My son and I went fishing at Foster Reservoir today. We arrived and noticed that the water lever was back down at the same level it was at in May of this year, so I decided not to go to our secret location on the North side of the lake but to go to the South shore where we fished during May and had a lot of luck. I was kicking myself for not bringing my fly rod. This is the place I like to roll cast some Balls O' Fire Pautzke Salem Eggs and let it slowly sink down and then watch the line go shooting out when a fish takes it. Oh well...

Again, I don't usually fish Foster this time of year, so I was hoping for some fish but not fully expecting to catch any.

We got down to the lake and the water was perfectly calm and reflected the sky like a mirror. The sun came out for a while and we enjoyed the warmth.


About twenty minutes after casting out our lines, my son had a fish on. He reeled it in and it was a big rainbow trout (about 15 inches).

He was using green PowerBait and size 18 treble hooks like we usually do. I was using orange PowerBait. I got a bite right as I was trying to pull the hook out of the fish's mouth. I went over to my pole thinking that I would easily bring in the fish. I think I picked it up a pre-maturely, because after picking up my rod I felt nothing. Oh well, I was sure now that we would have more chances today. The weather was great and we had a couple ours left of daylight still.

And more chances we had, but for some reason we couldn't bring the fish in for one reason or another. My line broke once, my son wasn't paying attention most of the time and I had to tell him when his rod was about to take off into the lake. He would pick it up and there would be nothing there. So, as the sky darkened from an imminent storm, his rod fell over and I yelled at him to grab it, but he didn't grab it fast enough, so I grabbed it and reeled it in. And that was the only other fish we caught today (rainbow trout, about 13 inches long).

Note: At first we were casting out about as far as we could, but one time I was reeling in and I saw a fish chasing the bait less than ten feet from the bank. So, I decided to start casting out in that area and we started getting bites on a more regular basis. But, still, we couldn't bring them in for one reason or another. It was beginning to make me mad, because these fish usually hook themselves and you have to practically pull their guts out to get the hook out of them. It may have been because we were using some older bait that wasn't quite as soft as the fresh stuff.

All the sudden, the wind picked up and it started to rain on us sideways. The wind was blowing so hard that it kept blowing my fishing pole off of the rock it was propped up on. It was miserable and cold and although I would have kept fishing if I'd have been alone, I figured we probably should should go because my son was shaking like a willow in the wind. It was extra hard to leave because the fish started biting like crazy when the wind picked up.

So, hey, the fishing at Foster can be pretty good at Foster in November!

Tight Lines! -nimrod243

Went fishing today with my son to Foster Reservoir. Had high hopes but low expectations. Saw on the fishing report that Foster had been stocked recently, and since I am off all this week, I decided to give it a shot.

We went to our normal spot on the North side of the reservoir and I was happy to see that the water was about five feet lower than it had been the last time we were there and got skunked.

It took a while to get the two rods set up. Before we left I noticed that we only had three size 18 treble hooks. I knew we had to be careful with them. Once I had them tied on the two spinning rods we were ready to go. I cast my son's pole out in our normal direction and set it down, instructing my son not to touch it.

Then, by the time I had baited up and casted out, I decided to re-cast my son's pole in another location. After a little while, we were just messing around and my son asked me to get something for him to sit on. So, as I was coming back with a big log, I saw his pole bouncing around. "Bruce, you've got a fish," I said. And he reeled it in. I was surprised at how big it was at 13-14 inches long, the biggest fish I ever remember catching or seeing caught at Foster.


I moved my pole over by my son's and we fished together for a while but didn't get any action. So I set up my fly rod with an olive woolly bugger and cast around for a while. I went to the other side of the little point we were fishing at and saw another point about 75 yards away that looked good because there were some big rocks on the bank and it looked steeper there. I asked my son if he wanted to go over there and fish and he said yes. So I headed back over to where he was and figured I had better check his bait, somewhat surprised that he hadn't had another bite. Maybe that big trout was just a lone cruiser...

The PowerBait was covered with weeds and then I knew why he hadn't gotten another bite. So I put some fresh bait on it and cast it out for him again, thinking we might just stay there for a little longer to see if we got any hits. By this time I was ready to give up with the fly rod. I had never had a whole lot of luck at Foster with flies anyways.

So, I cast out my spinning rod again with orange PowerBait and a size 18 treble hook. I had to relieve myself, so I started walking over to the trees without watching where I was going and CRUNCH, I stepped on my fly rod and snapped it right in two. I was ticked off, I have had the worst luck with my rods lately!

After returning from the tree line, all of the sudden both of our rods started bouncing like crazy. Two fish on at one time!!! I yelled at my son and we both reeled in some nice rainbows. His fish was even bigger than his first, and the biggest for the night at 14-15 inches!

And so the evening went, catching fish mostly in pairs until just before dark we limited out. It was such a beautiful evening. It was funny, the last fish I caught was while my son was reeling in his fifth fish. I was reeling in my line to get out of his way, when about five feet from the bank I saw a swirl in the water next to my bait as it came out of the water. I looked over at my son to see if it was his fish and it wasn't. That's crazy, I thought. The water was only about 5 inches deep where I had seen the swirl. So, I tossed the bait out right where I had seen it and waited for about three seconds. I saw my line start to move slowly... then ZOOM, the fish took off and I gently set the hook! So, my son and I brought our fifth fish to the bank together.


Definitely an evening to remember. Tight Lines! - nimrod243