New Melones 12/1/12

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After spending 3 days debating on where we wanted to go we finally came to an agreement on hitting Melones. Especially after seeing how well Doug and Marv did. Launched the boat at tuttle town just before 0800. Ran over to the mouth of the closest river arm and began trolling in. Garrett started with a kastmaster and I tried a grub. 5 mins. into it Garrett got slammed but it popped right off. Nothing happened after that for some time. As we worked our way back into the river arm we saw a lot of surface activity in a cove so we stopped and tried casting at em. I quickly hooked 2 and lost em both. Fish kept surfacing everywhere, but none wanted to hit so we went back on the troll. I switched up to a needle fish and managed to get hit a few times and stick and land one to finally get the skunk off of the boat.

After that though the rain and wind picked up and it just made being out on the water in the boat miserable. We ran around for a while looking for some protected area's but it was bad everywhere. We ran back to tuttle town and tried drifting some bait to pick up a couple of fish. We marked a lot of fish and had a few hits on powerworms and powerbait but Garrett only managed one on powerbait.

Wet cold and feeling defeated we put the boat back on the trailer. Before heading home though we couldn't take what felt like a defeat from this lake knowing there were so many fish out there. We threw powerbait rods out next to the ramp and it wasn't long before we got into some bendo action.

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action here was pretty consistent with the planters

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Would think that this one was a chromer!

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Our bank set up

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This one is for you Marv

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Shortly under an hour we had our limit and look at that James and Jon were just headed back to the ramp. Packed up our gear stopped to chit chat for a bit. Always great seeing other outcasters on the water. We struggled for the longest time and didn't get what we really came here for, but we caught fish and had a good time on the water so it was a day well spent if you ask me.

Till Next Time
Mark

Amador 11/27/12

Took my dad out on the boat to do some trolling around the lake and make my first day trip of the season to the lake. Got on the water around 0730 to see probably 20+ boats on the water and plenty of bank anglers. Started our troll my with a grub and my dad with his Rapala's we worked our way out of the crowds and towards the mouth of Jackson and Doney bay we found a lot more surfacing fish here, but they just didn't want to bite. We trolled through them a couple of times and even tried drifting bait and tossing lures through them a few times, but we just could not get any of them to bite.

With these fish not wanting to touch any of our offerings we took off in search of some biting fish. Since we were here we had to venture back into Jackson to see how the creek was. Man I thought it was low last year, but man this area is a whole new world with the lower water level.

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Met Kevin back here, there were a few fish jumping around here. Yet again though they just weren't biting. Out we go and it was off to check out mountain springs where my dad and I did pretty good last year. Nothing back here either, but there were some rising near the mouth of the arm at least there are some fish around. We gave up the hopes of finding a school to cast to and just decided to stick to the troll. Coming out of the mouth of Mountain Springs my dad finally sticks one on a J-9 rainbow patterned Rapala. Then it popped off a second later. Finally we get a bite 4 hours into our day though. We make a couple of passes in this stretch and my dad gets hit on every pass, but losses 3 out of the 4 hits he gets. Right when we think we get on a pattern though the fish stop rising and stop biting. Back to the drawing board.

Passed by Kevin again and he invited us over to join him for lunch. Offered us some lambchops and there was no way we could turn that down. Beached the boats threw out some bait rods and had some killer lunch! Thanks again Kevin lunch was awesome! While we were on shore my dad threw a senko around in hopes of finding a green fish or two around and still biting.

Sure a heck he found a good looking largemouth that was willing to bite.

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Nothing else was happening here though so we parted ways and took off hoping to get some more fish on the stringers. My dad and I tried out same lane where we were getting hit, before but we still just weren't seeing anything. With my battery for the trolling motor dying we just drifted bait around hoping that something would happen. Sun is getting down at this point and I was losing hope, I haven't even had a hit all day! As the sun was going down though the magic hour began. The wind died down, water was flat calm and fish started rising around us pretty consistently. I switched over to a powerworm and started trolling that around. While were were doing a slow troll my dad threw Rapala's and I threw my crappie jigs around at the risers. After a while I finally got one to hit my powerworm and I'm on the board!!! 9 hours into the day I finally get my first fish. Persistence pays off. Not much later I stick another on the powerworm and confidence is building.

Battery was practically completely dead now though so it was time to just sit on top of em and do some casting. Since we were just sitting and I can't troll my powerworm anymore I free lined some powerbait on the surface and just let it float on top. Two seconds after that hit that water It got slurped and I had my third one of that day! After seeing that and with how low the sun was my dad and I threw the same technique out to put some more fish in the boat before it was too dark. We had a quick double, boated both fish and decided that was a good note to end on.

Looking back I can't believe I was able to pull 4 fish out in the last hour of day light. Stuck it out and it all paid off.

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Our 6 fish of the day.

Glad to got to get a fishing day in before the rains come. I probably won't get out again till after they pass.

Till Then Guys
Mark

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Bodega Bay Doran Beach Session

Crabbing season got started and I've been dying to get my piece of the pie. Made plans for a trip and got Deni and our friend Jazzy to come along with. Got on the water around 0900 and found a ton of people out on the Jetty. It is the weekend (Sunday, 11/11/12). Met my good friend Daryl out there on the jetty and we all tried our snares and crab hawks. Asking around on my way out here pretty much no one had anything or maybe only one crab. Action was slow. The few crabs I did see come in from fisherman around me all looked like this.

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Short females full of roe. This is the only crab I managed to catch today.

Deni got one herself.

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Jazzy managed to get this rock crab.

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That was the amount of our action as far as crabbing went. Regardless of how crabbing was it was a beautiful day on the water.

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Jazzy enjoying the day.

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Trying for some crab.



Deni trying to hide from the sun.

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One of the locals.

We tried here till 1300, but by then the tide has gone out and it was poke poling time. Hopped off of the jetty and made our way to the coast guard station. We saw a pretty awesome sand castle some kids were working on when we got there.

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picture from the front side

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Walked over saw one guy throwing a brush hog around and sticking a few small rock fish in the kelp. I threw some squid out at first, but it never got touched. Just to try real quick I dropped some squid into a couple of holes to see if I could get an eel real quick. Not much later I found one willing to bite.

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That's good for me, time to switch for rockfish. I enjoy catching them a little more. Tied on a white tube texas rigged and worked around the rocks and kelp. Didn't take long for me to find some active fish.

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While I was doing this Deni and Jazzy were slamming some eels.

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Nice double of a few keepers

Jazzy even managed to get her first ever rockfish poking around in the rocks.

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The wind and current pushed a bunch of kelp over on top of the rocks which made it really hard for the girls to poke pole, but the rock fishing was excellent. I ended up punching through the kelp with my tube and getting plenty of bites from the rock fish. I even managed to slam this short cabby.

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Actually my first ever cabezon I've ever caught which was way cool.

Deni managed to get a few small rockfish too while poke poling for some eels.

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I filled my limit of rockfish and after that I ran around to see if I could dig up a few clams.

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Couple of kids on the beach saw me digging in the sand and wanted to join in on the fun.

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I never found anything though. If any clammers out there can tell me what to look for when looking for a hole, which hole is a clam or not. Must have dug a dozen holes or so for nothing or just small clams, not the gapers I was looking for. Stayed until sundown then ran over to the cleaning station to get all of my rockfish cleaned up. First time to this cleaning station I have to say I thought Amador's was bad, but everything about this station was kind of just a pain to deal with. It is still much nicer though to do the main part of my cleaning here and not at home.

Awesome day on the water, was pretty bummed about the crabbing, but it was still an awesome day here at bodega. Hopefully next time we can get some crabs to take home. Now that I got the boat I'll probably pick up a few crab rings and drop them out while were waiting on low tide. Maybe next time.

Until Then Guys
Mark