It's the Terriblet Fishing Radio Show on Gold
Country Radio. Here's your fishing expert and
host, Michael Raffino. Welcome back to Terriblet
Fishing everybody. Well, this week we have a
great event that's happening tomorrow and we
are Well, I've got some news about me, and then
we'll also be covering stocking schedules because
we've got to follow the stocking schedules because
that's the fun part of fishing. We get the big
ones, we get the little ones, and we get the
excited little fishies in the lake. All right,
so news, news, news. Well, I'll give you, you
know what? Good news or bad news first? We'll
give you the bad news, and then we'll cheer you
up with the good news. What do you think of that?
It's usually what I like. So, bad news is my
neurological illness is actually getting worse.
Because of certain episodes that's been happening
to me, I can't cry for a while. Not legally,
anyway. So, I'm kind of grounded. I'll be It's
kind of a hit -and -miss. I won't be going to
Lake of the Woods not very often because that's
a drive, but where I live is nice. I've got the
Link River right out here. I've got Juana. I've
got Klamath, Upper Klamath. I've got some fishing
right outside the house and so that's kind of
nice. and it'll make me focus on very local neighborhood
fishing. I'll be focusing on neighborhood fishing.
Now, we have an event coming up tomorrow and
there are two reasons why I picked Klamath Falls
to retire in and to die in. It was two things,
bird watching and fishing. Those are the two
things. And really, it was the people, too, in
the end. It's always about the people. People
make the place. And I love Klamath Falls residents.
I really do. And you see that in me when you
meet me. So, tomorrow at Veterans Park, they're
having the 25th Annual Migratory Bird Festival.
That is a huge deal for me. I mean I will have
a booth there. So me and my my youngest daughter
Elizabeth will be there and we are going to be
selling and helping. We'll be selling my art
and my baits and unassorted sundries in our booth
and you can meet me. You could ask questions
about fishing. Even birds, I mean, I'm more of
a songbird guy, songbirds and raptors, than I
am a waterfowl. I'm not very good with waterfowl.
In Fresno, we had a lot of waterfowl. You'd think
I'd be good at it since I had the Wild Bird Center
there. But tomorrow's going to be a fun day at
the park. Weather's supposed to be pretty good,
and it'll just be a nice thing for you guys to
come down say hi to everybody and they're going
to have music, birds, events and it's going to
be a fun day at Veterans Park. So hopefully you
can come down. I make not only arts and baits
but I also make cribbage boards. I'm kind of
addicted to making cribbage boards. I really
should see cribbage boards anonymous, CBE, if
such a thing exists. But I've been busy and you
will be seeing I've got a rack of baits right
next to me, soft and hard. Now I will tell you
too that the Because the water is warming up,
I know it's been a weird week weather -wise for
us. It's been sort of hit and miss. Last week
we had really warm weather and then this week
kind of cool and stormy a little bit. But I've
got some really amazing suggestions for you to
use out on the lake. Now, because I can't drive,
It will limit my accessibility to certain species
of fish. But trout are hitting really good. In
fact, even the Link River is starting to hit.
So you're also seeing really good catches up
in Upper Klamath and Agency Lakes. And those
are very, very good. Very small spinners, even
flies. So if you're fly fisherman, go out there
and work the flies. And they're just starting
to get really exciting. And you can get some
beautiful red -banded trout up in the upper lake.
And the Williamson's River, the Woods River,
big Browns in the Woods River. Just... I need
a car. I need a driver's license. Well, I have
a driver's license. I just can't use it. It's
very frustrating. You know, when I was a young
child, our mother, well, all of our mothers,
if you're a boomer, if you were punished, you
were on restriction, right? You were grounded.
And I've been grounded for life a couple times.
Mom got a little over excited about my activities.
And we were kept indoors because there was no
fun staying indoors. I mean, we wanted to go
outdoors and have fun. We wanted to go hiking
and biking and go to the beach or whatever. We
just wanted to have fun, you know. Yeah, I feel
grounded. I feel grounded right now and it's
just not good. I'm 60 and it's like, I don't
want to be grounded. I ain't do nothing bad.
My brain's breaking. I've got many, many, many
little issues and the brain is just causing my
body to do stupid things. Stupid things. Yeah,
what can you do? Take more medicine. Hope we
can figure it out. And in six months I can get
back to driving in time for ice fishing season.
So, we're thinking about... I'm thinking about
some... Well, I've got to do some big lifestyle
changes. So, enough of that. talk too much about
that. There's a soft bait that is an amazing
soft bait and the soft bait, if you ever look
it up, it's called Dancing Bones. Dancing Bones.
These are very expensive by the way. The plastic
I use is a really good Plastisol. It's very durable,
but dancing bones are fairly fragile. It's got
just appendages that wiggle like crazy. Coming
to the spawn, which is what we're seeing right
now, it is a great bait to just bounce off the
bottom and crawl it. Dancing bones for the big
fish is just a really good bait. You can you
can buy them over at Lake of the Woods at the
marina You know or just email me or stop by my
booth. I think I have I have one package They're
hard to make You know when you make baits, you
know, especially soft baits you got a create
the formulation and then you got to get it up
to 350 degrees and then you're going to be mixing
in your colorant and then you got to put it inside
your little shooter tube, you know, injector
and inject it into the mold and then break open
the mold and do it again and again and again.
So if you guys wonder why I charge so much, well,
I don't charge a lot, but for hand -poured baits.
I have some beautiful 6 -inch swim baits, too.
And, again, big baits work in our area. You really
got to try throwing a big bait, a 6 -inch, a
7 -inch, an 8 -inch. These are killer baits for
the lakes of our area. You know, Lake of the
Woods, I can't tell you how effective a big bait
is in Lake of the Woods. The soft swim baits,
what you could do is I usually run an ADOT beast
hook in it and I skin hook it up on top. So as
the warmer water hits, I could toss it in the
middle of a weed bed or a lily pad area. pop
it up on the lily pads and let it float down.
Pop it up and let it float down. By doing that,
it looks like, you know, a dying fish. And boom!
You will get, you will get a hit. It's completely
weedless too. I mean, it's fun. Those are fun.
So on these actually, you know, it's kind of
fun to play with different colors, you know,
red, white, green, pumpkin green, green pumpkin,
whatever you want to call, and then salmon color.
I'm a big lavender guy. I like lavender on my
baits. Lavenders have a high refractive quality
in the water, so they almost glow. and it really
gets the fish's attention. And it sets up their
alarm bells because they actually think it's
a predator coming at them. And they just strike
it out of instinct. They don't think twice. They
don't have to be hungry. But that lavender is
a great thing. Also, dark colors. Please, look
at dark colors. Do not ignore black baits. I
know there are certain lakes. Dark color works
better than other lakes. Stained water. When
you are in a lake like Upper Klamath or Agency,
using a dark color because it's stained water,
stain means there's no clarity to it practically.
fish work off of profiles, not off of colors.
And so when you use a dark, dark bait in the
stained waters, that's more effective. Think
about if you go five feet down in a stained water,
which only has like 18 inches of visibility,
what kind of light is down there at five feet
or eight feet? Not much! Not much at all. So,
highly refractive baits or spinners, there's
no light hitting it, so they're basically dead
on arrival. You need light to hit these highly
refractive qualities. So, lakes like Lake of
the Woods has beautiful clarity, 12 to 15 feet
of clarity. And you can just have a good old
time with brightly colored spinners, metals,
highly refractive colors in a clear lake, like
Lake of the Woods. So definitely think about
that. So dark baits in dark water, bright baits
in clear water. Now, dark baits always work.
They just work better in dark water. I've used,
I mean, I'm a, I love black and blue. I like
deep purples in my baits and these things right
here just, they just work really, really well.
So now as for hard baits, You know right now
a jerk bait or a square bill bait would work
really really well and So I really focus this
time of year on square bills and jerk baits Also,
you may want to try a chatter bait. What's a
chatter bait? So chatter baits is basically a
jig with a little lip that chatters You put a
soft trailer on it so We're going to take a pause
right now and we're going to go into our next
segment continuing some of this conversation,
but we'll also look at stocking schedules for
the next couple weeks. So stay tuned and thank
you so very much for joining me at Terrible at
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I'm terrible at fishing, but it feels just right.
Welcome back to terrible at fishing everybody.
Well, continuing our conversation of fishing.
Now, there's a very exciting, our next free fishing
weekend is June 7th and 8th. June 7th and 8th.
Okay, remember that. But definitely June 7th
because at Lake of the Woods you'll be able to
meet me again there. It is the children's event.
This is probably the most wonderful event you
will ever participate or even observe. You have
no idea at how wonderful that event is unless
you've been there. So, what is the children's
event on June 7th? Because 7th and 8th is free
fishing for everybody, but what we do at Lake
of the Woods is that we bring in a lot of trout.
We have a large, like, stand -up pool. It's not
really a pool, but it's sort of like a well.
We'll call it a pool. And we put trophy -sized
trout in there. And then we net off part of the
marina, so it's basically an aquarium, and we
throw in a whole bunch of other trout. Now in
the pool, that's six and under, so children that
are six and under and with special needs are
going to be fishing in that pool. We supply basically
sticks with string on it and a hook, and they
can pull them up. And if you've ever seen Well,
I'm sure you have but You know little itty -bitty
two -year -olds three -year -olds catch a fish
or a child with special needs This is the happiest
moment I Think for me let alone for that child
It's magical really is very very magical to see
the wonderment, the awe, sometimes the fear.
But we have lots of volunteers. Now, the cool
thing, too, you know, the ones over six are going
to the marina and catching fish. Then, what do
you do with the fish? Well then you can take
it to the Boy Scouts over at the cleaning area.
What they'll do is they'll clean the fish. Then
what do you do with it? Then you can take it
over and you can have it cooked. So basically
for the children, this is a great catch and cook
day where the ODFW is there, Smokey the Bear
is there, the fire department is there. It is
just, it's a big celebration. fishing and hopefully
get the children excited about fishing. And then,
you know, eat the fish. And this, you're wondering
how much does it cost? Nothing. This is a free
community event for Klamath Falls and the surrounding
areas. You know, people from Medford and Ashland
and people from all over the state, but most
of it is southern state. come over to Lake of
the Woods. We never run out of fish, by the way.
After the children's event over, we just dump
the fish into the lake. Sunday is a great fishing
day. It's still free fishing, so you just bring
a pole and go fishing. So, 7th and 8th, but June
7th is the day of magic, or of wonderment, or
of just happy faces, and some fearful. I mean,
sometimes a special needs kid gets a big fish
and they run. Oh my goodness, it is so cute.
It is so cute. But there's lots of people there
and we'll just have such a good time with the
kids at Lake of the Woods. Again, tomorrow is
the Wild, the Migratory Bird Festival and let
me go over. ODFW has a recreation report and
May 15th they put out their recreation report
for this month. Again, they're reminding you
guys of free fishing on the 7th and 8th. I don't
see too much there about Lake of the Woods, but
now you know. Now, I will tell you too, this
time of year is birds are nesting, baby birds
are hatching, eggs are hatching, and being a
wild bird guy, We used to have a store called
the Wild Birds Center. People, what they would
do is bring us baby birds that they find on the
ground. Let me dispel a few myths about baby
birds. One, songbirds, they have no sense of
smell. None. the wife's tells that if you touch
it the parent the the mother the parent birds
will will reject it because they can smell you
no that's not true all right when it comes to
songbirds they have no sense of smell whatsoever
so if you do find a baby birdie you see the nest
you can get to you can just pick it up and put
it back in the nest yeah fine now some baby birds
are learning how to fly and so what they'll do
is they'll sort of fall out of their nest. Mommy
is standing by. I will just tell you this that
Mommy is standing by. They are not unattended
birds. What's funny is watching them try to land.
We used to have a nest of scrub jays in our backyard
and every year four babies would follow mom over
to the neighboring tree and they'd hit the branch
and hang upside down and then fall. This time
of year when it comes to bird watching is just,
well, it's highly entertaining. You really need
to come to the park tomorrow and understand what's
going to happen. Now, when it comes, just leave
baby's birds where they are. Mommy and Daddy
are actually keeping track of their own young.
So, don't worry about it. Just don't worry about
it. It is just a fun time of year for bird watching
because the spring is sprung and it's just beautiful
to see not only the adult birds, but the baby
birds. Now, eagles, here's a trivia question.
I think I've told you this before. The average
bald eagle's nest is about 3 ,000 pounds. I know,
3 ,000 pounds on average. And they, you know,
they could be two tons better on their nest.
Bald eagle's nests, and we have a lot of bald
eagles in this area, as they mate for life and
they, well, they build the same nest. And they
don't use itty -bitty branches. No, they use
big branches. And that tree can fall. It happens
a lot that bald eagles will fell trees just by
their nests. But what a beautiful sight. What
a beautiful sight. So let's go over some of the
stocking schedules for this Next two weeks. So
let me pop in the dates here and We're going
to cover this week and we're going to cover Let's
go to the end of the month because why not? so
Let's go to Lake of the woods All right Lake
of the woods Well, I didn't pop anything up.
Oh, there it is. Okay, we're working on it. Come
on, Mike, where is it? We're just going to go
to our zone. This is what we're going to do.
Why did it do that? My computer is just acting
up right now. Just acting up. All right, Thompson
Reservoir. Nothing this week, but we're going
to just go through this list right here. Anna
Reservoir. It's got 2 ,400 legals being stocked.
So check out Anna Phillips Reservoir. 9 ,500
legals. Oh my goodness! Lake of the Woods is
getting 1 ,600 legals, 600 trophies, 19th through
23rd. So that's Lake of the Woods. Now again,
there's going to be a big stock the following
week, of course, for the children's event, but
that will be held for the children and then released
into the lake, what isn't given to the children.
So, but that is kind of what we're looking at.
So next week we will have, at Lake of the Woods,
1 ,600. That will be a great stocking, by the
way, really good stocking. Now let's Let's see,
go to a different area. Alright, so Fish Lake
has got, this week actually, they got 45 ,000,
4500 Legals, 500 trophies. That's a ton of fish
for a little lake. So 5 ,000 plants, just this
week. So head up there and get some of those.
Fish Lake next week is going to get 3 ,500 legals.
So there are some, I mean Fish Lake is going
to be a hot lake right now. Very easy to catch
a trout there. Really easy. Use power bait, use
spinners, just have fun grabbing it. Lost Creek
Reservoir. Okay, this week they got, I almost
said it, 11 ,500. So 10 ,000 legals and 1 ,500
trophies at Lost Creek Reservoir. Again, it's
a big reservoir, but it's a fantastic stocking.
Applegate Reservoir, if you thought that was
a lot, they got 15 ,000 legals and 500 trophies.
Willow Lake, a small lake, 5 ,500 stocking. next
week. 4 ,000 legals and 1 ,500 trophies. Howard
Prairie next week is going to have 7 ,450 legals
being planted. So, Hyatt Reservoir is going to
also get 7 ,450. Med Copon great little pond.
You guys got to check it out. 2 ,000 legals.
I mean, what a great...I mean, you just pull
them out. Ten Mile Lake, again, is going to be
getting 3 ,000 legals. There are...I mean, you
can't go wrong in the next couple weeks. Metcopond
this week got 2 ,000 legals, so it is just...I
mean, Was it Lake of the Woods? That's Lake in
the Woods. I think that's a misspelling. No,
Lake in the Woods is a different lake. Anyway,
tons of stocking. ODFW is just dumping a ton
of fish in the lakes right now. Don't forget
the rivers. Again, Link River. I know it's the
shortest river in the United States. But, it's
got great water flow right now and the trout
are big in it. So that's a really good little,
you know, local spot I'll be heading. So you'll
probably see me out there. And then, you know,
the Williamsons, the woods, the Sprague, Lost
Creek. It's just, oh my goodness. It's just,
we just got the best of fishing right now. and
the trout and the cold water fish. Gerber, don't
forget about Gerber for pan fishing. Willow Valley
for big bass. There are some great lakes right
now. If you aren't excited about the best fishing
season we've ever seen, you should be, because
this year is going to be the best fishing year
we have ever seen, and I can't believe I can't
drive. So, take care everybody. Tight lines to
you all. Have fun out there and please stop by
Veterans Park tomorrow at the Migrating Bird
Festival. I can't even say it. Take care everybody.
That was Terrible at Fishing, the radio show
with fishing expert Michael Raffino. Check out
Terrible at Fishing on YouTube. And tune in next
week for the next episode and more great fishing
tips. Terrible and Fishing, Fridays at 7pm on
Gold Country Radio.