Random fishing...

I planned to get on the water at the crack of dawn thinking I would be off early. Well, I was there early but you know how goes for getting off on time. 11 hours later I pulled away from the ramp. I could have fished a little longer if they weren't going to lock me in..Time flys by and gets away from me when i'm fishing. My wife learned that really early on and doesn't go often. My close fishing friends know that and plan on it. Some fishing partners just didn't have the drive to do it, and we dont fish often. Don't tell me you have dinner plans at 6 after we've launched becouse your probably not making those plans unless you fdrove your self.  I just can't get enough and can not wait till the next day. The fishing on this day ws steady. Lots of small fish in the 18-20" class with a couple of decent fish here and there to keep it interesting. All in all a nice day on the water.

I almost never plug gear on my blog. There are tons of gear reviews on just about every site these days days. I can't and don't spend 700-900 bucks on fly rods.  I'm way to rough on my gear to be dropping that kind of coin.  I will spend the money on reels but rods just dont have the life a reel does. 350 is my cap and thats still a lot of money. I have been eye balling one company for a while and was looking forward to seeing there rods and reels at the show. Praticularly the Xa 8wt from Allen Fly Fishing. I picked one up and it felt nice. All the hardware looked more than satisfactory and the finish was very clean. Nice cork and it didn't look like they cut corners. Thought about it for a minute and decided to make the purchase. I cast that rod for 8 hours with 28ft of T14 and large flies the next day and was really impressed with the crisp load and feel of it right out of the gate.  My conclusion is there are still good deals in fly fishing gear and it was worth every penny.  I'll see how it holds up on some tougher fishing soon but my first impressions were very good. If your looking for a rod in the 250.00 dollar range I really recommend you cast one for your self.

Big flies small fish..

Threw large 6-7" flies for lots of 16-20" fish. It was amusing watching them fight over the fly but i'm not sure it was worth the effort and sore shoulder. But, one fish can make the day so I stayed with it only making color and location changes that didn't seem to matter.  Not many boats out so I used the dock to tie up on and do boat maint. Got all the live wells & hatches cleaned and organized. Its amazing how much "stuff" just builds up in a boat over a year. It was also a good time to go over the trailer and fully inspect everything while the boats off.  I tow a ton of miles and trailers seem to get the most neglect, and it's the one thing that can really screw you over if left to rot away. Nothing worse than being stuck in the middle of nowhere for being lazy.  Fill up the truck and boat in California and you better be ready to pay way north of 200 bucks right now. Time to pull out the small CC skiff and 4 stroke! I was thinking of selling it but I might just hold off. Thas shit is out of control 4.29 a gal. I'll be in a float tube before to long. Seriously!

This boat burned 5 bucks in gas in the time it took to read this post.

South SF Bay Waterfowl & Shore Birds

To damn windy to do any fishing today! So instead, I went and checked out one of the Salt Marsh Refuges acattered around the southern area of San Francisco Bay. It's an amazing place to view waterfowl and shore birds. Unfortunatly I didn't bring a tripod and just couldn't get real sharp images shooting free hand and through foliage. Most of the ducks are extremely shy and tough to get a shot of, or even with in 40 yards but I spent a few hours trying.. Fortunate to have this so close to home so I'll be back more prepared. A small portable blind would be the ticket. I have a lot of repect for the bird photographers. It's hard work being stealthy.

Carpin 2012

Things are happening. We got some much needed rain that will surely pull some fish to the flats. I saw some early season spawners yesterday and touched a Carp for the first time in several weeks. Then my buddy calls and says he put a 30+lb limit ( 5 fish) of Largemouth in the boat yesterday and screwed me all up. Carp might have to wait a little bit if the big girls are moving up...

Blooms baby!

Short day on the water..

It was somewhat pleasant this morning.. Word on the street was we were getting rain but I never saw any. I planned on a short day so I could get some boat work done. A front moved thru last night and seemed to break up. About noon the ceiling dropped and the wind started howling so I called it and ran for the barn. Didn't see any lightning but there was a wierd static electricity in the air and I wasn't down with getting fried out there waving around a nine foot lighting rod. Fishing was slow and steady with 4 or 5 grabs in the first hour and then just a couple the next three as I bounced around from one place to the next. All nice hard pulling fish so i'll take that over dinks any day.

This guy was tacking his way out off shore under that shit..whatever!

Super Bowl Stripers

Quiet day on the water today. On the water at first light and greeted to a beautiful sunrise. We put several nice fish in the boat today all things considered. February is usually one toughest months. Even a few shots at topwater fish which was a welcome site.

First light

Broke the ice with a nice one..

One more

Striped Bass Win!

I couldn't be more happy with the outcome. I really wish I could have been in Sacramento for this. A HUGE THANK YOU to all the hard work put in by many conservation groups. Here's the skinny of it..

 A proposal that attempted to diminish the number of striped bass in the California Bay Delta system was rejected Thursday by the California Fish and Game Commission!
In a unanimous vote, changes were rejected that would have increased the number of fish that could be kept and allow smaller fish to be kept.  This was about Central Valley Corporate Farms thirst for puplic water. Nothing more. The water diversions south have almost completly destroyed our estuary system.  Striped Bass have co-habitat with our native Salmonids for over a century. The decline has also paralleled with the increase in flow diversion and pollution.  Not just Winter & Spring Chinook and Coho but Stripers and other listed species are also all time low numbers.  Bottom Line is that grass roots org's can make a difference! There position was an absolute joke.