AR Shad 5/24-5/25

I ran up to the Upper AR to get my shad on and man fishing is really starting to pick up. Tuesday I got out there around 1530 with my dad and our friend Daryl, and as we walk down we see a guy there already with 10 fish on his stringer and he said he had only been there about an hour. We get to fishing with him and on Daryl first 3 cast he hooked up landing 1. They both had split shots on their line I did not. I put on on to see if it would help me, but I was getting hung up on the bottom too much for me to fish it so after 20 mins of trying it I took it off. Right after I took my split shot off I got my first fish.



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another small male which recently have been pretty typical so far.

My dad wanted to try something new. Aside from the norm of throwing the jigs like the rest of us do he saw our friend harry out performing everyone on a fly. Throwing it on his spinning rod with a split shot to get it out there. He often has some crazy ideas for flies, but he doesn't know how to tie, so he takes me down to Bass Pro to buy the materials for it and then I tie them for him. This was what my fly ended up looking like.



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It ended up working too. Throughout the night he ended up landing 7 on that fly. Kind of a success for me too knowing my flies catch fish. One day I'll have to actually put it on the end of my fly rod and get some shad that way.

Later on in the evening around 1800 a bunch of other friends came out to meet me so I waded out further from knee deep to just above waist deep to make room for some people. Right after I did this I stopped getting bites. I was thinking did that little amount of depth really make that much of a difference? Well lets find out. I put my split shot back on and sure enough 1st cast I stuck a nice one.



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My first Female of the season, I even put her on the scale and she weighed in at 3 1/2lbs. After that almost everyone start busting some hogs over the next hour another 10 biggens like this one came out of the water between all of us along with a few other smaller males.

We stayed until 2030 looking for the stripers to show up, come on the females are here now where are those big boys were looking for??? They didn't show up though. I ended up with over 10 fish and mostly everyone else did just as good. Didn't see any spawning activity from the shad yet either. Its gonna happen soon though. Weather just needs to warm up. What happenes the next day though??? rain, of course.

I went fishing anyways though. After spending some time with the Girl Friend I dropped her off at home and ran back out to the river. I've tried to get her out there with me, but she doesn't find shad fishing as exciting as poke poling for eels for some reason. Plus with rain in the forecast and having to wade in fairly cold water she wasn't much into it.

On the water at 1600 today met my friend Jackie in the parking lot. Jackie is the best he came with pizza and sushi to feed us. Man o man was it good too, if nothing else I sure as hell am gonna eat good even if the shad don't want to. We walk down though and as I grab a slice of pizza Jackie nails one on his first cast. I hurry on down there to try and hit the same school but they were gone by the time I got in the water. Daryl came down 10 mins later to join the action. Over the next hour I only get one bite and Daryl manages to land 3. He is using a split shot I'm not, mama raised no fool I add some weight first cast fish on!!!

I don't know what it is but some times I need the weight sometimes I don't damn picky ass fish. Not as many big ones today, but we were still catching fish thats all that mattered. Later on my friend Brian Wilson (a.k.a. Beach Boy) came out with his girl friend Jessie. Jessie is still new to fishing and had some difficulty casting in the wind. She was telling me how last time she came out she ended up catching a stick. I told her I would be impressed if she could catch a round river rock like I've seen my dad do once before.

and what happened? an hour later she did it.



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I had to give her a high 5 after that, she actually hooked and landed a rock. Something I can say I have never done myself nor seen many people do. She even said she was so proud of it she threw it in the bucket and was taking it home, hahaha.

After 1900, the time fishing normally turns on, the bite completely shut off. The sun went down, it got cold and so did the fish. I'm assuming with the weather we had today with didn't want to bite when it got too cold for them. I remember the same thing happened on similar weather condition days last year. The fish will bite all day but not in the so called "magical hour" on poor condition days. I stuck it out till 2030 again for only 1 fish within that time. Ended up with close to 10 fish, not as many as the previous day, but still awesome.

It will be a while before I get out for shad next, I'm taking a vacation up to Oregon with a friend for a week, hopefully I can give you guys a nice report or two from up north. I know they got shad up there too. I think I'm going to be looking for some small mouth action though. I'll have my shad rod just encase though

Till next time
Mark

American River Shad 5/13/11

I pulled away from the lower AR and I got out to my regular stomping grounds on the upper section. I went out with my dad and we met few friends out there on the water. We got on the water at 1545 and started casting. Some other fisherman were already there up above us, I didn't see if they had any or not and they left shortly after we arrived.

Right at 1600 Daryl hooks up a loses one and I do the same 2 mins later. I land my first one about 10 mins later. Nice 3lber



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Besides that one most of the fish throughout the evening were small males



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We fished until 2030 and the main bite times throughout the evening were 1600, 1830, and 1930. Most bites came in short spurts from small schools moving through. A lot of fish came from right off of the bank too on the very end of the drift. Majority of fish were sticking close to shore.

Man it was good to feel this again



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I ended the night with 5 or 6. Lost 3 or 4. I threw a swimbait for a while to see if some random striper was in the area, but no there wasn't. They'll be here soon.

Great night to be out on the water
till next time

Mark

Bodega Bay 4/8/11

Today I decided to take Deni out to Bodega Bay for some eel and some crab. Woke up early to make it in time time for low tide at 0900. We get in the water near the coast guard station at 0930. I set up Deni first with a size 1 octopus

hook tied on with an egg loop knot to help hold on to the squid, just for good measures. I showed her how to poke pole here and she went on her way. I got myself with the same set up and walked over to the rocks and in my first hole I tried I got a nice eel.



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Wasn't till later I remembered that it was bad luck to get a fish on your first cast.

Were both walking a long trying to get more eels. We get a few bites here and there, but we can tell the majority of the bites we were getting were just eels that were too small to get the hook in their mouth. We keep going and Deni gets her first monkey faced eel.



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Small little guy, but an eel none the less. We keep trying, looking for something a bit bigger.



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Even after getting her first eel, because Deni has never done this before she is kinda confused on the concept, but she got the hang of it fast. Not too long she got another eel, and a good sized one too.



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Deni went on to get one more eel bigger then this one and after that I sized her down to a size 6 hook and then she went on to catch over a half dozen small 6 inch eels. I myself on the other hand couldn't get anything else besides small bites from eels too small for the size 1 hook. Instead of trying for more eels with Deni I decided to put a white curly tailed grub, texas rigged to try for some rock fish. I tossed it a long the outside edge of the rocks and manage 4 bites and one Brown Rock Fish on it. I got a fish on a lure! that made me pretty happy.

Shortly after that we decided to ditch this area and walk out to the Jetty and get on some crab. We both throw snares for a while and to keep it short and sweet over the next 7 hours we managed 2 legal dungies, 2 legal red crab, 2 legal rock crab, and probably 30 or more short dungies. The short females were in thick today. I had several times where I would pull in the snare with 2 shorties on it. One time I had 3. Damn thing weighed a ton when I was trying to reel it in.

We did walk to the end of the Jetty at the top of high tide around 1500 to try for rock fish. I threw the grub, swimbaits, and did a drop shot with some squid. Deni just kept trying for crab. We tried there for an hour and didn't get a bite from any fish nor did we get any legal crabs so we went back to our crabbing spot.

We called it quits at 1800, and began the long car ride home. Got home and photographed the catch in the sink.



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I filleted the eels and my rock fish, battered and fried em up and this is what I got.



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And a great dinner it was. I've got the crab on ice for 2maro night. Love these trips to Bodega. Lots of fun and I get great seafood out of it! Today was an awesome day, Beautiful weather, got to spend the whole day fishing with my girl friend, couldn't ask for more.

Till Next Time Guys
Mark

P.S. Deni Says Hi to everyone!

Elk Grove Urban Fishing.

I had time between

classes today and I was debating bassing around elk grove or lisbon for a try at Mr. Sturgeon. Between my first set of classes I only had an hour of free time so I went to a pond close to my school to cast for a little bit. I did a lap around the pond casting a spinner bait for nothing, as I'm walking back I see a bass nesting up close to the bank. I throw my football jig on and toss it in there. I swim it close to the nest and let it fall as it falls I feel a "thunk" . . . . thought it didn't really feel like bottom and sure enough my line started taking off, I set the hook, fish on, fish off. Hook popped out jig was flying through and air and nailed me right in the shoulder. I try a few more times and get that same bite. I set the hook, see the fish it jumps and my line snaps!!! Couldn't believe it, that fish took my only jig. As I'm retieing I see the fish jump a few times trying to spit the jig out of its mouth, shouldn't have been that hard since it was actually barbless. Slightly after I had to go back to class. Couldn't get another bite.

After that I made up my mind, had to run around elk grove looking for more bass. Atleast I knew they would bite. Mr. Sturg has tested and ran my patients. I went to the warehouse to pick up some more jigs and off to more urban ponds I went.

I get to my first pond and walk the bank looking for fish. I see one small bass a long to bank but looked too small for my jig. I threw it in there anyways, but it was scaring the small bass, haha. I walked away looking for something bigger. I got to the end of that side of the pond and didn't see anything. I walk back and see that one small bass still there, I couldn't take it anymore so I broke down and put a robo worm on a shaky head. I tossed it in there and sure enough he picked it up and I slammed him.

Nice little bass.


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After that My friend Ethan got out of school and I went to meet him at another pond. Needless to say when we got here the clarity was crap so we decided to go back to the pond where I just came from. Were walking down the opposite side of where I caught the small one. Wind is blowing like crazy and making casting a pain. I'm still throwing my jig just blind casting out into the pond. I'm getting tons of weeds on every cast but I push through it. One of my cast I feel weeds right when I try to pick it up after I casted it. I go to pop it through the weeds and knock it out of there and when I pop it it didn't budge, I raise my rod and try to reel in but my reel handle is just spinning and my drag starts peeling off! fish on!

I can tell its a nice fish, but I had no idea until it jumped. I saw this fish jump and it is a tank! I started shaking and got nervous once I realized that this would be my PB if I can land it. I back up and try to bring him in close enough so Ethan and lip him for me and he does.



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Damn fish is so big I can fit my freaking fist in its mouth!!!!



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I guess her to be 9lbs maybe 10. I didn't have a scale so I'm just guessing here, but definatly my PB!!! I didn't get anything the rest of the day, but it didn't matter I was happy! Fished a little while longer till I had to go to school. Great freaking day.

Looking forward to the next.


Till next time
Mark

Lake Amador 4/5/11

My dad and I took the toon out to Amador to look for some bass that would bite. I decided to throw a football jig and my dad threw a 7 inch senko. We searched the Carson arm for hours only for a few taps but nothing stuck. After so long We find a area with a few bass in it. Only one was taking interest in our lures. I throw my football jig in and she picked it up a few times, but didn't get the whole jig in her mouth so I couldn't stick her. I hopped off the toon and got onto the bank to keep trying. After a long and frusterating half hour of casting for this one fish I finally got the hookset to stick and landed this beauty.

My Jig it ate.

My dad ended up catching 2 more on a texas rigged robo worm about 1lb and the other was 2 1/2lbs. Slow day but still awesome. Hope to get more bass soon.

Bassin Mather Lake

I decided it was time for a change in scenary today and I took the toon out to Mather Lake to try for some bass action. I had a friend who was going to come with me today, but he had some buisness to take care of so I told Deni I was picking her up and we were going fishing. We launched the toon and off we went. We took the toon to the back side of the lake and looked for some good spots. I start tossing a fluke along the tolies to try and get a bite. Deni didn't want to fish today so she just sat back and enjoyed the sun. I get a short tap in one spot but I saw the fish and the fish was no bigger then the fluke I was throwing, damn fish really was trying to bite off more then he could chew.

I fish for another hour and manage to get 1 on the fluke.

I must mention this is my first fish I have actually ever caught out of mather lake, so it was definatly an accomplishment for me. I was on a time frame today and only got to fish for 3 hours. A great day on the water though and I caught my first fish out of mather. Successful enough for me.

Till Next Time
Mark

First bass outing

I fished the port again with my good friend Brian Wilson. We all call him beach boy, more people recently are thinking about san fran's pitcher though when his name comes up. His 18th birthday was Wednesday and I thought his fishing license would be a great birthday present for him. Now that he is legal it was off to the port in search of some fish. We start off around 1100 and put the swimbaits out for some stripers. We troll right a long my two best lanes without a single bite. Ever since this weather has warmed up the striper action has died off for me. Fish are deeper and or are just not biting.

With the stripers not wanting to bite we get up close to the banks to try for some bass. I start off throwing a white fluke and I rig up brian with a carolina rigged robo worm. We go along a couple of banks trying to cast, but the wind was howling up a storm yesterday and there was just no way I could keep the toon straight enough for us to effectively fish the banks. I find a bank protected by the wind and we start fishing it. Brian wasn't feeling the robo worm so he put that rod down and grabbed the ultralight rod with a shad grub on it and started casting it. He said he was gonna try for bluegill or crappie. Then he asked me "You think bass would hit this?" I told him yea they probably would but I doubt you'll get anything big.

Going a long the bank I manage one bite on my fluke but it felt just small and couldn't get hook in its mouth. We come around a corner and I see Brian slam the hook and says fish on! I'm watching him fight this fish and I was thinking ok lets see this bluegill you got. As I'm watching him though I see a decent bend in his rod and I look down, and he pulls a bass out of the water!



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Fish wasn't legal size but it was bigger then what I thought he would have caught. I was thinking, ok he got lucky once no way he can pull it off again. I toss my fluke in and the second after it hit the water, I feel that "thunk" set the hook and I get my bass, and mine is legal!!!



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Nice way to get the skunk off for me.

We keep moving a long and Brian manages 2 more on his shad grub!



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You know they weren't monsters, but the fact that he was hooking up as consistantly as he was just had me baffeled. We try another shoreline protected by the wind and Brian ended up losing one more that started singing drag and Brian was just horsing it too much and it ended up popping off before we could see it.

First successful bassing trip of the year for me, very happy about that. Hoping next time it wont be as windy so I can fish more area's

Till next time guys
Mark