The Drought Strikes Again!

Last Wednesday I had the day off so I called up Russell and we hit up butte pond. I hadn’t been to butte pond since earlier this year so I was excited to have some success. Well guess what, the drought strikes again! 

Remember "slice?"

The areas we used to fish were probably 1-3 feet deep. While these COULD hold bass, they certainly weren’t biting on our offers. We threw out spin baits, buzz baits, topwater frogs, poppers, popping frogs, crank baits, pretty much everything but nothing was biting! I was beginning to think we were going to get skunked.

With that we had a few beers and hung out in the shade. While exploring I ended up finding this “Slice can.”  I didn’t pay attention to when they stopped making this soda but I know it was a while ago. This is the type of thing you do when you aren’t getting any bites.

view from the tree

A view from the tree

So after a while I armed myself with Bonecrusher (my 8 wt.) and we went for a walk.  We ended up going to a creek area that we had seen before but never fished. I knew it looked fishy and still want to catfish it because it is rushing water.  There was a fallen tree over the the creek so we went to the middle and cast a black wooley bugger in both directions. On the upstream side I got a quick strike but no takers. 

Lm on a san Juan Worm

a little gill action

Later on I got off of the log and cast from bank close to the log. At one point I got a strike. I kept casting but nothing. I then switched to a san juan worm under a bobber. My buddy Russell was saying if we didn’t get one with a WB we wouldn’t get one with anything else and as he was saying it, boom! A small largemouth but also a skunkbeater and a validation fish! I love being right! Lol

A bit later we switched to the old worm and bobber and ended up getting into a few more gills and largemouths. 

last and largest LM of the day

Between both of us it was a seven fish day.  It really stinks that my first time at butte pond this summer was not a good one. I’m sad that another spot of ours bit the dust and we definitely need to pray for heavy rains and snow in the hills!  

Total Fish: 2 Largemouth bass + 1 Bluegill = 3 fish.

Updates from the Bank!

-I haven’t been fly fishing in a bit. Lately I have been focusing more on striper fishing with ol Pops but I am really jonesing for a fish on the fly. Aside from my trips with ol Pops I haven’t even been fishing much at all. I have been getting off of work, working out, watching a bit of tv before I go to sleep and repeat. I haven’t gotten to try my hand much at some bigger bass on the fly with my 8 Wt. 

"helmet" buggers

regular beaded bugger

-I haven’t even been back to Putah to try for some bass. As you may recall I found success at Putah with my largemouth on a fly goal but couldn’t get into anything too big and ended up losing my beaded black wooley buggers. I ended up buying some new ones and I realized they weren’t the same as the ones I had success with. In fact, these beaded heads were actual beads as opposed to the “helmet”  beads with which I had success.  I don’t know if there is any difference or if those “helmet” buggers have an actual name but I decided to go on a hunt for the helmet buggers and after striking out at a couple of places, finally realized that I must have purchased them at Sportsmans warehouse in Rocklin. I went out there yesterday and I was right so I ended up buying enough to hold me down for a while. I guess I’ll have to field test both the bead and the helmets to see the difference. 

- I have heard elsewhere that a lot of people use circle hooks for catfishing so I bought some. So I took them on a river fishing trip and found success with circle hooks while striper fishing. These hooks are smaller but I decided to look for larger circle hooks. While at Sportsmans warehouse I also found some size 5 circle hooks so I’m excited to try them out on the stripers.

-As for 2047, I have heard legend of some big bass in there and I plan on going out there with pops and probably Rigo to give it a try. Like I said before we have been fishing there for at least 20 years and never even seen a bass or caught one by accident so if I happen to catch one it will definitely be a milestone. 

-I also have yet to visit the bee hive and butte pond lately which means my Largemouth bass and crappie count hasn’t even begun yet. I purchased some honey bee and yellow jacket looking flies specifically to see if the largemouths will grub them down. I also really want to see if the Sarges crappie fly will slay the crappie at this hole. 

-If I don’t completely break down and head out to putah tonight, my next fishing adventures will be this weekend and then next Wednesday I will be heading out to fish with “Magic Mark” from Northern California Trout (haha you like the new nickname, buddy?).

OBN and USAL

I have not had a pleasant experience with what is called the “Outdoor Blogger Network.”  For whatever reason both times I have attempted to promote some of my posts, it hasn’t worked.  I was able to create a profile the first time but that was all. I remember waiting for them to promote my post and nothing.

This time around I updated my profile and added myself to the directory and figured maybe that is what I was doing wrong. I was wrong. I added myself to the directory, checked and realized I was nowhere to be found in the directory. 

I tried once again to promote my posts but this time I posted two of them and for whatever reason it just doesn’t happen! I have checked everyday since and nothing. 

Well, considering that it doesn’t seem to work for me, I removed the badge and am leaving this network that shows no evidence of me ever having been there! 

If you have any ideas about what is going on, let me know. Otherwise, I’m perfectly okay with not being part of this network.  Either way, I have all of you and folks that  find my blog through the Kienes  board and The Fish sniffer. 

As for fishing, I haven’t been in a while. With the recent storms and cloudy weather, I’m a bit hesitant to even go out and risk getting rained out. It is supposed to clear up next week so next Wednesday I might try to make my way out to Putah, Boss pond or Butte Pond. I guess I will let you guys know.

 I also have the (now) yearly  trip to Usal  trip with my Chico buddies coming and I am pretty excited about that! If any of you have any tips on crabbing from the beach or surf fishing, please let me know!

That’s it for me. Get your fish on, folks!!

Here Kitty, Kitty!!

A couple of days ago I decided to pick up Ol pops and my buddy Rigo and hit the fishin' hole! Pops had to go get his fishing license in Yuba city so we decided to hit Ellis Lake In Marysville. We were trying to get into some catfish but nothing was biting and Pops is VERY impatient when it comes to new fishing holes.

After Ellis we decided to head out to Russells secret pond which I guess i will call Butte pond for the sake of the blog. We hit Butte Pond at around 2 and had roughly about 3.5 hours of fishing ahead of us. Due to the recent rains the pond was much higher. It had risen about 2 to 3 feet, check out my older blog post  to compare the water levels. 

I had one rod with a live crawdad and a bottom feeding rig and the other with a slip bobber rig with a nightcrawler. After a couple of minutes Pops started getting bites. I waited for a bite but didnt get any so  after 30 minutes I decided to switch up my rig and use my dads "classic rig." I call it a classic rig because I don't know of there is a name for it, plus it is a set up that my dad has used for ages. It is sort of like a drop shot rig except with a pre snelled hook on it. Is there a name for this rig? if so, please let me know in the comment section. 

I immediately had a bite, I set my hook and the fight was on! The fish was running hard and peeling line so I thought it was a huge one. I had a rod with six lb line on it so I was trying to play him so he would get tired. Sure enough he tired out and after a while, I had my first channel cat of the year. Old pops helped me get it out of the water since We didn't bring a net. It was a nice looking catfish but upon closer inspection the cat was missing one of his eyes! Still a nice catch. 

I was able to salvage my nightcrawler and tossed it back in. A couple of moments later I had a bite but missed a fish, checked my bait and tossed it back in. The next time I caught my second channel cat of the afternoon. The rest of the afternoon was like that for me. Apparently I was able to find where the fish were hiding. The last fish I caught was a VERY yellow bullhead, perhaps the most yellow bullhead I have ever seen! As it turns out, I was the only one to catch fish that day. I totaled three catfish, which isnt a bad day during winter. 

Well, that it for now. I also wanted to mention that ever since the last time I wrote in here, I surpassed the 10K view mark, which is a cool milestone. Post #100 is my most viewed post and my most commented post which is great because I put a lot into that post. That's it for me. I will post about a recon trip I took up to putah Creek later. 

Total Fish : 3 Catfish