Moke 3/28/13

Back to the Moke for another striper session. Brought Ethan and Steven with me today. Wanted to try for a few crappie before we went for stripers though. On the water close to 1500 and ran down to beaver and met Kevin down there and started jigging. Not even 5 mins we found em. Nice having the knowledge of where they were last time and they were still here.

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Ethan with his biggest

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Steven's first crappie, another cherry popped!

Worked the area for a

couple hours. Bite was a little slower today, but we still probably boated 20+ fish.

After that bite kind of died we went off to find some bluegills for striper bait. Didn't take long either red worms in sunken trees they are there. Filled the live well with a bunch of them and took off. Did one drift with the bluegill on the south fork for nothing. Moved over to the North fork. First drift 5 mins into it I saw a school pass by on the FF and sure enough my rod goes off I swung high and had the first striper of the day only to have it pop off 30 seconds into the fight. No more love here. Next spot, hit a point where I've been getting them the past few trips out. Dropped the bluegills down and I started throwing a Super Spook. 2nd cast I stuck a nice looking schoolie and after that the bluegills came up and we all worked the top water bite hard.

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My first.

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Ethan's first of the night. First striper of the year I believe for him.

For a week or so now I've been trying to explain the amazement of top water to Steven. Showed him a couple video's on youtube and explained it to him, but its not the same until you experience it. He hooked into his first throwing the Zara Spook and man seeing that excitement in a new fisherman on their first top water fish is awesome. Why I love taking out new people and introducing them to this amazing sport.

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Second cherry popped of the day!

We worked em for a little over an hour with constant action.

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Double for me and Ethan

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Got to show them some love.

Sorry for the blurryness, I'm blaming Steven on this one for not letting the camera get into focus.

Stayed till dark (way too late, but who could leave a great top water bite like that?) and ended with probably a dozen stripers to the boat. Made it back safely and anxious to get back out to do it again.

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Our take home fish.

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Ethan couldn't resist taking a jackass shot.

Great day on the water. Loving the new boat!!! Can't wait to get back at it again.

Till Next Time Guys
Mark

Dirty D 3/27/13

Went out to the delta to do some bait fishing in high hopes at another chance for Mr. Sturg. Brought out my buddy Nikolay and Steven today. Nikolay had a few honey holes he wanted to try and show me. Started off the day in decker catching dinks and diaper stripers all on sardines and grass.

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We worked a couple spots in the area for a bunch of dinks one keeper at 18 1/4 inches, and saw one over sized dino roll.

I had roe/eel soaking the whole time we were out, but it never got touched. Steven and Nik were loving the constant action from the dink's, but I told them this is not what I came for and once they got their fill I wanted to run up to Cache for a better chance at my sturgeon.

Ran up during the slack and tried a couple spots on the way. Got a few catfish right above steamboat.

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Putting fish in the boat either way its still a good day on the water.

Got up to cache and found a shelf holding fish. Took us 5 attempts to catch with the anchor though. I'm going to have to get a bigger anchor for my boat cause this one barely worked. We did finally catch though and when we did we all just had a really good mojo feeling going on. Back when we were at Decker Nikolay convinced me that circle hooks were the way to go with the stripers so I had one on with my sardine, but I remember looking at it before I casted it out I thought that it is was too small if a sturgeon hits this. Its a sardine though I'll probably only get catfish or stripers on it. I know better, 20 mins into it my sardines gets pumped and pumped hard. I picked up the rod and had a nice fish on. Wasn't huge, but it felt like a shaker sturgeon. 30 seconds into it though my hook pops and fish off. Kept looking back at it and I knew it was the hook that was the problem so I switched that out and went back to my 8/0.

Steven and Nik were loving giving me a hard time about how I just missed probably my only chance today at my sturgeon. I took my beating especially since I knew better, luck was on my side today though cause another 20 mins later the same rod on the sardine goes off again. Rod just doubled over and I picked it up and swung for the fences. I've fought a few undersized sturgeon now and a lot of big salmon in my life, but the weight on this fish was like nothing I had ever felt before. I've never caught a slot sized fish before so idk if it was an upper slot sized fish or an over sized, but it was without a doubt the biggest fish I've ever had on the end of a line before.

That fish stuck to the bottom and I tried working him up, but he wasn't budging. Finally he came up but took off on a 30-40 yard run. Gained back a few yards on him then the unthinkable happened. My 50lb main line braid snapped clean cut!!! My big moment I have been dreaming off for idk how long finally came true, but ended in a second. I'm normally not a person to get too upset over anything, but man I was so heated. Kept at it for another hour here, Nikolay got one good pump on grass that he was sleeping on and my roe got nibbled good once, but that was it. Saw a few roll while we were here too.

My friend Steven got a recording of the depressing moment on his phone I'll post up in a couple days when he gets it uploaded.

Moved on and worked a couple more areas for only nibbles and small stripers. Ended the day around 1930. Fun, but most depressing day on the water I've had ever. Already looking to see when I can go back out to get another shot at that sturgeon. Idk if I should upgrade to 80lb braid or if I just need a longer leader? Think the fish might have rolled on me and cut the braid on one of his scoots. Only way I can think that braid would have cut so cleanly like that. Hopefully it will work out next time.

Off to the Moke now will report back when I get back.

Till then guys
Mark

Moke Session 3/25/13

Took Garrett out today on the Moke in search of some stripers and some crappie today. Launched from Wimpy's by 0900 and trolled down towards beaver slough. On the way trolling Garrett and I hooked into a double only to lose both of em. Could not believe that we got a double and neither of us could land our fish. We ran back through it plugged it all for nothing else. Eventually we made it back into beaver to find the Crappie. Got the word from Kevin on where he did good and after 30 mins of searching we got into em and got into em good.

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Dropping jigs under the bridge we were getting them every cast.

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Every experience I've had fishing for crappie they have always been very finicky fish that you had to be extremely quiet and stealthy to get and getting them to bite was a whole other process in itself. Today was not the case though we were right on top of them and just hammering them.



We probably spent two hours here and the slowest it ever got was 3 or 4 cast without a fish. Must have caught close to 100 fish if not more. Best experience crappie fishing I've had yet.

Took off in search of some stripers now. Ran over to the north fork since it was low tide it was too shallow to troll the south fork. Trolled the north for for an hour for nothing. Garrett and I were dying to plug the banks, but in the wind especially its challenging without the bow mount trolling motor. We we able to manage though to get the wind to work with us in a few area's. First spot 1530 in the afternoon Garrett gets a huge explosion on his spook. Right into it Garrett sticks a pig.

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Never got a measurement, but probably 10lbs+ and 30+plus. Nice top water fish. Kept working the banks in hopes of finding more. I honestly spent more time on the trolling motor keeping us steady then fishing, which was fine cause Garrett was still getting em. He grabbed my fly rod and stuck a couple on that.

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2nd keeper for Garrett.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASNhA0uC6M4



Shaker on the fly.

I got a couple bump's on my A-rig, but never stuck anything here. This area died off for us so we moved on and worked more tules looking for more fish. After hours of searching I finally hooked into and landed my first striper of the day on a swimbait.

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Small, but still fun and better then none. Worked swimabaits and top water till sun down and Garrett managed one more nice fish on his spook.

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Striper fishing was a little tough for us, but 5 fish, 3 being legal fish pretty happy with those results. Off of the water today just after 1900.

Good day on the water, figuring out this striper game a little more and more each day. Hope to be back at it soon.

Till Next Time Guys
Mark

New Ride! First Trip 3/18/13

Ever since the first time I took my dad out on my

12ft boat, I knew he was thinking in his head, "I am not going to tolerate fishing with my son in this little tub boat for too long." Ever since then he had been watching the boards pretty closely looking for a deal on a bigger boat. Last week my dad came across this on the sniffer.

http://www.fishsniffer.com/forums/boat-sales-classified-ads/103332-17-5-60hp-1990-spectrum.html

1,000 grand?!?!?! That's a deal! My dad could not pass it up. Got that thing home we put in some new gear lube and gas and that baby fired right up.

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Once we got it running we both looked and each other and said river lets go. Threw in the gear hooked her up and off to New Hope we went. She turns over great and idled wonderfully. Took a while for it to warm up and get up to full rev, but it got up there and man what an up grade from my little boat with the 9.9 johnson on it!

Low tide is here and coming so we ran over to the North fork of the Moke and ran down there. Started off trolling the shallow divers and 5 mins in I get two HNS.

This was mostly just a test run of the boat and the motor so if any fish get caught in the process that's just going to be icing on the cake for us. One thing on the boat I couldn't help but laugh at is the fish finder.

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Nothing wrong with it, but I feel like I'm playing a game of Tetris when ever I'm looking at it.

Kept trolling down river working the motor out for nothing. We passed up a sweet looking reed area and couldn't help but stop to plug for a while. No trolling motor though, Will have to get a bow mount one soon. Stopped up river to throw while we drifted a long. I threw a spook for a while my dad threw rattle traps and swimbaits. After 30 mins of nothing I saw a small boil up river from us. Gunned over there and tossed into the school. Right away I got a couple boils, worked them back all the way to the boat then before I knew it I saw 20+ fish under my spook all taking swings at it. Finally one grabbed my plug and my dad stuck one in the same school on his swimbait.

First outing in the new boat and and our first catch is a double!!!

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Out freaking standing. On top of all of that its my first fish of the year on top water!

We kept working the area, but never found the school again. Moved up to a new spot and found a new school. My dad stuck another quick two on his swimbait.

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I proceeded to get several more boils on my spook and even hooked into a 8+lb fish that came unbuttoned, but no more fish landed for me. Didn't matter we both had a blast and super happy everything worked out great with the boat. All fish released today so no blood in the boat, but the fish did leave us a present.

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Typical, happens though. Luckily that's my dad's seat haha!

Ended our day around 1900 made it back to the ramp by sun down. Great amazing success. Can't wait to get back out on the water with this thing.

To anyone who is interested yes I am going to sell the First Impression. I do remember Ryan (BeefCakeScout) asked me about selling it back when I bought it so I want to give him first dibs but beyond that if anyone is interested let me know I'll name a price soon.

Till Next Time Guys
Mark