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

We Were Wrong!

Last Wednesday I worked a half day and decided, what better to do than to hit the fishing hole! I called up Russell and we went to the new pond out in Yuba city. I was VERY excited to try out my new fly rod as well. While picking up Russell, I found this at his house; a small children's Mickey Mouse fishing rod. However this is no ordinary kids rod. When I was a kid, this was the exact first rod that my dad bought me!! What a fantastic coincidence!!

Now let me just say this, when I left woodland, it was windy but not too bad. When I got to Yuba City it was way windier  and when we finally arrived a

t the pond, it was terrible! The wind must have been 20-30 miles an hour; simply ferocious. As windy as it was, we were already at the pond and we were going to fish whether or not we caught any.

We cast out, put bells on and drank some beer and didn’t hear any bites. After a bit I decided that it might be a better tactic to actually hold the rod in my hand. So I recast and held the rod and next thing I know I felt a bite, set my hook and reeled in what I thought would be the only fish of the day; a little hand size bluegill.

We cast out our rods and decided to take a walk and see if there were any areas that had some covering for the wind. Russell found an area that was fairly covered and sheltered so he decided to throw the worm and bobber in because he said it looked, “fishy.” Sure enough he pulled up a nice little half pound bass! 

We did end up finding another area that was a bit less windy so I decided to try out my fly rod. Bad mistake! Turns out fly fishing in the wind is not a good thing. Not only did it mess up my casting, and give me my first wind knot, but at one point as I was casting during a particularly strong gust I felt what I thought was a branch fly into me and hit me in the neck. It wasn’t a branch, it was my line and lure clinging to my neck. I thought for sure I was going to gush blood but as it turns out I didn’t even break skin, which is a great thing.

When we got back to the rods I checked my line and there was tension! I reeled in a little half pound bass! Now I am not sure if he had been on for a while but when he came in, I took a quick picture, released him and poor little guy still didn’t make it. I felt pretty bad. 

So at this point we thought this was as good as it would possibly get with all the wind.  Once again, we were wrong. After a bit Russell got into another pan fish. I also got into a nice little one pounder which put up a nice fight. Russell also got into a catfish which he loves and on my last cast I got into an ugly little sucker fish. Nice size but absolutely no fight! 

So on a windy day we ended up getting into three bass, three panfish, one sucker, one catfish. For being as windy as it was, eight fish isn’t bad at all. Looks like my fall is going way better than my summer.

And Then There Was Success!

We ventured into my buddy Russell’s “secret pond”  a couple of days ago at around 11am. He had fed me stories about huge bluegill and Bass and so I decided I had to try it.

 

This year has been a slow one for me and largemouth bass. Last year I feel I did fairly well on the buckets, this year being different with only one substantial bass and the rest being dinks. My main desires were two fold: To catch a bass and also to catch a bass on the fly rod!

We arrived at the pond at around 11am. I had a pole rigged up for panfish from the previous trip so I tossed it in and I saw a takedown right away! Always a positive sign. Russell drew first blood with a nice little green sunfish. I was next with a decent sized little bluegill. Panfish are always a good time! I decided to try with the fly rod but no matter what I threw at them (san juan worm, pmd, wooleybuggers, panfish poppers, etc), they were not interested. At one point I got one bite on a white wooleybugger but that was basically it.

Russell loves catfish so much that on the Fish Sniffer his screen name is “Katfish.” He decided that he was going to fish for some kitties and within a few moments he had this nice catfish. Notice it’s dorsal fin.  We wondered if there was something BIG chewing on its fin?

I decided that I would try for catfish as well but all I had on was a small treble hook. I have caught catfish with these hooks in the past but the first cast was unfruitful.  At this point I decided to change my hook. I had a basic slip sinker rig with a ½ oz egg weight on it and about a foot and a half leader. I was able to get it out pretty far. I went back to my fly rod but right away I noticed there was some tension on the line. I picked up my rod, felt tension (not bites, but tension) so I set my hook and sure enough there was a fish on! I tried to power him in but he started to run. That’s when I saw it jump out and I knew it was a largemouth. He took off to the left of us and was gunning it with my line. The darn thing put up a CRAZY fight! I finally got him in and he was smaller than I thought but the fight still made him worth it.He was a nice little 2 lb Largemouth!

We wondered out loud why the bass had fed on a bottom feeding rig and rationalized that it must have caught the worm on the fall. But before the afternoon ended Russell ended up catching two more smaller bass on a bottom feeding rig as well. We started throwing soft plastics, lipless cranks and many topwater lures as well to no avail. For whatever reason, it seemed that they were bottom feeding that day. 

Well, It seemed that Russell had the good spot because he was getting into all the catfish. At one point I ventured out with my fly rod to try and catch me a bass on the fly but they weren’t even checking out my popper. While I was doing that Russell told me I had a cat on so I ran back and got into my first and last kittie of the day. We ended up catching a couple more panfish and russell got into a couple more cats as well. Total fish caught and released  – 3 Bass, 5 Catfish,8 panfish. In all, not a bad day. I guess the season isn’t quite over yet, you just have to adjust with the times! 

Well, that wraps up my summer fishing. I don't feel I did too great this summer but a lot of the time was spent learning about fly fishing. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. Oh well, Time to bring on that fall fishing!!