Open Water @ Joe's

In spite of the weather forecasts, my buddy and I decided to head off in search of open water in a place he'd never been, Joe's Valley Reservoir.

Having no idea whether or not it was open water, it was a bit of a risk to drive all that way. We had a couple of plan B spots, if needed.

As excited as I was to introduce my friend to Joe's, I was equally anxious to show off one of my favorite streams, Straight Canyon Creek. It may not have a lot of large fish, but its beauty is hard to match.





We didn't stop for very long. Just long enough to flick a lure a few times.



Once we crested the canyon, I was relieved to see that there was plenty of open water and the remaining ice was limited to a couple of large sheets out in the middle. Plenty of casting room for shore anglers in most places.

Unfortunately, the bite was pretty slow. It took us awhile to get any hits and we waited a long time between fish. That being said, we each caught some. The usual lures (kastmaster/blue fox) didn't do the trick this time and the only thing we could buy a strike with was a chub minnow, which we didn't bring enough of.













Like usual at Joe's, the fish were kind of skinny and on the small side. We had a couple of takes that seemed noticeably stronger than the others and that got our hopes up, only to lose whatever was messing with us. So sad. It fuels the fire to go back though. The hogs are in there and I've never met any.

It's still a treat to get out there again and introduce someone to the awesome landscape.









The creek was too much to resist on the way home, so we worked a couple of spots. What a great looking canyon!















So the fishing could've been better and I still haven't found the bigguns in there, but I'll continue to visit Joe's Valley for years to come.

See ya next time, Joe.



Happy Fishing, Humans.