The Ol Worm and Bobber

I met up with my buddy Luis this past weekend and decided to fish the bee hive which I haven’t fished at all this year. I went to the store and bought worms but as we drove up we realized that the entire road to the spot was closed for repair so we made our way back to my house. On my way back Jeremy Called and asked if I wanted to fish so we decided to get together. Luis ended up not feeling well and going home so we decided to go to Walters pond and give a try for bass. I had worms and bobbers with me and Jeremy brought some IPA’s along so we decided to have more of a chill fishing day. 

I rigged up my line with the ol worm and bobber while Jeremy went to work with a swim bait. Even though he drew first blood he was utterly intrigued by the bobber set up and was surprised when he first saw the bobber go under. I reeled in and brought a small bass to hand and Jeremy immediately decided that he wanted to give it a try. What Jeremy didn’t know is that nothing goes better with an IPA and a stogie than a worm/ bobber set up!

A little later Walter joined us and he too decided he wanted to fish the bobber rig. Eventually we were all fishing the worm and bobber waiting for fish to strike and eventually they would.

At one point Walter and Jeremy both decided to switch presentations. I continued with the bobber, cast to the shallows, and a bluegill messed with the worm and all of a sudden my bobber went under hard! I set the hook and reeled in a FAT bass, which turned out to be the biggest of the day. For the rest of the day we continued to use the ol worm and bobber pulling in fish after fish. Relaxing and enjoying a warm summer day. 

It was dark and nearly 10 o clock by the time we decided to stop. Nothing like a nice chill evening drinking IPA’s, smoking stogies, chilling with friends and slaying bluegill and bass on the ol worm and bobber!

With this trip I am officially all caught up with fishing trips. I do have Fal and Spring totals to report but aside from that, I'm all set. Hope your summers are starting off with a bang! 

 Total fish: 4 bluegill + 7 Largemouth Bass = 11 fish

A Big Mama!

My latest trip was over to Walter pond. This time it was just me and Jeremy. We had plenty of daylight left so we decided to take fly rods and spinning rods.

 

We arrived at the pond at around 5. We started with fly rods and cahills. I was eager to catch some fish to use my new measure net! Luckily I got to christen it with some fish.

Most of the time the net was obnoxiously unnecessary but like I said, I just wanted to use it to measure my fish. I drew first blood with a gill and a bit later Jeremy did as well. Gills were a plenty but then at one point they just stopped eating flies at which point I tied on a popper and tried for some bass. I had a couple strike the popper but none of them stuck.

Meanwhile Jeremy went to work with a rubber worm and did what he does on the  bait caster. For whatever reason there is a specific worm that the bass there LOVE! It is a blue with a chartreuse tip. He continued catching bass after bass.

After a while I switched over to this worm and spinning rod as well. Within the first five casts I had a fish on, a nice little bass. I got to measure all of my bass with my new measure net so I was happy about that.

 I continued to catch a few bass as did Jeremy. As it was getting a little darker, I tossed my senko in and had a nice takedown. I set my hook, reeled in and this fish pulled right back! I knew it was going to be a nice one. I reeled and reeled and this bruiser peeled line for moments at a time. Just when I would think that I had it close, it would take off and make my rod double over. Luckily it is an ugly stick so I had no fear of it breaking but I still loosened up my drag. Eventually, this big mama came to net and we were able to get her measured, weighed and set free. I made sure she had plenty of water in her before I saw her violently splash and swim away. Although she fought hard, looked fat and measured 19 inches, my scale only read 3.6 lbs. I could have sworn she was at least 4 or 5 lbs but both of us were surprised when the scale only showed 3.6 lbs. either way, she was a beautiful fish and the last of the night.

Total fish: 6 bluegill + 4 Largemouth bass = 10 fish

Slaying the Gills!

I am pretty much caught up with my backed up fishing trips. The trip I will be discussing took place on March 11^th. 

Jeremy and I decided to give Davis pond a try last wedenesday. As usual I loaded up Excalibur, a box of flies and took the drive out to Davis. I arrived around 4pm, tied on a light cahill which is what I had luck on the week before. 

Sure enough, I hammered those blue gills right away. Some were tiny, others were a nice hand size. Every other cast was a bite or a fish.  Now I am from the camp that calls all panfish blue gills but I think there are only bluegills and perch in that pond and I caught both of them. 

 

A little later, my fly protégé Jeremy came around and I taught him exactly how to catch the bluegills. After a few casts, Jeremy caught his first bluegill on the fly rod! And after that a second and a third. He was ecstatic and I couldn’t be more proud!

I continued to fish and ended the day with 14 panfish. What a great day of fishing at this new fishing hole. 

Total fish: 14 Bluegills

First Fish of the year!

February 26 was a good day. It was a quick after work trip but it was fruitful.

For those of you that follow me regularly, you know that this year I have committed myself to learning more about fly fishing by fly fishing more; what a concept. Specifically, that means that most of the time when I am out fishing, I will be taking my fly rod instead of my spinning rod and putting myself in positions where I have no other option but to fly fish more. After this trip, this decision has been completely justified. 

This was a last minute trip that I almost canceled because of work. As it turns out work ended up not getting in the way so I called up Jeremy and our trip was back on. This was before daylight savings time so we had about 2 hours to fish. 

We arrived at a park pond in Davis that I will refer to as “Davis pond,” at about 4:30. I assembled my 6 wt and went to work testing areas of the pond that looked fishy. It is a small pond so the walk around the pond wasn’t too bad. I finally found an area close to an island surrounded by cattails at the center where there seems to be a steep drop off into deeper water. 

So while others were fishing the main body of the pond, I went to work on this drop off with a black wooley bugger… no takers. After a while I started noticing mosquitoes landing on top of the water. I quickly looked through the flies I had on me and the closest thing I could find to a mosquito looking pattern was a light cahill.  I gave it a try and no takers as it sat on top of the water… but then it sank. After a few seconds, I had a taker! A few moments later I brought the first fish of the year to hand, a small bluegill. 

At one point, Jeremy, who I am teaching to fly fish decided he wanted to give the fly a try. He took my fly rod and after a brief casting tutorial, tried to catch fish on the fly. Meanwhile, he hands me his fishing rod, a small 5 foot rod with 2 lb test line on it. It was rigged up with a texas rigged worm. I moved out of the way to give him room to cast and took the 5 foot rod. In my first cast I tossed the worm into cattails and as it bumped off of the cattails and hit the water, a bass took it in its mouth and I reeled the fish in! A nice 1 ½ - 2 lb fish. 

I continued to cast and ended up moving down to the main body of the pond. At one point I stated noticing the fish were surface feeding so I tossed my light cahill in that area. One fish ended up breaking off my fly so I tied on another and continued. I finally got one taker and brought in my third fish of the day, a nice little bass at about a pound. After that another fish broke my fly off and at that point it was too dark to tie on another. I ended the day having caught the only 3 fish of the day and all on the fly! 

We ended the night with some casting lessons in a parking lot. Since then, Jeremy received a Cabelas wind river Combo as a birthday present and he is already talking about buying a float tube in the future. I think we have a new fly fisher on our hands, folks! Haha another believer in the gospel of fly fishing! 

Total Fish: 2 Largemouth bass + 1 bluegill = 3 Fish

The End of My Summer

Two trips one fish. A soft chill in the air. An early sunset. These contributed to the realization that summer was coming to a close. As quickly as it came it went and it was a magnificent one. I went fishing more than last year and did fairly well. With the days numbered I called up my dad Last friday and decided to hit the river with him. 

We arrived at the Sacramento river at around 4. Our spot was overgrown with weeds which was a good thing because it shows it isn’t frequented often. I cast one rod out with anchovies and cast some lures with the other. Pops cast out his rod with sardines. We sat and waited with bites being few and far between. Pops drew first blood with a small striper and that ended up being the extent of the action for the day. Always good to get out on the river with pops, just wish we could have gotten into some fish. 

Sundays 49er game left me with a bitter taste in my mouth. I went fishing to get rid of it. I went to the bee hive right after the game with 10 minnows and a carton of worms. I have been waiting a long time to try minnows here again. The first time I did the fish were crazy for them. 

I didn’t want to fish the feeder stream for smaller fish; I wanted to fish the main canal hoping for some crappie for the fish fry. I was also hoping for some big bass off of the minnows. I had one take down from what appeared to be a crappie at one point. I didn’t want to go home skunked so I dipped into the feeder stream with a worm and pulled out the first and only fish of the day, a small bluegill. After that I continued fishing minnows and worms in the main canal but nothing. After a couple of hours I went home. That would be the last fish of the summer for me. 

The sun set and I took the long serene walk back to my car. I packed my gear, rolled down my window and let Lynyrd Skynyrd play a goodbye song to the summer of 2014. 

Today marks the official first day of Fall and I am pretty bummed about it. Summer is my favorite season of the year for fishing and now it is gone. Oh well, I hope for a long cold wet fall/ Winter and some floods because nor cal needs them badly.  I will be trying more to get into some salmon and as it gets colder, heading to the hills for some trout. My summer report will be up later this week. Until then, happy 1^st day of fall, folks! 

Total fish : 1 bluegill