O, Blessed Day!

The Pro and I got an opportunity to redeem ourselves this morning.  Remember last Sunday when I got two hookups and no salmon?  Remember the entire 2013 salmon season when I still skunk with no salmon landed?  No more....

I arrived at our usual fishing spot in the American River thinking that I was the first one there since the Fish Mobile was the only vehicle in the parking lot.  I looked at the time with my forehead flash light: it was 5:55 am.  Since I was to meet the Pro at 6 am, I thought I had a little time to kill.  Quickly downed my "number 2 with no meat" from Mickey Dee.  Checked the time again: it was 6:04 am.  It occurred to me that the Pro may already be by the River although it was pitch dark.  I went down by the river, and sure enough, the headlights of the Pro's vehicle was on while he was wrapping Kwikfish.  I hurriedly went back to get my gear.  Sunrise was to be at 7:28 am.  So we were in the water past 6:30 am when it was legal to fish.  Once again, we were the only ones fishing :-)

The second pass around the hole where we got two hookups last week, bam!  Fish on!  A twenty pounder was in da boat by 7:30 am.

In the kisser where we like to see 'em

20 pounder 1st salmon for JU in 2013

Around 8:00 am another drift boat joined us on da river.  It was one of Pro's acquaintances.  We left and move further downstream where we were the only game on da river again.  However, after the first pass, we decided to get back to where we belong, upstream where we landed the first one.  Since Pro forgot his trolling motor, he pulled us back to the fish hole the manly way, manual power, baby.  At about the same location, bam!  Fish on, again!  This second salmon in the boat at 9:30 am was 22 pounds.

Barely got this one.  Hook feel off while he was in the net.

22 pounder!

Fresh salmon stakes.  These are small portions from the tail end of the 20 pounder.

Near 10 am we had a take down.  Just as I removed the rod from the holder, it let go.  However, a few seconds later, it chased down the lure and took it down again!  Unfortunately, it let go again....

More pictures from today:

7:06 am

8:13 am

The Pro with the 20 pounder.

The salmon slayer rod of the day: Berkey Cherrywood, Medium-Heavy 7'

Johnny Who?

It was Sunday, October 20th, when JU and the Pro got another chance to drift through the fish lane in the American.  We could have gone upstream by the hatchery where the salmons stacked up in the river this time of the year; but, we would have to share the river with a bunch of other boats....  Johnny opted for fishing where we're the only boat around.  Armed with an awesome new/used one piece 8'6'' Fenwick spinning rod discovered at a thrift shop for $4.95, Johnny was ready.  We pulled plugs from 10:30 am until 3 pm.  Right around 11 am, Johnny got a monster take-down.  When he went to set the hook, the drag could be heard screaming.  As it turned out, Johnny forgot to set the drag.  The salmon took the plug, tugged the plug a few times, and then let it go :-(  Doh!!!  Thus, Johnny tighten up the drag real good.  There was not another bite to be had until 2:30 pm.  This time again, the rod bent way over.  Johnny removed the rod from the holder and set the hook hard!  All of the sudden, the entire line went light, much to Johnny's surprise.  By the time the line was reeled in, the plug was gone because the line broke! It was just one of those days.  Both take downs were on the new/used Fenwick rod, using sardine wrapped size K14 silver Kwikfish.  Maybe Johnny United should be bitten by a radio-active monster fish instead of just getting scratched by the scales of one :-)

At least my brother the Fish Whisperer did much better; he wrote:

As for my steelhead I went out to my favorite spot down river of sunrise.  I did some errands before going so it wasn’t until around 1-2pm when I finally arrived with my brother in law.  We fished until sunset.  He caught a steel head on a spoon lure I let him borrow.  About an hour later I caught mine on a big Kastmaster that I found on the E Carson.  These were both smaller hatchery steelhead with adipose fins clipped.  We saw DFG coming down the river on kayaks & they said the action was slow on kings.  They said there were a lot in the river, but most upstream were pretty dark.  They said that steelhead action been more consistent.  However that was almost 2 weeks ago(Oct 5^th) as I haven’t fished since.

Fish Whisperer with American River steelie!

On a Kastmaster?

Yummy...

At Carson River

It's a good thing we live 2 hours' drive from Carson River, near South Lake Tahoe.  We can afford to go fishing early in the morning and be back before the Friday evening traffic starts.  Such is the case this morning when JU and da Wiz hooked up.  We left Sacramento at 5 am and arrived at our fishing hole around 7 am; the temperature was 30 degrees F.  We also visited other fishing spots.  At one location, we saw a big 10 pounder Alpers trout.  We used all the weapons we had, but it would not be captured today.  We took off when the temperature increased to 42 degrees.  We got back to Sacramento around 1 pm to temperature of 80 degrees.  We did catch a few rainbows.

Zoon in to the lower right corner of the picture :-)

Red Lake