Six and a Half Pound Bass!!!

I can count the number of times that I went bass fishing with my fingers.  This is most likely the reason why my success rate isn't very good when it comes to bass fishing.  I believe my biggest bass was caught many moons ago at Folsom Lake with my favorite Z-Ray, weighing at most 1.5 pound.

Yesterday, Grandmaster Fisherman (GMF) sent me a picture of a 6.56 pound bass that was caught and released!!!  I gotta confess, I have never seen a bass that big in real life, only in picture :-(

So, here's the picture:

Still ZERO Fish

Wow!  It's been over a month since my last blog and sadly to report that I have not been fishing!

However, I am going to wet your appetite by posting some pictures from my dear friend, Grandmaster Fisherman (GMF).

Here is one of GMF's friend with a beauty from Oregon.

Chetco River, OR

On the 23rd of February, I received a text from GMF to get to Discovery Park to witness over 400K steelies being released.  I couldn't make it, so he sent me these two pictures.

Some of these will come back bigger!

GMF could have just picked this one up :-)

Hunting was a success for GMF and family too.

Young Master

Beautiful family picture with the catch of the day.

Here's a perch that I had to google to confirm that it's a striped sea perch :-)

Scout Master with a striped sea perch.

Now, I have been making more salmon spinners for the upcoming season.  Here is the picture of the latest collection.

Until next time....  Tight lines!

Fish Dreaming...

It's been raining... and raining here in California.

I checked for conditions to see if there's a local place for some fishing action, however futile.  To feed my addiction, I had to go and take some pictures.  The following pictures are from the Watt Ave. Access to the American River at 85,000 CFS flow!!!

My lovely assistant.

South west side - Bathroom under water, ew.

North west side - Bike path under water.

North east side.

South east side.

South east side - No, it's not the river; it's the parking lot!

Fishing in the Rain

I am just a little bit excited when it comes to fishing!

Ready for 2017 fishing!

A couple days ago, Wednesday, 1/4, the weather forecast was rain all day!  It's a good thing that JU and PRO do not melt in the rain, because rain all day it was!  PRO and I fished the American River at 4,000 cubic feet per second (cfs) flow from 8:30 AM to 2:30 PM.  We were using jet divers to float night crawlers and salmon roe (the ones that I cured from 2016 salmon season).  We also pulled plugs.  One of my favorite technique to catch steelhead!!!

Near the end of the day, we noticed that the lines of the poles crossed.  I picked up the pole with roe with my left hand and the pole with the plug on my right hand to attempt a swap to uncross the lines.  In the process I got a hit with the left pole, the one with the roe:  "Whack, whack!!!"  Although the fish did not stick, I was ecstatic because I then knew that the roe I cured work!!!  Watch out steelies!  I've got a lot more roe for the next time....

Downstream

Upstream.

Super versatile fishing pole!

Yesterday, the flow in the American River was increased from 4,000 cfs to 7,000 cfs; and today it is 15,000 cfs.  The river access along the American River is now closed again.  No more fishing until the water level goes down....  In the mean while, I can sharpen all my hooks :-)

Happy 2017 fishing!  It's gonna be an awesome year!

Tight lines!

One Last Effort for 2016

It is a double blessing when your children grow up to be fishermen.  So it is the case with my two oldest children.  They want to get the last usage of their California fishing license before heading back to different states for schooling.  I took them out to my salmon hole along the Sacramento River.  I tried my homemade spinner to entice an unsuspecting steelhead, while they used hair raisers for striped bass.  After half an hour of unproductive fishing action, we went to the local shop for some coffee and donuts :-)

Super high and murky water.

Happy fishermen :-)

Proud daddy in the middle.

At least we caught a doughnut :-)

Fishing Summary for 2016

There were many blessings for 2016 fishing for JU and the Miracle Squad.  There were many firsts as well: first steelhead in the Sacramento River, first fish in Montana, first fish in North Dakota, first time limit for salmon, and others....  Following are summary pictures.  Enjoy!  Have a fantastic 2017!!!

Gaudette in Domino semper!

American River @ 30,000 CFS

This morning, I had an opportunity to drive my lovely wife to work.  What a great occasion to swing by Watt Ave. American River access to checkout the river conditions when the access is closed to the public.

Here are a bunch of pictures to "wet" your appetite.

Neat art work that I did not notice before.

Looking West - Boat ramp and parking lot are under water.

Looking North - Parking lot is under water.

Looking East

Looking downstream from the Watt Ave. Bridge.

Uh...

Still looking downstream - The island in the middle is submerged.

On the East side of the river looking West.

Upstream from the East side.

Upstream from the West side.

Upstream West side parking lot is under water also.

Just a week ago, December 10, when the rain started, I woke up at 3 AM thinking about fishing at Gristmill Access, but the rain was pouring and I went back to bed.  Now my brother Dave aka "Fish Whisperer" braved the rain and gave us this awesome report!!!

"We all know that rain makes cornJ But not all know that rain equals fish…at least this is what I was telling myself as I found myself on the banks of the American early Saturday.  I’ve never fished the south side of Gristmill & was all grins to find it all to myself.  I did see a guy walking his dog in the rain with young son & he was kind enough to tell me all he knew about the drop offs & where the fly fisherman like to hang out.  Given that I had two rods(fly & spinning),  I decided to start off with my favorite new obsession…Fly Rod baby!  The info from the guy really payed off as I was quickly in a nice looking spot.  With recommendation from Diplo I fished an indicator & worked the entire drift to perfection.  All my casts where looking great & feeding exactly where I wanted.  Even though the water looked trouty I couldn’t get a bite.  After a good hour plus I switched over to spin rod & worked the same entire run of water with no luck.

So I went down river to Watt Ave & things got much more interesting.  After crossing over to the island downstream of the bridge I got a strong take down on the indicator, but missed it.  Very next cast I got another one in same location.  Had this one halfway in & then lost him.  I spent the next 30 minutes hooking into these small steelies, but couldn’t manage to bring one to hand.  Due to the heavy rains the current was coming down on me in 3 different directions.  This is all I could figure as I kept losing them in the same area where the current changed(I was also fishing flies that were barbless).  Anyhow as a new fly angler I’ll be quick to take part of the blame(if not all of itJ).  Anyhow it was so fun getting all this steelie action on the fly rod(they were small fish, but who cares!).

As the rains increased and leader getting stretched like a child’s Christmas list, I ended the day by switching back to a spinning rod.  Wasn’t long until I hooked into something that took me down stream quickly thrashing the surface.  Given the weight I believe it was a spawned out salmon.  Ended up losing him in rapid which ended a great day of action.   This was the most back door action I received in a while, however I’m still in lingo…fly rod or spin rod?  Well at the moment I say both(got to have the best of both worlds!)."

Fish Whisperer - Gristmill Fly Fishing

Fish Whisperer - Gristmill

Fish Whisperer - Watt Ave. before flooding.

Early Christmas Gift for JU

I have mentioned many times in the past regarding Grandmaster Fisherman and PRO, two of my favorite fishing brothers.  Today, Christmas came early for me as I got to fish with both of them in the San Joaquin River.  I am like a kid in a candy store....

We used swim bait, spoons, and drifted live bait....

Grandmaster Fisherman landed three fish; PRO got one fish on / fish off; and I got, may be at best, a fish brush my fishing line....


Two 17 inchers were let go and I got to eat the one we kept....

Tight lines!