Couple Days on The AR

Fished the river for some more salmon the past few days. Can't afford Amador, but I still got to get my fix in. Salmon are still here and the river is pretty much on my way to school so it works out perfectly. Slept in a little bit Monday morning 10/29/12 got on the water around 0930. Expecting a crowd to be out there I come to the line to only find two people out there today. Everyone was probably hung over from celebrating the Giant's win I guess.

Guys on the line told me fishing had been pretty good real early but it slowed down since. Kind of expected that since I showed up pretty late, but fish are still there. The majority of the morning I saw a lot of fish moving through, but had a hard time hooking up. Later on about 1045 ish I managed to hook up and land a 10lb buck with a bit of red to him. Didn't snap and picture sorry. Me and one other fisherman stuck it out into the afternoon. 1230 I was the only guy left on the river still casting Still saw some fish moving through but less and less as the hours went on. I had a fish on fish off around 1200 and then hooked up one more time about 1300. My second fish though was not good looking at all though.

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Beat up dieing hen, let her go so she could spawn out.

I ended up catching one more fish for the rest of the day. Not even casting I was just watching salmon swimming by me with my line in the water when I felt a couple of strong tugs on my line and was just thinking what the hell I got a bite?

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This little guy grabbed my bead and got himself hooked. Fun little catch, even though he wasn't big he put up one hell of a fight for his size. Fished til 1400 before I had to leave for class.

I wasn't planning on fishing today, but Deni called me and said she wanted to carve pumpkins so I went and did that with her and stayed in Rancho to hit the river before I had to go to work.

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Our pumpkins.

Tuesday 10/30/12 I woke up earlier and got on the water around 0630. Joined a line up of 6 guys today and fished it hard, but it was slow this morning. Out of everyone we only had maybe 5 hook ups by 0830 and only one fish landed. 0840 though we started getting some more fish to come through and everyone started getting into some fish. 0855 I finally get my first hook up and land this beauty.

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Good looking buck for this time of year.

I went back out to join the line and broke off 2 cast later. I went to re-tie and realized I left my box back at shore when I was dealing with my fish. I had to leave in 30 mins anyways and I got a fish now figured I'd just call it from there.

Good couple of outings and got some more salmon to enjoy.

Till Next Time Guys
Mark

Amador Moon Light Bite

Friday night 10/26/12 I meet Ethan and a couple other friends out at Amador to try to go for a night time trout bite. Got on the water around 2100 and powerbait lines went out. Ethan brought out a flood light this time to try and bring the bait fish in. Right away we saw some trout swimming around in the light. I threw my tubes at em and ended up getting one to swipe at it, but he missed. I kept throwing my jig for a while longer until I got slammed and I ended up pulling out a decent sized crappie. After that we noticed a lot of crappie coming up to the light and chasing the shad all around. A few of us threw jigs pretty much all night for the crappie, but we were only able to pull out two more. Next time we'll find a way to catch the shad and be able to use them as bait and tear em up.

The trout bite was fair to slow. We would get short spurts of bites on the powerbait. We would get 3 in 10 mins. then go 45 mins. without a bite. We kept at it though and burned the midnight oil to end up being pretty close to getting everyone to limit out. 4 guys we ended up with 3 crappie and 16 trout. We would have stayed longer to get the final 4, but our buddy Cameron didn't dress properly and was freezing his nuts off. He spent the last hour of the night just bitching about the cold and the rest of us just couldn't take anymore so we called it a night from there around 0330. Most fish came on powerbait, I started getting hits on my glow jigs finally when we turned the light off. Guess they were easier to pick out in complete darkness. I recently taught Ethan how to fillet fish, about time. Nice to have some extra help at the cleaning station to get everything done and almost half the time.

Our nights catch

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On my way home, maybe 5 mins on the road my check engine light came on. Crap got to check that out. Pulled over popped the hood and look at that my fan belt is gone. Absolutely wonderful, Ethan and everyone left ahead of me and is already gone, my phone is dead, and I'm pretty much in the middle of no where. Well have to figure something out. I had some rope in my truck I managed to make a redneck fan belt out of, but as you could imagine it didn't work as well as the real thing. I got the fan spinning again, but not at full speed. The rest of my night ended up being driving 5 minutes, pull over take a 30 min nap and wait for the truck to cool down, drive 5 more minutes, take another nap, and do it all over again. My normal 35-40 min home ended up taking me 4 hours. Didn't roll into town until about 0830 to where I could stop and get my truck fixed. Spent all kinds of money I didn't want to but had to, so needless to say no Amador for me for a while. Luckily I made it home safe and sound though and I still have a vehicle to take me from A to B and just as importantly back to A.

Night didn't end great, but fishing still was. Next time we'll have to try to target those crappie a little more.

Till Next Time Guys
Mark

Amador 10/23/12

First off I have to say I love reading quotes like this from public boards

"With the heat we have now an the low lake level their I wouldn't count on anything till mid November at the earliest."

" I would recommend you hold off for a week or so. Everyone i saw or talked to was skunked on trout today, not even any bites."

"The water at Amador is still too warm for a decent trout bite."

"The water is still warm, there haven't been enough plants yet to establish a good number of hungry trout yet. I won't start fishing there until I see some reports start coming in."

And then going out to the lake and walking away with this.

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Don't believe everything you see on the internet! lol

Ok Lets start from the beginning.

Ethan and I heard that Amador started planting and we could not wait to get back out to our favorite trout lake. Ethan was free on Tuesday, but I had work at 1200. Some how he convinced me to make an early trip out and fish it before work. Honestly wasn't that hard to convince me since I was dieing to go. Original plan was to fish it 0500-1000, but I thought hell if were waking up early might as well go earlier and try to get some on a night bite before then sun comes up though. I walk out of my front door at 0200 to see it pouring rain outside.

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Not always fun to fish in, but I was happy because I knew it would help out the bite. Ethan and I showed up at the gate at 0345, and we realized we didn't have any cash on us only our cards. Of course unfortunately the guy who lets people in after and before hours takes cash only so there we were sitting and waiting for two hours for the gate to open. Should have slept in, or just brought cash. Time came around though and we got in around 0530 and got to fishing.

Headed straight down to the dock and I dropped a glow tube about 10ft down and just left it hanging while I was setting up my other rod. Not even 5 seconds after I put my rod down though I see my rod slowly loading up and my line veering off to the side. Went to grab it, but of course right before I got to my rod the fish dropped it. That took no time at all. Ethan and I set up a powerbait under a bobber set up to try and get some fish to bite. That didn't take long either with in an hour we both had two on the stringer.

I had a few hits tossing the glow tube around too, but I couldn't stick anything on it. After the sun came up I decided to ditch the bobber and just drop powerbait down about 6ft from the surface to give myself some more casting room for the jig. The powerbait bite was on today though.

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We stayed here until 0900 and landed 7 fish between the two of us, missing and losing quite a few others in between. Before we had to leave Ethan wanted to check out the launch ramp and see how that looked with the low water conditions.

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I was standing already half way down the ramp when I took this picture. Water is low.

I had one follower here and one bite on my white crappie jig, but nothing else.

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Decided to take off from there and get home in time for work. Lots of surface activity today on the water and before the sun came up there were tons of shad out and about jumping all over the surface.

Fish are here and they can be caught. It not the sight fishing style I'm used to fishing Amador, but right now it seems like the way to go is bait. Especially if you can get out there at night, seemed to be a bit more activity and more aggressive bites before the sun came up. We'll be headed back out with some friends Friday night to catch some fish under the moonlight if anyone cares to join us.

Till Next Time Guys
Mark

Santa Cruz Pier 10/20/12

Friday I left for Santa Cruz with the Sac State Marching Band to play at a band review down at the board walk. The night before though my co-worker was telling me how he went out fishing for salmon for the first time. He got skunked, but still a cool experience. With talking to him about it though it gave me a slight salmon fever, so I had to go out in the morning. Long story short fished sunrise to 0930 on the AR hooked 4 and landed one of them.

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Good little morning outing. Got the fish taken care of and headed to Sac State and took off for Santa Cruz. Saturday morning left our hotel and showed up at the Board Walk around 1000.



I didn't bring any gear with me because I was too afraid my rod would break some where in the loading process going under the bus and everything. I was debating on just bringing an ice fishing rod to mess around with, but I decided against it and I regretted it. I was thinking I'll be ok though just hanging out with friends.

Headed down to the beach to hang out for a bit. I wasted no time digging up some sand crabs.



Little guys are fun to dig for non the less. Headed over to the pier shortly after and when I found a bait shop I had to ask if they had any gear for rent. Guy showed me a small set up with a two hook hi-low rig all ready rigged up on it and said 10 bucks, DONE! grabbed a bag of shrimp took the rod and off I went. My friends with me were all for fishing with me before we got to the pier, but when I asked them if they were coming they decided against it. Girls said they didn't have the patience for it so they took off and the rest of the guys were just following the girls, haha. Whatever see you guys later.

Walked to the side, dropped my rig straight down and I was immediately getting bites. Took a little while to hook into one of em, but I soon figured out why they were so challenging to hook.

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Little Sand Dabs are sooo small! haha. Still cool though, first sand dab I've ever caught. Stayed here caught several of these little guys.

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Local told me fishing is usually better out at the end of the pier, so I decided to pick up and move around to try and find some bigger fish. Moved further out about half way to the end and dropped back down to try again. Bites right away and I got another new species of fish I can add to my list of caught fish.

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Pretty sure it's a lizard fish. Not totally sure, but that's my best guess. Little guys are cool though, got some mean looking teeth on em. Stayed here caught several more of these guys and a few more sand dabs. A kid next to me doing the same thing I was ended up getting a flat fish somewhere between 12-14 inches. He and I both called it a big sand dab, but I saw some other people catch fish in the same size range and they were all calling them small halibut. I honestly don't know how to tell the difference. Guy once told me if you stick your hand in its mouth and you come back with fingers then you have a flounder, beyond that I know nothing. This kid's fish did have some teeth on em though.

Nothing of size for me here so I moved further out again. About 40 yards from the end of the pier, and sea lions were everywhere! All of the tourist love em, but man were they raining on my parade. I was just losing major confidence with fishing seeing them all over the place. Kept thinking to myself what fish would be dumb enough to stick around here? I did see one sea lion ripping apart some kind of flat fish while I was there.

I was still getting bite though. Fish I were catching though are small enough they don't make a much of a meal for the sea lions so I didn't have to worry about too much as far as one grabbing the end of my line while I was fighting any fish.

Ended up getting this guy here.

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I think its a type of rockfish, but I really don't know. If some one knows and could tell me that would be greatly appreciated.

Stopped getting bites after that so I moved out to the end of the pier to try there. Saw one guy with what looked like a mackerel or a king fish, again I don't know the difference. It was a very shiny fish though.

Out here I ended up getting into a bunch of Sculpins.

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I think they are Bull Heads, but again not totally sure. They were a lot more fun to catch though. They hit harder and put up a little bit of a fight though so I had a blast catching another several of these guys.

Had to leave there to get back to the band to perform. A fun couple of hours spent. Nothing worth bragging about, but I still had a blast. Got back and did our performance and headed back home.

This is a video someone took of us performing our version of the popular music video Gangum Style.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151068361865588&notif_t=video_commen t_tagged

Fun trip and it was cool to get back out to the salt. Dungie season coming up I'll have to start making some trips out to Bodega again.

Till Next Time Guys
Mark

AR limit 10/6/12

Out at it again this morning. I just can't get enough man, its an addiction and salmon is freaking delicious. Met Ethan and my buddy Daryl at the gate at 0430 and made it out to be the first ones on the line. Early bird gets the worm. First cast in at 0606. First drift a guy at the top of the line hooks up and lands the first fish of the day. Couple more fish get hooked and lost shortly after. 0620 I get my first hook up and the battle is on for me. This is the earliest I've ever fought a fish for more then 3 seconds and running through the dark when you can't see your line is a pretty hairy scenario. I managed to walk my fish all the way up to the top of the line just for it to go crazy and take a huge run right back down the line at everyone's feet. I managed to work it back half way up the line, but a fisherman who couldn't see my fish in the dark hooked onto my fish. Luckily he hooked my fish and not my line, so I had an extra hand to help my bring that fish into the bank with great easy now that I was only bearing half of the weight.

First fish on the stringer by 0630, that's how to start off the day right there. We had a decent flurry of fish coming through until about 0720 then it died off on us. People didn't start hooking up again until roughly 0810. I get my next hook up in the flurry. Two different other lines got tangled in me line. I had the fish on just long enough to clear the lines then that was ran and spit the hook. 2nd cast later all is good I hooked up again. Clear of lines this time was able to walk my fish down the line and bring him right to shore easily and for great reason. Caught without a doubt by far my PB smallest salmon ever. Fish must have only been 2 1/2lbs maybe barely more.

That's my limit though. Bleed my fish got my crap together and made it home in time to write this report and head off to work. Not as many hook ups today we didn't really have as many fish moving through. I got lucky enough though to get a fairly quick limit and one hell of a good morning. I'll be back to do it again tomorrow. Like I said, its an addiction.

My fish

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Bigger fish weighed 23lbs. Didn't weigh the small one.

2012 had been one epic salmon season for me and its still going strong. Wondering when I'll get sick of salmon and move onto some other fish . . . . probably wont be any time too soon, fishing it just too good right now.

Till Next Time Guys
Mark

Hog on The AR 10/5/12

Ethan told me that yesterday with the weather change the bite was on fire out at the local honey hole, so I had to make sure I woke up early to get out there and grab my piece of the pie while its here. Ethan and I rolled up around 0430 or so. Love being the first one there. Got our spot in the line and waited till an hour before to make the first cast. While we were waiting Garrett came and meet us down there to do a bit of fishing before he had to go to school. Legal time for us to fish was 6:06. Right at the minute lines went flying and 3rd drift into it Garrett hooks up and lands his first fish. Garrett says there is too much fish in his freezer so he released all of his fish and I couldn't get any pictures sorry.

The first light bite was on people everywhere were hooking up. My turn comes around just before 0700. Fought him up the line and as I was walking back to shore my small box with all of my tackle in it fell out of my pocket and I didn't notice it until is was about 20ft down river from me. Crap! I ran down with the fish still on the rod in hand and managed to get my box back, but in the mean time the fish had ran off and I lost all of the ground I had gained on it. I made up for it and got it back to shore. I didn't realize it in the fight but wow this fish is huge!

First look I was guessing 30lbs.

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Defiantly my best of the season so far. Ended up being 27 on the scale.

The bite was hot and heavy till about 0830. Out of maybe a dozen guys the most we had hooked up at once was 6 guys almost 7. A crazy event that we like to call a fishgasm. Its absolute chaos with that many people hooked up at once but man its awesome. One thing I noticed today I didn't have the only hog out of the bunch. Lots of fish pulled in today were in the 25lb class or better. Many of them were lost and for good reason. They were big and had a ton of fight in em!

I gave it till about 0930 and called it quits. Started losing too much gear to the rocks. I kind of wanted to stick it out for my limit, but I wasn't too worried about it because I knew it was going to be hard enough carrying my one fish I had back to my truck. I got back to the bank and tried picking my fish up and said, yea no this ain't happening. Left the stringer on and tied the rope off to his tail and slung that bad boy over my back.

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I didn't like having to get fish slime and blood all over me, but you got to do what you got to do.

Epic morning, can't wait for more. This cooler weather really got the fish on the move today and I'm sure its just going to get better.

Till Next Time Guys
Mark

P.S. Fighting these salmon in the current with my 7ft bass rod is a huge pain in the ass. Wishing my Clarus didn't break . . .

My Favorite Color is Crome

I finally think I've really gotten the hang on beading here on the American, Most days I would go out, hook 5-10 fish and lose all of them. With some guidance from Ant I learned a better way to fight these fish in the current and my batting average has been going up. Monday 10/1/12 went out, second one to the line and managed to land two nice hens, out of 5 hook ups. Off of the water before 1000.

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I haven't caught a limit of salmon in at least 8 years if not more, so I was stoked with getting these two fish in.

10/2/12 I'm back out for more, Arrived at the gate at 0440 to be the first one in line and the gate was already open. Right on! I have come to very much like being the first one on the water so I can get the spot I like. Means I got to wake up earlier, but it pays off in the end. Land my first fish of the day on my second hook up around 0800 ish. Nice big female.

Hook a few more fish and lose em. All part of the game. I hook into one more which would be my fifth hook up for the day and I could tell immediately he was a hog. Sitting still and just didn't want to move. I was trying to pull him then all of a sudden I heard a big "CRACK!!!" my f%$*ing rod snapped! but I still had the fish on. Holy crap can I still do this? Some how I was still managing to gain line on him for a while which gave me the confidence that I could still land this fish. Everyone in the line was rooting for me. I realized to I no longer have a rod to fish with so if I lose this fish I'm done, got to get em. Fish makes a run down the rapids to a point where I can't pull him back up. I told myself I wouldn't ever chase a fish down the rapids just cause the effort never seemed worth it to me when your chances of losing the fish in them are so great, but this is do or die here I had to get em.

Fish got tangled up in 3 different rocks that I managed to work it out of some how. As I was gaining some line I saw I had a stick wrapped up and tangled in my line, man this doesn't look good, but a few more pulls about a 1/4 mile down river later I beached the fish and brought him it. When I pulled him in to top it off I grabbed the hook and it popped right out when I barely even touched it. Man I got lucky on this one. Grabbed my fish and walked back up river. Sad about my rod, but felt so accomplished I didn't care.

Eating good tonight baby.

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I'll have to find another salmon rod to fish with while I wait for my clarus to come back in the mail. I'll work something out or maybe I'll take a break and get some sleep for once we'll see. Two limits in two days though man fishing and life is good. Off of the water today by 0900.

Till Next Time Guys
Mark