Slaying the Gills!

I am pretty much caught up with my backed up fishing trips. The trip I will be discussing took place on March 11^th. 

Jeremy and I decided to give Davis pond a try last wedenesday. As usual I loaded up Excalibur, a box of flies and took the drive out to Davis. I arrived around 4pm, tied on a light cahill which is what I had luck on the week before. 

Sure enough, I hammered those blue gills right away. Some were tiny, others were a nice hand size. Every other cast was a bite or a fish.  Now I am from the camp that calls all panfish blue gills but I think there are only bluegills and perch in that pond and I caught both of them. 

 

A little later, my fly protégé Jeremy came around and I taught him exactly how to catch the bluegills. After a few casts, Jeremy caught his first bluegill on the fly rod! And after that a second and a third. He was ecstatic and I couldn’t be more proud!

I continued to fish and ended the day with 14 panfish. What a great day of fishing at this new fishing hole. 

Total fish: 14 Bluegills

First Fish of the year!

February 26 was a good day. It was a quick after work trip but it was fruitful.

For those of you that follow me regularly, you know that this year I have committed myself to learning more about fly fishing by fly fishing more; what a concept. Specifically, that means that most of the time when I am out fishing, I will be taking my fly rod instead of my spinning rod and putting myself in positions where I have no other option but to fly fish more. After this trip, this decision has been completely justified. 

This was a last minute trip that I almost canceled because of work. As it turns out work ended up not getting in the way so I called up Jeremy and our trip was back on. This was before daylight savings time so we had about 2 hours to fish. 

We arrived at a park pond in Davis that I will refer to as “Davis pond,” at about 4:30. I assembled my 6 wt and went to work testing areas of the pond that looked fishy. It is a small pond so the walk around the pond wasn’t too bad. I finally found an area close to an island surrounded by cattails at the center where there seems to be a steep drop off into deeper water. 

So while others were fishing the main body of the pond, I went to work on this drop off with a black wooley bugger… no takers. After a while I started noticing mosquitoes landing on top of the water. I quickly looked through the flies I had on me and the closest thing I could find to a mosquito looking pattern was a light cahill.  I gave it a try and no takers as it sat on top of the water… but then it sank. After a few seconds, I had a taker! A few moments later I brought the first fish of the year to hand, a small bluegill. 

At one point, Jeremy, who I am teaching to fly fish decided he wanted to give the fly a try. He took my fly rod and after a brief casting tutorial, tried to catch fish on the fly. Meanwhile, he hands me his fishing rod, a small 5 foot rod with 2 lb test line on it. It was rigged up with a texas rigged worm. I moved out of the way to give him room to cast and took the 5 foot rod. In my first cast I tossed the worm into cattails and as it bumped off of the cattails and hit the water, a bass took it in its mouth and I reeled the fish in! A nice 1 ½ - 2 lb fish. 

I continued to cast and ended up moving down to the main body of the pond. At one point I stated noticing the fish were surface feeding so I tossed my light cahill in that area. One fish ended up breaking off my fly so I tied on another and continued. I finally got one taker and brought in my third fish of the day, a nice little bass at about a pound. After that another fish broke my fly off and at that point it was too dark to tie on another. I ended the day having caught the only 3 fish of the day and all on the fly! 

We ended the night with some casting lessons in a parking lot. Since then, Jeremy received a Cabelas wind river Combo as a birthday present and he is already talking about buying a float tube in the future. I think we have a new fly fisher on our hands, folks! Haha another believer in the gospel of fly fishing! 

Total Fish: 2 Largemouth bass + 1 bluegill = 3 Fish

Impromptu Delta Trip

This fishing trip was on February 16th. It began with what was supposed to be a quick trip to the pits and turned into a day of fishing at the Delta.

After gassing up and buying beer, we were off to Prospect Slough in the California Delta. Even though I live in Northern California, I don’t frequent the Delta. Perhaps I should do so more often, maybe I will this year.
I must admit, this was one of those special trips where I did not plan on bringing my fly rod, only a spinning rod. We hit Prospect Slough at about 2pm. My buddy had caught a nice striper out there a day earlier so we figured we would give it a try. This specific spot is a canal with a strip of land that seems to splint the canal in two and one side has a pump on it. We call this spot, “The Rocks,” due to the rock piles on both sides. The side with the pump has a current and the other doesn’t.

We found an older gentleman on the pump side who told us he had been fishing since earlier that day and hadn’t even had bites. Not a good sign but we decided to give it a try anyway. Especially since he told us he watched a guy pull out a 10 lb striper out of there the day before. A story is enough to keep me fishing for the day!

Pump side

down stream looking toward pumps

further downstream

I started on one side (pump side) and tossed everything from a rattle Trap, Swim Baits, jigs, spinner baits, poppers, etc. Nothing, not even a bite. My Buddy Charles ended up getting a couple of bumps on some lures he was fishing but no solid take downs.

non-pump side

Another winner from Sierra Nevada

We both switched to the other side (non Pump side) and went to work. There were some fish jumping on the other side but also no takers. We met some other guys who showed us a couple of cats they had caught but they said that was earlier in the day. Once again, we got skunked but we got to fish and enjoy the beautiful winter day and drink some cold beer. No complaints here.

Total Fish: 0

Return to Green River Feb. 13th

 This trip took place on Friday, February 13^th. Although my buddies bailed on me, it was way too great of a sunny winter day to waste indoors. Instead I decided to head to Green River (Putah creek West) and try for some of their trophy rainbows.

As you might recall, the last time I went out there with Mark from Northern California Trout we got the ol skunk but I swore to figure out the combination to this creek. I can honestly say I gave it a great effort.

right hand view

in front of me

I arrived at around 9am and the banks of the green were already littered with fly fisherman. I went to my first spot. This spot is close to the dam which I figure would attract more fish. It looks easy to fish since the water kind of bottlenecks in one area and then flows through.  I threw a few flies and also got some caught in the bushes.

left hand view and dam

 If you didn’t know, Putah creek is the type of place where you are forced to improve your roll casts.

Left hand view

right hand view

A bit later I went to the second spot of the day. The time I was here with Mark, we met a guy that had a specific way of fishing one hole that is pretty deep, wide and slow. He fished it like you would fish a regular bobber: about 3 feet of leader underneath the strike indicator and wait for a bite. Unfortunately for me, this didn’t work.

In front of me

The Riffle

Spot number 3 was also a familiar spot with a great looking riffle. Last time I was here I cast at this area and had no luck. Yet the spot looks so fishy, I figured I would try it again. So I cast various flies at the riffle and let them drift in different directions with no takers. At one point I pulled out a mosquito pattern that I picked up at a fly shop and tossed it out under an indicator. Even though this fly was a dry fly, after hitting the fast paced water, it went under.  A few casts later I felt something and so I set my hook and sure enough I had a fish on my 2 lb tippet! I pulled him in and as I reached for my net, snap! He broke that 2 lb tippet and then he was gone. 

Even though I lost the fish, It was great having the sensation of a putah creek trout on the end of my line. Aside from that it was a gorgeous mid-winters day in California and I was out at the fishing hole during the week. Life was good. The perfect end to the Day was a burger and beer at Plainfield Station. 

As I have said before, Every fishing hole is like a lock and your job as a fisherman is to figure out the combination. Last time I was here I failed, this time I didn’t land the fish but I inched closer by finding a fly they would take.  I’m getting closer to cracking the code and when I do, it will be glorious!

Total Fish: 0

Winter day in California

First Outing of 2015!

Don’t worry, Don’t worry…  I haven’t thrown my goal out the window or anything.  But my first fishing outing of the year was a spin fishing one. I just see it as more practical during these cold times when most fish are hanging in the depths. Especially with bass at the pits. 

I purchased my license after work last Wednesday and hit the pits with my buddy Jeremy and his buddy Jeff.  Jeremy and Jeff have been fishing for the same amount of time, about 6 months. They are examples of guys who tried fishing and got hooked! In fact, at only 6 months, Jeremy has already caught a 6-7lber (didn’t have a scale but my buddy Russell confirmed it) so he is definitely a fisherman.

Jeremy and Jeff arrived at the fishing hole early, at around 12 and I met them at 3. I dragged jigs at the bottom indifferent colors and tried drop-shotting worms but no bites. According to Jeremy there were no bites all afternoon which I believed because it’s winter and I generally don’t find many fish during the winter. I even tried kastmasters which slay them during the summer but not during winter. 

 

At about 445, Jeff is casting off of a small point, into the depths and says,” I think I got one… wait… yeah, I got one!” We both look over and sure enough, we see the familiar jerking of a bass at the end of the line.  We were ecstatic for him, happy to know that catching bass during the fall was possible with patience and a texas rigged worm. We quickly switched both of our rigs to the same. Unfortunately I didn’t end up getting into any bass but Jeremy ended up catching one at about a pound and a half. 

I did get the old winter skunkaroo but nothing that a cigar, some fresh air and a good afternoon with the buddies couldn’t take care of! Next time I will have to bring my fly rod along. 

Total fish: 0

Time for a Hail Mary!

I planned to release 3 blog posts the other day and didn’t even realize that I only posted two! Lol here is the third.  

The ultimate panoramic shot: a 360!

First Spot

With a little under 300 fish, I hoped to reach that number with a few trout out at Collins Lake this past Monday. I got together with Jeremy and made the hour and 20 minute drive up the hill into the Browns valley area. The lake was a little higher than it was last year around  this time but not by much.

Good to the last drop

It was after 12 by the time we had lines in the water. We had some lunch and a couple of Sierra Nevada Celebration ales. Both of us are fairly outgoing so we talked to the people next to us for a bit. They said that nobody had gotten a bite all morning. Not a good sign but I stayed positive.  

Rock stack

The lake was calm and there were very few boats out. We talked to the people next to us about the Niners, Raiders and Jim Harbaugh.  We sat, we waited, we remained positive. After an hour and a half of no bites, we moved down a bit, past our fellow fisherman to an area that seemed deeper. We continued to drink and hang out. Jeremy completed a pretty impressive rock stack. 

Second Spot

We sat and discussed “the pits,” and what it might be like to fish them during this time of the year. We speculated that spring was going to be great there as we hoped for bites. Unfortunately there were not even bites to be had that day. 

Unfortunately I was unable to reach 300 fish this year, but the trip, as every other fishing trip, is never in vain. As we packed up our stuff, we both remembered the good old saying, “a bad day fishing is better than a great day working.”  And it sure was true. I had a great time with my buddy, ate some food, drank some beer and had lines in the water. I gotta say it was a good day!

Last "Selfie" of the year

That wraps up 2014 for me. I still have a fall wrap up,  and then a review for my 2014 goals and I can move on to 2015.

Total Fish: 0 

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