South Fork Moke 3/12/13

Went out to fish today with my dad. He was talking about hitting Amador again, but I've got the Striper bug. I talked him into the Moke and he was going to teach me the trolling game for Stripers. Something I have yet to really learn. Launched out of New Hope and headed down through the South Fork. Started with a shallow diving Yo-zuri. About 10 mins into the troll my bait gets whacked, pick up the rod feel the head shakes fish off. Damn, made another pass, same thing. Fish whacked it I pick up the rod in time to feel the fish, then its gone. Damn-it, at least I'm getting bites though. My dad came to find we only had one shallow diver and it was two shallow for his deep divers so he switched to a rattle trap to see if he could get something on that. Further down I had one more short strike that didn't stick. Seriously what am I doing wrong here? Trolled down past Beaver slough and found some tulies and we stopped to throw some baits a long em.

My dad was the first to hook up on a zoom Z-hog with a small bass.

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I tried getting a picture of his fish, but he didn't want a picture and tossed it back before I could snap one. Towards the end of the stretch there was a deeper hole in the middle of the river I made a cast towards and I had a very very slight tick on the line, but I drilled it had my first fish on of the day. Fish had some weight and took me a little while to bring him around.

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Almost boat side.

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Back to the good ol' days before I had a net.

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One nice FAT striper on board. Almost 8lbs and 25 inches long. That's what its about right there!

Ran back to work it again and next time through my dad hooks up on his Rattle trap.

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Fighting fish and smoking at the same time like a pro.

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Same length as mine just a bit skinnier though at 6lbs.

Kept trying here, but another boat came through and motored over our spot which killed our bite. Trolled down into Hog slough and saw two other boats with one fish each soaking bait. Guessing minnows.

Nothing for us in hog though and it was getting a bit later into the day so we started trolling back to the ramp. My dad stuck and landed one more 20 incher before we got back and that was it for us. Great to learn the trolling game even if I didn't get one trolling, but I learned a lot and hopefully I'll start getting more fish in the Moke. Ready for Saturday watch out guys were coming.

Till Next Time
Mark