American Pardee 2/14-2/17

Been really busy working and more importantly fishing, late on getting to writing my reports so here is another combo report for you guys.

Thursday Deni and I didn't have our schedules worked out to spend valentines day with each other unfortunately. I was planning on just working on homework all day, but luckily for me it didn't take nearly as long as I thought it was going to. In Rancho got some free time to the river I go! Had my friend Steven with me and we were at the honey hole around 1300 looking for fish. On an normal day I usually will see 4-5 fish hanging out in the area, but today I don't know what happened I saw a couple of dozen fish moving all around the area. Lots were chrome too. Dante recently hooked me up with a badass new fly fishing outfit that I brought out with me for the first time today in high hopes of getting my first steelie on the fly. Thanks Dante!!! Had to get used to the different weight, but it didn't take me too long to get it down and to get into a fish!

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First thing I realized was it is much harder to land one of these suckers on a fly rod. Takes a lot more patience and you have to play em out a lot longer. Nearly a 20 minute fight and fish finally gets up close to shore and pretty much jumps on to the bank for me.

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The fact that Steven managed to get this picture is nothing short of a miracle shot.

Did finally get him in and to the bank though.



Fish was unfortunately foul hooked behind the gill plate, but by far the most beautiful fish I have landed yet.

Either way I got a fish on the fly I was happy with my day. My next goal was to get Steven on his first steelhead. I spent the next hour trying to coach Steven and get him onto a fish. He managed to hook up 3 times only to have the fish spit the hook immediately after. That's why its called fishing though.

I started fishing again with my bait casting rod. I don't know if I could handle another fight on the fly rod. Over the next two hours I managed to hook into and lose 4 before I was finally able to land another one.

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Another one for the

smoker. We stuck it out for a while longer really hoping to get Steven on a fish. He did manage to hook up one more time, but it came unbuttoned again. Had to leave before sun down for class.

Friday 2/15 I'm stuck working all day and getting text messages from Ethan (Etray) and friends telling me how amazing the fishing is opening day at Pardee for the opener. I had a campsite reserved for the weekend and was planning on going out there this morning, but my boss needed me to work today. Absolutely going crazy at work wishing I was fishing I finally got off at 2030. Got everything together, after shopping for all the food we needed, getting gas, and driving out there we made it to the campsite around 2300 to set up camp. Right after midnight Ethan, his girlfriend Shelby (Candace), and I walked down to the mud hole to soak some power bait. My usual spot I fished last year wasn't producing for us even though we heard tons of fish jumping and even some monster fish were breaking the surface and making a hell of a lot of noise in the midnight air. I tried throwing a glow jig around for the longest time, but nothing got touched.

After a little over an hour without any bites. Ethan and Candace got cold/tired and headed back to camp to catch some ZZZ's. I had to try a couple of spots for a while longer, been looking forward to this trip for too long not to. Ethan told me he saw where a few jumped on his way out so I threw the power bait in there to see if I could get into anything. The hill I was on was too slanted for my chair and too rocky to put the rod holder I found into the ground so I was holding two rods while in the Asian squat waiting for a bite. Held the line tight just so I could feel anything that picked it up, and sure enough not more then 5 mins into it I got hammered and got my first Pardee fish. After that it was a bite every 2 mins and even after a few misses I had four fish in about 20 mins I didn't want to keep my limit cause I know wardens crack down hard on people here at Pardee on opening weekend, even at night. Since it was after midnight and I still wanted to fish the next day I left an open spot in my limit just so I can C&R the rest of the day.

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Nothing huge, but they are some fat little fish.

Next morning 2/16 I run down to the island next to the boat ramp and see a couple of schools milling around the area. Tried throwing jigs at em, most were really spooky and didn't want to hit, but I did managed to stick one out of the bunch.

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Went back to camp and cooked up some breakfast for everyone else then headed out to the Jackson creek spillway is what I guess is what it is technically called. Stood up high and we all cast various jigs, power bait, and power worms at passing schools and managed to get into a good amount of fish.

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One of mine.

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Shelby slamming em on her pink lemonade power bait. For Some reason I could not remember the name Shelby so I am changing her name Candace.

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The crew

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Deni with a nice one.

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Candace kissing one for good luck. I think Ethan found himself a keeper.

We fished it for a while and had our fun. Walking the fish all the way down and around the fence to the water or lifting them up 20 feet from the water to the top of the dam though was becoming a real struggle, after about 1300 we headed back to camp for lunch.

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The ones that came back with us.

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Our view from the campsite.

We tried off of the dam one more time after the sun had set.

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There were a lot of fish cruising around over here and I was really hoping that since I was getting them on jigs during the day I could hit them on glow jigs at night. One thing I have noticed at Pardee at night is that unlike Amador I can not get them to hit a glow jig. Power bait they will bite all night long, but for some reason they won't hit the tubes and night. We fished out here for roughly 30 mins. I actually had one hit that I missed. The wind picked up though, and before too long Deni was freezing. Since she isn't a die hard like I am she was pretty miserable, so we called it a night from there.

Sunday 2/17 Ethan had to be at work around 1000 so he and Candace left around 0730 to make it back in time. I woke up around 0900 and headed down to the island to see if I could bust a few fish while Deni was still sleeping. Found a school hanging out next to the bridge that me and one other guy worked pretty hard with our crappie jigs for an hour. I managed to get 4 out of it and he got probably 7 with both of us missing countless hits. I figured out and shared with him that since the fish were kind of spooky when they stopped looking at our jigs I could switch colors and then they would be interested for another 10 mins. till they figured it out and I would have to switch again. Luckily even though I only had 5 colors to work with, after I used all 5 I could start over again back to the beginning and it seeming like the fish had forgotten that they had already seen this color haha. After an hour though other people caught on and we had bobbers and sinkers bombarding us which of course spooked all of our fish off and the party was over. When will people ever learn?

Back to camp Deni was awake, took our sweet time with loading everything up and once we did that we headed back the dam to spend the rest of our afternoon. Much brighter sunnier day then yesterday and we could see and tight ball of trout the had decided to hang out in one corner of the dam. One other guy on the dam, Deni and myself had this whole school to our self's working em with crappie jigs and power worms for about two hours hooking fish pretty consistently and losing quiet a few as well.

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Deni with her first one of the day.

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Fish on baby!

All good things must come to an end though, again people caught on the the fact that we were catching fish and they weren't. About 6 other guys came up right next to us and started casting bobbers and Kastmasters over us turning it into a zoo and turned the fish off of the bite. Fish were still there, but action had died off and fishing wasn't the same with 10 people all casting to the same school of fish so we left from there around 1500.

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A few of the fish looked like this. Fat football fish with some serious shoulders on em.

Back home around 1600 the sun is still up and I admit it I crave the drug of a tug, so didn't even unload the car, grabbed my other rod and my box I needed for Steelies, and headed down the river. Should have expected it since I know my spot isn't a secret and it is the weekend, but for the first time ever today there was another fisherman in my honey hole. I walked up river as far as I could to let him have his space. Threw beads here for about 20 mins and managed to hook up once, but this fish peeled off 50 yards of line easily in the first run and even after hanging on for a 5 min fight I could not get the fish out of the rapids and he eventually popped off. Talked to the other fisherman there and he said that there was another fisherman here earlier who walked away with him limit so I know that these fish had been pounded all day. After hearing that and not seeing any fish I kind of lost confidence and left after about an hour of trying, at least I was still able to hook and fight one for a while.

There is my salmonoid filled past few days and you know I'll be back at it soon. Its an addiction. I am so thankful Deni tolerates it, especially when were out camping and I drag her out in the middle of the night to fish and I leave the bed early in the morning to get my quick fix.

Till Next Time Guys
Mark

American River 2/7/13

Had a short bit of free time to spend and I haven't been to the river in a while so I went down to see if there were any fish in my honey hole. Brought My friend Brian down with me. He doesn't have his license yet, but wanted to get out of the

house so he came to tag along and enjoy being outside. Ran down to the river and saw a few fish milling around in the area. Not after too long I hooked into my first fish.



Nice big wild buck.

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Put him back and watched him swim away to fight another day. Kept at it for a bit longer and after missing him several times I managed to get one more fish for the day.

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Pretty good work for an hour's worth of fishing. Took off from there pretty happy with the day. Thinking I might start checking out some new holes for better looking fish. I'll have to see if I can find something, but its hard to strive away from a hole that has been constantly producing fish for me. We'll see what happens

Till next time
Mark.

Amador 2/7/13

Took the boat back out to Amador with my dad to try to boat some more Cutbows. Ever since I fished with my friend Harry at New Melones and he showed me up trolling powerworms with his mini fly hook my dad has been dying to try it. He finally got some and we were going to try it on a side by side comparison today. He trolled powerworms with the smaller fly hooks while I just trolled with my usual size 8 octopus hooks. We trolled chartreuse and pink power worms for over an hour around the lake for absolutely nothing. Saw an open bank spot where I've seen people doing well on powerbait in the past so we stopped to give it a try. Soaked powerbait off of the point casting 30ft out into about 8-10ft of water.

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30 mins. or so after being here one of my rods goes off and I stick and land the first fish of the day.

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Nice chunky

little fish. I was looking at him and I wanted to get a measurement on him real quick. I laid out the tape measure saw him out at 18 inches. The second I looked up from the ground though my second rod was going off. Picked that up and got my second fish in.

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Two fish in under an hour, not too bad. We stayed for another hour without any more bites though so we took off and went back to trolling. Finally outside of the mouth of the Jackson arm my dad hooks up on his pink worm.

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We got that fish in the boat and now neither of us were skunked. We made a few circles around the mouth of Jackson and Doney bay for a few more quick strikes, not no crazy action. My dad decides to hold his rod to try to get the stick the next bite before it lets go. Not long after he picked it up his rod loads up and he is hooked up again. Way back out behind us we see this huge flash just roll on top of the surface, oh shit we got a hog. I slowed the boat down reeled in all of the other lines and then threw it in neutral to make sure we got this fish in. As we got the fish close we saw a tangled mess coming in with my dad's line. Thought he got tangled up in one of our other lines, but no there all in. This fish had a line hanging out of its mouth and my dad happened to catch the line. Cool thing to hook up on but with the extra line out it was hard to get it into net range. Eventually it tired out enough my dad could grab the line safely and pull it in net range. Barely got the net around him but I did and we landed our first hog of the season from Lake Amador.

My dad hates getting his picture taken so he had me take a picture with the fish.

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28 inches and 9.36 pounds. This is what Amador is all about right here. Doesn't matter how the rest of the day goes were happy.

Trolled around in the same circle for a couple more hours for a few more hits a one more fish. All action for my dad though on the smaller fly hooks. I wasn't getting anything.

Nothing else was happening here so we headed to mountain springs and see if anything else was happening there. Right as we got to the mouth of mountain springs both of my dad's rod's go off and we got a double. Then when I was trying to net his fish my rod went off and I couldn't get to it in time before he left go. Got his fish in and it looks like were doing pretty good for as slow as it has been here.

I tried trolling a tube jig just for the hell of it and it ended up getting slammed once.

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Defiantly my PB Crappie. Way cool by catch.

Trolled until 1630 for a few more short strikes and a couple of farmed fish. Headed back to the ramp after that. Back at the ramp there was a boater that came up and cut us off at the ramp who had been doing nothing but running laps around the lake all day making wakes everywhere and throwing tons of debris off of the banks into the middle of the lake making trolling a bitch and a half and all of the crap getting on your line. He flew into the ramp slamming himself into another boat that was already on their trailer and ran his boat up onto the cement of the ramp!!! this guy was an out of control mess. I just tried avoiding him and working around him. Idk how but my dad saw something in him and decided to help him out.

Turned out that it was this older guy with his son and it was their first time taking the boat out and the first time either of them had ever even driven a boat. Plus the dad was smashed. If my dad didn't help them they would have backed their trailer into the boat, busted a hole in the boat and bent his trailer. I'm glad my dad helped them out because I honestly had no sympathy for them, and was ready to watch them screw their boat up. Luckily someone called them in and the sheriff came down and stopped him from driving home drunk. Luckily for him the sheriff saw something in him too and and told him to wait an hour before he drives home instead of giving him a DUI.

Anyways back at the cleaning station with today's line up.

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Best day in a while here at Amador. Hopefully with the weather warming up it will get better.

Till Next Time Guys
Mark

American Weekend 2/2-2/3

Was scheduled to work 0800-1600 both Saturday and Sunday, but I got switched both days to work 1200-2100. Figured I could hit the AR in the mornings real quick before I went in to work. Saturday I ran down solo to my little honey hole. Found several fish hugging the bank. Threw my beads all morning and had a hell of a time out there. Within 15 mins. I landed my first fish.

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I tried letting this guy go because he is pretty gross looking, but he worn him self out in the fight and he just went belly up in the water. Didn't want to let a fish go back just to die for no reason so I threw him on the stringer. He should still smoke up ok.

Second fish I got about 20 mins later

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Wild fish, let him go. Biggest of the day so far. Never got a measurement on him.

Both of these fish I got now are dark beat up fish. Trying to look for a cleaner/chrome fish, which I haven't seen all season. I haven't even see anyone out at the hatchery pull any chromers out yet.

I managed to stick and land one more fish before I had to go to work.

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Not a chromer, but much cleaner and I'll take it. Limited out off to work. Both of my keepers measured out at 30 inches.

Sunday, one of my friends I know Nikolay asked me to show him out to the honey hole so I brought him and another friend Paul. Instead of the several fish I usually see hanging around the bank I only saw 2. Figured it was because I hit them pretty hard the day before. Either way were here lets give it our best shot. Paul managed to hook up once 5 mins. in, but it popped off after a couple of seconds. We all gave it a good 2 hours for nothing else though. Paul and Nikolay kept telling me how this magic honey hole was nothing but a fish story, lol. We did see a few swim by us every now and then, and a fish would rise every 30 mins or though. We just couldn't hook into em. 0900 Nikolay and Paul take off to make it home in time to relax and get everything together before the big game. I still didn't have to be at work for 3 more hours, so I stayed to hopefully get into something.

Saw a few fish

move in after they left, thinking maybe the small crowd of people a long the bank had the fish spooked and moved off. Not many came back, but enough did to keep me entertained enough for me to keep wanting to try for them. 0945 I finally connected into one and landed my first fish of the day.

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My smallest, but by far the prettiest fish I have caught yet. Feeling Accomplished with my one fish, I packed up and left to get some breakfest before work.

Spent the rest of my day working through a crazy rush of people shopping before the game, but luckily I was able to cut out early enough to catch the forth quarter to see my Ravens take the Super Bowl Championship!!! Been a great weekend. I'll give my honey hole a few days rest to come back before I hit it again. I'll have to start exploring the AR more for more steelie spots. Hopefully I can find a few chromers out there.

Till Next Time Guys
Mark