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

Another Crappie Day

With nobody agreeing to fish Last Wednesday, I set off on the journey to the beehive alone. I figured this left me more space to cast and that was okay with me. 

 

I arrived at around 5 and went to work with a worm and bobber for gills. I quickly caught a small bass just to kill the skunk. Plus I love how hard the small bass hit the worms out there. The next fish was a bluegill which I quickly hooked up on my heavier rod with a bottom feeding rig hoping for some large cats or big bass. The last time I was here the bass were hungry and feeding nearby. 

I tossed out a few lures including a popper, a torpedo, and a crawdad ratl trap with no takers at all. After a while I tied my bobber back on with a tiny treble and got a few more gills. Soon thereafter I tied on a larger hook because I was after some bigger bass or bigger crappie. 

Even though we were supposed to have a full moon, the fish didn’t seem to be biting on the main slough. I knew that come “Crunch time,” (the hour-hour and a ½ while the sun sets) the fish would start hitting. 

When crunch time came I set my rod up with a slip-bobber rig and a couple of nightcrawlers. If the night was as it was a couple of weeks ago I would be able to get into some largemouth and I wanted to be ready for them. I also put a fresh bluegill on my other rod and hoped for the best. It started getting darker and the bite wasn’t really picking up. I switched depths with the slip bobber rig but the bite was slow. I eventually picked up a couple of nice size crappies that I ended up keeping for the fish fry. 

I usually know when its getting too late because the panfish and bass bite turns off and the catfish start biting. And that’s usually smaller cats, nothing worth mentioning. After the second cat I decided to pack it up and head home. 

Total Fish: 2 Catfish + 3 Crappie + 2 Largemouth bass + 6 Bluegill = 13 fish 

** These 9 panfish put me OVER my goal of 70 Panfish for the year! Time to shoot for 100!

Break That Bank!

Ol Pops came into town and we decided to go fishing for a bit in the afternoon. I knew exactly where I was going to take him; the bee hive! The bee hive is a spot I have on Lisbon slough. In the past we have had success with crappies and I caught my personal best catfish there so we gave it a try.

Previously my dad had been skunked here. He has only been to the bee hive twice and both times he went home empty handed.  I only have two times I have been skunked here, both of those times were with my buddy Jarred. That is because Jarred is bad luck!

We arrived at the fishing hole at around 5pm so I had plenty of time to get into a groove. I started with a quick cast with a bobber into the feeder creek for a small bass. Beat the skunk. A few more casts, a couple more fish and then switched to the main canal. Ol pops went straight for the catfish set up and a night crawler. I set up my heavy catfish rod but had no takers on the nightcrawlers. A bit later I was able to get into a small bluegill and replaced my worm with a gill and hoped for the best. My dad did the same. We were hoping for some huge cats but nothing big seemed to be going for the gills. 

After a while I switched to a slip-bobber rig and went to work for some crappies. For whatever reason nothing was biting so I kept changing the depth of my bobber and the distance of my cast. Eventually I found a hole about 7 feet in front of where we were and about 16 inches of leader length. First I caught a nice blue gill which I released. Then I started seeing some activity on top so I tossed my line in and I reeled in a nice 11 inch bass. 

Meanwhile my dad tossed his line into the feeder creek and got into his first bluegill of the day. He continued to cast there and started catching small bass and bluegill, so he finally beat the skunk at the beehive. 

A bit later I tossed my line in, my bobber danced around a little before it went down and I caught my first decent fish of the day, a nice 12.5 inch bass.   

I continued to cast within five feet of the same spot and as it got darker, the bites were more plentiful. At one point I had a light but swift takedown , so I reeled in and I got into a 10 inch catfish, my first catfish of the day. My final fish was just before it got too dark to see my bobber. I tossed my line in, it dunked once and then disappeared. I reeled in and something took off with my line. I reeled in, my dad got the net and it hid under the weeds. My dad dipped the net into the weeds and eventually came out with what would be the last fish of the day, a 14 inch Largemouth bass. I ended up putting the two bass on the stringer and filleted them up for what will be my first (possibly of many) end of the summer fish fry! (More to come on this idea later) 

In all, one of my better days this summer even though it has been a good summer overall. I was also excited that I got into multiple species today, which is always cool. I am glad my dad was able to get into fish and see me catch some decent fish at the bee hive because that makes him believe in the spot a little more than before.  All together my dad and I had a 17 fish day. 

 

Well that’s it for now. Good luck, break that bank people… break that bank! 

Total fish: 7 Largemouth Bass + 2 Bluegill + 1 catfish + 1 green sunfish total fish = 11

Almost Forgot....

Here is a trip that I forgot to mention. Last Thursday (the 14th) My buddy Luis and I decided to take a quick fishing trip for some crappie. My buddy Charles hooked me up with 5 minnows that he had left over from one of our previous trips and I had always wanted to try out minnows at The bee hive so we did. 

We went out to the bee hive and I hooked up Luis’ bait before mine (note to self, teach luis how to tie knots). He put his minnow on and within a few minutes he had his first crappie on. He lost another one pretty quickly and threw on his third minnow. I hurried so he would waste all of the minnows. I put one minnow on, and had a huge takedown but wasn’t able to hook the fish. 

We also had some worms so I put some on the hook and ended up pulling in a small crappie. When I’m out here I use a slip bobber rig but this time I only used a regular bobber. Since we got to the fishing hole pretty late, the sun was down fairly quickly and I figured we could try for some big catfish. I set one heavier rod out with a catfish setup but had no success on it at all. Meanwhile, I continued with my bobber on the shallow side of the bank even though it was dark. I saw my bobber go down so I reeled in and to my surprise I had a small catfish on the line. After a while we decided to call it a day. 

Total fish: 1 Catfish + 1 Crappie = 2 fish