Sacramento Port, whats that?

I took Deni out today to try and troll for some stripers at the port off of the pontoon. We launch around 1100 and try to get something to bite. I explain to Deni on how to set the hook and as I am she gets a quick tap. Nothing that she could do anything about though.

Another hour goes by and I look at Deni's rod and I see it going, . . . . tap tap tap . . . tap tap tap. I asked her if she was getting a bite and she said I don't know, so I told her set the hook! she did and sure enough a

fish was on! Deni was gonna get her first striper! . . . . and then . . . . it jumped and spat the hook, dang. She just didn't get a good hookset on the fish. She was doing kind of a whimpy hookset and I told her she could swing it like a bat when she gets a hit. She'll get used to it.

We turn around to pass by the same spot and sure enough right as we go by it Deni gets another hit. BAM! she sets the hook, not even hesitating on that one. She gets it in and Deni gets her first striper!



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We make a few more passes in the same area and I finally get one for myself.



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As were passing by Deni gets a few more hits, but just misses the hooksets. As were trolling along I see a fish floating on top of the water. All I can see is white, I thought it was some shaker striper that had just killed over. I look closer though and I look . . . thats not a striper, thats a . . . is it?!?!?!? omg it is!!!



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Its an American Shad!!! and damn this poor guy is jacked up. I can see why he was floating on the surface. He was barely alive when I found him. Judging from all of the bruises and cuts on him I'm sure a big striper nailed him. This shows me that they are indeed in the system and shad season is near! I can't wait.

We didn't get anymore fish, but it was great day. Looking forward to another great trip.

Till next time
Mark

2 Days at the Port

Tuesday my dad and I got out to the port to try for some stripers. We go out and launch the pontoon and troll our swimbaits. I stuck with classic white and my dad was trolling a green gliter color. With the warmer weather I was hoping for some better action. Water was warmer but water was still a little cold (56 degrees), and the water clarity was just horrible.

2 mins. into the troll my dad missed a quick hit. It was quiet and slow after that. Launching from the parking lot off of Jefferson we troll all the way past the bridge and further to look for more fish. After passing the bridge my dad hooks up with a little shaker. Nothing special or big, looking for something a little better still. I miss a quick hit shortly after. We troll along another 100 yards or shoreline and just can't really get a good bite going on. The water clarity was just really screwing with us. My dad did manage one more shaker on the way back, but nothing after that.

We decided to try for some bass for a little bit, throwing crankbaits and plastics, also didn't have any luck. Decided to call it a day from there.



Today with some time between my classes I decided to go out there again solo just off of the bank. I walked along the bank looking for a nice spot with some shade. I get a nice spot and throw out a cut anchovie while I toss a swimbait with my other rod. I get a few quick taps on the chovie but nothing hit real hard for me to get a hookset on. I swung at one, but just barely missed the bite.

I throw swimbaits, rattle traps, and just for the heck of it a few of my assorted top water lures, just to mess around. After not getting a thing to hit a lure I put a jig on and just practice pitching since its a new concept for me. After I got tired of that I put another cut chovie on that rod and was fishing double bait. Not long after it hit the water it doubled over and I slammed the hook on it.

Got my skunk off with this small shaker.

Needless to say this was the only fish I caught before I had to go back to class. Not bad for a short afternoon. I'll be back 2maro looking for a keeper!.

Till Then
Mark

Half Moon Bay 3/27/11

Garrett and I got to talking and we were thinking it was time for some serious poke polling to get some eels and maybe a few Rock

Fish. With a break in the weather we decided to go down to half moon bay to fish off of the Jetty. Low tide was at 1243. Perfect timing for us. My Girl friend Deni and friend Stephanie tagged along as well, mostly just to hang out but they tried crabbing and poke polling for a bit.

We got to the Jetty around 1100 and as I'm setting up rods for Steph and Deni, Garrett jumps ahead of me and slams a eel in his first hole.



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He his very next immediate hole he misses another one. I finally put some squid on and get down to looking for some spots.



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Garrett and I must have walked almost a mile down this jetty and only manged a half dozen of a few small 6 inch Rock Fish and smaller Sculpin.



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Fishing is slow and there just isn't anything worth wild biting today. I decide to walk back to base camp and see how well Deni and Steph were doing with the crab. I get back and they haven't gotten anything. The Surf is really rough, making it kinda hard to throw the snares and getting them to stay put. As I was asking them how things were they told me they saw a fellow fisherwoman get two eels within 5 mins right before I got there. So I keep trying and trying hoping I can get atleast one.



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Another 10 mins. later I get my first good bite and I get my eel!



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Finally 2 hours and a mile into it I get my skunk off (not counting any of the small rock fish). I walk back down and try to get another. I immediatly get another bite but unfortunatly I missed it. I was one of 4 people poke polling in this area and within 30 mins I saw 6 eels get pulled out including the one I got. After that though it was dead as a door nail. The tide started coming back in and we couldn't get anymore bites.

Garrett pushed through until the end.



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I went to try for crab while Garrett was still poke polling. I managed to get one short dungie with in an hour. Crabbing sucked. I asked around too. Most guys who were just crabbing and had been all morning only had one or 2 legals.

Garrett managed a few more small rock fish, but nothing interesting came up. With the returning tide we decided to call it a day.

Fishing and crabbing was pretty slow today, but it was still fun and I didn't get skunked =)

I think I'm going to stick to Bodega from now on.

Till Next Time
Mark

Elk Grove Park 3/26/11

Today I went to Elk Grove High School to watch my old High School's (Cordova High School) Winter Line and Winter Guard perform at their competition. Between performances I had a few hours to kill, so I went to elk grove park to see if I could get a trout to bite. Yesterday I went and bought a new bait casting set up with a Abu Garcia Revo S reel on a Okuma Reflexions rod that I can use while I'm waiting for my broken lamiglass to get replaced. I bought this for bass, stripers, and maybe salmon. A bit heavy for trout, especially for me since I've gotten really used to using 2lb test for them, but I just wanted to get a feel for the new rod.

My friend Brian was with me I had my UL rod with me so I handed it to him and we did a lap around the pond casting a long the way. Our friend Carl was with us too, not fishing just hanging out. I'm throwing a 1/4 kastmaster with Brian trying my standard crappie jigs. As were walking around Carl and I were talking when he accidently dropped a piece of paper in the water from his pocket. He felt bad about littering so I was reeling my kastmaster towards the paper floating in the water to try and get it. Right as my kastmaster comes into view I pull it towards the paper and out of no where I see this white flash where my lure was, I thought for a second, what the heck was that? . . . . wait . . . . FISH ON!!!



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I came out here just wanting to get a feel for my new rod. Didn't plan at all on catching a fish and hey what do you know? Out of random luck I was able to get one



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We finish our walk around the pond without another bite. I feel pretty accomplished though. Got way more then what I expected.

We went back to the comp. to watch performances for the rest of the day. For anyone who doesn't know what Winter Line is , its basically the same thing as a marching band half time field show except its just the Drum Line and its on a basketball court. If anyone wants to see here is a link from back in 2009 when I did it as a senior in high school.

You Tube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIvXJ_vaRzw

All in all a great day. I caught a fish, saw lots of old friends, and got to re-live some old memories. Good times

Till Next Time Guys
Mark

Lake Amador 3/22/11

My dad and I decided to go out to Lake Amador to try for some bass. We launch the pontoon and go up the Carson Arm. We throw brush hogs, robo worms, and some crankbaits. After trying for a few hours my dad thought he missed a tap on a crank bait and I manage to hook up with one on a baby bass colored, robo worm, but it popped off after a 5 second fight.


After a while with getting frusterated with Bass we decided to pull the pontoon in and try for some trout off of the dam. I take my ultralight set up with my crappie jigs and start walking the bank looking for cruiser. I find a few in the boat ramp area and manage to get one. I walked from the boat ramp all the way to the spill way only for a few more lookers and no more fish. Slow day, but its always nice to get out on the water.

Here is the Trout.

Till Next time Guys

Mark

Short Port Trip

I wanted to get out and try the port between my classes today. I just had to fish. I launched the toon and was trolling by 1430. I was going to go solo today, but my girl friend Deni said she wanted to come.



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She doesn't have a license yet, but she loves the outdoors and getting outside just as much as I do, so she was more then happy to come along just for the ride.

I go through my first trolling lane and not a bite. I guess the tide wasn't right or something. There were a lot of shore fisherman out. Most said they either just had a few shakers or nothing. I saw one guy land a small shaker as I trolled by. I decided to troll past all of the boat docks today to see what was happening there, but nothing happened really the entire way. Within the last 40ft stretch of dock I hooked into a small shaker. He came unbuttoned right at the boat. Thats ok, was just a shaker and wasn't really picture worthy anyways.

So with nothing happening here I head over to hit the other bank. Once I get to my spot I miss 2 hits instantly. As I pass the stretch without a fish, but had some missed hits I had to go back. I knew I was on a time frame, but I couldn't resist one more pass. As were making our next pass I stick my fish I was looking for and I knew it was worth it to run by it again.



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I think this fish was legal, I never measured him out, but just for the heck of it lets say he was 18 inches since I threw him back anyways.

We head back to the ramp to pull out with a few more taps on the way but nothing else stuck. Off of the water by 1700, pretty happy with the results for the day with only a little over 2 hours of fishing.

Here are a few pictures to show you guys what my small Toyota Corolla looks like when its all loaded up with the toon. Figured you guys might get a kick out of it.



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Till Next Time Guys
Mark

Sacramento Port 3/13/11

Today I decided to take the pontoon out to the Port to try for some Striper action. My friend Ethan came with me today to help me rip some lips. We set up the toon and start trolling by 1100. A late start I know but when I picked up Ethan I realized I forgot my license at home so I had to run back for that putting a big detour in our route.



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The Pontoon

We slow trolled white swimbaits on 1/2 ounce jig heads with pro cure Threadfin Shad scent. I also brought my

fly rod just for the heck of it and tried trolling a white and blue clouser minnow. After a few minutes I stick my first fish and get the skunk off.



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A small shaker but its a fish. Stuck him on the swimbait.

We troll further down to try and do some bass fishing. We come up on out spot and we throw crank/jerk baits, senkos, and brush hogs for one bite each, but they didn't connect. We tried for an hour for nothing else so we decided to go back on the troll for some stripers. Trolling back along the bank in about 18ft of water I stick a smaller shaker.



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Shortly after I get a better bite and I'm hoping it is a nicer fish. It was and was a bit of a suprise.



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My first bass of 2011!!!

A great suprise and a great catch. Poor Ethan was getting some short strikes and lost a couple of fish, but couldn't land any. He was getting pretty frusterated, but I had faith in him. Further along I stick another one and finally get my legal striper.



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We pass this spot several more times both of us getting short strikes and taps. I hook up again and immediatly my drag starts singing. I can feel this is a much bigger fish and my heart is pumping. Right there though my hook popped and the fish was gone. The big one got away ='(

Afterwards Ethan finally lands a fish for himself.


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Cute little shaker for him.

We make a few more passes for a few taps, but nothing else. My boat battery starts dieing and we came in and decided to call it a day. We were off of the water by 1500 and just in time too. As we were packing up the rain started coming down. Not very super hard, but neither of us had a rain gear on us and wanted to deal with it.

Great day on the water, all fish came on white swimbaits. Water temp was 57 on average today. Just a little bit warmer and the bass should be hitting.

Till next time guys
Mark

Bodega in the Rain 3/10/11

I get a day off from work and school and my dad and I had a craving for some crab to we decided to make the run out to Bodega Bay. We leave in the morning at 0530 to catch lowtide at 0830 to do a little bit of poke poling. My dad hasn't done this before and wanted to give it a try. We got on the water around 0820 and I briefly explain the concept of poke poling to my dad and he gets his squid, cast it out 10ft off of the

bank, and puts his pole down. Lazy ass old man. I'm looking for some holes and before I get my first bite my dad reels in to check his bait and yells fish on!!! Sure enough I look over and my dad has drawn first blood with a nice rock fish.



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(My dad being camera shy again)

So this method of really just bait fishing worked for my dad so he just kept doing that. I stuck to the rocks looking for some eels. I had some bites here and there but I couldn't stick anything. Figured it was just a bunch of small fish. At the end of the stretch of the rocks I finally hook into a decent eel.



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Got the skunking off for me.

I go back to my tackel bag to size down hooks since I had a lot of bites but only 1 eel. I go from a 2/0 to a size 4 hook, massive jump down. I immediately started catching small 5 inch long rock fish here and there with a small 6 inch eel here and there in the mix. Further along I come across another nice eel.



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Afterwards the rain starts picking up and my dad runs back for cover. I stick around for a bit hoping to get a few more eels. I did manage to loss two more bigger then the ones I caught. Dang though are they strong. As I'm pulling on them I can see their heads poking out but they hold strong onto those rocks with their tails. I ended up losing those two in the game of tug-o-war. It starts getting to wet for me to stay out there so I went back to the car to get my rain gear on.

I get back to the car and we went to the jetti to try for some crab. I go out solo, my dad didn't want to be in the rain. I find my spot on the jetti I like and throw out the crab snares. Talking to fisherman on the way out most only had 2 or 3 keepers over the whole day. Lots of short females, and man oh man were they right. I must have released over a dozen 5 1/2 inch female dungies before I got my first keeper.

As I'm crabbing I see the warden back in the parking lot checking everyone out. Later I saw him talking to some guys at his truck, someone is in trouble. He came out on the jetti later to talk to me and he said he nailed a couple of guys for keeping 51 dungenous crabs all female and all undersized. He definatly isn't having a good day.

Later on my dad comes out and I teach him how to use the snare and he gets a hang of it and ends up getting a few. He only managed one keeper though. Needless to say though he was tired and kinda bored, so he stayed out on the jetti with me for about an hour then went back to the car for a cat nap.

Later on around 1500 I walk out to the end of the jetti for some rock cod action at the slack tide. I start off throwing a texas rigged white grub for nothing. I switch over to a drop shot with some squid. As I'm reeling in my first cast up to make the next cast my line gets heavy and I set the hook! I feel a head shake and I see the fish. Roughly a 26 or 28inch Lingcod is down there on the end of my line, but right when he broke the surface he spat that hook right out at me. DAMN!!! I know its not legal to keep lings right now but its still pretty freaking awesome to catch one. Would have been my first legal one too.

I didn't catch anymore fish (thought that ling might have scared them all off), and I ended the day around 1730 with 8 legal dungies in the cooler and 1 nice sized red crab. I've got a dinner to look forward to 2maro =)

I'll be back for that Ling soon. I can't let him beat me again.

till next time guys
MarkdaShark19



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