike. This one gave a little more fight than my previous two, and when it went aerial, I knew I had a steelie.

A buck! Here’s another look at him next to my fly rod / spinning setup

A few minutes passed. I had made a cast out into the harbor, and I heard Keith yelling he had a fish on. I ran over to him with the net, and watched him battle one brute of a fish. The thing was ripping lots of drag on Keith. It ran him out to some docks, and Keith decided to let it run, which was probably a mistake. His line ended up getting wrapped around a dock pole, and that fish was history. Judging by the fight of that fish, it was probably in the 15lb + class.

As I walked back over to my area, I noticed my lighted float do a little dance, and then get swooped under water. I hurried to my reel, killed the slack, and set as fast as I could. This fish took a free standing jig with no action and held onto it long enough for me to set! Another steelie!

At this point, we decided it was past both of our bed times, and called it a night. In all, goals 1 and 2 were accomplished. I got some fresh brown spawn for the weekend, but that probably isn’t needed. All bites on tubes tonight. The key was finding the right depth, LIGHT flouro line, and tubes!!!

Fishing was decent tonight. I can only imagine how this weekend packed full of fishing will be. Should be excellent!!!