Ave Maria on the American for the First Time

Today I had free time from noon until 4 pm.  Hooked up with the Fish Whisperer to do another salmon run on the American.  We met at the Howe American River Access.  This also happened to be the first time that my canoe, the Ave Maria, equipped with a 40 lbs. Minn Kota trolling motor, entered the American.  It's hard to say, but I either fumbled the controls in the beginning of the first troll or the Fish Whisperer hooked into a big whooper!  We started out near the Watt Ave. Bridge by the concrete pipes where ProFisherman and I landed a lot of fish in the past.  I wrapped the sardine just like the way the Pro taught me.  We pulled plugs for steelhead and salmon; Arkie and Hot Shots were for steelhead and sardine wrapped Kwikfish for salmon.  We saw some salmon jumping, some beat up salmon swimming around, and some carcasses showing the that the salmon have complete their life cycle.  As a bonus, I saw a beautiful steelhead shoot straight out of the water about two feet high!

The first past, the Fish Whisperer using a 13X Kwikfish, sardine wrapped, sees his plug going the wrong direction.  His pole bent; I stopped the trolling motor; he pulled the canoe upstream?  It's ridiculous!  Unfortunately, after a little while, the line snapped.  So I quickly wrapped a K14 Kwikfish that I got on one of my Oregon trips and repeated the trolling again.

The second take-down.  I put the Ave Maria on reverse to troll upstream.  The Salmon Slayer was in the rod holder.  Bam!  The take-down was so violent, the Fish Whisperer had a hard time removing it from the rod holder.  Once again, after a little while, we only got our plug back, but no fish.

The third and fourth take-downs both happened on the Oregon Kwikfish.  The Fish Whisperer was holding on to the rod when the salmon took it.  One was on and off.  The last one, the Fish Whisperer got to fight it for a little bit and even saw its head when it spit out the plug.

Although no fish was boated, it was a blessed trip.  I now know that I can load and unload the Ave Maria by myself on the Fish Mobile.  I learned that the 40 lbs Minn Kota can handle the swift current of the American by Watt Ave.  I preferred to troll in the forward motion rather than in reverse.  Until next time: tight lines....

Reworking this K15 to a gold color.

The finished product is in third row down, to the left.

More of dead salmon are seen now

We were the only fishermen on the river.

The Fish Whisperer: he called; they came; but we didn't conquered this time.  Next time, my brother.

Last Trip for Salmon in the American River?

What a big difference to drive half an hour to a fishing hole versus two hours.  Don't get me wrong, it's definitely worth it to drive two hours to one of my favorite fishing places where I got my super powers, the Carson River!  However, half an hour's drive to my other favorite place where the Pro got his powers - the American River - is awesome!

"Shazam! Shoot, wrong magic word.  Fish on!"

Bam!  JU, the Ultimate Fisherman!

To prepare for today's trip, I decided to paint my own plugs and test them out in the American.  I'm not a big fan of treble hooks, so they were replaced by single hooks.  The gold painted plugs were cured for six days while the silver ones for five days.  After 4 hours in the water, the silver plug started to peel.  The gold plug was in the water for 2 hours and remained beautifully intact!

The last four salmon boated were on silver plugs.

Video of tuned plugs in action.

One of the Pro's many friends, Officer Dan, stopped by.

What a crowded river...  not!  Video of salmon.

Another beautiful day of pulling plugs, but no takers this time.  We pulled plugs from 11 am until 3 pm.

It's Striper Fishing Time

Introduction

My alter ego name is Peter Pa...n, no Park...er, no the Pumpkin Pie Eater.  That's it:  My alter ego name is Peter, the Pumpkin Pie Eater or TriplePE.  When I hold a fishing pole and say the magic words (Fish on!), I change: I become Johnny United, the Ultimate Fisherman!

TriplePE: "Fish on!"

JU, the Ultimate Fisherman!

Introducing: The Striker!

While fishing at Liberty Island, Vu caught the biggest striper of his life.  Trying to remove the fish from the net, he was bitten by the radioactive striper.  He became the Striker, striking fear wherever the fish are hiding.

Monday, 11 NOV 2013 - Happy Veterans Day!

Just like Friday, the Captain said that he would come to pick me up at 6:30 am.  He was at my door step with the Striker at 6:20 am.  I my haste, I forgot my JU power juice (high octane coffee :-)  We then picked up the Patriarch.  We arrived at our striper fishing hole in Liberty Island around 8 am.  We trolled using our usual striper jig, except for me.  I've always gotta have some 'in different.  I put the striper jig on the bottom and a long JU homemade eel jig on top...  We trolled in 3 - 7 feet of water.  The Patriarch brought a Berkley Cherrywood HD rod; yes, the same as my Salmon Slayer, except that his is a two-piece spinning rod.  He runs the jig at 100 feet plus behind the boat.  First pass, he nailed a 25-inch, 5 pounder with the Cherrywood.  Today is his day!  He boated a total of 4 striper, 2 large mouth, and lost a striper at the net.  The Striker nailed a 27-inch, 7 pounder.  The Captain netted a 16-incher.  And JU???  I let another monster get away :-(  I got a monster take-down that I thought I could force in while the boat continues trolling.  About 100 yards away and I am not making any progress in getting the fish closer to the boat, I asked the Captain to make a u-turn.  The fish fought hard as the boat is making its way back.  Then I felt  tug, tug, tug, and bling....  The fish won.  That's why I enjoy fishing so much.  It's like reading your favorite novel and letting your imaginations run wild.  I imagine it was at least as big as the 20 pound salmon that I landed a few weeks back.  To make the story short, we are super spoiled.  We spent 8 hours trolling.  We get to keep 3 striped bass and two black bass....  We complained that it was a hard day :-(

Let's get to our fishing spot.

25-inch, 5 pounder boated at 10 am.

Scenery

Scenery

Double hook-ups at noon.  Video clip of the 7 pounder.

Boated at 2:30 pm.  Video clip of the bass.

Sunday, 10 NOV 2013

As usual, I met up with ProFisherman at 10:45 am for a Drift through the American Fishing Lane.  Today the weather couldn't be more beautiful: no wind and average temperature in the low 70s.  Unfortunately, this is not good weather for salmon fishing; they prefer colder temperature.  Additionally, I forgot to bring sardine.  Thus we trolled one Kwikfish by itself and the other with wrapped salmon eggs.  Back and forth the Pro rowed against the current.  About the third pass, we got one take down on the left fishing pole, indestructible Rhino one piece bait casting rod.  The salmon let go just as fast too!  We took a break and anchored at the 12 deep fishing hole where we caught a 20 pounder in 2011.  We flat line two poles with Kwikfish and the third we drop it to the bottom with a round sinker.  Within a few minutes, the Salmon Slayer did it again with a super hard take down!  I removed the rod and set the hook.  I felt the fish pulled and there's a wide smile across my face: fish on!  My joy was short lived because the salmon let go after a few seconds....  It was a very peaceful fishing trip with two take downs, put none boated.

Pro's special salmon roe sushi concoction

Wildlife along the American

Friday, 08 NOV 2013

I've fished the Sacramento River for salmon twice this year.  It was with the Captain and the Patriarch.  Both times, the boat malfunctioned and we could barely move at 5 mph.  So today I was very excited that the boat is fixed and that I will finally get to jig for salmon in the Sacramento River which is the only technique that I am ever successful at landing salmon in the Sacramento River!

I was picked up at 6:30 am by the Captain.  We then picked up the Patriarch.  We hit the launched at Garcia Bend at 8:00 am.  We went across the river to the South side and jigged downstream in 20 - 40 feet water.  We followed other boats jigging about 1 mile down stream and then came back to the North side to jigged some more.  We did not get any takers.  So we took off and went upstream to my favorite salmon jigging hole, past the Minnow Hole, where the Patriarch got a hit the last time out and thought it was a snag.  I jigged my heart out, but did not get any takers.  This is the first time that I believe we are skunked at this hole: there's a first time for everything.  We got tired of jigging around noon and switched over to trolling with Flying Cs and a 2 oz. dropper.  For the next hour, we trolled.  Not one single bite for the entire day.

The 72 year-old husband wife team that the Captain knew, launched at the same time that we did.  By noon, they picked up and left with one salmon on the jig and two additional salmon trolling spinners behind a 1.5 oz dropper at speed number 3 on the electric motor.

Tripleheader Weekend!

Sunday, 03 Nov 2013.

I was supposed to meet the Pro today at 10:30 am for another "Drifting Through the Fish Lane" in the American River.  I texted to let him know that I would be a little late.  Had to stop by and get some grubs at Mickey D's.  I arrived at 10:45 am.  The Pro got the two K-14 silver Kwikfish wrapped with a sardine fillet.  The Fish Seeker (Pro's drift boat) was docked but ready for action.  We hit the water around 11 am.  First up was my Salmon Slayer pole from last weekend and another new pole that I got yesterday.  The Salmon Slayer had on a K-14 silver Kwikfish and the other pole had on a K-14 silver/chartreuse Kwikfish.  Immediateley on the first row path, the Salmon Slayer bent way over.  I set the hook; gave the pole to Pro in hopes of getting some action on film.  I was not ready.  By the time I got my camera and figured out how to work it, it was time to net the fish.  It was a beautiful 14 pound hen!

First one boated at 11:30 am.

After calming our nerves, we put both K-14 silver Kwikfish back into action.  Back and forth, the Pro rowed the Fish Seeker.  This is because the flow in the American is slow and there is very little current.  The Pro and I discovered two years ago, that in a situation like this, "we make our own current!"  Around 1:30 pm, the Salmon Slayer went down again!  This time I was ready.  I gave the rod to the Pro and video taped the action.  At the same time, Department of Fish and Wildlife staff came by to witness the action.  As a matter of fact, they were the ones to tell me the weight of the salmons.  They also told Pro and I that we are the only ones they surveyed today that landed any salmons.  We are truly blessed!

15-pound hen boated around 1:30 pm.  Click here to see how it was done.

We were off the waters by 3 pm.  Once again, we were the only fishermen at this location.  Here are additional pictures of the day.

Look ma, no more cuts from a salmon's teeth.

No boat in sight.

Last one to the banks is a rotten egg.

Yep.  It's a keeper.

Any scraps for us?

Saturday, 02 Nov 2013.

Today, the Commando, the Wiz, and I got to our fishing spot at 6:45 am.  It was still dark because sunrise is not until 7:30 am.  I used the flash light to help the Commando set his rig.  The Wiz took the South side of the Carson River, while the Commando and I fished the North side.  The Wiz landed the first fish of the day.  The Commando and I followed suite.  Before we knew it, the time was around 10 am.  We called it quits.  We caught three limits, but kept just 9 total.  We let the little guys go.

The biggest catch of the day: 16 incher rainbow.

Fresh mountain trout!

We devoured these for breakfast.

Friday, 01 Nov 2013.

Got a call from an old friend
We are still real close
Said he couldn't go on working at the shop all day long
Closed the shop, gave me a call
Said, "Let's go to Tahoe."
Now he catches fish as the Commando

You know I'm game when I hear Tahoe.  So the Miracle Squad, Mrs. M., and I packed up and headed up the mountain.  We arrived around 10:30 am to find that the Wiz had secured our fishing spot along the Carson River.  The Wiz informed us that he landed 4 so far; however, he didn't anchor the stringer well, so three trout on the stringer took off with the stringer: Doh!!!

The Miracle Squad and I came down and fished on the North side of the Carson River.  We were catching some.  Since we didn't have any pink trout worms to use, we resorted to other imitation bait.  It was harder work than usual even through there were hundreds of fish swimming.  Then Miss Mystic yelled out:  "Look!  There are fish on that stringer!"  I chased after it, but the 3 fish were too quick for me.  However, I saw them dive down beneath a boulder.  Upon closer inspection, I saw the metal end part of the stringer protrude out by an inch, two feet under water, below the boulder.  I reached down and successfully retrieved the stringer with three trout on it!!!  Oh, yeah, baby.  Click here to see video.

Around noon, a fly fisherman showed up on the South side of the River.  For every one fish that we caught, the fly fisherman catches five!!!  We left around 1 pm with a total of nine keepers, but not before I walked to the other side of the river and asked permission to take a picture of the winning fly.

See any fish?

Just a couple of fish

Class of 1982

Winning fly: fish on every cast under an indicator.

Catch of the day.

Fresh mountain air brings a smile to our faces.

Home by the river