Finally A Five Pound Bow!

It's been a while since I headed out at 4 am to the Sierra, but that I did.  Dreaming about landing a big Rainbow on my first trip using the float tube kept me sleepless all night.  I was already up at 2:30 am anticipating the trip.  Punctual as usual when it comes to fishing, the Wiz picked me up.

We arrived at one of our favorite fishing holes barely before sun up.  We checked in with the Fish Whisperer's friends by the dam.  They were there yesterday and had 3 on the stringer already.  As we introduced ourselves, it was fish-on on one pole while another pole had a take down!  I could tell it was gonna be a beautiful day.  The fish landed was a beautiful 17-inch cutthroat caught on power ball.  It fell off the hook just as it was landed.  Yours truly got to assist and put it on the stringer.  During all the commotion, the other fish stole the bait on the other pole.

We said our "so long!" to Fish Whisperer's friends and went by the buoy.  It was also the Wiz' first time using a float tube.  We stumbled from the roadway to the water hauling the float tubes along like two penguins running to get supper.  Finally, we were situated and learning to paddle with our fins.  The Wiz threw out some power balls and immediately thought: "Darn, snag!"  Wait, the snag started moving; oh yeah, fish on!  I saw out of the corner of my eye as the fish surfaced: it was big!  First fish of the day: 20 -inch, 5 pounder!!!

The ruler is not long enough...

Good for dinner

Next to the 20-incher, the other 3 looked tiny :-)

 
Then it was my turn.  I used a Berkeley pink worm.  Missed the first take down, but the second was landed.  It was a beautiful 16-inch Rainbow.  The wind was not bad, but it managed to blow me towards the dam.  I paddled hard to try to get back to the buoy, and yes, another take down.  This time it was a 17-inch Rainbow.

First catch from a float tube

 The next couple of hours, I missed several more hits.  The Wiz broke out the Z and started getting hookups.  He missed two more hits, but finally landed a 17-inch Cutthroat.  We fished from 7 am to 10 am with a total of 3 Bows and Cut!  What an awesome time.  We went back by the dam to say our farewells to our new friends.  They were having an awesome day also.

Fisherman's Camp

What a great combo

Released two 25 pounders; kept 2 pounder???

Yesterday was a super windy day to go fishing.  The water was very brownish due to the recent rain.  We went to the usual Liberty Island to troll for striped bass.  Immediately, on the first pass, JU landed a 21-incher with his new setup: a Bomber 16A with a 7-inch pearl trailing tail.  The waves were very rough at the trolling location.  The wind was around 13 mph.  We survived a total of 2 loops of trolling without any other hits, but more importantly without getting motion sickness.

Replaced 3 treble hooks with 2 single hooks

Keeper

We then went to our favorite sturgeon fishing hole at (according to California Dept. of Fish and Wildlife) location code 03: Sacramento River. Knights Landing to Rio Vista.  The waves were calm, but the depth was 50 feet.  We had a hard time setting anchor with a 100-foot rope.  Any of you expert fishermen know why?  Eventually, we did manage to anchor up.  We were using ghost shrimp and salmon eggs.  We got around a dozen hits within a couple of hours!!!  JU missed all three hits?!?  The sturgeon hits were very light like a crab gnawing at your bait.  The team did manage to land two that were released.

Released

Released