Anyhow, on Christmas afternoon I got a text from my friend Zoli that lives down in the Antelope Valley asking me if I wanted to hit the California Aqueduct to see about catching some striped bass. One nice thing about duct fishing is it has easy access to good fishing spots. I then texted another friend who lives down there as well and asked if he was available to join us, which he did so we discussed what time and where we would meet.

I woke up bright and early and headed down to the AV duct. We met up at Zoli’s house, loaded up their stuff into the Silverado and proceeded to head out and see if we could beat the duct skunk. We worked over the first few spots we stopped at but nobody got a bite so we proceeded on. The rule of thumb when duct fishing is to work an area for 15-20 minutes tops and if nothing happens pack up and move on.

After hitting several more spots for nothing we moved onto another spot. I cast out, feel the tell tale thump so I reel down to catch up with the fish that was swimming towards me, feel the weight and swing, FISH ON, WOOOO HOOOO! While it wasn’t a double digit it was a good solid 6 pounder, into the ice chest he goes to become fillets. We continued on and hit I dont remember how many more spots but nothing doing. We called it a day at 2:30ish and I headed home after dropping the guys off.

All in all it was a good day, could have been nicer if we caught more but such is life when fishing the aqueduct.

Thanks for visiting my site. Be sure to tell all of your fishing buddies and come back soon

Until Next Time, Good Luck and Tight Lines To Ya!

Anyhow, we met up at the duct and started tossing lures. Across the duct there was a blue heron sitting on the opposite shore and he’s catching little fish, then a striper busts the surface. We make several casts and nothing as we are talking, BAM, Fish On! Yolo hooks up, as he is fighting the fish, which was a good solid 8 pounder, we see another one the same size trying to take the Rattle Trap out of his mouth. Yolo hesitates in pulling his fish up because he’s waiting for me to cast out and see about catching the other one, which didn’t happen. Finally he starts to pulls him up the side but the fish flipped again, got off the hook, slid back into the duct and promptly swam away. We tried for a few more minutes then take off to another spot.

Yolo let me make the first cast so I tossed my LC Pointer out, gave it 2 jerks and BAM, Fish On! As I’m fighting the fish Yolo looks down and there are 4 more of them, the same size, chasing the one with the lure stuck in his face. I get him to the side and do the duct slide, he’s mine! Not a DD but he went 8, not a bad fish so into the ice chest he goes. We continue to work the area but nothing doing so its time to make a move.

Next spot nothing so its onto another spot. Met up with another duct fisherman who was not having any luck but I figured seeing how I was there I might as well make a few casts but nothing doing. Time for Yolo to take off but I figured I’d fish on. At his advice I went back and hit the spots where we had caught our fish as well as another that we skipped.

I get back to the spot where I caught mine at and tossed out my 128 Pointer, jerk, jerk, BAM, Fish On! As I’m fighting this fish it suddenly gets very strong and started peeling drag, remember how I mentioned there were 4 others with the one I caught earlier, yep, double hookup. I fought them for what seemed like forever, then one of them gets off. I get the one that didn’t get off to the side and do the duct slide, he’s mine! This one only weighed a little over 6 pounds so I didn’t bother taking a picture but he went into the ice chest to become fillets.

Onto another spot, 3^rd cast with a Zoom Fluke BAM, Fish On! Damn this is a great day. This one took off, peeling drag, it then turns around and takes off in the other direction again peeling drag, he’s heading for the buoy line and bridge so I figure I have to turn him so I apply my thumb to the spool, the rod bends then BINK, he comes unbuttoned.

Welp, time to head home. Striper count in ice chest, the 1 Yolo gave me, thanks again buddy and the 2 I caught for a total of 3 so not a bad day at all. Too bad not all ducts days are as productive.

Thanks for visiting my site. Be sure to tell all of your fishing buddies and come back soon

Until Next Time, Good Luck and Tight Lines To Ya!

We met up at The Dam Corner, a local Diner in the town of Isabella, to have a hearty breakfast and go over our game plan for the day. Due to the fact that I had been there a week prior and had found some active bass then, I had a game plan set for the day. After finishing breakfast we proceeded to the launch ramp, got things loaded up, splashed the Champion and off we went.

We arrive in the area where the bite was hot the week prior and I picked up my Loomis rod/Shimano Chronarch loaded with 50 pound Daiwa Samurai and made my first cast with a Spro Bronze Eye Frog, twitch, twitch, BAM! The water exploded, I took a deep breath and set the hook hard, FISH ON! Yeah buddy, its gonna be a good day. As I’m fighting in my bass my buddy tosses out a Zoom Super Fluke and BAM, we got a double on. Just like the previous week, the bass are in wolf packs and feeding. My bass was a little over 4 pounds and my buddy’s was almost 3.

We hurry to release the bass because we can see more of them, all about the same size, swimming around. Second cast for me and its fish on again, a carbon copy of my first one. It only took my buddy 2 more casts to get his second one. It went on like this for about 15 minutes then it shut off. I was not concerned because the week prior they would hit like this, the pack would move on then come back within 20 minutes. It was during this down time that my friend tied on a frog as well because I caught quite a few more bass.

About 15 minutes pass then DING, DING, Round 2! Just like round 1 the fishing was fast and intense. I remember one cast I made and got a slight backlash, as I’m pulling the line out a bass engulfs my frog off the surface and takes off. By then I had worked out the backlash so I reeled down and set the hook.

When they slowed down on the frog I got them to hit a Revenge Spinnerbait, a 6 Inch Weedless Huddleston Deluxe and a Lucky Craft Pointer, yes they were hitting just about everything I threw. We lost count of how many hits we got and missed but it was a lot of fun. Its days like these that bass fishermen dream of. It continued on like this for about 2 hours then it was over. We moved out to a little deeper water and I started tossing a Yamamoto Jig and a big worm while my buddy was tossing a Yamamoto Fat Ika and a Senko, we picked up a few here and there but it was nothing like it was earlier.

We finished the day by landing 18 bass with the biggest being 6.5, several in the 5 pound range and the smallest was a little over 3, all good quality bass.

Thanks for visiting my site. Be sure to tell all of your fishing buddies and come back soon.

Until Next Time, Good Luck and Tight Lines To Ya!

Onto the crappie. We moved from tree to tree and finally found “The Tree” and proceeded to pull at least 30 of them out of this one spot then that spot died so we went tree hunting again. Picked up a few here and there and then we once again found another “The Tree” and proceeded to get at least 40 off of it. What fun!

1230 the wind picked up so we take off towards the launch ramp through white caps, made it back safe. After wiping down the Champion we took off to the fish cleaning station at Paradise cove and I filleted crappie for the next hour. We ended up with 38 keepers between 2 of us. I keep a divider in the middle of my livewell to make it easier to grab fish out of it so they cant run to the other side.

“Hey, its pretty crowded in here” Here is a shot of one side of my livewell

“Shut up, its just as crowded over here also” Here’s a shot of the other side of the livewell

Here is a shot of me holding 4 of the average size crappie we kept, yep they are getting bigger

Had a great time!

Thanks for visiting my site. Be sure to tell all of your fishing buddies and come back soon.

Until Next Time, Good Luck and Tight Lines To Ya!

I wanted to do a little bass fishing first so I stop at my first spot, a rock pile in the middle of nowhere and toss a spinner bait. Second cast, hookup! I fight him to the boat and as I lean over to lip him my cell phone in my shirt pocket slips out and “Splash” it sinks to the bottom. Cut off from the outside world, Oh well, I’ve been looking for an excuse to get the new Samsung Infuse that’s coming out later this month. The bass weighed maybe 2 pounds so I released him without any pictures. 5 more casts and 2 more bass, all about the same size as the first so now it’s Crappie Time.

I move into position and proceed to catch them, I kept moving from spot to spot looking for them. The good news, I caught at least 50 of them, the bad news, I only kept 8 of them that were good sized. I was hoping for the “Slabs” but couldn’t find them. About 1200 I saw the white caps starting to come into the south fork which means that the rest of the lake is already nasty so I put the rods into the rod locker, tie everything down and proceed to take on the white caps on my long ride back to the launch ramp. By the way, nothing rides like a big Champion in rough water so even though my ride was a little rough I’m sure others had a much rougher ride.

As it turned out a friend of mine that was out, we were working different brush plies within site of each other and when one of us would find one with fish on it we would we would wave the other over. I talked to him later that afternoon and as it turned out about 5 minutes after I left he found “The Bush” and loaded his livewell with 1 ½ to 2 pounders in about 15 minutes. The down side, his ride back was rough and wet.

I only took a couple pictures, here they are sitting in the livewell. “Hey Ralph where are we? Don’t know but this aint so bad, white soothing walls, clean water with bubbles” Little did they know the fate that awaited them.

Here they are awaiting “The Knife”

“This aint fun anymore, we have no water and why are we laying in this metal tray and whats with that knife sitting there”

Had a great time and a tasty fish and chips dinner, nothing better than fried crappie. If this weather would ever stabilize the slab bite should pickup. I have a feeling that this will be a great year for crappie at Isabella.

Thanks for visiting my site. Be sure to tell all of your fishing buddies and come back soon.

Until Next Time, Good Luck and Tight Lines To Ya!

By the way, for those who don’t know, the CA Aqueduct is a 715 mile long cement river that serves as drinking water for a lot of California. It runs from the San Joaquin-Sacramento River Delta at the Banks Pumping Plant and heads south. The aqueduct then divides into three branches: the Coastal Branch in the Central Valley; and the East- and West-Branches after passing over the Tehachapi Mountains.

Anyhow, this past Saturday I hooked up with a couple friends of mine, Zoli, and Chris went out on yet another quest to attempt to kill my duct skunk. The weather was cold, cloudy with a little bit of rain and windy, striper weather as my friend Zoli calls so off we ventured.

We started out at the west end of the Antelope Valley at 280th and worked out way east. Throwing Zoom Flukes, Magnum Rattle Trap, Lucky Crafts and buck tail jigs we proceeded to beat the water to a froth. I had the first bite of the day on a 128 Pointer but after a couple seconds it came unbuttoned, very shortly there after Zoli hooked up and landed one. Then the bite died at that spot so we proceed east.

At the next spot I get bit, hookup and land my first duct striper! The skunk is finally dead! Then Zoli catches one, then Chris, then Zoli, then Chris. Me, I got bit a couple times but they came unbuttoned. The same thing happened to the other guys as the fish were hitting lightly. The fish are here! Then it just died so we continue east onto the next spots. Since we took Chris’s lifted 4 wheel drive Silverado, which proved tricky getting into with my recently replaced knee, we were able to get into a couple spots that I cant get my 2 wheel drive lowered Silverado Street truck into but at least on that day they didn’t produce.

Working quite a few more spots going as far east as Sierra Highway for nothing we decide to go back and give the hot spot we were at earlier another try so back westward we go and Zoli puts on a “How to catch Duct Stripers” clinic. The dude definitely has the duct dialed in. He caught 3 more while Chris and I continued to get bit but just couldn’t seem to hook them. Then just like before the striper just shut off.

By now the wind is picking up, that combined with the light drizzle its getting pretty cold so we decide to call it a day. I got 2, Chris got 3 and Zoli ended up with 6. Thanks to the guys I got to take home 8 for the freezer. After getting home I spend the next hour filleting and vacuum sealing the gonna be tasty fish. I forgot to take a picture of all 8 of them but I did take 1 of the 2 that I caught. I’m not sure how much they weighed, not even close to being DD’s, double digits, but decent fish. All of them were between 23-26 inches

Below is a picture of my 2 just before hitting the fillet board and knife!

Thanks for visiting my site. Be sure to tell all of your fishing buddies and come back soon.

Until Next Time, Good Luck and Tight Lines To Ya!

I figured I’d give the CA Aqueduct a shot seeing how the ground is basically level and there are several spots that have quick easy access with short walking or should I say hobbeling distances to the water. So I gave a couple of my friends that live in the Antelope Valley a call to see if they wanted to hookup with me in my endeavor to finally kill my duct skunk, yes folks, in spite of the fact that I have hooked and fought a couple of them I still have yet to actually land a striper out of the aqueduct.

For those of you who are not familiar with the California Aqueduct, it’s basically a 715 mile cement river that runs from the San Joaquin-Sacramento River Delta in northern California and provides water to southern California. From information I’ve gathered from people that have been fishing the duct for many years and all the times I’ve fished the duct I’ve learned that the only thing predictable about duct fishing is that its very unpredictable. I have never had as difficult a time catching a fish from any body of water as I’m having with the duct.

Anyhow, seeing how this is my first trip out of town with my new right knee I realize that its completely different than when I had my left one done because of the fact that I have to press the gas and brake with my right foot and also that there is not a lot of room to just stretch it out and relax it so I end up making a few stops along the way to get out, walk a little and stretch the knee. Of course when I was on long straight stretches of the road I just set the cruise control.

After about a 90 minute drive for me we all meet at my friends house in Palmdale. We exchange greetings and did some basic BSing then we discuss our plan of attack. Seeing how I have limited mobility we knew that there were quite a few spots that we would not be able to hit because of long walks or rough terrain so we load up the truck and take off to the first spot.

Upon arrival to spot 1 we notice that the water is flowing well, which is a good sigh but there are a couple cars already sitting there. As we discuss where we go next the people show up, load up their stuff and leave so we decide to give it a try. On my second cast I get a bite, swing and a miss. We continue to work the area for about half an hour and nothing happening so we figure its time to make a move.

We arrive at the next spot and work it for about 45 minutes. One of my friends pulled up a bush that was covered with tons of tiny shrimp but other than that nothing else doing so it’s onto the next spot. The next 2 spots produced the same results. A couple hundred casts without any bites. At this point my knee is really starting to hurt so I figure its time to call it a day.

In spite of the fact that we didn’t catch any fish I still did not leave empty handed because as we arrived back at my friends house he gave me several fresh striper fillets that he had caught the day before as well as a few frozen ones that he had caught the previous week so I was able to stock up my freezer, for at least a little while. You see, the fish out of the duct are some of the cleanest, tastiest fish I’ve ever eaten and since Cindy enjoys the taste of fresh fish they don’t last long at my house.

Well all, even though we didn’t catch anything just getting outdoors and wetting a line with good friends did me a lot of good mentally. The only down side was that I might have over did it a little by spending to much time on my legs because my leg was swollen and hurt for the next several days. At the advice of my physical therapist, after spending 2 days basically on my back with my leg elevated and covered with ice the swelling went down to an acceptable level.

Thanks for visiting my site. Be sure to tell all of your fishing buddies and come back soon.

Until Next Time, Good Luck and Tight Lines To Ya!

We rigged up our lines according to all the reports and tips we got which was a size 2 hook with a split shot about 12 inches up the line, basically fly lining, on light line with a chunk of sardine for bait. I was the first to get a bite but missed him because I was asleep at the reel, actually I just was not paying attention and lost my bait. A little while later I got another bite and this time I was ready and managed to set the hook on him and get him to the boat, he was a nice little schoolie so into the livewell he went. A little while later my friend got the bit and managed to get his into the boat so that’s number 2 in the livewell. I forgot to mention, while we caught the 2 fish, the boats around us caught several more than us, hmmm, what were we doing wrong? They were using the same bait and setup as we were, I knew that because we were talking to each other. The only difference was one boat was in a little shallower water and one a little deeper so I figured the fish have to pass by us but that’s why its called fishing and not catching.

After a few hours its time to make a run to another spot that someone had told me about so off we go. On my first cast I get bit, set the hook, swing and a miss. We worked the spot for about an hour with no more bites so take off to Elizabeth Canyon. As we pull into the back of the canyon I’m metering quite a few fish but the canyon is packed with pleasure boaters and besides that its down right hot because of all of the high rock walls holding the heat so we decided to check out Sharon’s rest and while we metered quite a few fish there were just way too many pleasure boaters running around making it impossible to hold on the spot with either the trolling motor or even with an anchor so its back to the buoy line we go.

When we arrive back at the buoy line and one of the boats that was doing great earlier had left so we move into there spot. After an hour or so without any bites we figured out why they had left. I then get on the trolling motor and work my way down the buoy line watching the Lowrance for fish but not finding any large concentration of them. As were going along we watch a boat catch 2 fish real quick so I figured that this would be a good spot to stop. Before we can even get setup the other boat had 4 on at the same time and there were only 2 people in the boat so I figured that this was going to be good but this was not really the case. While we did manage to catch 2 more it took almost 2 hours so that was 4 for the day.

While its true that we didn’t get skunked it was still a slow day. I told my nephew that the next time we went after stripers we would go to Pyramid because I have always been able to get them there.

Thanks for visiting my site. Be sure to tell all of your fishing buddies and come back soon.

Until Next Time, Good Luck and Tight Lines To Ya!

So I pull up to my first spot and flip out a jig. Before it could hit the bottom I feel a tick and see my line running to towards the cat tails on the opposite side of the shore. Before I could tell myself to set the hook stupid, the fish was already in the reeds and digging in further. I tried horsing him out but when your only using 10 pound fluorocarbon you can only apply so much pressure. I also tried the old, “give him slack and he will come out trick” but of course he just went further into the weeds. After a few minutes I just pulled until the line broke. Time to re-rig. The next cast out the same thing happens but this time I’m ready for him, drill him and get a nice 2 pounder out of the water. The next 3 casts netted the same results, each bass was a carbon copy of the first one I got in. “Wow, that’s 5 casts and 5 bites, its gonna be a great day”. I continued to work the area but nothing more happening, onto the next spot.

I pull up to the next spot and am thinking that this spot wanted a jig just like the last one, nope. I threw the jig for about half an hour and couldn’t even get a sniffer. So I switch up to a Senko thinking they would eat it, nope they didn’t want that either. Half an hour later I changed to drop shotting a 4 inch worm. That was the ticket, 5 casts, 4 bites, 3 bass landed with the biggest only being maybe 2 ½ pounds but fun none the less. Then the wind started to pickup making it difficult to feel the weight so after 5 more casts with the drop shot I went back to the jig because it’s heavier and I could feel it. Too bad that the jig was all I could feel, HA!

By now the wind was really blowing and I figured it was time to switch to a spinnerbait, which turned out to be a wise decision. I caught 4 more bass on the blade before the wind was just making it to miserable to continue to try and fish at this spot so it’s onto spot 3, which didn’t produce, as well as spots 4 and 5. I then figured I’d go back to my first stop and see if I could get anymore jig fish so off I went.

First cast, BAM! I reel down and set the hook and get him coming towards me, he tried getting into the weeds but not this time buddy. He’s a nice 2 ½ pounder and as I’m swinging him up I notice that there is line hanging out of his mouth. I grab him by the lip and notice that he has my jig stuck in his lip and my other jig stuck inside his mouth. Yes, he was the one that broke me off a few hours earlier. I continued to work the area for about half an hour before deciding to call it a day.

Of course all bass were released to be caught another day and seeing how none of them were very big I didn’t bother taking any pictures. It was nice being able to get out and catch a bunch of bass even though non of them were Big Uns. I can hardly wait until the doctor thinks my knee is stable enough to take the Champion out.

Thanks for visiting my site. Be sure to tell all of your fishing buddies and come back soon

Until Next Time, Good Luck and Tight Lines To Ya!

After several weeks of intense physical therapy and a major case of cabin fever I finally got the blessing from my doctor as well as my physical therapist to go out and do some fishing. However, my doctor says that he does not think I would be steady enough to take the Champion out yet. You see, he’s been in bass boats before and knows that they are basically a hull with a deck therefore you don’t have anything to grab onto if the knee happens to buckle or get unsteady when a wave comes along, which makes sense to me. He did say that he thought a pontoon type boat would probably work well because it has side rails for support if needed as well as seats to sit and relax on and I know they rent them at my home lake of Isabella. I decided that seeing how its been awhile since I’d been fishing I was going to try and catch a toad so I rig up 2
G.Loomis Swimbait Rods, 1 Senko Rod, 1 Worm rod with a 16 inch worm, 1 Jig Rod, 1 Drop Shot Rod and a Crappie/Split Shot Rod.

Cindy and I had the truck loaded and ready to go bright and early, pulled out of the garage. Hit the Home Link button, a.k.a. the garage door opener, the door started to close then went back up. Hmm, a fluke possibly, so I hit it again and it did the same thing. OK, there’s gotta be something blocking the sensor, so I get out of the truck to check it out and indeed find a piece of paper in front of it so I remove it, hop back into the truck, press the button again and nothing, GRRRRR. After awhile I get it working and even though we didn’t get to leave as early as I wanted to, were finally on the road. Woo Hoo!

Now, anyone who knows Lake Isabella in the spring time they know that the wind always starts blowing hard at 1:00 and just gets worse from there. Due to time constraints I figure there is no need in even attempting to rent a pontoon boat because chances are I wouldn’t be able to take it to the areas I wanted to fish so I figure why spend all the money on something that I couldn’t really utilize so I figured I’ll just beat the bank in a few easy accessible areas. One thing that I love about Isabella is its one of the few lakes in CA that you can still back right down to the water.

We arrive at the lake and the wind is already starting to blow but that’s not going to stop me. First stop, Dean’s marina. I start casting an 8 inch Hudd along the calm side of the docks. On my 4^th cast I almost have my rod ripped out of my hands, OOOOOHHHH, YEAHHHHHHH! FISH ON! The bass comes out of the water and its at least a 10 pounder, there were people crappie fishing on the docks and they were amazed at the size of her. Anyhow, remember how I said I was casting along the docks of the marina? Well this bass decided that he was going to run under the marina, which of course was good for him but bad for me. I ended up loosing the bass as well as my Hudd. I tied on another Hudd and made countless more casts but nothing doing so I break out a Senko and end up catching one that weighed almost a pound and a half. I continued working the same general area by driving and parking in different area’s working a jig and drop shot but after about an hour more without any more bites its onto stop number 2.

We make our way out to Engineers point and I Start out throwing the Hudd for about an 30 minutes but nothing doing so I break out the 16 inch worm and slowly drag it along the bottom. I feel the tell tale tap and pressure so I reel down and drill him and the fight is on. I get him in and as it turned out he was actually shorter that the big ole worm I caught him on. He weighed maybe a pound and a half as well. I continued to work the area for about 30 minutes with the worm and then a jig and its time to make a move. So its off to Kissack cove

I start out throwing the Hudd looking to land that big bass. After about 45 minutes its big worm time, 15 casts and nothing doing so its Senko time. First cast with it, tap, feel the pressure, swing, fish on! Another carbon copy of the other 2, oh well, at least I’m catching a few fish. I continue to work the Senko for about 30 minutes without any bites so I figure its time to go after some Crappie.

Because the water is kind of dirty I start throwing a 1/32
Blakemore Slab Daddy’s Crappie Jigs in the parrot head color and I proceed to get into them. I ended up catching a total of 9 of them but most of them were only about hand sized, not the “Slabs” I was hoping for but it was still fun. I did get one that went about a pound but didn’t feel like cleaning just 1 crappie so I gave it to an elderly gentleman that was fishing next to me. Time to make a move to Jophin cove to see if I can get into some bigger crappie.

Driving towards the spot, as I round the corner I notice the shoreline is pretty packed with people but I figured I’d still check it out. I pulled up and parked, then sat in my truck for about 15 minutes to see what was happening. I saw a few crappie caught but the ones I saw were the same size hand sized ones I was catching earlier so I figured why bother with the crowds and went back to Kissack.

I backed down to the shore line and tried the 8 inch Hudd for awhile before so I figured I’d give the 6 inch model a try. On my second cast I get a viscous strike, as soon as I swung to set the hook I realized that I had not tightened my drag so I didn’t stick the fish. I then tighten up the drag and continued to throw it for about 30 minutes, no love. Next its jig time, nothing. Break out the Senko. 3 casts later as I’m reeling it in fast to make another cast a bass comes rushing up but at the last second he turns away. I think he saw my mug and it scared him, HA! After a few more casts with the Senko, I break out my split shot rig, which is a
Shimano Stradic FI Spinning Reels CI4 on a G.Loomis Greenwater Spinning Rods  and on the 2^nd cast he bit it. While he was only a little over 2 pounds it was still fun. I continued to fish for about another 15 minutes but by this time my knee is pretty sore from being on it so its time to call it a day. I didn’t bother taking any pictures because in my opinion I didn’t catch anything worth taking a picture of.

In my opinion the maiden voyage on my new knee was a success. Total fish count for the day, 4 bass and 9 crappie. While I didn’t get any bass worth taking pictures of it did me a lot of good mentally just to be able to get out and wet a line. Hopefully the next time I’ll be able to get to the lake early enough to rent a Pontoon boat and really wack em! I thought about heading back over today but I’m still a little sore and figure I should relax and not over due it but I will be getting back on the water very soon.

Now all I have to do is continue pushing myself at the physical therapy so I’ll soon be steady enough to take the Champion out and do some serious fishing.

Thanks for visiting my site. Be sure to tell all of your fishing buddies and come back soon

Until Next Time, Good Luck and Tight Lines To Ya!