Golden Morning in Gold Run

Rare is the day when nearly every condition is near perfect. Most days, if it's sunny, it's also windy or the barometric pressure is sky high. Or if it isn’t windy, it's raining or snowing. Or if it's sunny and not windy, the fish aren't biting.

Getting all these conditions to line up for what could be considered perfection is about as rare as a solar eclipse most days. But all three factors nearly lined up last weekend to create what could be considered an almost perfect morning of fishing.

We had a couple of friends visiting from the east side of the state for some hockey and ice fishing action. Saturday morning, Chad and I didn't have much success on Pactola Reservoir, but I was confident that the Gold Run area at Deerfield would provide some trout action for us.

Upon arrival and getting the wheeler to start (had some issues last season), weather conditions were shaping up quite nicely. There were a few clouds in the sky and surprise, surprise, no wind yet. I already knew the air pressure was in our favor so now we would see what the morning would bring us.

Aside from the temperature, which was around 10-15 degrees, we really couldn't have asked for a better morning of fishing! Once the clouds cleared and the sun came up over the hills, the stars seemed to have aligned in our favor.

No sooner had Chad dropped his line in than he had a fish on. As soon as I started fishing after setup, I was finding the fish to be aggressive and on the prowl. Using a hard cadence to attract the fish in the clear water, we both used Clam Pro Tackle Drop jigs tipped with Maki plastics for some of the morning, though I switched it up a bit to using a Panfish Leech Flutter spoon, choosing a special color that my daughter picked out for me for Christmas.

The trout would absolutely smoke the Flutter spoon on the drop, providing some great action on my St. Croix CCI perch/eye rod paired with a Piscifun ICX-5 reel. If you haven't had a chance to try out one of the CCI rods or a Piscifun reel, be sure to check them out! They are a sweet combo for sure.

For a few hours, we were treated to sunny skies, no wind, and biting fish, a rare trifecta indeed in the Hills. And for the most part, the trout were good sized and very healthy. By the time the fish moved on and we started packing up, we had caught dozens of fish each and had nothing but smiles on our faces.

If the temperature had been about 15 degrees warmer, I think it would've been THE perfect morning, but we didn't complain about our frozen hands or gear that would need thawing. The elements cooperated for one day as did the fish. It was a golden morning in Gold Run for sure!