The Week of Hits and Misses and Then Some...

FRIDAY - And Then Some...

During this past week, I had the pleasure of fishing three hours each day.  As my constant companion every morning was my reliable JU tumbler, given to me by my sister Rischel.  Thanks, Sis!  It contained black coffee to keep me perked up as if I was not excited enough 😀

Also, with me was my reliable salmon destroyer fishing rod & reel from the shore.  I mentioned this because the salmon destroyer fishing rod & reel from the SSS (Salmon/Steelhead Slammer) is different!

Blessed to get this rod on clearance at Walmart for $15.00

Reel: $10.99 & 20 lb braided line $2.00

Get the reel here when it's back in stock: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Outdoor-Angler-Spinning-Reel-30/30655482.  This rod/reel combo has bagged me 5 salmon so far....

This morning, Lucky and I fished at the Oak Tree for three hours with no hits.  However, I witnessed for the first time in my three years of fishing at this location, dare I say, a salmon rolled!!!  I was ecstatic because for the past three years, my fishing brothers have been asking me regarding, "Have you seen a salmon roll yet?"

"Sure, in the American River, but not here," came the reply.  Here's a short video for the day:

Now, I can up my Sacramento River salmon fisherman rank to the next level.  I have experienced loosing a fish after it had been hooked, loosing a fish by the net, landing a fish by hand as the hook fell off, landing a fish in the net, then the hook fell off, etc....  God is Good!!!


Meanwhile, I sent my brothers to the American River and this is the result:

20 lb American River Salmon

THURSDAY - MISS

Put in 3 hours today at the dock with Princesa.  There were ten total fishermen.  No fish at the end of the period.

WEDNESDAY - HIT

Today, I am all by my lonesome again.  First big hit was a snag!  Had to donate the Green Pirate Squid SIREN to the river.  At 7:55 AM, bam!  Fish on!  The excitement was short lived as the fish came off after fifteen seconds 😢  Just as the three-hour fishing time was up, another bam!  Fish on!  This would have been the third fish lost by the Pink Squid SIREN.  But God is good!  This time I was able to land the fish: Yeah!

TUESDAY - MISS

Wayne came by and fished with me for an hour, then he said:  "This is boring, there's no fish.  You wanna go fish at a different spot?"

I just smiled and waved, baby.

Saw a fly struggling on the water.  I should have pointed my GoPro towards that direction because instantly, a bass jump out above the water in the process to swallow the fly!  Looked like a scene from a nature movie!

No takers today for the entire three hours and one hundred and twenty casts!

God is good!

MONDAY - And Then Some...

Started fishing at 7 AM.  Casted continuously until around 9:30 AM to get a first hit!  THAT'S A HUNDRED CASTS!!!  The Pink Squid SIREN was way out in the river, when it got the first hit!  The salmon missed the mark, so I slowed down the retrieve speed.  A few seconds later, the fish bit again and was hooked!!!

Green Pirate Squid SIREN

STATS: So far, it's been a rough year in Sac River.

JU in Sac River: $52.41 / lb. of salmon
JU in American River with PRO: $6.81 / lb. of salmon
Other fishermen in Sac River at the same time as JU: $1,234.76 / lb. salmon 

Summary for the week:

Including JU, there were 18 fishermen, fishing for a total of 50 hours.  JU was the only one blessed with a fish yesterday, Wednesday, 10/18/2017.

I have been fishing with PRO for almost a decade!  I am forever grateful for all the fishing tips and tricks that he has taught me over the years, especially about pulling plugs for salmon and steelhead.  He introduced me to one of my favorite steelhead plugs called the Green Pirate Brads Wee Wiggler.

Now, I am honoring my brother PRO by naming one my SIREN the Green Pirate Squid!!!  You better believe the SIREN works!  This is my fifth salmon of the reason!  God is good!

Two out of three hooks in the mouth ain't bad.

Wild Jack: 26-inch, 7 lbs.

Drag Screaming:

Stealth fish on, no screaming allowed, except for the drag system.  If you know JU, you would know it is super duper tough to keep quiet with a fish on the line and the drag is screaming! 😀

Peace out.  God loves you.
-JU

Fishing with da PRO!!!

Got a text from da PRO:  "Hey John, can you go fishing?"

Does a hungry infant wants his mama's milk?  Can a kid go to sleep before Christmas, knowing that there's a boat load of toys under the Christmas tree?  😂😂😂

"Meet me out there at 6:15 AM," said da PRO.

Dude, I was out there at 5:30 AM!!!  Believe it or not, just as I arrived, there was a boat trailer being pulled out of the water.  This meant that there was already a boat in the water!

PRO told me that I will be fishing with another friend of his.  Any friend of PRO is a friend of mine.  I met up with this new fisherman and told him that anyone fishing with JU has to have a nickname.  So now I dubbed him: Knightwing Fisherman.  He reminds me of one of my Knight brothers.

Any how, we got in the water and was approaching one of our favorite honey holes in the American River and there were FIVE bank fishermen working the shore with hardware (most likely, Flying C's).  Avoiding them and trolling with a drift boat purely on human power is an amazing feat to witness.  PRO, you da man!!!

First pass, 6:50 AM, nothing, although we saw fishing rolling all over the place.  We were about to go downstream to the next honey hole, but PRO decided to give it another go; this time, pulling plugs through the same waters, except going against the current or going upstream.

Past the three bank fishermen we went, when PRO said "John, did you see that?"

"See what? I was checking to see if my GoPro was on."

As I looked up, the fishing pole went BENDO!!!  Oh yeah, baby, it was fish on!  I believed it was the early morning adrenaline kicking in, because I set the hook HARD!  The ensuring fight was fantastic and I was nervous that we would loose the fish by the boat.  PRO told me to take my time with the fish.  But the fish started charging the boat!  I had to crank fast to keep pressure on the fish.  We had a little technical difficulty with the net when the fish was ready to be boated.  The net got tangled with the metal oarlock.  So the fishing was on the outside under the net!  PRO then flipped the net around to scoop up the fish just as the line broke off....  The fish was safely netted!!!  Hurray!  She was an awesome 35-inch, 18 pound, wild fish.  And it was only around 7:20 AM.

Since we landed the fish passed the first three fishermen, but before the fourth and fifth fishermen, we were in the middle of a run.  We continued onward upstream trolling to finish the run.  At the end of the run, PRO commanded: "Reel 'em up boys."  This is when we reeled in the plugs and get ready to troll back downstream.  PRO had always told us that there's a chance of 1 in 50 for hooking a fish on the reel in.  Guess what?  It was JU's day.  On the reel in, I hooked another fish!!!  After a short fight, I looked down the fishing line and saw Knightwing's plug wrapped around it, so I assumed it was just our plugs crossed.  I released the pressure on my line, but I still felt the pull!!!  Then, it was determined that I got a fish on AND a line cross.  This is hilarious to watch the confusion in the video.  PRO rushed up to the bow and grabbed Knightwing's plug and cut it off.  That's why he's PRO!!!  He was so smooth and calm in resolving the line cross problem.  What line cross problem?  Then I was free to try and land the fish.  And once again, PRO netted the fish.  It was a bright 25-inch, 6 pound, wild Jack!  It was not even 7:45 AM yet!

With great success earlier on like that, I thought for sure we would all be limited out before noon.  However, that was not the case.  PRO worked hard at the oars, and we trolled back and forth all the way until noon.  We got more than half a dozen take-downs, but nothing stuck.  We ended up with the two fish for the day.

What a blessed day!!!!!

Peace out,
-JU

You Make the Call...

It been an interesting salmon fishing week in Walnut Grove.  No salmon was landed the entire week Monday through Friday, from 7 AM - 10 AM, where I fished.  Actually, the entire salmon fishing season has been interesting thus far.

I spoke with an angler this morning, who reported to me that today is his 17th time fishing for salmon this season and he has not landed one yet!!!

Here's my personal log:

You make the call....

God is good!

Peace out,
-JU

Grateful for My Blessings

Mrs. Miracles and I took our youngest daughter to the Nimbus Fish Hatchery today to see the opening of the gate for salmon and steelies to jump the ladder into the holding ponds of the hatchery compound.

Lots of people were there to witness the occasion.

What a disappointment!  After an hour of watching, we saw maybe 30 total fish get to the last holding pond.  So we went and feed the hatchery trout instead.

Three years ago, California experienced severe drought conditions.  The fish that made it back this year were raised and released three years ago.  This may be the reason why there were not that much fish returning.  But then again, it is still early in the season.  Only Almighty God knows.

All I know is that am super blessed to be bagging four salmon so far with all my homemade lures.  God is good!

Peace out,
-JU

It's Crappie Time!!!

According to the 2017-2018 California Freshwater Sport Fishing Regulations:
1.77. Sunfish.
Includes bluegill, green sunfish, redear sunfish,
pumpkinseed, warmouth, and Sacramento perch.

5.82. Sunfish and Crappie.
(a) Open season: All year, except for closures
listed under district or special regulations.
(b) Limit: Combined bag limit of twenty-five
sunfish and crappie of all species, except in:
(1) Barrett and Upper Otay Lakes (San Diego
County): zero bag limit for all species.
(c) Size Limit: No size limit, except at Hodges
and El Capitan Lakes (San Diego County),
where the crappie minimum size limit is 10
inches, total length.


For a change of pace, The Ultimate Fisherman went fishing for crappie on Friday.  Yes, Friday, at the peak of the salmon fishing season!

J.U. is blessed to have many fishing brothers.  It's one of those times to take a break from more than 30 salmon fishing trips so far this season!!!  Boy, was he rewarded.  He got to land the first three fish of the day.  And by the end of the day, the three brothers limited out with a total of 75 fish!!!  It's just crappie, but this is the very first time that J.U. limited out on crappie :-)

J.U. really needed the Grandmaster and PRO because this appears to be excellent striper country and this is Grandmaster's stomping ground!  With all those bait fish, just imaging the possibility of landing a big striper!  Unfortunately, J.U. was not paying attention to locations and techniques while fishing with the Grandmaster, so a great opportunity was missed in landing a big striped bass :-(

Introducing: Excitable Fisherman!

Another worthy sized fish.

The Captain was killing it!

Sweet!

It's a good fishing day.

Here is the summary video of the day:

May God bless your day!

And the Winner Is... ?

Fishing Report for the week of 10/2 - 10/7

Only two fish were landed at the Oak Tree this week.  J.U. was blessed with his fourth salmon for the season!  As usual, J.U. is still testing out his homemade lures.  Here are the lineups for this week:

1. Chartreuse Wounded Squid
2. Pink Wounded Squid
3. Toad
4. Pink Tandem Squid
5. Mutant Glow-In-The-Dark Toad
6. Pinky, Version #2

...And the winner is?  Did you guess correctly?

May God bless your day!