Back in So. Cal

Fishing Time: 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM

Weather:  Warm, slight breeze, T-70s

Moon Phase: New Moon

Location: El Capitan Reservoir

Best Bait:  Live shiner on a size 2 mosquito hook with 1/4-ounce split shot sinker 2 ft above the hook

Who Went: Dunc

More work travel means more new fishing adventures and this time it’s San Diego.  I will be here for the next three months and although I will be working 6 days a week, that leaves one day a week, plus some possible evenings to fish.  My plan is to fish the bay for spotted bay bass and hopefully some other species.  I’m not too familiar with the ocean, so who knows what I may find.  However, my big plans are to hit the inland lakes on my days off, in search of some of the monster largemouth bass that San Diego County offers. 

My boat didn’t make this trip, at least for now, but I may be able to bring it back after Christmas. For now, I’m armed with my float tube and flippers.  On my first day off, I spent the morning getting my bearings, buying a fishing license and live bait at the East County Bait and Tackle shop near El Cajon, California, before making my way to El Capitan Reservoir.  They didn’t accept my debit card at the gate, so it was back to El Cajon to hit the ATM.  I arrived at the lake about 9:30 AM and began setting up my float tube, equipped with my fish finder and live bait bucket.  This took another hour and the day was passing by. 

My plan of attack was to hit an underwater ridge that I fished in my boat last spring that I know holds some big bass, but unfortunately, I couldn’t flip my way over there due to a couple bad circumstances.  First, I had to travel across the large lake in my float tube and the recreational skiers were out in full force, which scared me a bit trying to get across the lake.  The second and most important reason is my float tube was losing air!  It’s a slow leak, but the thought of being in the middle of the lake and sinking was too much to bear.  I don’t think it’s a hole in the tube, and my guess is the leak is coming from the valve where you put air in.  Either way I have some troubleshooting to do.  For now, I was stuck to the closest shoreline where I had easy access to more air reserves. 

I started with a live minnow pinned to a size 2 mosquito hook made by Owner, with a ¼- ounce split shot weight approximately 2 ft above the hook, slowly dragging it along the bottom in 15-25 feet of water trying to keep the minnow close to the bottom, but not too close to avoid snagging.  For the first 200 yards my spirits were running low as it seemed there were no fish in the area, but the next 200 yards looked a bit fishier.  My first bite came along a rocky shoreline with submerged brush in approximately 18 feet of water.  This bass had some fight in him, and I started thinking that I may have caught the monster on the first bite of my trip, but it turned out to be a feisty 2.5-pounder.  Still a nice bass and a fun fight on a halfway deflated float tube! 

I continued fishing the point and it was definitely a fishy area as I landed another 2-pound bass shortly after.  By now I was literally sinking and decided I better hit the shoreline for more air.  So annoying.  This issue has to get fixed!

With fresh air in the tube I made my way back to the rocky point and caught a couple more feisty yet small bass.  I didn’t land any monsters on this trip, but it was a good start with 4 fish landed, a couple more that popped off near my tube, and a few additional bites with no hook ups.  I’m excited to hit this lake again with hopes of making the trek across the lake to the underwater ridge, or pounding that rocky point in search of that double-digit bass.  It should be fun the next few months, so stay tuned…

More Travel and More Fishing

Fishing Time: Evenings of October 1-3, 2017

Weather: Partly Cloudy, calm, T-70s

Moon Phase:  90% Moon

Location:  San Diego Bay (Shelter Island)

Best Bait:  Speckled white grub (1/4 oz jighead)

Who Went:  Dunc

It looks like I’m going to be spending time this fall and winter working in sunny San Diego.  It’s a rough job right on the San Diego Bay.  Try not to feel bad for me.  I had to travel out there for a quick 2-day trip and of course I brought my fishing rod along for the ride.

I spent a couple evenings fishing Shelter Island throwing grubs off the rocks.  I caught quite a few spotted bay bass and may I say… these fish pack a punch!  There not very big, but they make freshwater fish look like pansies.  A half-pound spotted bay bass will actually pull some serious drag.  Gotta love the ocean.  Hopefully if I spend some more time here I can get into a few more species, or better yet, find someone with a boat willing to take me out on the big pond in search of some real ocean fish.

Fall is in the Air

Fishing Time: Evenings of September 14-17, 2017

Weather: Overcast, windy, T-50s

Moon Phase:  8% Moon

Location: Hams Fork River, Wyoming

Best Bait: Blue winged olive (nymphing)

Who Went:  Dunc

I had a job in Kemmerer, Wyoming, so I packed the fly rod and got lost on the Hams Fork River every night after work.  It was extremely tough fishing and the most frustrating part was that the river looked so good!  Every bend looked fishy, the flows were perfect, but the fish didn’t seem to be around.  I talked to locals who tell me it’s been unseasonably warm and they are all packed in deep holes trying to stay cool.  That may be true because I didn’t see any fish and worked extremely hard for only a few bites.  Either way, the river was gorgeous, and it was a great way to spend the evenings while away from my family. 

I also found an awesome deer shed on my job site.  I gave it to a coworker that was stoked to take it home and show his boy. 

Not many fish were caught for my efforts, but I enjoyed getting lost in Wyoming where I seemed to be the only fisherman on the river all week.  You can’t find that many places anymore and I cherished every moment.  

Walleye for Dinner

Fishing Time:  7:30 to 2:00 PM

Weather: Sunny, slight breeze, T-80s

Moon Phase: 68% Moon

Location:  Starvation Reservoir

Water Temp: 69 Degrees

Best Bait: Spinner rig and drifting jig with worm near bottom

Who Went: Bobber John, Dunc

Bobber John and I made a trip up to Starvation Reservoir to see if we could put a few walleyes in my boat.  It’s never an easy task to catch walleye, but if any lake can produce some walleye it's Starvation.  We arrive a little later than we wanted at 7:30, but the wind was calm and the weather was beautiful.

We started in Saleratus Bay running spinner rigs near bottom in 15-25 ft of water.  We didn’t see many fish on the fish finder and within a half hour we decided to move.
  

We fished a rocky bay across from the boat ramp and it produced a few smallies, but nothing big.  After fishing the bay, we moved again over to Rabbit Gulch and put the spinner rigs down around 20-30 ft and started dragging.

After about 20 minutes and a few possible light bites, I saw my rod double over and I did my best to give it the walleye sweep.  It worked out and I had the first walleye of the day on the end of my line.  It was a nice walleye and got us excited to work the same area over again. 

We continued with spinner rigs and felt like we missed a few bites, so we switched techniques to drifting a jig tipped with a worm through the same area trying to keep it right near the bottom.  It worked out well and we put another 8 or so walleye in the boat.  They were small, but they were still walleye, and we were excited to have something to fillet. 

Our three dozen worms went quick with the walleye and smallies biting often.  We headed to the fish cleaning station and did the best we could to fillet the little cigar walleye and one big one.  Bobber John took all the meat from the small walleye and one smallie we kept while I took the fillets from the big walleye.  It made for a yummy Sunday dinner paired with some steamed veggies!

Crawdad Feast

Fishing Time: 10:30 AM to 1:30 PM

Weather: Sunny, clear, breezy, T-90s

Moon Phase: 41% Moon

Location: Strawberry Reservoir

Best Bait: String tied to chicken leg

Who Went: Devin, Dayton, Dunc

My Wife and daughter joined the other females in the family for a “women’s getaway” to the Homestead this weekend, so while the girls were away the boys went and played.  I mentioned to them that it was the right time of year to catch crawdads from the docks at Strawberry and they responded by screaming and jumping around the house.  I took that as a yes, they wanted to go.

 

We left the rods at home to keep it simple.  This is something I have learned as a dad that keeps the boys happy and me out of the looney bin.  Too many options does not work with an 8 and 6 year old.  We stopped at the Heber supermarket on the drive up to buy some chicken (crawdad bait) and get some breakfast, and Devin picked out the biggest donut I have ever seen.  

We arrived to “Da Berry” at about 10:30 AM and first went to the docks by the marina where the boats launch, only to find It’s now posted “no crawdad fishing”.  We walked over to the private docks and sure enough, we found crawdads everywhere. 

I tied some string to a couple chicken legs, handed them to the boys, gave them a bucket and a net, and they were all set!  I pulled out my lawn chair, turned on Pandora, and kicked back while the boys filled the bucket with crawdads.  

After about an hour I noticed the bucket was getting full.  I had the boys bring the bucket over and I took the tails off the crawdads and put them on ice.  Then the boys went back at it for round two.  After another hour, we had more tails on ice.  

We hit the marina store to wash up and get a snack for the ride home.  On our way, we called Papa to let him know we were bringing home a crawdad feast!  As Papa usually does, he told us he would buy some more yummy fixings to go with the crawdads and see us at the house.

 
 Nothing like a good ole fashion Louisiana fish boil.  Ingredients included; crawdads, shrimp, onions, lemon, red potatoes, corn on the cob, and spicy sausage.  All of it boiled up using Zataran’s crawdad, shrimp, and crab boil with some Louisiana hot sauce to season it up just right.  Made for a spicy treat that the whole neighborhood enjoyed!

Boiling Wipers at Willard Bay

Fishing Time: 6:30 to 11:00 AM

Weather:  Hot, calm, clear, T-100

Moon Phase: 50% Moon

Location: Willard Bay

Best Bait: chartreuse/pink/silver crankbaits

Who Went: Bobber John, Dunc

The scorching summer temperatures are in full effect and this year has been well above average on the heat scale.  With temperatures forecasted to reach 100 degrees, we knew we had to get on the lake as early as possible to beat the heat.  The gates at Willard Bay open at 6 AM and a few minutes after Bobber John launched his boat into calm conditions while I parked his Jeep in the lonesome parking lot.

We motored over to the northeast corner of the reservoir and immediately noticed some surface action.  I told Bobber I thought it could possibly be wipers boiling, but was unsure.  We motored over to check it out and sure enough, it was a group of wipers chasing shad on the surface.  We hurried to tie on the first crankbait we found in our tackle box and quickly began casting and hooking up with some hard fighting, good sized wipers.  One boil would submerge and another would pop up a hundred feet away.  We chased these boils for close to an hour and caught quite a few wipers before it all died off and the surface went calm for good.  It was a blast while it lasted. 

We transitioned into trolling but unfortunately were unsuccessful.  After 2 hours of trolling with no hits, no wind, and a hot sun beating down on us, we called it quits for the day and headed to the fish cleaning station to fillet some wipers and head for home.  Wipers are so fun to catch, but trolling Willard can be aggravating, boring, bug infested, and brutally hot.  Luckily, we were able to find some wiper boils early to make the trip a success.

Spring Catfish at Utah Lake

Fishing Time: 6:00 to 8:00 pM

Weather: Breezy, clear, T-70s

Moon Phase: 93% Moon

Location:  Utah Lake

Best Bait:  Worm 3' underneath a bobber

Who Went: John Schuler, Anthony Schuler, Devin Duncan, Dunc

I took Devin down to Utah Lake to our favorite honey hole to see if anything was biting yet at Utah Lake.  A last-minute phone call added Bobber John and his 3-year-old son Anthony to the party.  On arrival, I was amazed at the water level.  I haven’t seen Utah Lake that high in quite a few years and there is still a ton of snow in the mountains.  Hopefully it reaches full pool this year.

We started fishing and thought we may be a bit early in the year until Devin found the catfish honey hole.  He began casting near some submerged bush and pulled out a few nice channel catfish.  Then we helped Anthony cast into the honey hole and he added a couple fish to the mix.  We must have fished it out though as no more fish came from that spot the rest of the night.  

We moved around quite a bit with little luck.  John caught a couple more channel catfish, but that was about it.  I tried for bass, but nothing was doing.  I took Devin over to an area where there were a bunch of carp swimming around.  Devin has been wanting to catch a carp for a while now.  He made a nice cast out to carp country and within a few minutes his bobber disappeared.  I yelled at him to set the hook!  Soon he had a battle on his hands.  The big fish bent his little rod in half and took him left and right diving deep to the bottom.  I was cheering him on when the fish decided he wanted nothing to do with Devin and made a hard run and snapped his line.  My heart sank and I felt for him.  We told him it must have been the biggest fish in the lake.  He’s still talking about it. 

Not our best trip to the honey hole, but can’t complain about 5-6 channel cats and a break off on the biggest fish in the lake.  Devin is becoming quite the fisherman and makes me more proud every time I take him.