I spent Friday recovering from sore muscles all day from the Thursday Evening bug trip.  I saw some good rain for Saturday and knew they stocked the ponds on Thursday, so perfect timing!

I didn't get out at the opening today, but made it down before 7:30.  the lake in which they stocked was PACKED!  First of all, that was a lot of people for a normal weekend, let alone really rainy day! 

I moved on to Lake 3 and it looked like a pond full of YooHoo...

I moved to Lake 4 and it was the cleanest of the ponds, but there were people fishing in all of the spots that I wanted to fish.  I walked the shore and saw nothing so I moved on.

I finally just decided to just set out a few rods since the rain started to drizzle a little bit harder and the radar was showing some heavy stuff arriving soon.



I go to my truck and look back to see my 2# rod doubled over and saw a huge splash!  Holy crap I'm on a big one!
It definitely wasn't a cat and I was stoked to see the size of this trout since the splash I saw/heard was pretty damn big!

WTF?!?!?!?  Not a trout, but a husky 3+# bass!  Well, on 2# test, that was a bad ass fight!



I went back to the truck after releasing him and threw on my rain jacket since it started to pour.  I turned around to see my tiny rod doubled over and the SI pinned to the eye!

It wasn't too big at all, but even on this micro rod, I knew it was a catfish, and a pretty small one to boot.



I had to retie this leader since he swallowed the hook and as I finished tying the rig, I saw the other rod doubled over and knew it definitely was a much bigger model.  It fought much different than a channel as it stayed at the surface quite a bit and I realized why.  Nice Blue!



It then was instantaneous bites back to back to back... All of the fish were in a 20 square yard spot and bit the minute you cast at it.  Next two were nice Channels...





Followed by another blue!



Then it just got stupid.  I think I caught 9 total cats and 1 bass.  Some of the cats were small and it was raining hard, so I just flicked them off and recast right away.





I ended up with 3 blues which was really cool since I can only remember catching about 10 blues here the last 20 years. 



These guys must have been from a recent plant in October since they were bright and had some great black lines on the anal fins!  I don't remember the black lines there on any of my last ones, so it must have been from a breeding stock they were growing this year.

I realized one of my old coworkers wanted fish and I sent her a message asking if she wanted any catfish.  I released them all to this point, but it was easy fishing... until now.  Of course she said she wanted the catfish and I couldn't get another bite at that point.... Of course...

I saw 3 trout rats walk by and one had a decent Lightning Trout on his stringer so the trout were here but the cats apparently beat them to my bait... or they were still car sick from the trip down from Mt Lassen.  lol

Oh well.  I went home for a Lobster Lunch and went on perimeter patrol from all of the rain.  I reset all of my trout gear since I felt certain reels would be better on some of my other rods and got everything dialed in.  I'm ready for tomorrow!

Quote from: Chris on November 14, 2025, 09:53:43 PMThe little cotter pin will break after a few times taking it off so stock up.

Also a good time to run a file on the blades

I don't have a cotter pin for the prop. I have a locking washer that lays flat and won't be able to bust off, but at least I can check on its condition.

As for the prop, it's younger than the motor and it's edge is still in perfect shape. I'm going to bring it in every 4-5 years to get tuned. My buddy tracks his gas usage and said a good tuning from the shop is a must. I've always done it myself but I've also never had a HP prop before.

I hope all is well down in Florida Chris.

Man, I shouldn't be having the motor feeling all wonky at only a few years old.  I saw something not too long ago about taking off the prop and checking for fishing line.

Well I didn't have fishing line... I actually took off a bunch prior to taking this picture so you get the gist of the issue.  I actually needed needle nose pliers as this grass was some really tough stuff!



I'll probably check more frequently now, but it's always good to get a fresh look what's behind your prop.

I was planning on going out fishing, but my freezer is full of yellows and the thought of fishing for rockfish wasn't exciting for some reason.

Since Tombo was catching the snot out of them, I decided to give it a shot.  I decided on a solo mission because my shoulder is still torn and f@cked up and decided if I was out there by myself, I could take things at my own pace.  My buddies who I usually bug hunt with are much more intense about getting the hoops up fast and I knew that would really mess it up.

My plan was to only fish the inlet until 9:00 pm and just call it whether I get them or not.  I also needed to start clearing out the bait freezer since my fish freezer is now almost full already!  I've had quite the season of harvest this year!

I grabbed 5 hoops (3 were actually the home-made Prehistoric Soul heavy hoops) and the other two regular Promars.  I was thinking that I might need to handle the light ones if the heavy ones were too much for the shoulder.

I get down to the ramp and one side had some NASA guys using remote controlled "Sail Boats" of some weird sort and the other side had someone lip synching with the music blasting while recording it on a drone.  BTW, the music and lyrics were terrible and I was with these NASA people just perplexed and amused at his "Performance".  I decided to launch off the NASA side...



It was flat calm and I was thinking if I wanted to venture out into the ocean or just fish the inlet.



I had prime spot and was the only person out there.  I kept thinking what the hell was I going to do and decided to run to the OB pier and give it a shot.  I know there are usually a lot of people been hitting it lately, but I didn't see a single boat so I made a run.

I placed my 5 nets according to the current hoping to get the smell where I wanted it to go.

Cool picture spot anyway and was hoping I made the right choice.



It was about 40 minutes until dark, so I decided to do some fishing while I waited.  I caught 3 sand bass, but didn't find anything big.



I then saw huge matts of grass and kelp running into my lines and decided to just pull the hoops to get them out of the way of the impending doom.  As I pulled the first hoop while it was still light, I felt something heavy in the net.  Holy sh!t!  20-minute soak and I had 15 bugs in there including 3 legals!  I moved it down 20 yards and redropped.  I decided to start pulling because all of the boats started coming out to the pier and I wanted to make sure I checked all the nets before the scent starts to get everywhere from everyone else's hoops.

The next hoop was a mirror image of the first...

I had my note pad and sharpie that I started keeping track of the bugs.  3 more legals!



Next hoop and 4 legals!  At this point I'm already culling legals and I didn't even get the 5th hoop up yet!



The last hoop and it was loaded also with more legals!  I was looking at my numbers and I was dumbfounded that I had 77 lobster in the first 5 hoops!  I should just go home, but it's only 6:00 PM... and I did have the game on.  lol

Now boats were dropping all over the place, so I decided to just pull right away and put my "Recharge" tube in now since I spent all that time packing them at home!

Holy crap, they are all loaded again!  80% were less than a hair from legal to short roaches and the rest were all legals!  I kept track of all of the ones I was throwing back and decided to just pull them all right after deploying the last one so I could get home at a REALLY reasonable time!



This was insane...  I started pulling after a 20 minute soak and I finally get to one hoop where I saw a monster in it!  4.8# beast in with a bunch of other legals!



I pack it up and head in.  The last set of nets with a 20 minute soak and about 60 other hoops around had some of the lightest amounts in the nets (about 8-12) but I also had a handful of hoops with over 20!  In any case, it was 236 total.  I thought it was a 14 bug a hoop trip average, but I apparently couldn't do math in my head.  The easy part was seeing I kept my 7 and released 18 legals with a dozen more that could have been legal but folded the shell with the gauge so I'm not sure how they treat that.

I got home and saw my wife bought me a McRib which just made the night even better!  What an incredible evening... and I was home by 8:00pm!  That never happens!



Thanks for reading and until tomorrow when I'm back out trout fishing since it's trout weather!

That is a cool visual to grasp what your looking at.  I don't think I've noticed carp like that except in Lake Henshaw quite a few years ago.

Great session Tim and hell of a nice Hali on the soaked bait!  I've gotten a few big legals that way, but it is not as often as I would like it to be. lol

Keep that gear lubed up as the bat fight will be here less than 4 months from now and I expect one of your boys to win this thing!

Doubles and triples?  WTH!?!?  That seems crazy to get them like that!

Well done once again Keith, pretty epic bow fishing if you ask me.  I can't believe they are showing up there like that in November!

Quote from: Tim524 on November 10, 2025, 08:21:52 PMWow, fishing in Antifreeze

That's about what it looked like.

Conundrum.... Fish for the Bruiser Yellows up in LJ?  Or go with the invite to get on the possible last BFT trip of the year?  The BFT hit hard yesterday and most boats were done by 10:00am with limits pretty close to home.

I decided to jump on my buddy's boat and get some tuna.  My wife really wanted tuna over yellowtail any way.

We met at the docks at 4:30am and quickly got 2 scoops of incredible sardine!

We got about 14 miles out and the fog/clouds were starting to crack a little.



The winds were straight from the north at a constant 10-15 with some higher gusts.  Birds were everywhere but the water temp was awfully cool.  We didn't meter anything so continued on our journey.



We finally had a beautiful sky, but couldn't find bait or anything where they were catching them the day before.



Tombo is an offshore king in both skill and intel from a huge circle of anglers.  We stopped at a few big paddies with no one home.

We were fishing within 3 sporties and everyone was doing the same thing and just trolling around and looking for fish.



Then the wind picked up... Like really picked up.  It was blowing 15-20 from the north and made the trip unbearable at time with the short period wind waves and short period swells.

I was a late minute add to the trip, so I said whatever they wanted to do, I'll be good with.  They floated rockfishing, Island Fishing, Running South.....



We decided to troll the spreader for a while, but the winds ripped up paddies and floating strands were everywhere.

Tombo had waves breaking over his gunnels that has never happened before, so they decided to call it and just do the LONG slow drive into the wind and waves home.



They decided to cut behind the islands and see if we saw any yellows, but that North wind was unescabable.



We found enough calm to grab a bite and take a piss without worry of falling overboard.  LOL



At this point it is a straight charge home.  Oh well, just the wrong day to be out there and should have been out yesterday.





The aircraft carrier was loaded with weapons of war... I wonder where it is heading?



Well, it was an expensive boat ride.  I have an interview on Wednesday, but need to find time to make things right and catch something big!

Until next tide!

SKUNKED!

I walked around 4 of the lakes that were stocked and didn't see a single trout, only 1 medium sized ditch pickle.

Lake 3 was muddy.  Lake 4 looked alright, but lots of anglers and no trout seen.  Lakes 6 and 7 looked like they were filled with Mountain Dew!



I'll try again tomorrow...

Quote from: Tim524 on November 07, 2025, 07:23:25 AMBeen dealing with a bad knee for a while and I can't take it anymore. Saw the Surgeon yesterday and he took more X-Rays to confirm my left knee is bone on bone   He said the soonest he could do a full replacement was Christmas Eve    I mentioned I was hoping to have it done between Thanksgiving and Christmas, he looked at his schedule again and said he thinks he can squeeze me in sooner, looks like I'll be spending lots of time with Mongo next month

You really are going to be Colonel Steve Austin! Lee Majors_v2!!!!

Quote from: Tim524 on November 07, 2025, 07:15:52 AMYou are lucky to live so close, that place has served you very well !

I used to mostly refuse to fish them for about 20 years (minus the catfish and carp trips during renting the cabins) until I met some dude that literally gave me a "key" to the lakes.  He said it just randomly in passing, but unlocked the riddle of the puddles and I've been fishing it ever since.

Quote from: sasquatch on November 07, 2025, 06:37:58 AMIf you think getting old sucks now, just wait til you start getting old.

You might be getting your "Senior Citizens Discounts" a bit early, but you don't need to be sounding like one now.  hahaha

I thought I was meeting Jeff (old SCSF guy from the EDC this morning, so I just walked in with a rod and got my permit instead of waiting in line to drive in.  The morning was brisk and the moon was full!



I realized I didn't have his number in my phone and forgot my messenger app wasn't connected to my Latimeria FB page, so there was no way to get a hold of him.

I walked to where I was catching fish first and it was a desert.  I actually saw one being chased by pelicans, but it was so sketched out from trying to be eaten that it was impossible.  I kept casting at a big boil and thought I hooked up!  It was sort of moving....  WTF!?!?

50# braided line someone cut off....



I got a little by little in before I could finally grab the braid and the huge ball of weeds.  Inside was a 2 oz catfish weight and hook, so I at least made up for losing my spoon yesterday.

I tied on one of my spinner flies, a super-secret weapon from the east coast days.  I think Squatch has seen me use them before, but they are super light and making a real cast is near impossible.  Good thing is I only have to cast out about 12 feet to get in the zone.

I found multiple trout now but they were all getting followed and harassed by big bass.  I'm talking 4-6 pound class bass.  The trout were all spooked when out of the blue on one of my blind casts, I think I snag weeds.... Until it starts tearing out line!  Woohoo!  Steelie!



So all is not lost.  I work parts of the next lake for nada and keep looking for Jeff.  I was on my way back when I saw a few trout milling about and made about 20 casts at them.  Out of the blue, one decided it finally wanted to eat it!  This was a nice typical triploid stocker rainbow!



I keep walking and casting when I ran across a lightning trout.  He was boogying, so I couldn't get a real cast at him.  Then as I'm walking, I come across a bunch of people fishing.  I could see a dozen trout swimming in front of them, and they couldn't get them to bite on anything.  Then a saw a decent lightning trout swimming with them and the one guy said "We can't catch them and you got a couple.  See if you could make them bite".

I walked down to the side of them and said I'm sure they won't, but I'll make a few casts for the hell of it...

Well, I was just as surprised as they were when the lightning trout pounced on my spinner fly!  They were pretty confused on what just happened and I landed a decent mid-grade golden ruby!



I had to show them the lure at this point and they all immediately switched to spinners to try and land a few.  I was done and needed to get home to continue the job hunt.  Pinoyfisher was kind enough to send me a position opening in his company, so I'm pretty hopeful something might work out soon.

Well, here is a great picture of the 3 types of trout they stocked for the opener.  I can't believe I got all three in one 2-hour session! (or actually 4 in the last week because of the Cut-bows!)



The most impressive thing about all of it was the quality of meat!  I'm guessing they feed these guys something different because look at the two filets!



Well, I have a Dr appt tomorrow for a previously repaired Sx... getting old sucks.  I still might run out to meet Jeff tomorrow since he actually couldn't make it today.  I have to fast until my appointment at 11:00 so I need to do something so I don't think about food and coffee.

Thanks for reading!

decided to drive in today and see if I could get a whooper or a limit.  The line to get in is still brutal after the stocking.



I played with the idea of trying a new spot, but decided on hitting the recent success spot. I grab my rod with the tiny spoon that I caught the trout on yesterday and my first cast and I'm on!  What a beauty!



It had a huge mouth and then I noticed the cuts!  A Friggin Cut-Bow!  (Rainbow/Cutthroat Hybrid)



I made a few more casts before setting up the worm rods and a small gust of wind caught the spoon on one particular long bomb.  f@cking right into a tree!  Ugh... 2# test snapped and I could see the spoon in the branch for the rest of the morning.  There's no way to get it unless I bring down my 15' shark rod and cast to the branch!

Oh well, I set two inflated crawlers out and started to look around.  I saw plenty of bass, but no trout or lightning trout in particular.  It was quite breezy in the morning and leveled out as the morning went on.

I retied a new penny colored tube jig on to be like one of the trout rats and waited.  Then I saw a beautiful trout slowly swim in front of me.  I stayed up on the walkway and pitched out the tube jig and it gulped it down!  What a stunner!



The fins are just amazing on these last two fish and almost looked wild!   The jaw on this thing was crazy!



If I didn't get another bite today, it would have still been a success. 

About 15 minutes goes by and I'm trying to see what is around the shore.  I then look back and only see one strike indicator dangling from the two rods.  I get back to the rods and my line is slack.  I keep reeling and feel nothing until it was there!  This one was more of the big ugly trout truck type of rainbows!



I kept fishing and had 3 more hits. I was totally hooked up with and screaming drag on TWO fish... and all of a sudden they both spit the hook...  These J-Hooks are starting to annoy me, but I don't have any trebles on me.  I apparently ran out of them and never restocked.  Then I had a big bendo on one of my bait rods, but it never stuck and my worm was MIA.

Just then I saw a Lightning trout swimming back and forth in front of me.  Every time I casted the tube jig, it bolted like lightning out of there.  It was really skittish from the birds and fishermen I would assume.  As I casted to it the 12th time, i saw something shoot from the left and grab the tube!  f@ck, not the lightning trout, but a smaller Cut-Bow!  Another one with red "cuts" on the gills!



I was pretty sure I was going to end up with these 4 since things got awfully quiet.  the only fish I saw were big bass and I started casting my bass gear trying to get one to go.  I was ready to call it after texting Dave and Squatch when I noticed a "tick" in my line as the strike indicator slowly dropped.  Just as I was grabbing the rod, the line was tight and fish on!

Now there were a bunch of people around, so stealth was key (even though I'm sure everyone on the lake saw me and I wasn't as stealthy as I liked to believe)

#5




It was the perfect time to leave as I dropped my stringer on the tailgate for one final parting shot.



I stopped at my good bass spot on the way out, but no one was home or they didn't want to cooperate.

I got home and cleaned/Vacuum Sealed all of the fillets.  I need about 4 more to get a full smoker run going!



Thanks for reading!  I was going to go ocean fishing, but those king tides scared me off.  It's also nice only having to travel a 1/2 miles "to and fro" from a fishing trip.  I might even be back tomorrow!