Funny Bait vs Artificial Story In The McCloud River: Alright let's get the disclosures out of the way, lighten up guys Yes I know that there are no bait rule restrictions on the...

woodguru Loc: El Dorado Ca

Alright let's get the disclosures out of the way, lighten up guys

Yes I know that there are no bait rule restrictions on the McCloud, Duh.

I adhere religiously to the rules regarding flies and barbless hooks, with this one exception

It was a frigging test, an experiment if you will...

I was standing on a bank with about a four foot drop off, it seemed like there was an under hang sort of thing and I wondered if a fish might be hangin out there.

My vest had an errant little bag of white Berkley Mousetails or whatever they are called from a past fishing adventure...I just wanted to see if these things would entice a fish if a little piece of one were dangled right in front of the under hang.

I called over to my wife, told her check this out and dangled the bait so to speak...that thing got sucked in so fast it startled the hell out of me, a fat two pounder made a high speed run towards my wife, where it went fully aerobatic...she was impressed and wanted whatever I'd used, I told her nope, that was a one off thing just to see.

I let that fish go on general principles because it had been caught on something illegal and probably never seen before in the McCloud, besides we only kept a couple here and there for breakfast and dinner...something that is highly frowned on in the McCloud even though it is legal.

That's my story, and the statute of limitations is long gone, it's probably been close to 15 years since I've been to the McCloud

Steelhead Mickey Loc: NJ

woodguru wrote:

Alright let's get the disclosures out of the way, ... (show quote)

Must feel good to finally unload that one off your conscience, before the long arm of the Law catches up with you.

FishermanLeeSonoma

woodguru wrote:

Alright let's get the disclosures out of the way, ... (show quote)

LOL! Back in the early 70's we would use night crawlers for the Rainbows and Rapala's for the Brown Trout. We did pretty good back in the day. And caught some pretty nice fish. My first Brown Trout was a 20.5 inch, 3 lbs.

kandydisbar Loc: West Orange, NJ

Steelhead Mickey wrote:

Must feel good to finally unload that one off your conscience, before the long arm of the Law catches up with you.

nutz4fish Loc: Colchester, CT

FishermanLeeSonoma wrote:

LOL! Back in the early 70's we would use night crawlers for the Rainbows and Rapala's for the Brown Trout. We did pretty good back in the day. And caught some pretty nice fish. My first Brown Trout was a 20.5 inch, 3 lbs.

FLS, It's too bad you're in hiding. It would be interesting to know where this catching took place.

woodguru Loc: El Dorado Ca

Steelhead Mickey wrote:

Must feel good to finally unload that one off your conscience, before the long arm of the Law catches up with you.

Yeah, didn't want to be going to hell for that one off, Lol

woodguru Loc: El Dorado Ca

nutz4fish wrote:

FLS, It's too bad you're in hiding. It would be interesting to know where this catching took place.

Actually we were staying at the McCloud campground right above the conservancy waters, it is legal to keep fish there, but down below the campsite where the conservancy starts and only 10 fishermen a day are allowed in it is C&R only...still no bait and barbless hooks though.

I loved going there, but it's 10 hours to get there from Placerville, and I hate eating up a vacation with two days of driving.

FishermanLeeSonoma

nutz4fish wrote:

FLS, It's too bad you're in hiding. It would be interesting to know where this catching took place.

On the upper and lower McCloud. It was legal then to fish with live bait (worms/caddis fly larva) and you could use lures with up to three treble. The river was full of fish. We would camp at An Di Nah. I actually lived in Mt. Shasta City for a couple years. Was way before they made it a Wild River Section.

In hiding?????

nutz4fish Loc: Colchester, CT

FishermanLeeSonoma wrote:

On the upper and lower McCloud. It was legal then to fish with live bait (worms/caddis fly larva) and you could use lures with up to three treble. The river was full of fish. We would camp at An Di Nah. I actually lived in Mt. Shasta City for a couple years. Was way before they made it a Wild River Section.

In hiding?????

Yeah, Lee, that's what comes up ("In Hiding") on your profile, and that's why there is no location shown when ya post.

Jim Kay Loc: Franklin, Virginia

woodguru wrote:

Alright let's get the disclosures out of the way, ... (show quote)

So, why are mousetais not allowed?

FishermanLeeSonoma

nutz4fish wrote:

Yeah, Lee, that's what comes up ("In Hiding") on your profile, and that's why there is no location shown when ya post.

I guess the name doesn't give you a clue.... LOL!

Jim Kay Loc: Franklin, Virginia

I have never used a Moustail.

Steelhead Mickey Loc: NJ

Jim Kay wrote:

I have never used a Moustail.

Oh boy, I could tell you some stories….
But that would be a “Mickey Mouse tale”…

FishermanLeeSonoma

Steelhead Mickey wrote:

Oh boy, I could tell you some stories….
But that would be a “Mickey Mouse tale”…

LOL!

woodguru Loc: El Dorado Ca

FishermanLeeSonoma wrote:

On the upper and lower McCloud. It was legal then to fish with live bait (worms/caddis fly larva) and you could use lures with up to three treble. The river was full of fish. We would camp at An Di Nah. I actually lived in Mt. Shasta City for a couple years. Was way before they made it a Wild River Section.

In hiding?????

We did that four times for week long vacations, it's one of my all time favorite camping places, the drive is just a killer though to eat up a day going and a day back home. It was a trip to ponder Ah Di Nah being Hursts summer lodge, and the trip took a couple of weeks to get there by wagon from San Francisco back in the 1800's. Must have been seriously special place back then.