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