Trapping Dads on the AR

With this years low water conditions I just have not had the enthusiasm to go out for shad. My interest has turned almost completely turned towards crawdads. I usually dive for them, but it's a lot of work and sometimes I'm not always up for that so I've been trying to get more into trapping for them. I have a couple of traps I made last summer and I defiantly need to make more. Only problem I have with them is the American river is a very popular hangout area for all crowds and leaving traps out there to soak I run a very high risk of people tampering with my traps or just taking off with them and me never seeing them again. First attempt I took my traps out trying to take them to an area that has less traffic.

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Gave the traps a full 24 hour soak from noon-noon the next day. Walked down to the river and could not have more perfect timing. Right as I saw the water I saw a man in his raft and his two kids with my trap in hand and paddling their way down the river. I walked right up to the shoreline and said "Hey you think you guys could give me my trap back please?" I'm not here to start a fight with anyone, I just want my trap back. The man kept quiet being caught red handed and guilty, they gave me my trap back and we went on our separate ways. Great to see parents teaching their kids how to steal, but as much as I wanted to say something to him again I'm not here for a fight.

When I got that trap back there was only one crawdad in it. Don't know if they dumped it or if someone else came along before them and emptied my trap on me but I lost some somewhere in the process cause most of my bait in there was gone. Next trap when I was pulling it in it got stuck under a rock and my line snapped from it. Sucks, but nothing I can't fix. I was half planning on this happening so I suited up in my diving gear and swam out there to retrieve it. Got it out of there with 20+ crawdads inside.

Second attempt Deni and I went to a new area with hopefully less traffic. This time instead of leaving my lines tied to a tree along the shoreline for people to see I tied my lines to a rock and sunk them in the water so they are less viable and a little bit more challenging to retrieve. Sucks for me when I have to come and get them back, but I'm used to swimming in the river for hours to catch these guys so jumping in for 5 seconds to grab a line isn't too big of a deal.

Got both of my traps out after an over night soak and got 30 between the two.

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Pretty sweet getting lunch for myself with fairly minimal work. I'll have to make a lot more traps to get enough for a boil for friends if I want to keep doing this method, but its a lot of fun seeing your trap come up with it full of crawdads. Using shad as bait I got from my friends who are still trying for shad with the rough conditions.

Till Next Time Guys
Mark

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DD on the Delta 5/12/14

My dad called me on Sunday and told me the high tide is lining up perfectly with the moon rise, and with our coming full moon he knew the big boys would be out and biting today so we had to get out there for an evening session to throw some topwater plugs. Dropped the boat in just after 1300 and ran down to the SJ to mess around for a while while we waited on evening to come. Spent a couple of hours in the SJ and false river for short strikes practically everywhere and I did watch a fish pushing 15lbs follow my swimbait to the boat, but never hit it. We picked up a couple of

shakers in False, but for me especially I was just getting short strikes everywhere and couldn't really stick anything.

As the sun Started setting we worked our way back into the Moke to our regular stomping grounds. Started off around 1700 same story lots of short strikes, but I couldn't stick anything. At least I know that they are here. After 1800 I pulled the spook out and I wasn't going to be throwing anything else from here on out. As we were working our way up river we did get on a small boil that was full of nothing but shakers, but some hot and heavy action pulling out over a half dozen fish within 10 mins was pretty cool. Started working back down, hoping some bigger fish would be biting now. Working the tules with my spook I finally get the boil I was looking for and I got a pig on the end of the line!

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Fish put up a hell of a fight, but was still no match, got her in the boat and landed this beautiful 10lber.

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Got my DD fish and got to thinking about it I think its been about 4-5 years since I've got a DD striper on top water, so its a freaking amazing night!

Kept working the tules and still had a mess of shaker messing with me while sticking and landing a couple of them. Throughout the mess of them I did managed one more nice schoolie in the bunch.

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Sometimes though as long as I'm getting them on top water it doesn't matter how big they are it's still a freaking blast.

Hit one more point on our way out before heading back to the ramp. Worked the area over good without any immediate action and just as I was starting to think this area was gonna be dead I get another real good swirl and I'm on another nice fish. At first glance I thought it might have been another DD fish, but it just barely missed that mark.

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Weighed this beauty in at just shy of 9lbs.

Called it a hell of a way to end the night from there and headed back.

Another great outing with Dad on the delta. I got to give it to him on this one, he saw all of the conditions line up great and said we needed to be there and sure enough he couldn't have been more right. He told me he needed to go one more time too cause once it starts getting hot out he wont be wanting to go out there anymore. He didn't pull any keepers in himself, but he let me do most of the fishing while he just watched and drove the boat. I kept trying to talk him into throwing a spook on with me, but he said he gets more of an enjoyment on seeing me loving my top water bite so much like we all love seeing the excitement in a small child when they catch their first fish, which I totally understand.

Hopefully it doesn't get too hot for the fish here soon, because I would love to get out there and do it again.

Till Next Time Guys
Mark

Lake Amador 5/8/14

Headed

back to Lake Amador with my dad to get our limits worth of trout. Last few times we here I kind of struggled, but now I'm back with more knowledge on the lake and how the trout are acting, plus I'm not dealing with a post front either so were here to do some work today. We launched the boat around 1000 and started our troll. Trolled rapala's, grubs, and hoohcies, once around the lake for nothing, but we watched the finder the whole way seeing where the

schools

were located around the lake. Set ourselves up wind of where we knew the fish were and started drifting through em pulling power worms and powerbait along the way. We just had small split shots or egg sinkers to pull the baits down we were probably drifting baits through 5-15ft down. I even put a power worm behind a dodger and drifted with that.

10 seconds into our first drift my dad got hammered and we put our first fish in the box. We averaged about 2-3 fish per drift with no bait being better then the other. Our bite started slowing down as the day warmed up, but we kept at it and we had our 10 fish limit by 1300. All cookie cutter trout with the biggest maybe being 2-1/2lbs average being like 12 inches though.

With getting our limits early we tried for bass for a while, but we only managed to lose a couple on plastics, but never managed to bring one to the boat. Got off of the water around 1800 and called it a successful day. Other boaters we talked to seemed to have similar luck on the trout. Lots of bite and fish to the boat, but nothing big.

Our limit we brought home.

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Been a great couple of fishing days with dad, now I need to get back and work my local waters. I've been slacking I haven't even caught a shad yet this year.

Till Next Time Guys
Mark

Delta Plugging 5/7/14

I know I'm kind of late to the party, but I just haven't had the resources recently to get out to the delta and hop onto the spring bite. My dad and I made the plan to launch out of B&W and try to

earn a few stripes today. Slept through our alarm's and got a later start then planned. Launched the boat around 1000 and headed towards the SJ. Tried a few spots and we picked up a couple of shakers, but the wind was kicking pretty good. It wasn't unbearable but it wasn't the most enjoyable conditions either. With that we made our was towards the Moke to find some shelter. Worked the area's we knew and it wasn't long before we started hooking up.

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We started picking up shakers here and there on white fish traps. No big

schools

, but we were consistently picking on one here and a couple there.

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Kept working points hopping around trying to find some bigger fish. Had a couple of doubles along the way.

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We did get on a couple of keeper schoolies, but nothing to brag about.

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We ended up staying in the Moke all day and I started throwing spooks after 1700 and it was out fishing the fish traps. Feeding my top water addiction.

We stayed until 2000 putting over 30 fish in the boat throughout the day, probably only 7 being over 18 inches.

Kept our limit for a fish taco dinner.

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All of our keepers were between 19-21 inches.

Great day on the Delta with dad, I'll have to come back soon to hopefully get on some bigger fish.

Till Next Time Guys
Mark