Feather River Pink

Salmon season still being on a slow start in the valley I heard that the Feather River was kicking out fish and decided to make the haul up there in hopes of getting into some more fish. For the longest time I didn't want to come up here because I thought it was a long drive. When I looked at it though it only about an hour and a half for me and I've driven further then that for trout so making that run for salmon, definitely worth it. I've made several trips up here now and my first few have been very less then successful. First three trips I only hooked into one fish. Getting used to a new area I've never been to before and it took me a little while to learn a couple of new things and get into the groove of it. Even though I wasn't having any luck I've been watching fish get caught all around me though, so I had faith that I would get into em eventually. Friday though 8/23 I came up with a friend with a little bit more confidence. Had the right gear, gained some more knowledge about the area and it just felt like it was my time.

Showed up to pretty light crowds around 1400 and got into our drift. Fish are rolling, they are here its only a matter of time. 1430 I stick my first of the day. Super fast current here spent my time wearing the fish out and walking him down. Came to learn real quick that I don't have a full spool of line so I had to be careful with letting fish run though. Fish was spunky and it kicked my ass. Got him in and landed my first Feather river fish. Feisty little 11lber. Nothing huge but man it sure as hell kicked my ass. On the board though I'm happy. I got it early too so a limit is in sight.

Kept at it changing up weights to try to find the perfect drift and spent an hour watching them roll right in front of me

swimming right by without hooking up. Only slightly frustrating, 1550 though I hook into my second one. Fish stay's pretty calm for the first portion of the fight. Fought him all the way to the bank and right as I saw color that fish got pissed and woke up. Bolted off on a long run taking enough of my line I was down to backing. Cranked my drag down a little more and started running down river. Water started getting so deep I was swimming down river to catch up to my fish. Don't think I've ever put in so much work for a salmon in my life. Didn't have any good bank to land that fish anywhere so I just fought it and fought it until after maybe close to a 30 minute battle my fish came right at me and went belly up. Well your done. Pulled him in grabbed him by the gill and made my way back up river and I am done. 2 hours, 2 hook ups, and I got my 2 fish limit. That's how it should be.

My second fish was a much nicer buck coming in around 25lbs.

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Stayed until 2000 with my friend hoping he would get into some which he wasn't able to do. All part of the game though. Fish were rolling all day though and I was watching a few other fisherman hook into a couple all to be lost at the bank.

My limit at home.

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First limit of the year baby!

Got the chance to head back up today (8/25/13). Tried getting into my spot where I limited Friday, but one its the weekend and I guess word got out, it was packed. On the Water by 0830 and there was no room anywhere. Mike (Bankcaster) was with me today. We looked around and made our way down river to an area where we saw a big group of fisherman working that we were able to squeeze our way into. Fished there for a little over an hour and for a dozen fisherman we only saw one fish get hooked. Fish are jumping all over though place though, just no one could hook any. Plus the area had a lot of snags to deal with, and I had to admit my mojo was pretty shaken up after I didn't get my spot I wanted. Pulled out of there and moved up river to another productive area where I know fish get hooked on a regular basis. Joined the line with about 8 other guys and steadily saw a fish get hooked every 10-20 mins or so. Much more promising.

Most of the fish were pretty hot and getting lost. Decent amount of action for everyone it seemed like except me and Mike. Bumping rocks and getting snagged here and there was about it for some time. I did get into on snag, popped my weight out, felt a fish on, thought WTF? Ok fish on, pop, well fish off. Slightly exciting, but pretty depressing at the same time. Finally after seeing fish get hooked all around us. I stick one around 1230. Took my sweet ass time with it. I really hate losing fish, especially when I'm hardly hooking into any at all. Being on a double with another fisherman, he lands his fish first and gets squared away, then after my 10+min fight I had going on, my fish swam right at him and basically into his net while he was walking back up river. That works! First of the day for me and its a bright 23-25lb buck. Super stoked about finally getting my fish, especially 30 mins before we were planning on leaving. Mike wanted to be out of there by 1300, but after seeing me get mine and the action started getting better just after 1200 we had to stay a little longer.

An old time regular out there let me in on a little secret and put me right in the zone for the perfect drift and told me don't move. Stay in that spot and you'll get one. Sure though 30 mins. later I stuck my second one and brought in my limit fish for the day. A brown hen pushing maybe 16-18lbs just guessing.

Put in some work for it but I got my limit and I am done.

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Stayed around until 1400 while Mike tried to get into one for himself. Got to help out and net another fisherman's fish for him since I wasn't fishing anymore figured I'd go and help out other anglers while I was there. Mike had a couple of maybe fish on's, fish off's, but we couldn't really tell for sure. Called it a day just after 1400 to make the drive back home.

Salmon in the oven, salmon on the smoker, roe in the cure, Mark is a happy camper and life is good. I've got no problems making the drive when its producing. Hopefully the bite in the valley will pick up though soon so I can save a bit of gas $$. For right now though I'm not complaining. Flossing has been the method of choice up here, encase you were wondering.

Till Next Time Guys
Mark

Sac Salmon 8/9/13

Out to try for em again this time I got on the water in the AM around 0500 with my friend Nikolay. Ran straight down to Freeport and made our first couple of drifts. Nice only 3-10 boats max out here in the morning rather then 20-30 in the evening. Made a couple of passes, marked a couple of fish on the graph, but no takers, with nothing biting here and nothing else happening around us we made a quick run down stream to see if there was anything happening around the Clarksburg area. Around the bend below Freeport I marked a few fish and we saw a couple roll. Made a few drifts with the jigs still for nothing. Checked out the marina in Clarksburg and never saw a thing on the graph. Didn't even drop the jigs down.

Went back to where I was marking fish below Freeport to try another drift through em, but the wind wasn't allowing us to do that, so back to Freeport where things were a little calmer. A little more then half way through our first drift back there about 0900 in the morning Nikolay sticks one. Fish never went far from the boat or made any runs, but was just constantly head shaking which made both of us nervous that she was gonna spit the hook. Nik did a great job at playing the fish though and the second it got close enough I got the net around it. Never in my life have I seen a fish so green be so aggressive still in the net. Had it closed up and pinned against the boat and it was still made several jumps out of the water and would have jumped in the boat, but I held the net down so it didn't. I didn't want that thing waving its head around everywhere at my feet with a hook still in its mouth.

more then a minute later it finally calmed down and we got our first one of the day and Nikolay's first of the season.

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Bright

chrome hen roughly 20lbs give or take.

Felt great to get one in the boat especially after seeing them on the graph all morning.

We kept at it trying for another one till 1030 and called it from there. Nikolay had a fish and was ready to go and I had a few things to do in the afternoon anyways.

On the way back to the ramp we saw this guy floating down the river.

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About a 4lb jack rotting in the river. Don't know if its a good thing or not seeing a dead fish so early in the season. I was happy to see a jack though. I'm super excited everyone is saying that this is a big fish year, but at the same time all the talk about how next year will be terrible scares me. I try not to worry about that when this year is just getting started, but seeing the jack is assuring saying next year should still be good.

Back out again around 1730 with my step dad Scott. Same area, still plenty of boats out. Disappointing to see though from our time of arrival till around 1930 I only saw/heard of 5 fish being hooked. Better then the morning though when no one else had even hooked a fish except us. Past few nights its been 10 or more by that time. Definitely a much slower day. Decided to pick up and moved down river to where I saw fish earlier. Stopped a tried jigging, but the wind was just ripping us a new one out there. Blowing so hard it was keeping my boat one spot. Held better then my anchor has at times haha. Drove me crazy though while we were there sitting in one spot arch's were popping up on my FF like crazy. I saw at least one arch on there every 15 seconds and I thought I was going crazy maybe marking a rock or something over and over again but every once in a while there was two on there at the same time at different depths and the best time I saw 5 arch's all bunched up together. Had to have been a big school of fish passing me. We tried jigging em up, but still had no takers.

Sun was going down, but I didn't want to give up. I wanted to try trolling through them at least once. I know its not the right way to do it, but we were pressed for time so we trolled a couple of free lined kwikfish in 15 ft of water headed up stream for a while while we were headed back to the ramp. No love still. Kept at that till 2030 for nothing but a couple of snags. Fish are there, but just didn't want to play today.

I was just headed back out there now (1430 8/10/13 Saturday) with Garrett, but on my way down the street from the house my truck took a crap on me and decided it didn't want to shift into 3rd gear. Pulled it over shut it off real quick and now the engine won't turn over. There goes those plans. Thank god it happened down the street from home and not on the way out from the river or when I was trying to pull my boat out of the water. I'm very fortunate and thankful for that, pushed it back to the house and called off that trip. For now though looks like I'll be limited to bike rides to the AR. I know fish should be running in there any day now. Nikolay's fish had the adipose fin clipped. I know it doesn't guarantee it, but it should mean that these are American river fish and hopefully they will be running up that river within a day or two, we'll see.

Till Next Time Guys
Mark

Persistence Pays Off. FINALLY!!!

I know its still very early for the season, but for me this feels like its been a long time coming. Putting in now pretty close to I think 100 hours OTW this season alone, it has been a very slow start to the 2013 salmon season for me. Conditions have not been ideal, and regardless of the numerous skunks, I know that there are fish out there for the taking and there is no way in hell I'm just gonna let them swim by with out at least trying. Tuesday I finally took my boat out to the Sac with Ethan to give it a go and take a break from the disappointing American River. Dropped the boat in the water at Garcia's around 1730 and ran down to Freeport to join the jigging fleet. Man o man I have to say too the word is out. Fish are here, they are being caught and people know. For it being a Tuesday evening it was packed. I counted atleast 21 boats, I'm sure there were more, and all but 3 were drifting down the lane dropping jigs. Started at the top and worked our way down.

Saw a couple get caught here and talked to a few people and heard about a few more caught or lost here and there. Kept looking at my graph, but I wasn't marking any fish near me. I heard some boats talking around me calling out to there friends "I got 2 coming up!" Seems to me like the fish have been traveling in pairs or singles, not in massive

schools. Not sure if this is true or not, but its what it seemed like. Later in the evening around 1930 I had one short strike that I couldn't connect on. Threw in the towel around 2030 with another skunk to take home. Counting all of the fish I saw/heard of there must have been at least 15 hooked, probably more, half of which were landed. Highlight of the night was watching this 10 year old kid fighting a salmon that must have been 25 plus. Watched them chase the fish out to the middle of the river, saw the kid and his dad with the net make 20+ laps walking around the boat following it. Fight must have lasted 20 mins. when it came to an end when the kids 10b test line got wrapped in the ladder on the boat and the fish broke off. Sad ending, but seeing little kids hooking into fish is great.

Back again Wednesday 8/7/13, at least here I know fish are around and they are being caught so chances are still pretty good. Made a couple calls around, but everyone was busy so I ran solo. OTW just before 1700 today and hopped on down to the bridge to join the fleet for another chance at the King. One boat that launched at the same time I did that can run at probably 40 mph when I'm only doing 18 mph already had one by the time I got there. Got to be a good sign. I tend to be really happy when I see other people catching fish around me, makes me know that fish are here and biting so my chances are good, but going on 1800, 1900, seeing people catching fish all around me and I've yet to have a hit does get a little frustrating. I know it's just a chance game though and I have to just get lucky here.

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Picture of maybe half of the fleet working the lane tonight. Another easy 20+ boats out tonight.

I did notice that if someone up river caught a fish about half of the boats would pull up and go above em to hopefully catch the same school as they pass by. Well I'm observant and mama didn't raise no fool. I tried the same thing a few times and tonight I did actually mark several fish on the graph. Around 2000 I marked a couple fish on the graph that passed right by me with out touching my jig then a minute later I see a boat stick one. Well what have to got to lose lets move. Ran way up above them, another 60 yards above the rest of the fleet to make sure I catch the school and 2 mins. into the drift I feel my jig get grabbed on the fall. Wasn't a hard or a crazy hit, but I could tell it definitely wasn't bottom. Swung hard and immediately felt that fish pumping. FISH ON BABY!!! Fish came up quick just close enough for me to see the bright flash of silver in the water then made 2 fast and long runs. A good rod though and 50lb braid allowed me to get that fish back in pretty quick. Got the net around that bitch and let off a huge sigh of relief. Biggest thing I love about salmon is no matter how hard I've tried this whole season for skunk after skunk, a couple of lost fish, then getting skunked some more. This moment here makes it all worth it.

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And what a beautiful moment it is. Sat down sent out my picture text while I kept jigging for maybe another fish. 2015 though I looked it was getting dark I got a fish in the box and its going to be a mess at the ramp with everyone in line trying to pull out at the same time with only the one lane ramp. Me probably being a slowest boat out here too not a bad idea to get a head start. Called it a day there and made it back to the ramp to be 3 in line and still waited a half hour to get out of there. Frustrating watching a group of people struggling and taking 20 mins. to put their boat on the trailer, especially when it takes me 2 and I'm by myself! Its really not that hard people. Including my fish I probably saw/heard about close to 20 fish being hooked tonight as well. Not bad about 1 fish being hook per boat out there.

Made it back home safe and sound got a better picture with the fish and put it on the scale.

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She weighed in around 18lbs give or take after being bleed out. Now I've got some meat being marinated right now for my dinner tonight and more in the brine for my smoker tomorrow and even a bit of roe to top it all off. Life is good and you know I'll be back out later to do it all over again.

Till Next Time Guys
Mark