Amador 1/25/15

Back At Slamador again to do some trout killing. Came out with my

Step Dad Scott this time and we got to the lake around 0800. The fog was so freaking thick we couldn't even see the water from the top of the damn. Put the boat in and saw a couple of guys slaying some trout right underneath the dock at the ramp. They were tossing a powerworm behind a spitshot and earing up the recently stocked DFW planters. Pretty cool to see, but I honestly hate seeing those fish in this lake. I don't come to Amador to catch 6-8 inch trout. Began the troll and luckily the fog burned off within the hour. Pulled Spoons, a hoocie, and Rapala's at 1.5mph around the lake for a couple of short strikes but no sticks. Made our way back into Jackson which has been treating me well recently. Beached the boat and dropped the powerbait in. Within a couple of minutes we get our first bite and miss it. We get a good consistent amount of bites over then next two hours with missing several of them and sticking a few.

I took the skunk off of the boat with this nice guy.

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The powerbait bite was pretty good here for a while and I managed to put 4 in the box before noon.

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Just after 1200 though our bite died. We were able to get a couple of short strikes throwing kastmasters, but we couldn't stick em on the spoons. As it got hotter the bait bite died so we picked up the troll again hoping to find some more biting fish.

Scott was able to stick his first of the day trolling a Thomas Buoyant and stuck another nice one on a white/blue F-7 Rapala shortly after.

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We tried trolling for a while and managed to stick a couple of fish trolling spoons and the Rapala, but it was slow over all. Made our way back into Jackson one more time hoping to get the rest of our limit. We did managed to stick several fish on the Thomas Buoyant and crappie jigs wile we were back here, but they were all DFW planters. No Lassen fish of any size. Called it a day around 1600. We finished with 9 in the box 3 being DFW fish that weren't gonna make it, and we released probably 4 or 5 more DFW fish. 9 has been the number for me here recently with that devil fish eluding me. Although I'm not sure if I count the DFW fish today so we can just say 6. A great day though all around. Saw a lot of people doing pretty good today. A few were still skunked, but a lot of bankers did really good soaking bait, I saw a few full stringers out there as we were trolling by and all of the other boaters I talked to at the cleaning station said they did well soaking powerbait. Still not a lot of action from anyone else trolling though. I was hoping we would get more action on lures today since there was a recent plant, but the fish just want to stay on the bait bite for some reason.

Till Next Time Guys
Mark

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Amador 1/19/2015

Made the trip back out to Amador to give it another go. Hoping to be able to get a 5+lber out of there. Its been a while since I've caught a trout that big. My buddy Elijah came along with me today. We got on the water just before 0700 right as the sun was coming up. Set out the rods and began the troll. Right in front of the spillway I get a huge grab on a pink hoochie.

Picked up the rod and this fish some weight on him. I get the fish next to the boat and we can see it is a solid 5lb fish or so. Get the fish close to the net and just before Elijah can get the net around him my line snapped. NOOOO! Damn that sucks, but nothing I can do about it now.

Kept the troll going, but didn't get anymore love doing so. Made our way back into Jackson where we did well last week. I tossed a Kastmaster around and Elijah was throwing a new lure I found at bass pro called a Tasmanian Devil. Kind of a spoon style bait we were hoping to see if it would work or not. Sure enough maybe 5 mins into us casting he sticks one and takes the skunk off of the boat, it even had a tag on it. Nice way to start the day. Maybe two cast later Elijah sticks another one. We're on em and kept the boat on the spot. I threw a powerbait rod out and that took all of 10 seconds to get hammered after it hit the water. Tossed it back out after getting that one and the same results happened.

Just like that about 10 mins into this area we've got 4 in the box.

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Stayed here for a couple of hours and we were able to stick a few more on powerbait along with missing several other bites. That did die off for us after a while though so we tried trolling around for a bit again to no more avail. Back in Jackson again trying to finish off our limit. We did manage to stick a couple more on Powerbait, but they didn't want to hit the spoons at all. The bite was getting slower and slower, the fog never lifted out which made for a cold morning, plus Elijah and I were each pretty tired so we called it around 1430, trolled from Jackson back to the ramp hoping to get lucky enough to stick two more on the way back to fill our limits. I did get one on the way on the pink hoochie again, but nothing after that. Made it back to the ramp and got the fish cleaned up and on our way home before sundown.

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We did ok for the conditions one short of our limit is nothing to complain about, but its still a hit and miss bite. I did see a lot more success from other fisherman at the cleaning station. Everyone who had success said they were either casting Rapala's, soaking bait, or very very slow trolling grubs. Everyone who spent the day trolling anything else came back skunked or only with one fish. Will be back out again and soon, I know there's a couple of big boys lurking around out there still.

Till Next Time
Mark

Amador 1/14/2015

Made a trip out to Amador with a couple of my friends from Sac State. I promised them a trout trip out to Amador for some easy trolling around for hopefully some easy trout limits. Got on the water around 0830 and dropped the lines in looking for our first bite.

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Saw CaptnJack on the water trolling by, always good to see fellow outcast members on the water chasing fish. We did a lap around the lake without a bite and ended up trolling back into the end of Jackson. In the back of the arm we got grabbed on a J-7 firetiger Rapala, but the fish came off of the hook right at the net. Pulled the lines in and tried tossing some spoons around the area in the back of the lake to see if we could stick a few. After about 10 mins of searching around I saw my

friend Igor toss his kastmaster in and the second it hit the water I saw a wake in the water fly right towards his lure. He didn't get hit though so I tossed in right behind him and after two cranks my speedy shiner got hammered and I was able to put first blood in the boat.

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We constantly saw fish rising throughout the area, and it kept us trying for em. Not long after I stuck mine Igor got his first of the day.

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Then right after Elijah gets his first drifting powerbait around in the area.

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We stay in the area for a couple of hours and stick several more fish on various different spoons, kastmasters, speedy shiners, little cleo's, it didn't matter what kind of spoon it was they were hitting em. We worked em over for a couple of hours until our bite died off. Trolled out looking for more biting fish. Meet up with Steve again and exchanged info on our success. Trolled around the lake looking for more biting fish, but never found em. We noticed that Steve went back into Jackson and we really didn't see him after that so we went back to check on him. Found him with a stringer full of fish so we joined him in hopes on getting a few more. Threw the spoons again and we ended up sticking a couple more, but no hot action.


As the sun was setting we trolled our way out and back to the ramp. Ended the day with 9 fish total with almost just as many lost or missed. All fish except one came on spoons and only two of them we got while trolling. Today was a day where slowing down and casting towards them turned out to be a far better method. Makes me think there just aren't big numbers of fish prowling the lake. They are probably just in schools along the shores looking for food and not out in the main lake much, why trolling hasn't been the best option recently. Just a theory, I could be wrong.

Got back to the ramp to claim a prize for a tagged fish I caught and got the fish cleaned up. Got a free boat launch for the tag, nothing big but cool to see a tagged fish.

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Great day on the water with friends, plus a decent amount of action which made for a fun day.

Till Next Time Guys
Mark

Bodega Camping Trip 1/5-1/7

A bunch of friends of mine from the marching band at Sac State and I planned a camping trip out to Bodega while we're all on winter break. Arrived Monday around 1000 got camp set up then I took a couple of people out to drop 5 pots just outside of the jetty in about 50 ft of water. Came back in to let them soak while we finished setting up camp. Went back to check em after about a 4 hour soak. Found a couple of short dungies and only one keeper throughout all 5 pots. Set em back and came back in in time for the low

tide.

Took everyone over to the rocks I know and we started trying for the rockfish and the monkey faced eels. After a quick teaching lesson for the several people there we went work and everyone found the eels biting right off the bat.

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The eels and the small rock fish were coming out of the rocks pretty frequently and everyone was having fun.

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I had a great time seeing everyone here having a ball. For most of the people I had with me here, this was their first fishing experience in many years or even at all. Which made it great seeing everyone doing so well. Myself and one other friend focused more on the rock fish bite. We threw my usual white gizits along the rocks and it took a little while to get the fish biting, but persistence payed off big time for us.

My self with a decent one

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and my friend Erik with his first.

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After we got the rock fish biting we were hitting em on every cast and it was just straight fun all around.

Elijah with one of his.

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My friend Peter set a new PB for biggest eel I've ever seen come out of this area.

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Aaron with his first rock fish and eel

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We stayed until dark and filled a bucket full of fish and eels for what will be a great lunch later.

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Next day I woke up early to catch the sunrise and after I got to see that I woke a couple of people to go and check the pots. After a full over night soak in all 5 pots we still were only pulled up 2 rocks and one keeper dungie. All of the bait in the pots were gone though. I'm not surprised that small crabs would have taken all of the bait though, but I would think we would have found a few more smaller crabs in the pot. I kind of doubt that they would have been raided, there was next to know one out there. We only saw one other pot the entire time we've been here. Bait em back up with some fresh rock fish carcasses and hope for the best.

Low tide came back around about 1530 today and we made our way back to the rocks to try for the eels and rock fish again. We found the eels still biting but rock fish was a different story.

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A few of us tried and tried for the rock fish and we got a couple to bite, but after the hurting we put on them yesterday the bite was pretty tough. I decided to give that up for a while and try a bit of clamming. Two friends and myself managed to pump up a few gapers and while doing so I kept remembering how windy it was this morning and how it might be worse tomorrow morning and we have to leave then. I check the weather real quick and saw the 15 mph wind forecast in the morning and made the call that we needed to bring the pots in now before it got really dark on us. A couple of my friends stayed and said the rockfish bite got better when we left which was great to hear.



Got the pots and came back in all safe and sound for 1 nice red and 7 legal dungies for the five pots out. I don't know if the fresh cod made the difference that improved out luck or not, but it was nice to finally see something coming up in the pots.

Came back and enjoyed our last night around the fire with good friends for some good times.

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Next morning I took a look at the seas and was happy to see I made the right call to pull the pots the night before. The wind was causing some serious white caps out there, making some less then ideal conditions that I was very glad I didn't have to go into.

Cooked the last of our fish and all of the crab for lunch to put an end to our awesome trip. Very happy to see everyone had a great time even the few that didn't fish with me. Got to introduce and reintroduce a few people back into this marvelous sport and we all can't wait to come back.

Until Next Time Guys
Mark