Striped Bass at the Port

I received an invite to go fishing with Grand Master Fisherman last week.  I was jazzed that the day is finally here.  I woke up at 6 AM to bake potatoes for the kids.  I did extra work the day before to have my youngest get ahead of her school work so that I can enjoy my fishing trip.

I met up with GMF at the Port in West Sac around 9 am.  We trolled around the Port using a jig on the bottom and a diver on top.  We didn't get any bites.  So GMF moved to a different spot down the river.

Shortly after arriving at the new location, GMF hooked two "head shakers" or undersized striped bass as we like to call them.  But not before long, the first keeper was boated; it was 10:25 AM.  Further along, GMF got another nice strike: fish on!  I was busy video taping when we realized that the fish was going to need a net man.  Thus, I hung my camera around my neck and picked up the net.  A nice fight ensued until the fish was boated: It was a 27-inch, 7 pounder!

I was still dazed from my last trout fishing trip and I managed to land two striped bass on this trip also.  They were both trout sizes and were released :-)

I was home by lunch time to join my children.  What a blessed day!

9:10 AM

10:25 AM: First keeper of the day.

 

No net-man needed for the first keeper.

10:40 AM: 27-inch, 7 pounder!

 

Sorry, no GoPro here.  Just the camera hanging from my neck :-(

Trout-size striper that was released.

Two Lakes: Different Results

Friday, the 13th: Lake #1

WizTech and I left SacTown to get to this lake nearby.  By the time we arrived, there were already two kayaks in the water.  We put our canoe in and trolled one time around the lake.  No takers!  One of the guys in the kayaks told us that he was there before sunrise trying a bunch of techniques, including fly fishing, but no hits either!  We were having doubt about whether this lake was stocked recently with rainbow trout according to the Dept. of Fish & Wildlife website.  Then the thought occurred to us that maybe DOFW has not stocked yet!  So we decided to fish some more in hope that the trout plant truck may stop by in the middle of our fishing trip.  No such luck.

As a matter of fact, we decided to have an early lunch and wait on dry land and that's when it happened: the attack of the geese!  It was Friday the 13th after all.  I was sitting on a big boulder enjoying the beauty of the lake, when three geese started heading straight for me.  At first, I thought it was cool that they were heading my way and that maybe they liked me.  Soon my benign thoughts changed because they started barking or honking and gnarling their beaks at me.  Man, were those teeth nasty!  Those teeth were bigger than a big brown trout's teeth!  They decided to charge at me and the leader wanted to find out what I taste like: big mistake!  When the leader came and snapped at me, let's just say I am not the Founder of Võ Nam Chi for nothing!?!  After that incident, the geese kept their distance from me for the rest of the day :-)

On the way out, we encountered a local fisherman who help stocked the fish.  He said he help carried several five-gallon buckets down to the lake from the parking lot.  The fish were around six to eight inches in length and there were at most 200 fish stocked for the entire lake.  We left around 11:30 AM, skunk!

Fantastic view of the lake from our canoe.

Saturday, the 14th: Intermission

My baby brother got engaged and we were blessed to be there for the special occasion.

Congrats....

Sunday, the 15th: Lake #2

After Holy Mass, we decided to go on a day trip.  It was around 10 AM.  We got to the lake around 2 PM!  Not good for fishing if you know anything about trout.  With kids, you fish when you can.  I setup three fishing poles for Mrs. Miracles and the Squad to fish while I scouted the lake with a Phoebe lure.  It was a small lake.  I passed by a local fisherman with his wife and baby.  I tried to get some intel for fishing the lake.  Unfortunately, the fisherman said although he lives around the corner from the lake, this was his first time fishing the lake.  He had power bait on, but have not gotten any bites.  I continued around the lake and casting  every few yards apart.  Finally, I am on the other side of the lake where the children can see me and started calling out to me.  I waved back.  All along I had discovered that I took the wrong ultra light fishing pole with me.  This one had a defective reel with a broken drag!  Half an hour's hike around the lake and a whole lot of casts, not a single bite.  I didn't even see any fish following the lure in.  Now, I was down to three last casts (Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit).  Before I let out my last cast, I thought I saw a bubble to my left where a kayak had just passed.  Yes, there it was again.  I did, I did see a bubble.  Quickly, I cast the lure beyond the bubble and slowly retrieve it back.  Mama mia!  Fish on!  The drag was screaming.  I was at a lost of how to bring the fish in since the reel was broken.  But patience won out.  The fish tired after a while and I was able to beach it.  It was a beauty!  I ran all the way back to show the children proof that there were fish in the lake.

Like all fishermen, once we found the location of the fish, it's pretty much game over.  All the time that I went around the lake, no one caught any fish including the fisherman on the kayak.  So we hurriedly moved to where I saw the fish bubble and within an hour we landed another seven!!!  Little "j" landed two; Master Fisherman landed the biggest fish; Monk landed one; Mrs. Miracles landed two; and I landed two.  What tremendous blessing!  I did not want to drive through the mountain in the dark so we picked up to go home.  I told the couple with the cute baby to come and fish by our spot.

Victim of the phoebe lure.

Little "j" managed to reel in two fish by herself.

Monk landed one.

Just a model for the fish picture.

Master Fisherman landed a 21-inch, 4 pounder!

Wow!

Work Distractions

A picture is worth a thousand words.

Young Master at the Port in West Sac.

Young Master and Scout Master in their recent hunting trip.

Where The Fish Are Jumping!?!

If you want to have a productive day at work on this fine Monday morning, you better stop reading right now....  Otherwise, continue on.

The following is a fishing report from the Fish Whisperer for last Wednesday, February 4th:

I must say the locals know how to disguise a lake.  Rather than any sign of a lake there is a sign that says dead end ahead.  After going past a house that appears you are on private property a lake emerges out of nowhere.  There is even a reception house, tennis courts, & monster playground, BBQ’s…the works!  (Just had to put that in there because I sense a big family/friend gathering there in the future!).  Forgot to mention that I wanted to get there before my friend because he told me this lake has only a 2 fish limit.  So I quickly grab the poles and head to an area that looks like the deepest part of the lake.  On the way I can see the little Truckee river(hint…hint) on my right.  At this moment I was thinking I could catch a fish & run it down to the river to clean so no would see me use a stringer.  So I throw out a PB set up on bottom & then a bobber/shrimp on my 2^nd rod.  After texting home to my buddy Matt, I see my PB rod bouncing. I notice the fish is going towards my bobber line so I start to move my bobber out the way and then back to my PB pole.  I feel a massive jolt and the fish quickly comes off before I could get a decent hook set.  At this moment I notice my bobber under water going the direction against the wind…double hook up!!!  I quickly grab the pole and have a 3lber flopping on the bank!!  I quickly rush it to the river(OMG so..so…so cold!!) After cleaning it I quickly put it in my stow away chair that already has snow in it.  At this moment I knew there wasn’t enough time for 2 poles.  I throw my bobber/shrimp back out there and within 2 minutes I see it dunk under. As soon as I set the hook a massive splash occurs half way out in the lake & the fight is on.  Usually you can give a fish a lot of muscle before they get close to shore, but this one was peeling line…with “authority”!  So I finally turn the fish and reel as quickly as possible and then it goes on another violent run peeling line on my 4lb ultra-light set up.  Splashes were going crazy, but I eventually got it close to shore & saw my first glimpses of mass chrome in the water! After several sweeping turns close to shore I finally land a fish that was in the solid 7-8lb range!  At this moment I text my Tahoe buddy to let him know I’m there.  He arrives and gets a picture of me with this big beast.  The fish was just so fat…I’m talking serious girth!  So we fished a while.  Given how small the lake is(around the size of Burnside) we decided to hit a couple different spots as the fish seemed a little spooked after landing that big boy.  I had to really go pee so I decided to put my PB pole in the water since there was a little breeze on the water.  After coming back I asked my buddy where my pole was.  He had no clue my pole was casted.  After about 10 minutes of looking in the water I see something that could maybe be my pole.  Being who I am I’m quickly stripped down to my chonies.  My buddy was begging me not to do it and that he could go get his raft at home(10 mins away).  But he quickly noticed that I was willing to work for fish & my pole, lol.  After a 1,2,3 count down I dove into the frigid cold waters & came up with the pole peeling line….FISH ON!!!!  At this point I didn’t notice I drew the audience of 3 hikers on the other side of the like that watched me battle this beast in the water.  It took me about 20 yards down the shore line as I fought it in the water.  Finally I had it in sight and saw a huge red stripe on the side of the chromed beast. 15 ft, 10ft, …OMG 5 ft away…and then pop!!!! You got to be freakn kidding me.  I thought it spit the hook, but the line actually broke.  This was just a shock as the drag wasn’t that tight, just my 4lb test was weakened after the first two fish.  Anyhow all this is on video which I’m still trying to get from my buddy.  We went to CVS in South Lake and got the attached pics from his phone, but for copyright reasons CVS no longer has equipment that copies any video…only pics.

So back to the fishing story.  Honestly you will just have to take my word on this as my fingers & wrist are still sore and cramped from catching so many fish.  The rest of the day was mind boggling.  We caught well over 20 fish.  It got to the point we were releasing fish.  It really hurt to watch my buddy release a beautiful 4lber, but I already had 5 in the ice chest so I started releasing them as well.  There was one fish I caught on PB so I made an excuse that it took it to deep so I could finally put one on my stringer, lol.  However I had another big fish that broke my leader on my bobber/shrimp pole just like my swimming experience.  However it didn’t matter as every cast resulted in a landed fish or one that robbed our shrimp. 

With all seriousness this was one of the best days I’ve had in the sierra(as far as numbers, quality, & big fish).  I’m so glad that I wasn’t in Alpine Co. because I would hate to actually try to decide if this was my best fishing day in Alpine Co.  But Alpine Co. is on another level.  We have all had so many great days there that it would just be another great Alpine Co experience.  But to sum it all up this lake had no small fish.  I’ve attached a pic of my smallest & biggest fish.  The fish never gave us time to take many pics & this is why all these pics are from my buddies phone.  Just imagine what it would be like to actually fish the hatchery that plants the Alpine Co(Brood stock) fish…that is what fishing this lake was like.  Every fisherman deserves a day like this.  With all honesty I always believe that I’m going to have a day like this before every trip & cast I do, but so humbled and blessed that God decided to actually bless me with a trip like this.  There was a moment in the trip where we were laughing where I told my buddy I hope my alarm doesn’t go off right now and wake me up because we kept saying every 2 mins…”got to release another small 16 incher, life is rough but someone got to do it I guess!”  The only downer of the trip was the last fish I released.  This fish was pushing 4lbs!!! I never caught a fish that big all of 2014.  I looked deep into that fishes eye as I released it…if it wasn’t for my buddy so close to me that bad boy would have been in ice chest before you could say “ice”!  Man that feeling was like breaking my religion…sort of like Elliot allowing someone to fish the Trophy section with 50 poles & keeping over 100 fish!

In conclusion, we never even fired up the BBQ to grill all the links & food I brought.  There was several times I looked over at my buddy & said should we go back to the truck and start up the grill.  And his reply was “Dave I could never imagine you leaving the water with the bite so hot”.  I think I could stop with that as I probably could have kissed him for saying that!

The smallest!?!