Monday I hooked up with Garrett and Doug to fish the Moke. Planned on
running down for crappie and then just working for stripers the rest of
the day. Plugged a bit on the way to our crappie grounds for a shaker
Garrett got on the fly and Doug and I each got a Largemouth.
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Not too much producing though so off we went. Gave crappie a try and we found em again, but the numbers have reduced a lot.
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Doug's first ever crappie.
Got out of there fairly quickly and kept working our way down. Ended up
trolling a good part of the south fork with a dozen other boats. Did see
Intimidator
Sport fishing
working the hog slough area. Looked like he was drifting minnows. We
ended up getting one and losing one on the troll and that was it. Our
main plan was really just to fish top water, but that wasn't happening
yet. Garrett and I tried for bass for a while for a few small one
pitching into beds. Doug managed to biggest one though throwing a
crappie jig into one of the beds.
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Defiantly seemed like a blast on the light gear.
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Very nice fish too.
Got bored of that after a while and went back to targeting stripers
enough messing around though we went over to the north fork where I knew
we would find them and we almost immediately started hooking into fish.
Doug was doing pretty good working a Jerk bait while Garrett tore them
up on the fly. I got one drifting a shiner, but I was struggling getting
bites plugging with my swimbait. I don't know if it was because I was
at the back of the boat, I didn't have the right bait, or because I was
just spending less time in the water because I was working the trolling
motor, but it didn't matter much to me as long as we were putting fish
in the boat.
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Doug has a lot more pictures then I do that he will contribute later I'm sure.
Plugged for 3-4 hours and brought close to 20 stripers to the boat with
missing a losing a few more of course. 1830 came around and we switch
over to our top water plugs and our first new spot we banged a freaking
amazing triple.
In the excitement of hurrying to get back in the water but wanting to
get the fish in for a group shot Doug took a treble to the hand though.
Luckily the hook came out easy and I had a small
first aid kit on the boat so he could get it cleaned and wrapped and and get back to fishing.
My first top water fish of the evening. Biggest of the day around 28 inches.
We stayed on a pretty consistent top water bite for roughly an hour till
I had some electrical problems in the boat and couldn't get the motor
started. After fiddling with it for 30 mins or so. Doug found an
emergency pull cord in the cover though and we got it started and made
the safe run home.
Great day on the water boated 30+ fish and man that top water action is a serious drug. Cant get enough of it.
4/2 I wanted to try for my sturgeon one more time. My dad and I went up
to Cache and soaked sardines and roe/eel hoping for a keeper. Saw a lot
of em breaching. Fished the end of the incoming for one good pumped that
I made a swing at just in time to feel the weight of the fish, but the
hook didn't land.
Tide
switched and at the beginning of the outgo and had one hard slam on the
roe again and I was able to stick him. It had some decent weight to it
so I knew it wasn't a striper or a catfish. Right after I set the hook
though I felt solid head shakes for about 10 seconds. Thought that was
really weird for a sturgeon. Fought him to about 30ft away from the boat
and it made a run under the boat and I had my drag set too tight and he
shook the barbless hook. Stupid rookie mistake.
10 mins later among all of the sturgeon rolling my dad saw a salmon jump
clear out of the water bight as day. What the heck are salmon doing in
Cache? Shortly after we both saw another one jump right next to the
boat, and then another. After seeing them and thinking about the head
shakes my fish had I couldn't help but think that my fish might have
been a salmon. I did get it on roe. I'll never know though, Something to
think about.
Only fish of the day my dad managed one shaker striper on sardines.
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Beyond that it was a lot of this.
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A lot of sitting and waiting. I really want to just get my one so I can
be done with it. Man sturgeon fishing is boring. In the boat though man
it sure is comfy. Almost fell asleep a couple of times. Off of the water
by 1430 to get to school on time.
Till Next Time Guys
Mark
P.S. still waiting on the silver bullets to arrive . . . .
