Another Good Panfish Day!

I've  been on a bit of a roll lately. It started with a 12 crappie day and continued with a personal best catfish. With an open opportunity to fish this sunday I rounded up Ol' Pops and my buddy Rigo and we headed out to three different fishing holes.

First we went to Hopkins Slough. This was my third time hitting this hole and my third time getting skunked. Why do I keep returning? because of stories about huge catfish living here. I have never caught one or even got a bite there. Sounds like this was my last time at this hole.

Our second stop was a canal everybody calls 20/47. In a county full of dirty ditches, this is the queen mother. 20/47 is a drainage canal for most of the fields in Colusa County. We have hit this canal in other cities and really slaughtered the catfish. This spot doesn't seem to be as good.

Last but not least we went out to Boss Pond. I was hoping for some panfish and bass action. Ol' Pops and Rigo opted for some catfish action at the creek/ canal that runs besides Boss Pond. While fishing, Rigo spotted a large catfish which appeared to be laying on its side. He thought it was dead but I told him it might be spawning and to cast toward it. He did exactly that and a few minutes he had a nice 1 lb catfish!

With the wind fiercely blowing I chose a spot in the direction of the wind. I tossed out a bobber with a worm and quickly had a takedown but it seemed to have spit up the worm. After that there were no bites. At the second spot I had no takedowns. At spot #3 I tossed in my worm and got into my first fish of the day. it was a nice fat little gill. I took out the fly rod and tied on a San Juan worm, but there didn't seem to be anymore bluegills there.

Finally, I went to spot 4. I happen to know spot #4 is pretty productive and I was hoping it was warm enough for the fish to be in the shallows. Not only did I find bluegills but I also found bass! In fact some of them were probably 1.5-2lb bass. I wasn't sure if they were trying to eat bluegill or hanging in the shallows getting ready to spawn. either way, the bass checked out everything I threw at them but rejected it all. The panfish were another story. I caught my second fish of the day within seconds. I wish I had gotten there earlier, perhaps I would have had more of a chance at catching a bass. I did catch bluegill though, one after the other. At one point I ended up getting into a green sunfish. I had no idea that boss pond had green sunfish in it. Spot #4 although productive, is fairly difficult to fish. It is underneath a trees branches which makes it very difficult to cast. I did try out my fly rod and caught two bluegills on the san Juan worm however they were biting more consistently on the mini crawlers so I switched back.

Since I got a late start on spot #4,  it got dark quickly. By the time I got into my ninth fish, everybody else was ready to go. I emptied out my worm carton and as luck would have it, I had exactly one worm left. I threw it in, waited a while and sure enough I hooked into my 10th and final panfish of the day. It turns out boss pond also has red ears in it, which is what I hooked into. 10 panfish in a day is pretty good, especially because I caught them in the last 25 minutes of fishing. I'm pretty glad I got into 10 more panfish. So far this year I have caught 22 panfish, which only leaves 48 panfish to catch to reach my goal of 70. I think I'm gonna get there!

Total Fish: 8 bluegills+1green sunfish+ 1 redear = 10 Panfish