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

Putting Backing and Line onto a Fly Rod

So I have a new fly rod and reel combo. I ended up returning my Wind River Combo because it started making a scraping/screeching sound every time I reeled in. I returned it to Cabelas and for the first time I experienced Cabelas legendary return policy. There were no questions asked whatsoever, they just took it back. 

Anyway, I was a bit sad when I had to pack it away and send it back. It was a sweet little set up and I really loved it but I was forced to move on. Well, since I had already returned it, I figured I may as well purchase a new one and since Cabelas already had my money, I figured why not chip in a few extra bucks and get something of a little better quality. 

So I went to Cabelas.com and found a rod and a separate reel that were on sale. I had no choice; I had to jump on these deals! Get ready to “ooh and ahh” folks. I purchased a 4 piece, 6 wt Redington CT Classic trout rod and a Sage 1850 6 wt fly reel! (okay, now you can ooh and ah!) The reel came in a nice little neoprene case and the  rod had its own burgundy rod tube so I’m already better off than I was with the Wind River Combo. 

So anyway, I wanted to try it out this week but I also wanted a pro to set everything up for me. Since I was going fishing on Wednesday  and I received my line in the mail on Monday, I didn’t have time on my side. Since I was heading up towards Yuba city, I decided to call Johnson’s bait and tackle but apparently their fly fishing expert wouldn’t be in until Thursday! So what did I do? I decided to do it myself!!

I know what you’re thinking, “You just started Fly fishing, man!” And although this is true, I know I have to learn to do this type of thing myself. With that said my knots might totally suck and I might lose a fish because of them, but honestly I did check them well and I think they are good! Here’s what I did!

• 1.       Use an Arbor knot to tie the backing to the reel. – This knot was pretty simple to tie. This was one of the easier steps. It only got harder from here. 
• 2.       Distribute the backing on the reel. – Or should I say I tried my best to evenly distribute the backing along the reel. The backing was sitting on a round plastic holder with a hole in it so I put a pair of scissors through the hole, handed it to my wife (who gave me a funny look when I handed it to her but still held it, bless her) and started reeling, holding it so that the backing was as tight as possible. After the backing was in I moved to the next knot.
• 3.       Use an Albright knot to tie the line to the backing. -  This was without a doubt the harder part since the backing is so much thinner than the actual line. I had to repeat this step a few times because the knot wasn’t working. As it turns out, I was making the initial loop way too big since it was made with the line itself which is pretty thick. Finally, after the making the loop just big enough to put the second piece of backing through, I was finally able to get it done. 
• 4.       Distribute the line onto the reel. – I have done this before when I clean my line so it wasn’t that big of a deal. 
• 5.       Tie a surgeons loop at the end of the line – My fly fishing mentor Mark told me to do this (not specifically this knot, but to put a loop at the end). It definitely makes putting a leader on it a lot easier.

 

One thing that I did notice was even though all of the backing fit onto the reel, it seemed to be a bit too much as my line was rubbing on the top of the reel when I reeled all of it in. I might have to go back in and remove some of the backing. Thoughts??

Anyway, I pulled on all the knots to make sure they were ready to go but I guess I will put them to the test when I get into some big fish. Either way, it was a fun and fulfilling experience to do this myself but I am still willing to take the experts word on it. So if you are a seasoned angler, let me know if I should change anything, do anything to it or if you noticed I did anything wrong. I appreciate the advice!

The Slip-Bobber Rig

So i have not been fishing in a couple of weeks now and Yes, i am having withdrawals! With that said and no fishing trips to write about, I figured I would continue with my "Rigs and setups/ teaching" posts which I quite honestly have been neglecting! As i have said before (many times) that i not only want to learn to fish, but I also want to teach brand new fisherman how to get their feet wet (not literal) as well. With that in mind, I bring you: The Slip-bobber rig! (BTW, please take the time to appreciate my fine artistic abilities in the illustrated diagrams! lol)

 

I had seen slip bobbers before but never paid close attention to them. That is until a night with a new moon out on Black Butte Lake when we got skunked. The next morning a guy approached me and showed me a couple of pretty decent cats he had caught. I asked him how he caught them and he told me he used a slip bobber rig. 

I had never actually seen a slip bobber rig set-up close so I paid attention to how it was rigged up and asked him questions about it. Even though catfish are bottom feeders, he told me that they don’t always eat at the same depth. He told me that at certain times they will be in different depths and at those times, a slip sinker is the way to go.

Both regular bobbers and slip bobbers use the bobber as an indication of bites or strikes. The difference between a slip-bobber and a regular bobber is that a regular bobber stays at one depth and your bait normally stays at the very top of the water column. With a slip bobber, you can access any level of the water column by simply moving your bobber stopper higher up on your line. This allows for your bobber to go further up your line and stop when it meets the bobber stopper, essentially allowing you to reach further depths and still use a bobber as a bite indicator. 

When I first decided to use this rig I went to one of my local fishing stores and found a pack with two weighted slip-bobbers and bobber stoppers. Originally I only used the plastic bobber stoppers included with my pack. It looked like a small thin, skinny strip of plastic with four holes in it. Then you simply take your line, run it through all four holes and you have your bobber stopper. As it turns out, there is also a simple fishing knot you can also tie on to your line that will do the same job. You can find a picture of that knot ::here::

A slip bobber rig isn’t the most complicated rig out there, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t catch fish. The beauty of a bobber stopper is that you can fish different depths with it. This is important because if you aren’t getting bites at one depth, you can and should slide the bobber stopper a few inches up or down until you begin getting bites. I have been in situations where one depth will be dead and after sliding the bobber stopper knot a little higher or lower, fish begin attacking it like crazy. The Slip bobber rig works great for catfish, bluegill, crappie, carp, largemouth bass and even striper. 

So a quick recap:

Step 1. Take your main line and slide on your bobber stopper or tie on your bobber stopper knot.

Step 2. Slide your bobber onto your line.

Step 3. Attach a 1-2 foot leader to your line using a barrel swivel

Step 4. Attatch your hook to the other end of your leader.

Step 5. Adjust your bobber stopper at desired length and you are ready to fish!

Fall Bassing Action

I am a student of angling. I refuse to stop learning or feel that I have” arrived” to a point where I know everything. My goal as most of you know is to learn to catch every type of freshwater fish out there regardless of conditions, location, etc. So I have no shame in admitting when I don’t know how to do something. I ask questions, tons of them!

Enter Nick, The informative Fisherman. This guy is a veteran at this angling thing and I follow his videos religiously! Well Nick, like many of the great gentleman who follow this page, is more than willing to answer questions about fishing. Of course that means I often bother him with my fishing inquiries. 

Recently he explained to me how to catch bass during fall.  Soon after he explained it to the world and posted a video on this subject. I could give you an explanation but to be quite honest I couldn’t do it as well as Nick. So here is the video. 

So I took this information out to Boss pond and tried it out. Based on the advice I had received and the video I used a Rattle trap to get to the deeper parts of the water. I had a Strike King Red-Eyed Shad that I received in this Novembers Mystery Tackle box.  One of my buddies was using a Mepps Spinner size #3, another was using a top water jitterbug.  Out of the three of us I am the only one that caught a bass. 

After that I decided to switch it up and see if anything else worked so I did try out a top-water popper, and a couple of finesse techniques but they didn’t prove very successful. We didn’t do much better after that.

Wasn’t a very eventful day in terms of numbers but the fact that I hooked a bass this deep into fall was a step in a positive direction for me. Well that’s it for me. Please do check out Nicks Website: InformativeFirsherman, and his facebook page: Facebook IF. The guy is a genius!

Well, that's it for me. I'll let you know about any future fishing trips. I will be taking a road trip to Texas for Christmas and you best believe i will have my rod and reel with me for this road trip!

Good luck out on the water and break that bank, folks!!

Bachelor Party/ Update: Collins Lake - May 19-20

Before I took the big plunge I was able to do one last day of fishing with the guys. My bachelor party was a night at the amazing Collins Lake in Oregon House, CA. If there was any way I was going to spend my last night out with the guys as a free man, it was going to be with a line in the water! 

We arrived at Collins Lake at 5:30 pm. After setting up our tents, we took to the water with our rods, a couple of cold ones and a celebratory cigar. Both of my buddies have only been fishing once and that was also with me. The last time they didn’t enjoy fishing so much as I left them alone and was determined to catch myself some bass. They left with the impression that fishing was somehow boring? So my objectives were two-fold:

1) Catch my First trout

2) Teach my boys how to fish

Fig. A

Little back story, I have never caught a trout before in my life! Shocking, I know. Most of my life I had fished for striper, catfish and bluegill and I never got around to it. Well for those of you who don’t know, my goal is to learn to catch every type of fresh water fish possible (from research and experts) and then to teach you all (newbies) and everybody else how to do the same. So on this trip, my target was a trout. We (I) set up four different poles. I set up one with a slip- sinker rig with rainbow Power bait (Fig. A) and the other with a basic catfish rig with anchovies (Fig B). I set up both of them with a floating worm rig (Fig. C).

Fig. B

Fig. C

As we fished we met some nice old timers who were visiting Collins from Reno. I quickly made friends with them and one of them even ended up blessing us with some hook removers! In return I warned them when they were getting a huge bite on one of their lines (they had stepped away for a while) but unfortunately they missed the fish. One of my buddies ended up getting a huge bite but since he didn’t know how to set a hook, he missed the fish as well. Day one ended with no trout, and no fish for my friends either. 

Day two was our final day. I was determined to catch some fish! I marched right out to the water first thing in the morning but unfortunately caught nothing!  Since I was dead tired, most of that morning was spent sleeping in my chair with a bell on my rod tip.

At around 1 pm we decided to try one last time. We found a nice little spot on the lake and we set up camp. I cast out with a Kastmaster and a roostertail, but no response. Finally I found a good spot, I hooked up a floating worm rig, cast out and waited. Within the next minute I got my first yank!  I set my hook and caught my very first 12 in. rainbow trout, a nice little milestone! 

With my first trout under my belt, I cast out again and started getting a good bite right away! I figured I must have encountered a school. I cast a third time and sure enough they ate up my worm within seconds. I called one of my buddies over and had him cast his line. He had a little trouble learning the art of setting a hook but sure enough he caught his first fish ever! I figured while we were up on our luck that I would call my other buddy over to see if he could catch one as well. Right after casting he got a bite, set his hook and after a short fight also hooked into a trout!

Both of the goals I was out to set were accomplished. On the same day I caught my first trout and taught both of my friends how to fish/ helped them catch their first fish. It was in fact a great day of fishing!

The Test of Greatness...

The test of a great product/rig is not the price, the look, or the quality that others perceive of said product, but whether or not it catches fish! If you catch fish with a product/rig, it means that it works and that makes it a good product/rig. Now, this isn’t to say you can’t tweak it to make it work better.

still catches fish!

Let me give you an example. In this picture you see an example of my original striper fishing rig. That’s the weight tied to my main line which is then tied to a snelled hook creating a good 7-10 inches of space between the weight and the hook. This space would usually be a leader and I guess in a sense it is a leader but this specific method created a few problems.

1. Wasted line. Since the leader was made out of my same line, that meant that my supply of line was constantly being depleted every time I removed my rig or lost it to a snag.  
2.   Lack of sensitivity. The rig wasn’t as sensitive to bites because when the fish would bite, the strike would also drag the weight with it.

So the solution to these problems is a rig that looks similar but is different in construction. I discovered the sinker-slider rig which looks like this:

The idea is that the sinker slider allows for more sensitivity to bites because the sinker is stationary and the line is the only thing moving. This also eliminates wasted line because your leader is made of a separate piece of line and if you cut it off/lose it, you don’t lose a foot of your line at a time. 

The second example would be Cotton Cordell Fishing Lures which I mentioned before should sponsor me! haha Here is a crankbait that costs a fraction of the popular lure price and yet has caught me more Largemouths  than the more expensive brands have. I hear people talking about Rapala and Strike King being great lures and nobody talks about the reigning champion of fish catching for me: Cotton Cordell crankbaits!

I’m not saying is that you can’t change your tactics/rigs/lure choice. On the contrary, you should experiment, but if you have a good thing, there’s no need to abandon it completely.

Seasoned fisherman: do you have any rigs, lures or tactics that or less popular, cheaper or just plain different that get the job done for you? Let us know. Until next time, break the bank, folks!!

Searching for Sturgeon

Friday March 30th was Cesar Chavez Day. Not really sure why he gets a day but i get it off of work so I celebrated it with a little fishing! It was a dark day with no rain and a little wind. My original plan was to fish for striper but sometimes you have to be willing to adjust. As I drove across the bridge street bridge in Colusa, CA I had to do a double take. The river was higher than it was a week ago. When I arrived, I was amazed to find our regular fishing spot 5 feet underwater! The water was high, fast and chocolate brown.

Since the water looked like this I decided to switch up my game plan. I decided to fish for the famous diamondback instead! My heart beats quickly whenever I fish for sturgeon. I have yet to catch one, but the potential f catching a five foot monster always keeps a dose of adrenaline pumping in my veins. 

To fish for sturgeon you want to use a wire-coated leader as the one pictured. You can buy them pre-made at any fishing store and even at walmart. They usually have two 7/O hooks with beads separating them. You also want to use a sinker slider with a heavy weight when the water is this high. 

The bait that most people use would be grass shrimp, mud shrimp or ghost shrimp. People also use Lamprey eel or Pile worms. Here I was using sardine, because like I said, I was originally fishing for striper. 

I had a few bites which may have been striper because from what i hear sturgeon don't bite. They suck in your bait, which looks like small bites, but require an extremely hard set. At one point I got a huge bite and I decided to set the hook hard and SNAP! My line broke and I lost my wire leader. I was bummed but then I wondered if whatever was on the other end of my line was big enough to snap my braided line or if my line just needs to be replaced. My line is only a couple of months old so I choose to believe that it was a huge sturgeon. Either way I will be looking to replace my line and next time... I WILL get him!!