Weather: Sunny, slight breeze, 70's
Water Temp: 57 degrees
Who Went: Phil, Mike, Zenger, Me
I called my cousin Phil to see if he was open this weekend for some fishing. He told me that not only was he open, but also my other cousin Mike, and their friend Zenger! I said, "ok where are we going?" He told me they really wanted to try Yuba for the Pike they keep hearing about. That was good enough reason for me. We got a late start with me making it to Spanish Fork to meet them at 12:00 p.m. From there Zenger hooked on to my boat and we were off! We got to the lake, launched, and started casting around the dam in search of some of these aggressive pike. On Phil and Mike's first cast they both had fish following there lure. They were not sure what kind of fish they were but it got us excited anyway. We worked the rest of the dam with no success so we headed to the other end of the lake toward Painted Rocks. We started casting around some flooded willows but could not entice anything to hit. My cousins were starting to get dissapointed and so we moved and tried an extended rocky point. We started casting and just as our hopes were almost gone, I had one hit on a #5 Mepps firetiger spinner and roll on the surface. It was a pretty large pike and this got all of our excitement back! Zenger was casting an X-Rap Rapala with a blue back and white belly and finally hooked up with one! When he came to the surface we all realized that it was a big pike! We got the net on it and sat there in amazement at the size! 
weigh much more than that! We let him go and continued fishing. We all started getting hits and seeing an occassional follower around the boat! Mike finally landed his first with this dink that looked like he almost became lunch to a bigger pike! If you look close you will see a large laceration on his side from a pike trying to eat him!
We said farewell to this big fella and moved on. We found a cove shortly after where we all started getting hits again and Phil had a good one on but lost it! He redeemed himself shortly after when he hauled in this nice Walleye! Phil catches a Walleye every where I go with him!
Mike ended up landing another nice one, and he seemed to have the hot hand of the day. I was the only one that put up the big goose egg! I had many chances but just couldn't hook up! It was a fun trip with some big fish, and I hope to make it back here soon, as Yuba is a boom and bust type of Lake that is definitely in its boom period right now!
Cari and I had the pleasure of going on a 4 day vacation to Portland, Oregon to stay with our friends, Justin and Stephanie Hunt. We had an unbelievable time while we were there, as it seemed like the good times never stopped. We were going non stop from early morning til midnight everyday trying to fit in as much as we could! One of the days the girls decided to pamper themselves with facials and shopping. This was Hunt and my chance to get in a day of fishing! We woke up and headed towards the Willamette River! The Willamette River is huge, and it runs right through Portland and then meets up with the Columbia River. We launched Hunt's boat literally from downtown. It rained on us all day and this did not help our chances as we planned to bass fish! We tried all morning without a bite. Wondering what we could do to pull something out of this river we saw some guys fishing from the docks. We headed over to see what they were fishing for. They surprised us when they told us Sturgeon! The funny part of the story is that the guy talked with a lisp and continued to tell us that Sturgeon were a dinathor fith over and over! It took some restraint not to laugh and it soon became one of the jokes of the trip! Along with the Mandingo from Tillamook (inside joke)! The guy went on to tell us that he gets bites on average every 20 minutes. That's all it took for us! We were in! Now all we needed was some bait, as they use dead fish or squid to entice these ancient things. We tried to buy some from the guys at the dock, but they were not interested. We then went to some high class seafood restaurant right on the river to see if they would sell us any raw fish! This did not go over to well and we were basically told "this is a restaurant, not a bait shop!" As a last resort we pulled up next to a guided boat just as they were pulling anchor to leave and asked them if they had any bait left they would sell to us. He started throwing coolers full of bait at us! He told us we didn't owe him a thing, but we gave him a 10 spot anyway. It was probably around 30 dollars in bait! Now it was on! We found 75 feet of water just as the guide had informed us to do and then anchored up! We put on a 2 ounce sinker and an octopus hook and loaded it with squid and sardines! Within 3 minutes Hunt had a Sturgeon on! It was quite the fight and I was starting to wonder if our poles were going to hold up against the bend it was giving! 
After a long fight we had landed our first Sturgeon of our lives! It must have been over 3 feet long and it weighed 10 pounds!
We were pretty pumped to say the least, and couldn't wait to get back in the water to catch another one. No more than 10 minutes later Hunt was on again with another one. This one ended up being the smallest of the trip weighing in at only 5 pounds. 
Now I was starting to get jealous, as I really wanted to catch one of these prehistoric dinathor fiths! Just as I was starting to get impatient I finally had a Sturgeon on! It fought me just like a 20 pound catfish would fight, and I just hoped that my under powered 10 pound test would be able to haul this beast in from 85 feet down up to the boat! It ran on me several times before it 
tired out and I was able to get it to the boat. It had to be close to 4 feet long and weighed 11 lbs!
Soon after I was reeling in to do a bait check and told Hunt, I think I might have something on. I pulled in this little catfish that looked just like the bullheads I catch back home in Utah Lake! 
We could have stayed and fished for them all night, but the girls probably would have killed us! We headed for the docks and picked the girls up from downtown. We cruised in the boat and did some sight seeing. It is an unbelievable river and an unreal experience I will never forget! 
He didn't need me to show him cause soon after he had on a really nice bass that came to the surface and was probably around 4 pounds. He almost had it lipped but the fishing gods gave him the cold shoulder and the big boy threw the hook! He was pretty bummed but I assured him there are many more in there just like it! I ended up catching a few more pushing three pounds and Johnny Leech was left with the worst fishing feeling in the world after losing a nice fish! That's the best part about fishing though, as long as you keep at it, there will always be another big boy in your future!
Sunday we woke up and were on the water at 7:00 a.m. We went straight to Middle Fork to try our luck for some early morning Crappie but did not find them. We decided to go back to the sunken trees and muskie hunt. There they were just as the day before, but would not take anything! We did get into some smallmouth and I landed one around 3 pounds. By noon it was 95 degrees and this early in the year we were not used to these kind of temps so we hi tailed it out of there and went home! 
Shortly after I caught one more dink bass and that would be it for the night, or would it?! It was pretty much dark at this point and I should have been off the water a half hour earlier but since I was already there and had to flipper my way back to my launch area anyway, I decided to throw on a topwater spook in perch colors and drag it along as I went! I was just about to reach the shoreline where I load up the tube, in my mind giving up on the topwater, and then Wham! Another 3 pound bass! With a grin on my face I loaded up the tube and went home.
This was Becca's first time fishing in many years so she was pretty excited when she started to catch some fish! She was intrigued at how beautiful they were as she is a big animal lover.
By the time Saturday was over between the two boats we had plenty of fish to eat, and Ponka was a proud fisherman as he shows with this smile.
Sunday morning we went out for a few hours and didn't have quite as good of luck as Saturday. We still managed to put a few in the boat and Danny finally got on the board with his first catch of the trip! You can see how excited fishing is to him by his look in this pic!
