AR 9/24/12

Hit the river this morning in search of some more pink. Woke up on time today with hopes of getting a better spot, but when Ethan and I showed up at 0600 there were already 5 guys on the line. Made our way out to the line and got to fishing right away. First cast in I hook up, then hook off. I was excited to hook into one early, hopefully hooking one on the first cast wont mean bad luck for the rest of the day for me. Right away there were guys in the lower end of the line hooking up and losing fish. I saw one guy that managed to limit out before 0700. Everyone at the top of the line including myself though was having a hard time getting into the right slot to hook up.

Around 0900 ish though the school moved up a bit and we started hooking up. Jay (jfitalia) managed to stick a nice one and as he was fighting his fish I saw several other wakes right behind it. School was moving up with his fish that he was fighting. I tossed in right behind Jay's fish and I'm immediatly hooked up. Double baby! Both fish brought back to the bank and we each got one in the bag now. Solid 20lbers too.

I fished on until 1000 and managed to hook one more, but he ran down the rapids and popped off. Decided my one fish was gonna be heavy enough to carry back so I left from there

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 717x960 and weights 160KB.

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x768 and weights 418KB.

Talk about a mean looking fish man.

Good morning outing. Had a group of 4 outcaster's out there today too which is always cool as well. By the way smoked salmon is amazing and I am one pretty happy man right now.

Till Next Time Guys
Mark

Jigging Miller Park 9/23/12

I got a fish finder for my boat and my buddy Adam was helping me install it. In return I had to take him out fishing of course. Had some friends telling me that Miller has been hot the past couple of days, so I thought I would go out and try jigging it. Early in the beginning of the season I told myself now that I have my boat I had to get a salmon on a jig, something I've never done before and wanted to get a salmon on a new method, and I had a good feeling today. Launched at 0630ish, and headed up to the 80 bridge. I tried trolling up a little bit, but it became a bit of a hassle so I gave that up pretty quick. First drop down I see some arcs on the fish finder, sweet school is moving through. Not even a minute into the drift my jig gets grabbed and I'm hooked up. In only about 13ft of water the second I hooked up I saw flash in the murky sac water, man this fish must be chrome. Little guys put up one hell of a fight for his size, but this Jack wasn't getting away from me.

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x768.

Representing my Sac State colors.

Small guy, but man was it chrome! The picture does it no justice, but there was literally a sun glare coming off of this fish.

Felt great to get the skunk off that fast. Jigged the rest of the morning for nothing else though. I saw one other jigger hook up with a fish the same size as mine. I talked to him real quick and he told me he has been coming out almost every other day the past couple of weeks and hasn't gotten skunked yet. Good to hear. Off of the water by 0930 so I could make it to my Sac State Football game in time. If you ask me Salmon season is in full swing man lets go out there and get em!

Till Next Time Guys
Mark

American River 9/19/12

Garrett has been telling me about his spot where some guys have been hooking into some salmon ona regular basis. I've been meaning to fish it for a while now, but I kept putting it off. Decided to wake up early before class today and give it a shot. Arrived on scene just before 0600 and joined 3 other guys in the line up. First fish was hooked by another angler at 0606. next fish wasn't hooked until about 0720. After that we had a school come through and a few guys started hooking up, myself included. I hooked into what felt like a jack. Fought it for about 20 seconds then my hooked popped. Seemed to happen a lot here, but man seeing this many fish getting hooked was cool even if most of them popped off.

I was getting to become good friends with a good snag and ended up donating a few rigs to the river. Close to 0900 I lost another set up and having not hooked another fish I was thinking about just taking off. There were a few guys at the bank though asking what we were using and wanted to see me set up. First thing I thought was you guys are asking the wrong guy seeing as I'm really new to this beading thing, but I showed them what I was doing and how I did my set up. They were really thankful for all inforamtion I could give them. I walked back out in the line. This time a bit further up river to try to avoid the snag I had been hitting all morning. Second cast in my line stops I swing up and just feel dead weight. First thought was "damn-it I can't avoid these freaking snags." Then after about 5 seconds of me just pulling on it I felt some head shakes and I felt like and idiot when I realized I had a big salmon on.

I tried working the fish up river to get out of the line and out of everyone's way. Right as I felt I had the fish under control I started walking back to the bank and the fish turns down river on me and makes a run in between everyone else's legs in the line up. After a few hops, skips, over my line, and a couple of oh shit's my fish came back in and I was able to get it to shore.

The guys I was just talking to were waiting for me back at the bank eager to take my picture.

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x768 and weights 437KB.

Felt like a first class rookie when my fish took off and made a mess out of the whole line up of guys, but it didn't seem like anyone was too mad at me. Next time I'll be sure to move further up and make sure I'm out of the way and have plenty of room to fight the fish.

Walked back out to see if I could get my limit. Second cast I snagged and broke off, again. After that I said I got my fish and I'm good. Off of the water just after 0900 with a smile on my face until I had to make the long walk back to my car carrying that heavy ass fish. All worth it though.

Till Next Time Guys

Walnut Grove Salmon 9/16/12

Had plans to fish with Garrett in the morning, but with Performing at a Sac State Football game the day before I was exhausted and was not waking up early in the morning, so I had to flake on him. After I woke up Garrett told me that he wanted to check out Walnut Grove since BigK did pretty well out there and it was a mid afternoon bite just to fish the incoming tide. Since it was his birthday and I already flaked on him once I couldn't say no. Got everything together and headed out there door. Got to Wimpy's around 1230 and headed over to the Sac to join the fleet and see what we could pull up. Lots and lots of boats on the water today. Must have been fishing the same area with close to 50 other trollers. Cool thing was though every boat we talked to all except one had at least a fish if not two, so chances were looking pretty good.

Trolled down stream way past Walnut Grove with Silvertrons, was further down river then most of the fleet. We saw one boat hook up on the other side of the river across from us and land a fish, Then shortly after Garrett's rod gets hammered, but it didn't stick. Trolled a little further down and tried going back up river. For some reason I decided to switch over to a kwikfish and try that. Trolled all the way back up seeing boats with fish passing us. Garrett was beating himself up over his fish that didn't stick, then as we were talking about it my rod double's over and I'm hooked up. Maybe 2 seconds after I hooked up a boater next to us hooked up as well. Pretty awesome to see.

Fish fought like a champ for the condition it was in.

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x768.

Got this girl in and man she looks like she got hit by something, but she is still chrome and gorgeous. Got her on the K-14 Kwikfish silver/chartuse lathered in sardine scent.

We trolled on hoping we could hit one more in the same school, then a couple mins. later Garrett's rod goes off again. Excited we were gonna get a second salmon in the boat, we were slightly disappointed to see this guy on the end of the line.

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x768.

But man it actually is a really nice Smallie.

We kept at it till about 1730, then I had to get going and the battery for my trolling motor was dieing anyways so it was time to go.

First time fishing the area I have to say I'm impressed. The amount of fish caught I saw to fisherman ratio was pretty impressive, and I watched about half a dozen fish get landed around me. There is defiantly a good school moving through the area here. I'll be back for sure.

On a side note I never got around to writing the report. Just a quickie, Thursday 9/13/12 I met some friends at Miller Park who have been fishing that these past few weeks. They told me that with the early morning incoming tides going on it would be a good time to come out. Fished from 0600-0900 and saw 6 fish caught and at least 2 lost that I know of and one that was foul hooked out of 40 something guys. I wasn't lucky enough to hook up but my friend Bing was.

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x768.

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x768.

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x768.

Fish are being caught here as well, but the ratio to fish caught to fisherman isn't all that great. Plus its combat fishing at its best, so I'll probably stay away from this area.

Felt great to get some more salmon blood in the boat. Learned a new area to fish and I'll defiantly be getting out more.

Till Next Time Guys
Mark

Carson Limit 9/1/12

Was up in Tahoe celebrating my birthday with my friend Zach and since I was up there I couldn't help stopping by the Carson on the way home. I was hoping that the area would be stocked for the holiday weekend, but when I looked at the dfg planting list it didn't look that way. Oh well though I was gonna check it out regardless. First stop was the 89/88 bridge. I looked down, saw a few fish pushing 4lbs, one might have been 6. That's worth trying for. Ran down, threw my jigs and some salmon eggs for a while, but not surprisingly I couldn't get them to bite. I saw some kids catching some mountain white fish on worms or something I couldn't tell what they were using, but that was the only action going on over here. Decided these fish weren't worth wasting my time on since they have been too pressured. Move slightly down river to try a different area and see if I could find some biting fish.

Stopped at what I believe is known at the handicapped bridge now for one white fish I hooked on salmon eggs. Not skunked, but a white fish is not really gonna make me happy for the day. Moved on further down to the 88 bridge, and saw some fish there hanging out under the bridge. I tossed some salmon eggs around, but no body here wanted them. Tied my jig back on and immediately started getting some interest. Got a lot of fish coming right up to it, but not hitting it so I grabbed some shad scent threw it on there and my very next cast I got slammed. Set the hook fish on! and fish off. Kept at it here for about an hour. Ended up losing 4 more until I finally landed this guy.

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x768.

Even with a barbless hooked lure he some how managed to get the hook lodged in his gills and ended up bleeding. Oh well fish dinner for Mark tonight. Kept trying here for a while longer, but the fish caught on to me and went off of the bite. Time to hit the road again.

Moving on down I stopped at the hope valley camp ground area. Didn't see much but I saw a little bit of surface activity so I knew there were some fish in the area. Laid down low made sure the fish didn't see me or my shadow, crawled up to the bank side since I know these fish get spooked easily. Threw my jig in and first cast got rewarded with another bow.

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 768x1024.

Small streams I have come to learn, the two most important things to keep in mind is stealth and making sure you have a good first cast. If there are fish in a pool and you get a perfect cast in there without the fish seeing you your guaranteed a hook up. Tried a bit longer with the jig, got a few more short taps, but didn't get any more good hits on it that I could get a good hook set on. Lets try the salmon eggs again.

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x768.

Best brand thats out there can't beat it man. Tossed the eggs in just free lining em and I caught two more in no time. After that though the fish caught on to me again and went off of the bite, really? Need one more fish for my limit and your gonna shut off on me now. All part of the challenge though. Walked up river to try the next pool. Crawled up behind a bush made a cast behind cover and sure enough not even a second after the eggs hit the water a fish came out of no where and slammed it.

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x768.

Fish number 5 baby! and its even a cut throat. Been a while since I've caught one of these guys. Happy with my 5 I packed up and hit the road again on the course for home. Had to make a couple of stops on the way though.

Decided to stop at the spill way of Caples just to see what was going on.

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x768.

Saw a few people fishing in the area enjoying their holiday weekend.

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x768.

Asked around, no one had caught anything, just missed a few bites. I saw a couple of dfg planters swimming around after watching the water for about 10 mins. Good enough for me moving on again.

Had my trumpet with me from band practice the day before so I thought I stop at the top of the mountain and play for a bit.

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x768.

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x768.

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 768x1024.

My only other serious passion I have besides fishing.

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x768.

The valley I played over.

Playing up here is really cool cause there is a pretty cool echo when there aren't cars driving by messing up the sound. Played until I couldn't breath anymore from the elevation and rolled down the hill.

Stopped at Silver to see what was going on here.

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x768.

When the heck did you have to start paying for parking at Silver?!?! I never remembered this being here. Stopped to take a quick pic of the lake.

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x768.

Didn't see anyone fishing or any signs of active fish in the area and moved on. Finished my little adventure there, almost stopped at lower bear on the way home too, but at that point I kinda just wanted to go home. Continued my track down the mountain on my long car ride home. Glad I got to fish the area for a bit and was able to catch some fish. It wasn't really easy getting them, but that's what makes it more rewarding. Actually had a blast running solo up here and just slowing down and working hard for my fish.

I kinda stopped coming up this way when it started getting more and more pressured from public fishing boards, which is really sad when I think about it because its on these waters where I really learned how to fish and got my passion for the sport, but I still like coming up when I can thinking about how awesome this place was and still is for that matter. I'll be sure to make at least more more trip in the fall to see all of the seasonal colors of the area. It sure is one beautiful place that time of year, heck it is year round what the heck am I talking about.

Till Next Time Guys
Mark