Camanche South Shore Trout Pond 11/30/11

Original plan was to wake up early-ish to go back out to the Delta and give sturgeon another try. Was watching the news last night and saw that the weather was switching from fog to wind. Told my dad about the weather change and he nor I wanted to be out on the Delta in the Tracker in 35 mph winds gust, so instead of going out to Rio Vista we decided to hit the Trout Pond for the first time this year. I've been seeing that its been planted a few times this year, but haven't heard anything from it yet. Figured it was time to go out and see how it was doing.

We got on the water around 1300. Saw one guy out on his raft drifting around and 4 other bank anglers. Not to many people and they all left about an hour after we got there, so we basically had it all to ourselfs. Probably not a good sign that there weren't a lot of people, but my dad and I hate crowds anyways so were happy about it. As we were setting up We both saw a small trout jump about 40ft off of the bank. Good sign, knew there were fish here and they were on the surface. I really wanted to do my usual bobber set ups, but with the wind it just wasn't gonna work. My dad threw bait out on the bottom and was casting his rapala's. I tried the bobbers anyways, but the wind was just blowing them all over the place.

Needless to say I lost confidence in this and I got bored, so like I do when I usually get bored at the pond I grab my UL rod and my jig box and walk around the pond looking for cruisers. I walked around doing some fan cast here and there, but never got anything. I saw a few of these bouys around the pond.



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Something new. I don't know if you guys can read it or not but it says "Caution weed suppression blanket." Besides maybe a major snag I don't see why I need to be cautioned about it, but the idea seems sweet don't have to worry about the weeds as much anymore. Definitely makes a lot more water fishable providing more room for bank anglers and less snags.

Kept walking around the pond and finally I saw a few fish cruising next to the bank.



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Hard to see I know, but believe me they are there. I was throwing my jigs at em, I had one swing by and take a sniff at my jig, but I couldn't get one to commit. I Kept trying for about a half hour for nothing. I thought I needed something more enticing for them, luckily I had a secret weapon.

Ran back to the truck and grabbed this.



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One of the trout I kept from Amador yesterday had some roe in her. I bought some Pautzt's Fire Cure for my next salmon I caught, but that never happened, so I thought what the hell I can cure the trout roe and use that for something. I don't fish for Steelies and Salmon are a little too Dark now for me. I thought it would work great here instead.

By the time I came back though the fish I saw were gone. I scanned the banks looking for em and I found a school of about 10 fish circling around, even better. I free lined the roe right in the middle of the school. I had some come right up to it, but they wouldn't go for it right away. I tried doing a slow retrieve through the school, some followed and they got a little more aggressive, but they still wouldn't take it. Then I tried dragging it a long the surface of the water and I had 4 of them rise for it like a dry fly, but they all missed it. I tossed it back one more time and I felt a pick up on the line. I counted to 3 and set the hook fish on!

Guy put up a good fight, but I won in the end.



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Beautiful fish, I forgot how pretty Mt. Lassen fish were. The color on these fish are incredible.

Unfortunately he broke me off when I got him on the bank and I had to re-tie my egg loop knot and by the time I got that done and re-baited my school was gone.

I walked back over to my dad and I saw another school of about 20 fish swimming around. I threw the roe in there, they didn't want anything to do with it. Then I tried my jig and not even a single looker. I looked and one of those black birds with the name that I can't spell to save my life was hot on their asses. These fish were scared for their life's, so yea food was not the first thing on their mind.

Needless to say I couldn't get anymore bites after that. Got a new phone recently, thought I'd see how well the camera is on it.



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My usual resident ducks. The one on the top left my dad and I have actually named Grandpa because of his white feathers that make him look a little older then the others. He along with the other ducks have been here for years except for the female duck in the middle she became a new resident last year. Shows how much my dad and I fish the trout pond, we have names for and recognize the ducks in the pond.



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Resident Pelican



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Windy Pond



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My Dad checking his bait.



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Birds getting ready to roost up for the night.

Ended the day at sunset. My dad said he had a bite on a Kastmaster and that was it for him. Pond still needs a few more plants to get going, or a few less birds for that matter. Seems like me and other animals recently just aren't getting a long.

Conditions with the wind today weren't great, but it was good to see the pond again and it was great to get out as always.

Till Next Time Guys
Mark

Trolling Lake Amador 11/29/11

My buddy Jay (jfitalia) called me and said lets go fishing. Debated between stripers or trout. Figured I haven't been to Amador in a while and my school of stripers in the port moved off to idk where so trout it was. Jeremy had always told me how amazing grubs are trolling for trout, but I've never learned how to properly troll them, so Jay told me he would show me the ways of trolling Amador.

We got on the the water around 0700. Got out of the launch cove and started trolling around the dam and up the north shore. I got to say too man oh man was it foggy.



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We made a few circles around the area without a bite, so we decided to try a different section of the lake. We trolled further down the lake towards Mountain Springs. After we passed the spillway We started seeing fish surfacing everywhere all around us far and wide. We keep trolling through the schools without a bite, and with fish jumping all over the place and even only about 5ft from the boat my patience was running low. I decided to pull in one of my rods and get up on one of the bow of the boat and I decided to cast my jig towards the swirls of fish. Sure enough not much longer after I started this I got hit. I ended up missing a couple of hits before I stuck my first fish.



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The second I threw that fish in the live well I heard Jay say "Mark your rod!!!" I look behind me and my trolling rod with a fire tiger grub on it with a white power egg ahead of it was doubled over. I grabbed the rod and Fish on Baby!



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Couple of fish with in a few seconds hell yea!

Not much later Jay gets his fish on a orange grub.



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We kept making passes here getting 2 or 3 fish on each pass most on grubs some on me throwing jigs and Jay Got a few trolling a night crawler too.

Trolling speed .6-1.5mph
Scents threadfin shad and shrimp
Set backs we switched from 80ft to as close as 30ft back.

Unfortunatly I think my battery for the trolling motor is shot. Around 1100 or so my battery started dieing, but we managed to keep it going for a while longer. Off of the water around 1330. We must have boated close to 20 fish throughout the day.

The Live Well


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Once we found the fish the bite was pretty consistent throughout the day right up until the end when .5mph was the max speed on my trolling motor, and I'm pretty sure that was mostly just the wind pushing us.

Great day on the water and awesome to learn a new productive way of fishing.

Till Next Time Guys.
Mark

Earning My Stripes Sacramento Port 11/19/11

Garrett has been begging me to take him out to the port to go after some stripers. I was slightly skeptical with the results I had trolling for them last week, but I decided it was worth a second shot. Plus with the recent rain maybe it will turn the bite on. Garrett told me he had a buddy nailing some out there on top water in the early AM. You know I'm all over that!!!

I unfortunately though am still not am an early morning person so I pulled an all nighter to make sure I was up in time. Got Garrett up early and pulled into the parking lot around 0500. Got the toon set up and walked down to the water and as we were walking down we saw shad jumping around everywhere and stripers were crashing on them right next to the bank. We dropped the toon where it was and you can bet we have spooks tied on. We toss to the boils and Garrett gets a nice swirl, but the fish never takes it. That's all we get though before the fish move off.

We launch the toon and go in the search of more fish. We try trolling around for a bit but as were trolling around we see some more fish crashing on some shad close to the bank. I stick with throwing my spook and Garrett tries a swimbait. Garrett is setting the hook every two seconds until he realizes that its the shad bumping and hitting his swimbait that he is setting the hook on. After a while though I managed to get a swirl on my spook. First swirl the fish missed, second the fish bumped the lure, I got jumpy and swung for a hookset, but I stopped half way through knowing the fish hadn't taken the lure. Luckily I didn't ruin my whole cast, I did two more jerks and boom. Saw that swirl, felt the weight and fish on baby.

I draw first blood on top with this nice keeper.



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Silly me I forgot my tape measure and my scale, so the length and weight goes unknown. Great fish though and that's I need to know.

Shortly after Garrett gets one on his swimbait.



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and another



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and another . . . .



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Hot Damn man swimbait is killing em I got to switch! Sure enough I do and I hook up.



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After that me and Garrett just chased the schools around the banks tossing the swimbaits at them and going to town on these fish.



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our first double



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and our second

We end up getting a total of 4 doubles and close to 10 fish each. After the sun gets high in the sky the fish stop crashing on the surface so we decide to go on the troll. We end up hooking a few but the bite was pretty much dead. With the stripers not bitting any more I decided we would run over and see if we could crank out some black bass.

I get to the cove and sure enough it didn't take long before I started hooking up throwing a shallow diving sexy shad crankbait.



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Trying for a couple of hours I ended up with catching about 8 with my largest being about 4lbs. Poor Garrett just didn't have the right lure the whole time casting to each hole first before me he only managed to catch one short fish and lose one in the 3lb range.

After running out of fishable water for the largemouth we decided to go back on the troll for some more stripers. We find a few more shakers here and there but nothing big.



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sucker swallowed that thing.

Saw Makattak when he was on his lunch break. He told us about some fish possibly being over in the locks just off of Jefferson so we decided to go over there and give it a try.

Nice seeing you and talking to you again Kevin.

We got down there and we saw a few swirls so we knew there were some active fish around. After a while of tossing swimbaits around Garrett and I manage a couple here.



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While we were fishing here I saw a guy come down throwing a gibs minnow for I was assuming salmon. After a short while though Garrett and I saw him catch what we thought was a shaker striper. From far away though we weren't really sure. I saw Garrett had a eye locked on it and he told me it was a shad. We got closer and the guy walked over to us held the fish out and asked us "Hey what kind of fish is this?" He had no idea though. Sure enough though middle of freaking November this guy caught a shad on a freaking gibs minnow. I'll tell you if I didn't see it then I never would have believed it.

After that though we went back on the troll for a few more fish. We ended the day with a total of 26 stripers between the two of us averaging 17-21 inches. Probably at least 15 of the fish being legal keepers. Got off of the water around 1430.

Most amazing day I have ever had at the port striper fishing. Can't wait to get back out there. I'll definatly have to start waking up eariler too to make sure I can get on the early morning top water bite.

Till Next Time Guys

3 day report 11/9-11/11

I got 3 days off of work this week and I had a lot of fishing I wanted to do. Day one off, Wednesday 11/9/11 my dad and I had an itch for some crab so we took off for Doran beach to hopefully get on some Dungies. I got Deni to come a long with us too. Got to the Jetty around 1230 and set out on the killer rock hopping journey out to where we decided to set up camp. Got out to the spot and threw our snares out. I got some new crabhawks too that I wanted to try. I normally fish the inside of the Jetty, but today the current was just too much. With 7 ounces on my crabhawk it was still drifting. I had to use 12 ounces to get the trap to hold.



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Had to deal with the kelp all day.

I kept trying and I eventually ended up getting one nice sized Red Crab.



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We kept at it though and none of us were able to bring anything else up. I looked around at other fellow fisherman and I only saw 1 guy out of 10 that had one keeper, so it was slow all around.

Low tide came around though and you know we have to go over and do some poke poling. We pack up shop to move over to our rocks that we can poke pole in. We show up and my dad just throws out some bait for rock fish, I try throwing a white tube, and Deni puts some squid on to poke pole for the eels. I'm still tieing up and Deni walks over with her first eel before I've even gotten in the water.



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Deni is the poke pole queen man 5 mins. go by and she has already landed 3 eels. I finally get in the water and after doing a bit of fan casting I manage to land a nice rock fish.



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My dad was also trying to toss lures for some rock fish too. Throwing a 3 inch white power grub on a 1/8th ounce jig head he hooks into something that peels off about 30 yards of line from him and puts up one hell of a fight. After about a 5 min fight though the fish buries himself into the kelp and my dad's 4lb test line snapped when trying to pull him out of there. Damn the old man is crazy for trying that light line out here around all of these rocks and weeds.

My dad and I kept trying but we never got any more rockfish to bite, so I decided to put some squid on and join Deni in the search for the eels. I get there and she is catching more eels, small rock fish, and even some small crabs left and right.



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I on the other hand though with a half hour of trying I only managed one eel that was about 5 inches long. Not much to brag about. Deni was defiantly winning here.

While all of this was going on I had my crab hawk out to try and get some more crab to take home. I managed a few more red crab and this spider crab.



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Man these things are creepy looking. Everyone tells me you can eat them, but you know I just don't think he looks very appetizing. Back in the water he goes! I eventually try another spot with the crab hawk and I finally get a dungie! He ended up being like an 1/8th of a inch too short though. Damn, but hey! Good sign I know where they are at. I throw the trap back out in hopes of getting a keeper. While I was waiting on that I was bummed because I realized I might have just found the crab and the sun is going down and we have to leave soon.



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Some sunset shots.

Well I better hope I make the last few minutes count. I haul in my trap and pray for some keepers.



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This was all I got though



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Trap is full is dungies, but oh my god they are so small. Every time I brought the trap in it was full of these guys, and no keepers.

Kept trying, but never got a keeper. Guess I have to wait until the bigger guys move in closer before I can start getting them off of the jetty.

Got home and got all of the eels Deni caught out to clean em up.



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You know I absolutely love eating these guys I think they are delicious, but I am over cleaning them. Filleting them out and skinning them is a pain in the ass. Especially because they are so hardy they are usually alive after a 3 hour car ride home in the cooler full of ice, and I'll tell you they are not happy once you lay them down on the cutting board.

Still though great day on the water. Felt good to get some salt back into the system. I'll be looking out for when the crab move closer in until I come back though.

Day two 11/10/11

I had plans to do some moonlight fishing tonight with Deni, but what to do until then? Go fishing of course!!! Deni had school so I called up my friend Adam and asked if he wanted to go and see if the Stripers were biting. He of course said yes, so I packed up the toon and took of for the Sacramento Port.

Got on the water around 1200 and started setting up for my slow swimbait troll. While we were setting up I saw a boat troll right by us and land a 20 incher using a rebel. Good sign, should mean fish are on the chew. We get trolling a long I'm using my usual 5 inch white fish trap and Adam decided to try to troll a white bucktail jig with a 6 inch curly tail grub trailer. We get up to one of my land marks I usually always stick some fish at and Adam's rod doubles over and his drag starts singing. Fish on baby! Fish peels off 20 yards of line, I grab the net Adam gets him probably 10ft away from the boat, just out of sight, and the hook comes loose. Major disappointment. Knew it was a good fish too. Just wish we could have seen it though.

We make a few more passes throughout the same area, but we never get another bite. With Stripers not biting as well as I'd like I decide to head over to another area and try to salvage the afternoon with some black bass.

I get over to a small cove I think looks good. I start off with a texas rigged creature bait, just because thats what has always worked well for me here before, but I had a crank bait tied on another rod just to be ready, because I just had a feeling today might be a cranking day.

I toss the soft bait around for a while without a bite. I can see some weeds and water moving around though so I know there is fish in here. I pick up the crankbait and make a few cast in there. Sure enough second cast in I stick one.



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Adam switches over to a crankbait and we start going to town.



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A nice double we got



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aggressive little guy.

I even managed to get my shaker striper



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I ended up with 5 and one striper and Adam got 3. We ran out of fishable water due to weedy shallow water that crankbaits don't mix well with. I tried a fluke and some top water, but nothing else was working. We trolled back to the ramp for nothing else and called it a day from there.

Stripers weren't biting like I hoped, but man can't complain with the bassin action. Tons of fun.

Day 3 11/11/11 (or night 2 of 11/10/11)

I went to pick up Deni and with the full moon high up in the sky we were off to Amador for some night time fishing. Dropped the toon off at home and picked up the boat. Got on the water at 2200 and headed over towards the north shore. We got over to the shore and we started hearing fish jumping everywhere. Fish were jumping every 5 seconds and as close as 2 ft away from the boat. I was actually able spot light some trout cruising in the surface using my flash light. Very cool being able to see them out there cruising at night.

This time I remembered to get some glow in the dark jigs. Deni and I both were tossing em out at fish splashing close enough for us to cast too. Both of us were getting bites here and there I ended up losing one within the first 30 mins of us being there. With my second rod I decided to throw out some powerbait under a bobber just to increase my chances a little bit. I cast the rod out, put it in the rod holder, pick up my other rod, and once I turn away from my bait rod I hear the drag on it singing. Hot damn I've got a fish on already. Atleast I know powerbait will work.



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Shortly after Deni manages to stick one on the glow jig



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We keep at it missing some here and there. Deni manages one more on the jig and I get one more on power eggs.

0130 rolls around and were both exhausted. I take the boat to the back of the lake we toss out some bait rods and catch some ZZZ's. It drizzled on us a little bit, but other then that it was a beautiful night.

Morning came around and since I had the boat I had to see what jackson looked like. Went back saw the water was even lower then the last time I went. Turned around and took off. I wanted to try some trolling, but with it being a holiday there must have been another 20 boats out on the water and I didn't feel like dealing with them, so I decided to pull the boat out of the water and just fish off of the dam for a little bit.

Saw my friend Jay and his girl friend down there fishing so we decided to join them. They said the had a few on bait, but nothing much yet. Deni took notice to all of the bluegills hanging around the dam and I told her I could set her up to catch them if she wanted. Sure enough she did so I gave here a size 12 hook with a small piece of a power worm on the end of it and she went to town on the blue gills.



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Nothing really big, but she had a blast catching dozens of these guys. I tried throwing jigs and floating some powerbait on the surface. I get a few hits on the powerbait, but I never stuck anything. Kept fishing until about 1200 and decided to head home from there.

Never got any trout in the morning, but going out at night was a blast.

It was a great night on the water and has been a great three days of fishing from sea to lake. Couldn't ask for anything better. Back to work 2maro, will have to push though the next grind till my next day(s) off.

Till next time Guys
Mark