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!

Field Trip with Mark

There are few things as great as exploring new fly fishing spots.  However one of those things is exploring new fly fishing spots with good friends. I met up with Mark from Northern California trout at his home and after a quick stop at Cooks for the good luck coffee, we hit the road to a secret spot. 

As I often say, one of the main things I love about fly fishing is the areas are beautiful. Meandering creeks in lush green valleys, this is my idea of paradise. We arrived at this picturesque place and immediately went to work. It was the kind of creek that is better fished with a 3 or 4 wt like Mark’s new “3” which is very impressive and makes me want a 3 wt even more!

 While the creek was beautiful, There wasn’t much fish action taking place. They weren’t surface feeding and nothing was hitting our flies so after an hour we headed to Upper Blue lake.

Mark took me on a little field trip up highway 88 which is basically paradise. Creeks, lakes and mountains galore! 

I took so many pictures I figured I would just post a bunch to let you guys join in on the fun.

We arrived there and set up our rods to soak some powerbait. Mark tossed one line in and before he could even set up his second rod he brought his first fish to hand.  A few minutes later he brought the second fish to hand.

It took me a little longer but after a while I brought my first trout to hand as well. The trout seemed to like Marks power bait more than mine so he limited out before I did. 

While I reeled in and put the last fish on the stringer, My other rod was bouncing and sure enough I had fish on so I had to release the little guy. 

All together we caught 12 fish with the two released. We finished just in time for a rain storm which was strange (for me) to see but mark said it was normal for that area.  

As always, I had a great time fishing with Mark and I hope to do it again.