Random Updates

Good news, I made it out of the wilderness and back into civilization! For those of you who don’t know, I was camping out at Usal Beach in Mendocino County this weekend.  I am in the process of writing a post on that entire experience including a bit on the history of this tradition. 

Another cool thing that happened was that Bryan over at the Rogue Outdoors sent me more flies! This guy is a class act, I can’t say enough about him!  I asked him about catching carp and what does he do, he sends me a bunch of carp flies! I don’t know much about tying but Bryan ties some amazing flies.  They look like amazing quality and with spring already upon us, I look forward to slaying some fish with them very soon!  Thanks again Bryan! 

And last but not least, very soon there will be an addition to the family! NO I’m not talking about a baby! Lol I’m talking about a new fly rod. Now I must admit I didn’t do a ton of research on this product… I saw the name, the weight and the price and I went for it. I have been looking for an 8-9 weight rod and reel for a bit now. I want to get into some large bass, carp, striper, steelhead, etc. so I figured I would get myself an 8 weight to toss out some heavier poppers and also have a little more backbone in case I catch the big one! Plus I wanted an extra setup in case I wanted to teach somebody else how to fly fish. Also, I just wanted a new fly rod, who am I kidding?

I saw an ad for a Redington Crosswater Outfit. Honestly I just saw Redington and jumped all over it. It was cheap and it had more positive reviews than negative ones. The negative reviews seemed to be more user mistakes than defective rods so I went for it. After researching a bit more I came to find out that this combo only has a 1 year warranty as opposed to most other Redington products which have a lifetime warranty. Also I saw a very solid review from an experienced angler that made me think I made a good choice. 

The combo is a “beginner combo,” which I kinda dislike mainly because of the label, “beginner. “ My pride tries to tell me that I’m better than a beginner because a beginner has no idea what they are doing and I do , but honestly, I am a beginner. The first time I held a fly fishing outfit was last may and it wasn’t until August that I bought my first combo. Furthermore I have never even touched anything above a 6 weight so A beginner combo is perfect for right now. Nonetheless it is a handsome combo and it comes with a carrying case so I'm excite to receive it!  I guess if anything is going to go wrong with it I should find out within a year. Plus when I outgrow it I can always sell it or gift it and buy one of those super expensive combos for “advanced” anglers. Until then It looks like Excalibur (my name for my other fly rod) is going to have a brother! Yes, I am that nut that names his fly rods. 

Anyway, that’s it for me, Usal post coming soon! Hopefully some fishing posts will come soon as I am able to get out on the water.  Thanks for reading!

Update: Milestones and Summer Fishing!

So I originally wrote a complete post on how my summer fishing was slow and I hadn’t caught but twelve fish all summer. It turns out that this was a mistake. I went back and counted all of the fish I caught and it turns out I caught a few more. My Summer 2013 Total was 32 fish which isn’t bad at all considering I didn’t go out to my usual spots and what not. 

With that said, I did have two milestones that I am pretty proud of this summer.

#1 – My first trout on my own fly rod. 

Catching my first trout on my own fly rod was fantastic! I felt like I broke a threshold from being a guy trying to fly fish or being taught to flyfish to being an actual fly-fisherman. I used my own rod, I chose my own fly, I tied my own knots and I caught a fish with all of that; I was pretty proud.

#2 – Caught my PB Crappie

I am fairly new to crappie. I have caught bluegill all of my life but I only recently (about a year or so) realized crappie existed, learned to say the name properly ;) and started catching them. I have caught a good number of small ones (all released), some good plate size ones, and one nice 11 inch crappie that put up a nice fight! This 11 incher is my personal best so far and I really look forward to catching some bigger ones  in the future.

Well anyway, That was my summer, my fall is going well and I have a trip with Russell for next week out to Collins. I will keep y’all posted!

Cheers, to some great fall Fishing!

Update: Fly Fishing the Yuba River

I must admit, I underestimated the Yuba. This was my first longer trip devoted strictly to fly fishing and when i imagined the trip i figured i would be slaughtering some fish! I had my small box of flies, my new fly fishing rod and even some waders. I was ready to conquer the Yuba river but really, it taught me a lesson in respect for the Yuba and fly fishing in general.

Now first off, we arrived at the camp at around 1pm last Wednesday. Our campground was right on a small peninsula ( I think that’s what it would be called) with small creeks running on both sides of us. Nice little place. Anyway, before even putting up the tent I pulled a beer out of the ice chest (had to get the vacation started right!) and threw in a pole for blue gill. Right away I got into my first blue gill and I was ready to set up camp. 

After camp was set we hit a different blue gill pond and fished some more. As it turns out there were not only bluegill in there but redear sunfish, green sunfish, crappie, and all sorts of hybrid sunfish as if they were all in there having a giant sunfish orgy!  We got into a good number and saved the bigger ones for dinner.

After dinner we drove out to Hammond Grove Park to try our hand at some fly fishing. While we were there we saw some guys from “Yuba River Charters” wading up. They were pretty nice guys. Joked with them a bit and talked a bit about fly fishing. They also witnessed (and screamed) when Russell pulled his fly rod out half way and the tailgate closed right on the tip of his brand new fly rod! We tried to ghetto rig it up with tape and the tip off of one of his spinning rods but (of course) it didn’t work. Russell Sat this one out but he didn’t miss out on anything. Even the pros weren’t having any luck that day. Later on, Russells Dad decided to bring him a new fly fishing Rod so Russell wasn’t as unlucky as he thought he was that day!

The next morning we slept in a bit, got some breakfast and cleaned up camp. Then we went over to the day use area of Sycamore Ranch and waded up! 

We decided to practice a bit before hitting the actual river. We hit the boat launch area which had some ponds around it. Russell hit the side right by the boat launch, and on his first cast he caught what he thought was a small trout. It turned out to be a Sacramento pikeminnow. He was still pretty happy with his catch. 

I went over to the opposite end and tried a bass popper hoping for some largemouth bass. I didn’t get any bass but I was surprised at how much sunfish like bass poppers! They attacked it tons of times but I finally got into a nice one.  I must admit, the feeling you get when a fish hits your fly, the line tightens up and you instinctively pull back on your fly line, bringing the fish in is incomparable! I absolutely LOVE fly fishing!!  Maybe its just the fact that it new and different to me but I find it to be pretty darn fantastic.

We finally hit the main river and I snapped a couple of pictures. I hit a small pond on the southwest end of that stretch of the river first. I had on a crawfish pattern under an indicator and tried fishing close to some trees on the bank. At one point I was getting closer to the bank and stepped right into a hole and went in waist deep which got my pants a little wet. That cold water sure woke me up!

When I met up with Russell again, he told me that he was tossing in a black wooleybugger and had a trout on for a second. Apparently he was unable to keep his line tight and it got away. That was it for our action on the Yuba. The rest of the time we continued to cast but there were no more bites to be had. We wrapped up around 4:30 because I wanted to run home and watch the Niners pre-season opener. Isn’t it crazy how quickly the summer flew by?

At the end of the day I felt a bit defeated. Even though I caught the biggest bluegill I have caught on the fly to date, I really wanted a Yuba river trout! I guess I could have gone out earlier in the day but I guess I will have to wait until next time. I have a new respect for the Yuba and also for fly-fishing. It’s definitely harder than I thought but with enough practice I think I can find the right combination for the Yuba and any other river that I visit in the future.

Well anyway, that’s it for the beautiful Yuba river. Hope you guys enjoyed the report. Hopefully next time I will be able to report some trout or even a bass! So until next time, break that bank, folks!

Updates soon!

Hello All! Havent been on the water or on the blogger in a while! I have been crazy busy with work and family visiting. I do have one trip to update you guys about and it was a trip out to the Yuba river this past week. I have a ton of pictures so I will post that up as soon as possible.hope the fishing is going well for you all!

Sutter Bypass - 6/27 Report

No fishing this weekend. Last Thursday was the latest fishing trip. I did however scout a new location that I will more than likely be trying out soon.

So Let me tell you about last Thursday. Sutter Bypass, Yuba City, CA.  I took the hour drive to meet my new fishing buddy Russell. Russsell is out of Yuba City. He met me out at the boat launch with his boat in his truck. That’s the first time I have ever seen somebody with a boat in back of their truck, but I guess if it works, why not?

Well anyway, first thing is first, we cracked open a beer at 5pm and launched by 520. The area where we were fishing looked very promising; Lots of vegetation and shade. It was still hot when we hit the water so we immediately went looking for shade. I started off with the torpedo. I have it in two different sizes and threw them both out. Not even a strike.

Next I threw a frog for a while, nothing.  Then I tried a spinner bait, nothing. Then a strike king red eye shad, a swim bait, a jig, a torpedo again…. All of that and only two strikes the entire afternoon. Russell through out pretty much everything and also taught me how to use a buzz bait, which I didn’t know how to use before this trip. He says buzz baits usually get them in the bypass but he let me know that this specific day was a strange one, (Lucky for me!) everybody we asked was getting skunked.

Well, it wasn’t a total waste. Russell turned out to be really cool and we had some cold beers on a hot day on the water so I can’t complain.

We were pretty much finished and on our way back to the ramp when a lady started talking to us from shore. She asked if we caught any, we said “none.” She told us she had caught five small catfish. As we cruised by, I saw a dead bass in the water. I pointed it out to Russell. He was ecstatic and decided to go back and check it out. Turns out it was alive… barely. Russell lipped it by hand and after weighing and measuring, it turns out it was an 18” 4.82 lb Largemouth!  The Lady sees it and says, “I told you guys you were in the wrong spot, this is where they are.” We found it pretty funny because we weren’t far from her at all, she didn’t hear a struggle or anything and for some reason she thought we caught the fish ourselves. Russell then lifts it up and asks, “do you want it?” Sure enough the lady says yes. We stuck around long enough to hear her tell her husband that she caught it herself and to hear the jealousy in her husband’s voice as he said, “nice bass… very nice bass.” Sneaky lady!

As for the Torpedo, since  we weren’t getting any strikes on anything and since I still have yet to use it in bass heavy waters, I have to suspend judgment on it yet again. As soon as I find a good area, I will give it a test and let you guys know what’s up.

Well anyway, Saturday I went out for a cruise with my wife and we ended up at a bridge in the outskirts of Wood-town. The bridge runs over Cache Creek, a small creek that eventually drains into the delta south of Davis, CA. Well anyway, I went out and stared at the water for a while and I saw a small fish swimming around. As I stared a bit more intently I noticed another fish, a bit bigger, and then another, and another. They were pretty far down but their behavior told me they were largemouth bass. Whenever I would throw a pebble from up top, they would quickly go investigate like they were hunting for a meal on top of the water. I also saw a couple of turtles and what appeared to be a large sunfish. Well anyway, hopefully I will be checking out that fishing hole later this week and I will let you know what gives. Have a great week, folks!

Update: Largemouths at Lisbon

Does the Hedon Torpedo work? Well I caught one fish with it in Washington State. Does it work at Lisbon, doesn’t seem like it. Then again catching bass at Lisbon seems to be different than other places. The only thing that has worked for catching Bass at Lisbon has been good ol nightcrawlers. Other than that, no dice.

I hit Lisbon on Friday and Saturday. I used the Heddon Torpedo in two sizes on two different days.  Long story Short, both were a failure. I am not sure what this means other than Lisbon is kind of a tough place for Largemouth. I still have to try it out at Boss pond and a few other fishing holes before I give an opinion. 

Anyway, I didn’t take any pictures of the fish I caught because I didn’t hook anything too impressive. Friday I hooked into a small largemouth and three decent sized crappie. I didn’t really feel like gutting and scaling so instead I simply caught and released. 

Sunday I took my dad out to the beehive (name for newest fishing hole). I ended up hooking into two small Largemouths  but once again, nothing too impressive. As much as I love hooking into some small fish, I really want a bigger fight so I need to hit the sac soon. Since Boss pond will be out of question for a while (different reasons) I am on the lookout for a new pond to catch some monster bass.

 
Well, three crappie and three largemouths would be it for this weekend! Not a great first fishing trip of the summer but at least i didn't get skunked!