Topics

1

Freshwater Shore Fishing Reports / 2-27 Dixon trout report

« on: February 27, 2015, 10:46:01 AM »

Man school is kicking my ass and I've done a lot more lurking than posting around here.

Anyway, I made it out to Lake Dixon today with a buddy to target some trout. Found a spot from the shore and proceeded to throw everything I had at them. It was a pretty frustrating day to say the least. I lost about 5 fish that were hooked up, and had another 3-4 fish swallow the bait and spit it out instantly. Ended up with 2 fish, the biggest weighing in at a solid 2.5 pounds.

My first hook up of the day was on a "secret lure". This trout was easily my PB, but somehow shook the bait. My two fish were caught on my "secret bait" and a white mini jig.

Good luck to anybody heading out there this weekend. They were really keyed in on pinks and whites but very finicky as well. I had about 12 or so fish look at my bait and swim off. I was using 2# line but no scent....maybe i should bring some for next time.

ˇlíneas apretadas!

Brian

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Salt Water Shore Fishing Reports / 1/12 Back at it

« on: January 14, 2015, 07:13:24 AM »

Sorry I haven't been too active on the boards lately. I took a temporary vacation from Facebook too so many of you who are used to my fishing reports on there must be deprived lol

I just got into SDSU after transferring from a community college so I've been busy as hell since the closing of last semester up until now. I've done some fishing in between but unfortunately not as much as I'd like. It looks like this semester will be a tough one so my fishing trips will be limited once again.


Anyway.....enough of that.

Bought my license a few days ago and decided to hit the surf in the am. The tide was super low and there was some decent structure scattered up and down the coast. The area we hit was looking great but the fishing was nothing to write home about. I chucked the LC FM 110 around and about an hour in hooked up with this guy, my first of 2015!



As we work the beach we both notice a few things: No bait, no birds, no fish. It was rather slow but I knew there was a butt hiding in the shallows somewhere.

Finally, I found him (assuming it was a "him" because I believe that the females stay deeper this time of the year).




After that we tosse the LC around some more for no luck. Definitely felt good to get back out in the surf!

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Freshwater Shore Fishing Reports / 11/26 - No massacre but got one at Dixon

« on: November 26, 2014, 02:33:36 PM »

Woke my GF up at 3:30 and arrived at the gate by 4 am. The goal was to be the first one to the "secret spot" and put her on one fish. That's it. Just one lousy fish. I'm the first one in line and some other guy pulls in behind me. And then some other (insert expletive here) drives in front of us and cuts us off!!!!! 

I flickered my high beams a few times and he just sat there. Oh well. What am I gonna do? Confront the guy in front of his 10 year old kid and start an argument at 4 am? I let it slide. It's only fishing anyway, he probably wanted to put his kid on a trout as badly as I wanted to put my girl on one.

The gate opens, we buy our ticket, and the guy ahead of me beats us to the spot I wanted. Figures.

We fish a different spot and I manage one trout. Girlfriend get's skunked. No biggie. We both had an awesome time and I hope the guy who cut us off steps in a big pile of dog crap later on. 




On a side note, my girlfriend lost 3 Thomas Buoyant's and countless mini jigs. She can actually cast quite well and knows how to fish.....but has a bad habit of forgetting to wind in her lure when she see's something "cool", such as a swan that landed on the lake today. She goes to take a pic and her bait drops to the bottom and naturally gets snagged. Oh well. Thank god I work at a tackle shop and get a little discount.

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Salt Water Shore Fishing Reports / 11/22 Conditions Report

« on: November 23, 2014, 07:46:15 AM »

Wasn't going to post this because it isn't really a report...but hopefully it can save somebody a trip to the beach.

Met up with a buddy yesterday to fish for halibut. There was a huge tide swing but we wanted to give it a shot. TONS of kelp and grass in the water. Made 4 casts with the lucky craft.

Kelp.
Grass.
Kelp.
Grass.

Went to the bay and got some spotties.


Don't waste your time at the surf (at least from TP to the border). Get some trout instead or hit up the bay. 3" swimbaits was the winner. Good luck.

5

Freshwater Shore Fishing Reports / 11/20 - Dixon Trout Massacre

« on: November 20, 2014, 01:45:44 PM »

Fished Dixon this morning with my buddy from work. The gate opens at 6, I got there at 4 and there were already a few people ahead of me. By the time the gates opened there were 25+ cars in line. My buddy holds our spot and I buy the permits...

I get to the spot and make a cast and hook up. Land him and make another cast....another fish on! This time my lure got wrapped around the net pretty bad and I manage to get most of it untangled in time to help my buddy land his fish. This goes on for the next hour until I get my limit of five. Within this magical hour we both farm at least 5 fish. My buddy had 3 fish landed at this point so we keep on fishing. I hook into a decent fish and fight it for a minute or so and then it takes me into some vegetation and breaks me off. My lucky lure is stuck in his mouth so if you catch him please return my bait 

Overall it was a great day. I'm a bit sleepy and it was pretty cold but the fishing was amazing!






My lucky bait was a 1/6 oz. TB in Red and Gold. That bait was absolutely killing it. Even after I lost it I tied on the same bait in a 1/4oz. size and caught fish on that although it sunk faster than I liked. We also caught them on the mini jig (whites and then pinks) along with Roostertails and Trout Worms (pink) dropshotted.

Good luck to anybody who gets out there. As for me, well I have a bunch of school work to catch up on so I'll be doing that until my next fishing trip.

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Salt Water Shore Fishing Reports / Low tide bats - 11/9

« on: November 10, 2014, 06:20:18 AM »

Headed to the bay after work with some coworkers. I was the only one fishing and quickly set up my gear.

Ingredients:

 40# mono
1 Carolina rig
(1) 3 oz. egg sinker
(1) Owner 7/0 Aki Twist hook

I've been having a lot of luck with this hook lately. It's great for pinning on whole squid and medium to smaller sized mac heads.

Right away I had a nice pick up that ripped line for a good 5 seconds. Of course I was setting up everything and didn't get to my rod on time. Had a few more pick ups and lost a lot of bait to smaller mystery fish. Most likely bass.

Finally, I had something pick up and rip line. A smaller sized bat ray...but I'll take it!



A bit later a larger model came out to play:




It felt good to pull on some bigger creatures. Can't wait to do it again. Good luck out there!

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Saltwater Boat Fishing Reports / Bugging the full moon 11-6-2014

« on: November 07, 2014, 12:31:03 PM »

Had the privilege of hoop netting aboard Latimeria's boat the other night.

Soon after launching I realized how awesome the conditions were: A beautiful full moon was rising and greeted us as we made our way to the hooping grounds. The was barely any wind, and very few people on the water. The current was a bit strong but we worked through it. The only negative thing about the night was the sea lions....but I'll talk about them later 

The lobster didn't show any type of patterns. This is only the second time I've ever done it from a boat and don't know the habits of these spiny creatures. Some were caught shallow, and some deep. One round we would have a bunch while the next pull produced few. I'm sure that if I kept an accurate hoop netting log book like I do for fishing that I would start to see some patterns...

Eventually it seemed like we were able to maneuver our nets to productive areas based on where we were getting the most luck and we picked away at them.

Wish I kept track of our totals but we caught a ton of shorts in proportion to the legals we got. Other critters included an almost legal halibut, an octopus, a bunch of sting rays, some assorted crabs, and a rock 

The sea lions were absolutely infuriating. There were times when they were around but didn't seem to affect the catching, but more often than not they were in the way wreaking havoc. Had they not been around, I'm very confident that our numbers would have been much higher.

During the soaks we had a few minutes to fish and talk about fishing. I managed a few spotties and Tom got rocked by something big. All in all I had an excellent time even with the sea lions around. It was great to take a break from work and school and do something different.

I had an excellent time fishing with you Tom, hope we can do it again sometimes. I learnt a lot and am glad that we were able to get on some bugs!

Totals for the night: 6 legals and a crab

8

Outdoor Activities / Joshua Tree National Forest

« on: November 06, 2014, 07:25:28 AM »

Long story short: My GF bought us vouchers for a 3/4 day trip out of Daveys Locker in Newport. The weather was supposed to be crap so we decided to cancel and go on a mini road trip instead. Turns out to be a good decision. We had an awesome time and after speaking with the landing the next day it looks like the boat went out and turned around due to harsh weather 



The GF









This next one was taken at a place in Joshua Tree called "Keys View". We did a lot of hiking that day and were glad that we could simply drive up to the top. If I remember correctly, the summit was at an elevation of around one mile. It was cold and windy here but well worth the view.




If you ever have time to go to Joshua Tree I highly recommend it. Not much to do outside of the park but it is relatively close to SD and makes for a good one day road trip. Entrance is $15 or so. Bring food, plenty of water, and a good camera.

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Fishing Talk / Ghost Shrimp

« on: October 30, 2014, 04:39:30 PM »

I have two questions:

1) Just out of curiosity, does anybody know if the ghost shrimp is the same thing as a sand shrimp that they use in Northern California and Oregon?

2) What is the best hook to use and rigging method for this bait?

Before the end of the year I would like to check off a few more species from my "life list" and I think using ghost shrimp will be the quickest way to do this. Thanks!

10

Fishing Talk / In pursuit of Salmon

« on: October 29, 2014, 07:37:42 AM »

Lately (the last 6 months or so), I have been really interested in salmon. I would love to catch one but have limited funds and short windows of opportunity since my college classes take up most of my time.

I was wondering if anybody here had suggestions or experience when it comes to salmon fishing, particularly here in California.

Guides are expensive so I would like to do this from the shore, if at all possible. Rules seem very strict as well along with when the season is open and what species of salmon can be targeted. I only plan on CPR and would ideally like to target fresh fish who haven't started the whole spawning thing yet.

Thanks for any advice!

11

Freshwater Shore Fishing Reports / 10/23 Cuyamaca Report

« on: October 23, 2014, 03:02:18 PM »

Got to the lake at 6 am. It was freezing out. So cold that i couldn't move my fingers to tie a knot  Laughing

I have been looking forward to this trip all week since I've been so busy with work and school. Normally I have all of my gear and tackle packed and ready the night before. This was not the case this time around. Get to my spot and realized that I forgot some essentials in my truck: Net, stringer, and a few other little things...

Tried a few different spots without any luck. Saw a few guys catching but it seemed pretty slow. I make one final move to the dike (never fished this side of the lake before) and was rewarded with a decent sized trout. In my rush to the lake I forgot my net in my truck....fortunately a man walking by just as I hooked up went down on the rocks and netted my fish for me. What an awesome dude. I hope he got his limits today.

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Saltwater Boat Fishing Reports / Limits. Limits for all. 10-16 on The San Diego

« on: October 17, 2014, 09:39:35 AM »

Jumped on another 3/4 trip yesterday. Man this season has been expensive!!

I'll keep this short and let the pictures and video do the talking.

Fish were biting the dropper loop and some were caught on the yo-yo. A few of us figured out that fly lining a sardine with a 3/4 oz. egg sinker was the ticket when there was a lull in the action. I felt like I was fishing for YFT....let that sardine soak. Some of my hook ups were 100 yards from the boat.

The boat limited out (Mexican limits). No huge fish but still decent quality. I won't complain. I'm sore as hell right now. We left the fish biting and that's all that matters.

For those who like fish porn videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qsoq7J73ViY&list=UUR0eb0kEvSvZ-OIDaUCLp-g

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Salt Water Shore Fishing Reports / 9/28-Another fish (ray) story

« on: September 28, 2014, 11:50:30 PM »

Fished from the rocks tonight while some buddies dove for lobsters. Hooked into a hefty bat ray at around 8:01. Fought him for about 23 minutes.

I was topped off with 85 yards of 50 pound mono. He stripped that off quickly and took a decent chunk of my 65# spectra off too. It's such a relief when your alberto knot holds when you are doubled over and maxed out at 19+ pounds of drag (buttoned down). Played tug of war with him for a little bit but eventually he took me to some structure and shredded up the 50 pound mono. Pop. Off he went.

Another big bat ray got away. Oh well.


I normally fish them with 40# but went a little heavier tonight knowing I'd be in a new AO with lot's of structure. Next time I fish this area I will rock an 80# shock leader. It just might hold up if I get extremely lucky. Not sure if that's over kill or not. Opinions? And thanks for reading.

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Saltwater Personal Craft Fishing Reports / 9-23 Tube Report (MB)

« on: September 23, 2014, 07:22:44 PM »

Hit MB this morning with faster u fool. It's been a looooooooong time since I've had my float tube out. Surprised it still floats  .

Time: 0642-0833
Weather

Wind: NE at 0-5 mph, 66 Degrees(F) Mostly Cloudy and Dry, Barometer Unknown
Sunrise: 6:37 am Sunset: 6:44 pm
New Moon, 0% illuminated
3rd Quarter Moon a week ago, 1st Quarter Moon in one week
Moonrise: 6:06 am Moonset: 6:25 pm



The scientist in my likes to keep a detailed log of all my fishing trips. I started off logging everything and then got lazy....now I'm back at it.


Anyway, as of recently I've had an insane desire to catch halibut....and nothing but halibut. I want to be a halibut catching master on artificial lures. So, for the entire day today I drop shotted a few different baits. Chris on the other hand, tore it up on spinnerbaits and the 'bama rig. I managed 3-4 good sized spotties on the 7" bait I was drop shotting. My fish were all about 16" while Chris caught a bunch of fish....some small, a lot decent, some big.


Funny thing is: He wasn't targeting halibut but still caught one. I was targeting halibut, and didn't catch one. Noted, and recorded in my log book. Interesting how things work out sometimes.


The one pic I took today:

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Saltwater Boat Fishing Reports / Aboard The San Diego 9-18-14 (second video added)

« on: September 19, 2014, 10:10:11 AM »

Birthday present to myself. Already got BFT, YFT, and plenty of yellowtail this year. Wanted to catch a dorado or a skipjack (never caught either before, but I want to add them to the list). Didn't get either but the boat did, so that's still cool.

The day started off really slow. Rough seas, sea sick passengers (but not this guy  ) and a cloudy sky. Fished US waters northwest of SD, hitting paddies and trolling around forever. Eventually (forget the time, probably around 2), hit a really good piece of kelp and it went WFO. I've seen it better before but considering the first 3/4 of the day was extremely slow, the fishing was excellent  .

Most fish were caught on live bait (including my biggest of the day). I also got one on the popper and had a few others boil on it....absolutely amazing. Two other guys were throwing poppers and irons and did a great job on the fish. I had my GoPro with me (yea, I was that guy...but I don't care  . Got some cool footage on it that I will upload soon.

All in all, a great day on the water. Tons of tangles but hey, that's part of fishing on the sport boats.

Here's a picture and the first of two videos that I will load.

First video: Raw footage of blood, tangles, and a few gaff shots:

http://youtu.be/bCxXasCmmSI?list=UUR0eb0kEvSvZ-OIDaUCLp-g

Popper video:

http://youtu.be/z7o0spxHBnA

It's all about the angle