Your complaints worked!!!!!!!

This is just a short report. All of those e-mails must have done some good, because the Fish @ Game finally brought in those Holiday Fish. On Thursday at 2:30 pm one thousand pounds of trout from Mt. Lassen were put into Cottonwood Lake! I was right in the middle of a gigantic fish boil. Unfortunately nothing was caught. Went back the next day for a short time, nothing . Went back today and finally caught some. The total for three fishing two hours was two caught and six missed. The only thing working was to drag in the power bait on a six inch leader. The fish were holding right on the bottom. No one caught a thing just dunking bait, except the pelicans who gobbled up twenty nice size fish. Maybe they will start bitting before they are all eaten. You only have a few days left on this years license, so get out and move your bait. Happy New Year and God Bless. Later, see you next year.

BAH HUM BUG!!!!

Christmas Day found me at the Perk Ponds in Campbell looking for those " enhanced trout" from the fish and game. They posted on their wed site about the Holiday present to all of the South Bay. We were supposed to get 1to 3 pound fish before Dec. 24th. What we got was a lump of coal, no fish, nothing. Walked around the pond looking for fish. Saw nothing. The sad part is also saw kids with brand new rods and reels coming to fish. What a great gift to these kids if the fish and game would have put some fish in. Who knows maybe a new generation of fisherpersons would be born. We will never know because they will not catch any fish and be hooked on fishing.I am posting the web site so all can complain to those grinches.

No new news, The South bay gets coal and the East Bay gets fish, lots of fish, thousands of pounds. I think I will take a large garbage can and bring some fish to the South Bay, but that is not legal ,so I will write EMails which never get answered.
Time to collect some empty soda cans so I can buy my 2008 license. Happy Holidays to all. Take back a gift or two if you do not find enough soda cans to buy your license because the game wardens will be out in force Jan. 1th. God Bless

Fish Fish and more Fish

Went to two different places this week. First I spent one hour at Cottonwood Lake, catching a couple of long skinny trout. They were 11 inches with a girth of 2 inches . In other words, they were sardine trout. Fish and game must be breeding a new species of trout, one crossed with a sardine. Or they are starving regular trout. What ever is the case these trout are worthless as garden fertilizer or food. Just think for only $51.25 you can enjoy catching these rare trout at all of the South Bay local ponds. I just can't wait till next year! By the way $51.25 is a fishing license with a second pole stamp. If you fish the Delta, $6.25 more.


The second fishing trip was to the East Bay. They have been stocking a ton of fish in their lakes. That's right 2000 lbs. per lake! These are nice one to two pounders with a healthy mix of three to ten pounders. They even brought in some from Oregon. they are better fighting and tasting fish. They have full tails and pink meat. I will let you know how they taste.
After throwing lures for two hours and catching nothing, I broke down and bait fished. Of course I do not do the Power Bait and throw out dunking. No I kick it up a notch. I find the latest bait and combine it with old standbys. The trout hit two combos. One was a mix of natural corn and salmon egg flavored Power Bait dipped in some rainbow trout Pro Gel. These caught the Oregon trout. They must be fed a ground fish meal diet. The second combo was Berkley waxies with yellow Power Eggs. The waxies are wax worm lookalikes in different colours from natural to green. I used the green colour. Much better than the real thing, as they require no care. Just screw on the lid after use.
Caught seven trout ,two of which were Oregon trout. They weighed in at 11lbs. 15ozs. For the seven. Five are in the garden and two for food.


The picture at the right is how the jar of Berkley Glup waxies looks like to me with out my glasses. Sorry about the sharpness but they still do catch fish By for now and God Bless......

The small ones

Today went to Quarry Lake to see what is bitting around the East Bay. Fished four hours and caught one fish and had two other bites. Just not in the right spot. They were being caught all around the place, mostly on yellow power eggs and yellow power worms dipped in some scent. The trout would not bite on power bait or hit any of the Fish Pill worms which caught two limits a couple of weeks earlier.I did notice a bad sign with the fish . Most of the trout are around two pounds normally . There were about half of the fish caught under one pound. These are like the Fish and Game plants. If I am going to pay a fishing fee I want bigger fish. I can catch small ones around the South Bay.

Speaking of the South Bay, they will be dumping the bird food [small trout], sometime during the week of Dec. 9th. Usually during the middle of the week. Then the week of Christmas they will be putting in some more small ones and if they hold true to form some jumbos! We can only hope. So stock up on power eggs and worms and finish your holiday shopping so you can spent more time catching the big ones. God bless everyone.

Opening Day in the South Bay

The trout were stocked in the South Bay Wed. Nov. 14th. They are your typical two to a pound. I didn't go until Thursday but the fish were still there. At Cottonwood Lake the trout were along the shore no more than 20 feet out. For the first hour the trout hit a combo of crappie jig and wooly bugger. I caught two and missed twenty others. The fish were hitting short or spitting out the bait in 1\10th of a second. That is too fast for this old man to set the hook. Then the trout changed to hitting small panther martins in gold. They hit hard and got hooked. In a little over two hours the total for two people were 15 trout and two bass, all released so the cormarants would have some food, poor starving birds that they are.



The fish hit any kind of cast except those that caught the fisherperson!



Then I went to the Perk ponds in Campbell. The lake is circled in weeds,and the trout have been chased into the shore. I only stayed about an hour. I walked around the lake and found small schools of trout sitting in about one foot of water. I had to down size my lures to a size 16 bead head and a small split shot. I caught two and missed one . The trout were like fishing in a bath tub, all of five feet of shore. The positive is that they were all big ugly brutes. Those that I caught went over two pounds apiece.

So get out buy some crappie jigs and some panther martins and put away your power bait. The fishing will not last long . Call in sick from work They will be gone by this weekend.

If you want to go fishing this weekend Go to the East Bay.

Signing off to tie some more flies and order some more panther martins God Bless!

Butterfly Carp

The first day of November found me at Almaden Lake fishing for carp. I use a special rig to catch those light biting fish. You start with an ultra light rod and reel filled with 6lb. test line. You attach the line to a #6 3-way swivel. Next you put a split shot above the swivel. Now tie two #14 treble hooks to two short pieces of mono leader. Tie these to the 3-way and your ready to bait up. I use shoe peg corn and small balls of bread. The secret is to pour Carp Spit Oil from Pro-Cure on the corn and bread It really gets the carp biting!

The Butterfly Carp hit the corn bait. I have never heard of let alone catching one .This carp weighed in at 9lbs. Along with the butter fly I caught a Mirror Carp which has huge scales along the middle of its body, and a couple common carp and white suckers. All fought well and took out yards of line in long runs. These fish are a real challenge to catch on ultra-light tackle. It will make you a better fisherperson and you get to see which tackle holds up and which break down. I ruined an Abu Garcia by catching too many carp. The line cut a half inch groove in the bale. ruining the reel. I use Okuma reels and an old antique Daiwa GS-10, all metal and better than any Daiwas today.

Also went to Quarry Lake for some trout. Now I know why they call it fishing and not catching. Fished 4 hours for one three pounder . Which happened to be covered with the scares form the CoCo pods. These are tiny green worm like parasites which attach to the skin of the trout and suck it's blood. It is harmless to humans but who wants to eat a fish attacked by these worms? Not me!

Good news Those wonderful people from fish and game are going to stock the local ponds in about one week, weather permitting. Stay tuned and God Bless .

Bigjon

Went to Del Valle Thursday October 25 2007 and tried out the Bigjon downrigger for the very first time. It worked great and looked great, but the fish did not think so, no bites. Trolled around the entire lake from launch ramp to the dam and all places in between.Got only three bites on leadcore at 35 feet. The lake is so low that I had to watch the depth finder so as not to get hung up on the bottom.

The object of this trip was to fish for salmon as they plant thousands of fingerlings each year,unannounced. I did not catch any but found great spots for future trips. I did see two nice trout about 6lbs. caught off the bank to the right of the dam. You need a boat to get there, unless you are into 6 mile hikes each way. Otherwise not much doing for all who fished .

The worm is the thing

Went to Quarry lake in Fremont today. Fished from 10:30 till 2:00 and caught my five fish limit, weighing 8lb 11oz. All were caught with a black egg sucking leech with green fish pills. The bait comes from Mad River Manufacturing and can be ordered from:www fishpills.com.When I got there the bank was full of fishermen. When I left there was no one there. No one caught anything but me . I know that the bait was the difference. This is the second time I limited out using these rubber worms. Just goes to show you that you need to try different things when the basics do not work.

Went to Los Vaqueros for the last time until they plant big fish. I had a free boat rental so I trolled the entire lake from 60 feet down to 5 feet under the surface. Only had two fish on in four hours. The salmon are turning yellow and soft and the trout are small. It is going to take another year or two before the salmon reach full size. so let the place rest and fish some where else.

Going to try downrigger fish at Del Valle soon So stay tuned.

The local lake have no fish stocked until December. That means carp fishing with bread and corn. Don't laugh try to bring in a 31lb. carp on four lb. test line. You will need to run the shore so you do not get spooled. Thats the size of the monster caught two weeks ago. Good fishing and as my dad always said God Bless.

The fish are back!!!!!!!

The fish have returned to Quarry Lake. With 1500 pounds of fresh Mt. Lassen trout the bite is on. Fishermens row was the hot spot. With power bait in the yellow colour.

Just picked up some new scents from Pro Cure. The carp spit was the best bite getter





The only thing with bait fishing is that you have to keep what you get . Letting the trout go after hooking them in the gut will not work. So keep what you catch or cut off the hooks at the mouth.



Watch out for the pelicans though because they will try to steal your catch every chance they get.



I marked the secret spot with a home made pole holder. Just walk the shore till you come upon this---

May 25,2007

The derby is over. No big trout for me. But I was not alone. Chabot did not stock very many whoppers,
they only put 500 lbs. in. These included many 20+ size fish. It does not take a math major to see that there were not many planted. I managed to to get a tiny 2.5lb fish.
Although if crappies counted I would have won the derby. I got a4lber bigger than the trout. All caught with a medium rebel floater behind my latest secret lure, a dingleberry jig.

I gave up on the derby and went to Shadow Cliff to catch a thunder trout. The above picture is of a tunder trout Caught in the first 10 minutes. Than nothing else for two hours.

The South Bay is getting too warm for trout . It is catfish time. So Hellyer and Vasona will be the best places to fish if and when they are planted.

For trout it is only Los Vaqueros. I took my dingleberry set up there yesterday and tried it out. Great success, caught 10 trout from 2to 5 lbs.,and a 5lb. salmon! The biggest fish were caught on the jig flies. Go to cabelas before I buy them all.

Gone catfishing.

the last trout plants for the south bay

May 1,2007

This is the last south bay trout plant for the summer. But, what a plant! Cottonwood Lake had a kids day and stocked three to five pounders. The young kids caught a few, but the old kids, like me, got their chance Sunday evening. Fishing from 6.30 to 7.30 I managed to get three landed and hooked or got bitten by twenty others All in the three to five pound range. All caught using my mini stelth bobber by Thrill, and a bead head wolly bugger in a brown black pattern. No one else caught any thing! I went back the next two days fishing about two hours each day and ending up with about fifty hits and 21 fish caught . All but five released back for someone else to catch.

This weekend they stock the Campbell Perk Ponds for the kids. Guess where I will be next Monday.

Moving on to the East Bay. The derby continues on with not many big fish caught in Lake Chabot. Was there last Tuesday, and had the worst day ever. In five hours I caught only three fish with the biggest being 2.4 lbs. Start stocking the big boys!

Sat. I had the pleasure to take out a wonder kid named Scott. He was part of the Cast For Kids Foundation. This program travels around the country letting challenged kids fish with seasoned fishermen and fisherwomen in boats or from shore. We went out on Los Vaqueros Lake in a boat for a couple of hours trolling with leadcore and criplures. Scott caught three nice trout and had a five pounder on until he lost it at the boat. We came in and the shy Scott proudly carried his stringer around the marina showing off his catch.Afterwards we all had a great BBQ. Rewarding for all.

april the derby begins

The annual east bay derby began today. The only trophy fish planted was at Los Vacqueros. The other lakes get theirs next week. So I went to the big plant. Well, the stock was to be 2000 lbs. of 8+ lbs. fish. The reel plant was 750 lbs of up to 8lbs fish. Most of the trout were between 4 to 5 lbs. Nice, but not trophys! To make matters worse The Dept. of Fish and Game must of had left over trout from the south bay because they put 1000lbs of sardine trout in the day before. Most people caught some fish ,mostly small and on worms. I managed to get four trout from 1/2 pound (sardine ) size to the 4 1/2 lb. trophy, caught on a wooly bugger in black. The only other person who did better was some one who fished in the no fishing zone . He caught three. Who says honesty is the best policy.Not the fish thats for sure.

Now back to the south bay:
All usual spots got their 500lbs of sardine size trout. They hit the usual small spinners and power bait and eggs. I caught a couple of them at Cottonwood Lake and went to Stevens Creek Dam the next day to catch some garden fertilizer. When I got there the fishing looked bleak. The people their said that it was slow one per hour. Well I only had two hours to fish so I dug into my bag of tricks and came up with the secret. Float some power eggs under a tiny thrill bobber . It worked great. In 30 minutes I had my five plus five others that were let go. My peppers thanked me for their food and really started to grow>

Better to fish from shore

The last week of march has been a slow time for trout in the south bay. Fish and game have planted thousands of Cormorant snack sized trout. The Cormorants eat up the plant in about two days. So if you are retired or unemployed you can catch a small limit before the birds get them. The usual power baits or small lures work well right after planting. If you work , SORRY NO FISH.

The east bay is another story. They plant some larger fish so these are not eaten by the Cormorants. If you read the fishing reports, you get the idea that you are going to catch your limit from shore or boat. Well, that is only half right. Maybe from shore but not from a boat.

I have rented boats at San Pablo Dam and Los Vaqueros with very slim success.
San Pablo Dam has little weekday boat bargins and the lake is packed with all sorts of large boats racing up and down the lake. This drives the fish toward shore. I caught two trout in five hours of trolling . Taking a survey of boats and dock workers , I caught more than the average boat by two fish.
The shore anglers did much better. I watched for about twenty minutes and saw three fish over five pounds caught. Forget the boats they are an expensive way to get to the other side to still fish. Just fish from shore.

Los Vaqueros has great boats and great prices, Twenty five bucks for five hours. I fished last thursday for five hours and caught my usual King Salmon . That is right, salmon. They are between four and five pounds and taste fantastic. But it will not last long. This is the last year for them as their life cycle is about to end. By the way if any of you are fishing at Los Vaqueros and happen to catch an Abu Garcia 5000 attached toa custom rod , it belongs to me. A huge fish ripped it out of the holder and into the lake.{ check your drag}

This week it is off to the local pond to fish for that fresh water bone fish the White Sucker.

GONE FISHING