Man v. Trout

November Brown

Had a chance to get out a fish a while today. The flows are way down, pretty close to winter flows in town here. Today might have been one of the last days on the river this year for me, unless I get out and drift. Its time to dust off the Pyramid gear and chase down a toad.

Back at it

Working out of town has seriously cut into my fishing. I used to be able to sneak off after work or sneak out before. I did get out for a bit today and had a great time. I wasn't expecting too much because the water temps are down and the local reports are slow. I didn't see a lot of brown activity like there has been in the past months but the bo's have quite the voracious appetite right now.

Getting cold

It was 30 degrees when I rolled out of bed this morning before the sun came up. I fished the last 2 nights in a row and the water temps have dropped quite a bit. The fish aren't in the same places they have been for the last 2 months but when you hook one there's a good chance it might show you your backing. One from last night.

Cold and Rainy

Had a little to much to drink last night and almost didn't fish today. It was cloudy, cold, and raining all day which is a big change from how things have been. The cold weather got the fish moving and they are definitely bulking up for winter. I was finally able to get this brown in the net after snapping off and pulling the hook out of three others that were all bigger than this one.

Fat Lip/Brown

Snuck out this morning before the sun came up and stuck some nice fish. I hooked the fish below and had to go in after him because he ran down stream and slipped under a cut bank. I filled up the waders twice and busted my lip on the net, now I know how a fish feels.

Smokey

I was out before it even got light out this morning and saw some huge fish. I crossed the river in the dark and started to head up stream when about 10 feet in front of me the water exploded. My first thought was that I spooked a beaver, but then I saw the shadow and the wake of a brown trout that possibly eats beavers. It was one of those fish you hear about but never see, most likely in the 10-12 pound range. Never the less I scared the crap out of him but it was pretty cool to see. The first hour of the day I had lots of interest in the streamer but only managed to land 1 rainbow. The indicator was kind to me today, but no browns.

San Diego Surf Fishing

I spent the last 7 days down in San Diego and had a chance to do a little surf fishing. It took a couple of days to get the technique figured out, and after visiting the local tackle shop, I finally found the fish. The locals down there like to use sand crabs that you can dig up right on the beach. After 3 days of throwing out sand crabs we only managed to catch surf perch. If and when I dunk bait I like to use the stuff that stinks to call the fish in. We picked up some frozen squid and some crazy lug worm creatures that smelled like bigfoot's nuts. The technique was to have a size 3 pyramid weight down at the bottom with two hooks above that all tied to a swivel. I liked to run the lug worm on top and the squid on the bottom. On the 4th day the conditions were perfect and we managed to find a little ocean sea life diversity. Two times that day I had double hook ups. The first was a yellow fin corbina and a surf perch and the second was two sting rays. The two sting rays were different species and I didn't see the stinger on the big one so I wasn't careful with the smaller and he stabbed me in the hand.

The sting ray that stuck me.

This is what some other fisherman was calling a guitar fish, it looked like a cross between a shark and a ray.

This was the fish that the guys from shore were after, it's the yellow fin corbina.

These were the cool leopard sharks that I was after, they were all about this size like they had just hatched not long ago. I saw a guy land one of these 8 years back that was almost 6 feet long.

These are the little surf perch we caught by the dozens.

Here's my wife with a nice little shark.

Still Here!

It's been a while since the last post, I have been out some but not much worth posting. Made it out with the Z-man tonight and stuck this nice brown on the last cast.

100 degrees

Not much action to report this weekend. It was 100 degrees in town which means you have to fish early in the morning or after the sun has gone behind the mountain. I decided to beat the heat and head up to the high sierras to see if I could catch a fish or two, turned out to be just a fish. The river was a little slow this morning as well, however I did manage to land a bunch of small ones

PM Bite

Snuck out after work today and fished with buddy of mine I have been trying to hit the water with for almost 2 years now. He's one of those guys that knows how to catch trout you want to get out with to see how he's been doing it all these years. Turns out he runs a rig I have never thought of trying before, and he catches a lot of big fish doing it. No matter how much you think you know about fishing a particular system there's always someone who can teach you something. One that fell for an indo rig today...

Dry Fly Action

Had a short day at work so I snuck out to the big river to see if any fish were looking up, turns out they were. The dry dropper rig was throwing me off so I went with a solo dry and had some success. Fish were taking dries as long as the sun was on the water, but it didn't stay out for long. After a while the indicator was the ticket, it was nice to have some top water action while it lasted.

Last Trip to Pyramid

I took one last trip out to Pyramid for the season to try out my platform chair, I don't know why I fished from a ladder for so long. The weather was calling for partly cloudy skies with some descent wind so I thought there might be some good fishing. When I pulled up to the lake there wasn't a single fisherman around. Apparently I didn't get the memo that all the other fishermen did, saying that there were no fish near shore. I only managed to run across 4 or 5 guys on the whole west side of the lake and didn't see a cruiser amongst 5 beaches, the poor pelicans couldn't even turn up a fish. I seem to remember 4 or 5 years ago when the spawn would start in April and last into June before the cruisers headed back into deep water, it's like any more the spawn lasts about 3 weeks. I'm beginning to wonder if the Pilot Peak strain they starting putting in the lake back in 2006 don't have different mannerisms than their Summit strain counterparts. I have noticed a lot more fish breaking the surface this year than years past. One from yesterday....

Opening day

The rest of the waterways in the Sierras opened today and they were calling when I woke up. I had a choice today, climb back up on my roof and keep laying comp or go catch some trout. I'm glad I didn't go up on the roof.

Little Truckee

Decided to head over to the Little Truckee on Saturday for some combat fishing. That poor river never gets a break and should go back to being closed until the season opener. Any how, I wanted to try go after any browns that might be in sucking up rainbow eggs. I have had pretty good luck this time of year getting some nice browns to move but I didn't see any yesterday. I was lucky enough to get 2 nice bows amongst the 15 other guys I ran across.