Well, Ben and I went to the Napa river today. Rather chilly start. Got on the water shortly after 0700 and it was fogged in. Took us nearly a half hour to get out to the fishin grounds.
Once we got there the water was too high already to fish the mudflat, so we went out front of the slough and cast the bank out there.
Wasn't long that I had one swipe at my lure right at the boat but he missed it.
Ben made a few casts around right afterwards and finally hooked and landed a 16+ incher, so we weren't gonna be skunked anyway.
A few casts later and I hook a nice one and it brakes water a couple times and then makes a run to deeper water and was takin drag and then pulled off. Shucks, it was a nice fish.
That's all the action we got there so we moved.
Next place I hook another good one and it does the same thing as the first one I hooked. Hmmm.
Few casts later I hook my third fish and this one I land. It was a nice 25 incher bout 5 pounds.
We keep castin around there and I hook another one this one is only bout 19 inches but we put it in the box.
Wasn't long till I had a third fish and it was a 22 incher. So we toss the 19 and keep the 22.
Ben is throwin the same thing as I am but just wasn't getting hit.(I know the feelin)
5 min later I hook another one and it's bout 19 to 20 and we release it.
A few casts later I hook another and hand the rod to Ben.
He fights it a little while and I net another 22 incher so we keep it.
Ben took a pee break and I make a few more casts and hook another 22 incher but instead of nettin the fish I just lifted it in, ALMOST. It fell off at the rail and that was the last fish/bite we got. It wasn't even 0900 yet.
Ben trolled for a while but we never got another bite so we got off the water bout 1100.
Could have had out limit by 0830 to 9 but we didn't want to quit fishin.
Was a good morning anyway. 8 fish hooked and 6 landed. I counted the one at the end because we could have easily netted it.
So 3 keepers today, a 25 and two 22s.
2 pics, one at Ben's house and one at mine, where I measured and weighed em.
Thanks for another nice morning fishin Ben.🤠👍

Hey guys. My computer isn't workin right so this is from my ph. Won't be as long.😆
Still above water, Rich, took me out on the Petaluma today.
Was a beautiful day and we caught 5 fish. Two drinks and two 20+ inchers.
We kept the 20s and then we get a hit that pops the rod holder out and the rod points straight behind the boat. Line was just screamin off the reel.
It's a wonder that I didn't loose the rod.
I get the rod out and fight a fish to the boat and it's a 30 inch, 11 pound Striper.
We couldn't believe it. We measured it, weighed it and took it's pic then released it.
That was it for the day and we were off the water by noon.
Thanks Rich for such a wonderful day. 🤠👍

Well guys, Ben and I got out on the river bout 0630. Got out to the fishin grounds bour 0645.
I didn't catch a fish on my 1st or 2nd cast but bout #5 I hook a nice one.
After a little fight we net a nice 25 inch 5 pounder.
We go inside the slough after that but nobody home. So we go back out front and I land another one but only 21 inches bout 3 1/2 pounds.
Can't find any more castin so we start trollin.
We're markin fish everywhere but none want to bite Rattle Traps so I put a deep diver on but it didn't help.
We're gonna make another pass so I go back to my RT.
We're trollin up river when all the sudden something grabs my lure and just SCREAMS line off the reel. By the time I got the rod out of the holder and it finally stopped screamin line off I bet he probly pealed 300 to 400 feet of line off the reel.
I fought this thing for bout 15 to 20 min and I really figured it was a Bat Ray. I just wanted to get my 10+ dollar RT back.
By the way, I'm only usin a medium heavy bass rod and the 5601 Abu Garcia reel that Mr Twister gave me. ( I incorrectly said it was a 6000 on my last post)
ANYWAY, I finally get it up to the boat and it's a STURGEON !

It wasn't a GIANT but it was bout 50 inches long and close to 60+ pounds. I had a little bit of trouble liftin it for the pic.
After the pics we released it. What a wonderful fish. It was hooked in the upper right side so we couldn't have kept it even if it had been in the slot limit. It stops at 48 inches.
We kept trollin but only were hookin small Stripers.
We were gonna call it an early day and go back to the dock. We had caught 6 Stripers and the Sturgeon.
Got back in the UPPER river and decided to troll bavk to the dock.
We started hookin a fish every pass. Hook one , land it and go back and troll over the same area again.
We hooked 5 fish and landed 4. One was another 21 incher bout 3+ pounds the other 3 were shorts.
When we finally made a pass without getting bit we kept goin on to the dock. Was off the water by noon.
3 nice fish in the well and a great day. Thanks Ben for another successful day on the water.

Pic of trollin rod above the fish in Striper photo.🤠👍

Fished at Lake Almanor yesterday. I only caught one trout and had a few hits. The water was warm at 74 degrees all the way down to 30 ft. At 35 it was 64 and at 40 it was 54. I figured that since the water was like a bath tub that I would troll deep in the 35 to 40 ft range. The fish weren't there. When I returned to the boat ramp I was talking to a couple of guys who caught 5. They caught them at 16 and 22 in the middle of the warm water???? Never expected that. I usually troll those depths most of the year but never thought that they would be there in this heat??

Well, I have reached a milestone in my boat. Today I brought over the rail, fish # 1,000. Doesn’t sound like a major accomplishment, as a few people here on the stage catch that many in a couple of weeks or months and they have told us so. I pretty much only target LMB’s. Went to San Vincente reservoir with my wife this morning looking for 3 fish. At my first stop, got slammed by a monster, and had it on for about three minutes. Then it took a major run (dive) right at the motor, and poof, goodbye. Lost a couple more then started landing them. Caught my third fish about 9:30 am and my Magic Number was accomplished. Caught a few more and it was starting to push 100* and the little lady said it was time to go.

At the ripe old age of 71, I caught my first LMB about 8 ½ years ago, and as most of you know I was an ocean fisherman first. Spent over 50 years out there on open waters. When we moved inland, and my body told me I couldn’t handle the big boys anymore decided to try bass fishing. I will hit that magic age of 79 in about a month and I can still launch and take my boat out of the water by myself.

Started out shore fishing for a year and graduated to rental boats for the next two years. Five and a half years ago, bought my first bass boat and absolutely love it. I believe I have turned into a decent fisherman and have landed my share of quality bass. Only one task remains………The Great DD!

The Highlights:
Average trips per year: 35
Best day ever: 36 LMB’s
Best Five fish in one day: 23.5lbs
Total LMB’s caught in the boat: 934: By me 698
Personal Best: LMB 8.8lbs, SMB 5.2lbs
Skunks: 22
Favorite people to fish with: My grandkids of course!

I am so thankful to God for giving me the opportunity to do something I love. Hopefully it will last another few years, or at least until I get that DD!!

Well guys, I'm not gonna lie, we didn't catch as many fish today as last week. We caught 48 in 7 hours last week and today we only caught 47 and it took us 9 hours today.
HOWEVER, today we got into some GREAT quality fish.
We started the day castin to a small cut that was dumpin water into the river and Rich and George caught 10 fish in less than 10 min.
Not real sure any of them were keeper size there though.
Then we tried another cut but nobody was home at that one. So we started trollin.
Hadn't been trollin 2 min when George hooks up, another short. We go back up river and start again and he barely got his line out when he catches another one. Well, he does that 6 times in a row and we've boated 16 fish and it hasn't even been 30 min we've been fishin.
Finally we get further down river and the action slows down some, but we're still hookin up a fish fairly often.
Then bout an hour later, around 0830, 0845 Rich and I get a double on and they're HEAVY fish.
I got mine to the boat first but I was afraid it was goin to swim into Rich's line so I put too much pressure on it for the weight of the fish in the current and it pulled off. Shortly afterwards Rich lands a 6 1/2 pounder.
We had a 3 1/2 pounfer in the box from earlier so now we have 2 in the livewell.
We go back up river and start again and as soon as we get to the same spot I hook another heavy fish. This time I land it and it's 7 1/2 pounds.
Now I was just goin to keep 2 fish today so we released the LITTLE one and kept the 7 1/2 pounder.
We start up again and pick up a few more fish in that area but none that size again.
It's bout 0900 and we have 20+ fish so far.
We continue to troll back up river and continue to add to our total. Several fish in the 3 to 4 pound range.
It's now 12 noon and our total is 30 fish and the tide is really slowin down and it's HOT for us out here, but we stayed with it for another 4 hours.
We had a few more keepers and a several shorts over the next 2 hours then it picked up a little again.
At 2 pm we had 40 fish and over the next hour we picked up the last 7, for a total of 47 for the day.
Rich's last fish was a healthy 3 1/2 pounder, nice way to end the day. George and I caught a few more shorts and a 21 and 22 incher to finish for us.
It's 4pm and we really kinda need to get goin towards home, or we could have made it to 50 today as well as last week. We left them biting.
It was such a blessing to be able to get out with good friends and have such a wonderful day in the outdoors.
Thanks guys. Can't wait till we can do it again.
The pics are of some of the bigger fish we let go and then the 2 keepers at the end.
One of the pics of the keepers is the way I take pics of our fish.
The other is the way some of the guys on the stage take pics of their fish.
You decide which is which.
The last pic is of the finished fillets. 🤠👍

Spending the week in South Lake with the family. House we stay at is a 10 min walk to the meadow to have lines wet in the Upper Truckee. 8 little trout yesterday for me, Lahontan Cutthroat, and a little rainbow. Then 3 more each for me and my boy today. Hooked a good one this morning too, but it spit the hook and disappeared!

Got some beautiful little Brookies in a small creek Sunday evening after our arrival as well. Best part of this little creek is sharing a spot with my boy that I used to fish with my buddies when we lived here 30 years ago!