Union Valley 8/7-8/8

Had a bunch of friends that wanted to go camping, I suggested Union Valley and everyone was game until the day before when everyone bailed out on me, but my girlfriend and I still had the time off of work so we were gonna go anyways. Everyone asked me when was the earliest I would be willing to leave? Like a smart ass not thinking anyone else would be crazy enough to wake up that early I said 0500, but that back fired on my when everyone including my girl friend said ok! Woke up way before the butt crack of dawn. Got everything together, picked up Deni and off we went up the mountain.

Arrived at the lake around 0700 and put the boat down in the water. The launch ramp here is a ways off from the camp grounds so I had to get the boat over to the camp grounds and my truck. Originally with everyone coming this wasn't an issue, but with just me and Deni, Deni not knowing how to drive my stick shift truck and never driven a boat before she had some learning to do. It was going to be way easier to teach her how to get the motor working on the boat then to teach her how to drive stick so I showed her the basics. Made sure she could start it up and everything on her own and then off she went.

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I was a little nervous about letting her go on her own, but it wasn't that far and its not like we were in the ocean or in the delta where I had my mishap.

Met her back at the camp ground got everything situated and then we hit the lake to do some fishing.

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We worked the banks and some rock piles with robo worms for a good while until we finally found some

schools holding in deeper water.

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Fished em carolina, texas, and on drop shot rigs didn't matter it all worked as long as we were fishing 10-20ft of water.

Didn't bring any fire wood along so after that quick fix we ran across the lake to another campground area where I've been to before where I knew had an area with tons of dry fire wood laying around everywhere.

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Little bit of time and some elbow grease and we had more then enough for a couple of nights.

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Nice and tight wood bundle complete with handles made for easy carrying and transport. Work smart not hard.

Talked to a lot of people around the camp grounds and no one was catching any fish anywhere. Most were trying for trout, but even the bass guys couldn't find em. They were all working the shallow banks and no one was trying any deep water.

Evening rolled around and we went out again to try for a top water bite and maybe see some trout rolling.

I introduced Deni to the wonderful world of top water and she didn't end up hooking into any, but she had plenty of blow ups and lost a few that got her heart pumping for sure.

I ended up sticking one on a Zara Puppy

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Biggest of the day.

No trout though. Back to the camp to enjoy a nice camp fire and get some rest so I could try and find some trout tomorrow.

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I had a slight temptation to try for koke's, but I have never caught one or even tried for them before and I don't like taking Deni with me on learning trips since she doesn't have the same amount of patience that I have.

Next day we went back into Jones Fork to look for some trout. A buddy of mine took me back here a few years ago and told me its usually always a good place to try for trout. Sure enough we got all the way back there walked in a little bit and I saw some surfacing in the area. Stuck a couple on a Kastmaster, but never landed any of them. Switched over to some salmon eggs below a bobber and started landing some.

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Fish on a stick!

Deni ended up sticking a few on a super duper

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The bite wasn't red hot, but the weather sure was. After a couple of hours we ran out of water and got tired of the heat so left there with a few trout for dinner and left a couple of bass with some sore lips as well.

Worked the evening again for another top water session for a few more blow ups and one more fish to the boat. Stayed that night and back home this morning in time to unload everything and get ready for work again.

Bass fishing was good, trout fishing sucked until we found em. The whole trip was a blast and some great fun with the girl friend. Glad I was able to get a camping trip in this summer before life got too busy with school and work.

Till Next Time Guys
Mark

Moke 8/3/12

Had some free time and wanted to take the girl friend out on the boat for the first time. Ran back to Wimpy's and hit the Moke to try again for that striper. Tried the bass thing for a little bit and we both missed a few hits tossing senko's and swimbaits, but we couldn't get anything to the boat. On to get some bait!

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Same spot I was at before and they were still there.

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One of mine.

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Deni trying

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Smallest one of the day.

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Before long we had a dozen in the bucket for bait. More then enough.

Moving on looking for that striper. I was showing Deni how to rig up a live bluegill, but I told her there was a couple of different things she could try to try for the stripers. As I was showing her how to drop the bluegill down it felt like I hit bottom about 4ft down, but I know its at least 11ft deep here. What the heck? I was thinking I hit a tree or something and I tried getting it to drop further down, then I noticed my line was veering off to the side and my rod started loading up. Oh crap I have a bite! I swung for the

fences, but only came back with an empty hook, damn. I asked Deni what she wanted to fish and without any stutter she said give me a bluegill. Set her up and got her in the water.

As we were drifting down the meadows I was picking up some more shakers on my jig.

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The fact that I kiss fish in front of my Girlfriend and she doesn't say a word about it is nothing short of a miracle. I am lucky to have her lol.

Deni was fascinated by the bluegills we still had in the bucket, so I told her to splash the water and replace it every now and then to keep the water cool and aerated. When she was replacing the water she put her rod down on the side of the boat then I heard a splash and Deni said "Oh shit!" I look over and sure enough there is her brand new rod I just bought her slowly sinking down into the murky depths. I dropped my rod reached over and grabbed it before it sank too far. As I was pulling it up I realize that there was something pulling back on the other end. Holy crap there is a fish on there. I handed the rod back to Deni and cleared my lines out of the way.

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Fish on! we got a fight now. Brought that fish up and got her in the net.

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Finally and decent sized striper and some blood in the boat! Ended up being just over 25 inches.

We got lucky on that one too. Fish almost got away with Deni's rod! defiantly glad we got that one. We ended up only doing one more drift. I managed a total of 5 shakers on the jig, but nothing else on the bluegills.

Good few hours on the water and some great time with the Girlfriend. I can't get her to wake up early for a sunrise bite and she absolutely can not stand the heat, so this time of year especially I am very excited whenever I can get her out on the water. Luckily there was a very nice delta breeze all day too that kept the temperature cool enough for us that the heat wasn't unbearable.

Off of the water around 1830 after about a 5 hour session. Ran back home for an awesome fish taco dinner.

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Awesome day on the water, couldn't ask for more.

Till Next Time Guys
Mark

Finally Fixed The Boat!

I finally got my boat up and running again and its been out of the water way too long. First off though I want to give a special thanks everyone who helped me out with getting me back on the water. Ethan (Etray) for hooking me up with a new discounted prop and finishing the job for me, Larry (MrT) especially for really going out of his way to help me work on my motor and

teach me all kinds of new things, and Bernard (ol fella) for hooking me up with Larry which all put me back on the water.

Was thinking about hitting the sac again for salmon, but man after 10 outings and only getting one fish its tiring. I needed to go out and do something else and catch some fish.

Loading up the boat this morning I noticed I might be packing a little too much stuff.

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Do I really need to bring 6 rods with me? I think yes!!! Are they in the way in my small tin can? Maybe, but I have uses for all of them and its way easier to just pick up another rod then it is to constantly be retieing.

Stuck close to home and ran solo today, wanted to do my own thing and do some experimenting. Launched from Wimpy's around 0530 and headed up to the meadow's. Wanted to spend most of the day searching for some green carp and see what happened after that. Saw a lot of fish jumping right off the bat, so I grabbed my spook and started looking for that first light top water bite. After a dozen cast or so with out one blow up, but still fish jumping around everywhere I was wondering what the hell was going on??? I should be getting hit. I was just getting ready to switch to a swimbait, until I saw what the fish were. I saw one fish come completely out of the water and it was a golden brown carp. Crap, got to get out of here. I hate fishing around these guys. Their jumping drives me insane and I have noticed that I usually never do very much good fishing for anything else when they are around. Idk if their sheer numbers just push everything else out, if they stir up the bottom and make the water cloudy, or maybe I'm just paranoid. Point is though they are bad luck for me so I got the hell out of there.

Ran over to Law Slough to try again. Tossed a spook, senko's, and a crankbait all over the place, but I just wasn't finding any bites. I tried for the better part of an hour until I decided to try and get some bluegills to try drifting for some stripers. In my hunt to find a school of some bluegills I noticed a bunch of bait balls of shad sticking close to the surface swimming around everywhere. Man I would love them for bait, but they are too small to get on a hook and line. I'll have to get or make some kind of big dip net for me to try and catch them with sometime, since I've learned that cast nets aren't legal to use. I couldn't find any bluegills to save my life, so I though I would just try focusing on these bait balls. Like I do at the port when I see em I threw a swimbait just past the school and rolled it real slow under them and my second cast I got slammed.

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On the board baby! No skunk for me today. After this I knew if I just stayed on the bait I'll be good. I followed the bait balls around and not much longer I stuck another fish.

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Give me some suger baby! Nice little shaker striper.

I tried following the bait after this, but the wind picked up on me and it made it impossible to see the small ripple the school's make on the surface. I made fan cast's everywhere and plugged away for another hour for nothing. Time to go back to what I was doing before I saw the shad, bluegills.

I tried working some boat docks and I finally found a school in a cove next to a dock. Nothing but a small piece of a powerworm on a mosquito hook is all you need to go to town on these guys.

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I ended up getting a decent amount of hand sized fish which were a little big for what I wanted for bait, but I figured I'd keep the big ones for lunch and the small ones for bait, couldn't go wrong there. After working the area for a bit I had myself a nice bucket full of fish.

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Ran to an area where I've caught stripers before to try my luck. Found the community of house boats

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Started my drift with a live bluegill on one rod and a jig on the other. First drift I had a short run on my bluegill and missed a good hit on the jig. Headed back up for a longer drift and I started nailing the shakers on my jig.

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Had one more short run on my bluegill, but nothing that really committed to it. I worked the area for a good while catching over a half dozen shakers on the jig. Nice to get this thing to finally work constantly for me, been trying to jig fish for a while now with next to no success ever with it. I decided to leave though in the search for bigger fish. Ran around did some more drifting, but never found anymore fish. Probably should of stayed and worked my way through to shakers to get that keeper, but oh well all a learning experience.

Off of the water today at 1230 to get out of the heat and be home in time for work later. Love having my boat back up and running again =). Outcast is where its at! Thanks again guys, I so appreciative of all the help and to be a part of this family. Love this place!

Till Next Time Guys
Mark