Mom saw some great catfishing at lake Hemet on the news, so I decided to go and get catfish for mom at the closest lake to me, Castaic Lake. Did not sleep the night before because I am too excited to go fishing and cannot sleep. I had this case of fishing insomnia since I was 7 or so. Now I am over 4 times that age. I gave up on finding a cure for it. Enough of my ranting. Here is how the day went:
Spent the whole night setting up my gear and left just before 5. Got to Gallions and pick up my usual italian large sandwich with extra mayo (yummy). It was around 5:30, figure I be the first one on the lake but there were more anxious fishermans than me. =/
Tried something different. Instead of fishing the fish arm in morning, I decided to see if the ledge I been fishing in the afternoon at the ski arm was producing in the morning. The ledge has been giving me easy fishing for the past couple of weeks. Kind of fishing where there is just too much fish and it stop becoming fun after awhile. Well I metered a lot of fish, but I guess it was too early in the morning for them. So I decided to head back to the fish arm and fish my usual morning spot. From the picture the ledge is somewhere.....errrr back there. Can you see it?
While heading to the fish arm a fellow boater found a school of boiling stripers in a cove. I rolled up slowly and watch him go bendo on a striper. I thought about joining him, but that is not how I roll. He found the paddy, so I gave a tip of my cap and continued on to my spot.
Got to my spot and anchored up. Threw my trusty drop shop bass pro xps rubber in purple. I was not drop shotting. I use it as a jerk bait. Instant boil on the first cast. He was on for a bit then came off. Constant boils on it, but the damn stripers are so freaking blind. They boil on it but miss it often. Had some followers follow it and attack it. They put on a great show as always. Caught a few and as usual, I got frustrated with the miss bite and decided to do some bait and wait to relax.
A couple weeks back, I gave Mr. Lowe Boat the drop shot bag and one plastic when I met him. I even show him how it looks in the water at the ramp. He even commented on how real it looks. I wonder if he ever found them from bass pro shop because I cant. I only have one piece left and I dont know how life is going be after that last piece. =( If you found some, please let me know.
Sorry that picture is not my morning spot, it just random picture I took while heading over there. I dont need to find boils anymore because of that spot. I would love to divulge that information to all of you, but it might get severely raped and my life is too short. I would like to enjoy it as long as I can. But as you can see, it is a very nice day to be fishing =).
While heading from spot to spot I decided to put out the trolling rod. Picked up a few schooling stripers on the way.
I set up on another ledge and the spot produced a consistent bite. The only problem was I had to deal with other boaters. I set my boat and anchor a short sizable distant from from shore as you can see from the picture. But other boaters still insist on going right between my line and the shore. They were going through with speed causing quite bit of wake, which would scatter the fish and shut off the bite. Very frustrating. These were not jet skier, but fisherman. But a lot of the boats and jet skies boat were being very considerate and pass on the other side of me. I gave them a wave of thank you. A couple of ::cough:: bass boat ::cough guys were not. I would have like to gave them another form of a hand wave. But I just looked the other way and tried to enjoy the rest of my day. But 95% of the boaters were being very respectful and accommodating. =)
Even saw Lowe Boat. He drove pass me and I chatted with him. He said he only got one on the troll. I was going to ask him if he wanted some fish but he was heading too far away from me and I don't think he could understand me anyways. Talked to a lot of the boat passing by. Seems like it was a very slow day for them. A lot of trollers on the lake.
That picture is my rod about to go bendo. It is slowly arching over. Tried to catch it at the right moment, but I was not so lucky. Plus, I cant control my urge of grabbing the rod. Fisherman's reaction ;P.
After a few ledges, I found the mother load and had doubles going. Even had a fish that took a lot line and rocked me. Definitely a yellowtail...kidding probably a big cat. Called up mom and told her I have catfish. I could hear how happy she was. Told her it is going to be limits, but she told me she only wanted a few. Then she told she will make me catfish dinner. All I can say was Ewww. A longtime ago, I was fishing. These ducks came close to me and laid some poop in the water and this catfish came up and ate it. After that day I refuse to eat catfish. I am sure a lot of fish eat poop and it is safe to eat those fish too, but I am too traumatized after seeing that. Sorry. True Story.
Well I found a fix for my dilemma. Found some guys that were not having so much luck and gave them a few fish. Saved the big one and a small one for mom. Plus there were the stripers also. Way to much meat.
That picture is the big cat. 10lb+. I was taking them off the stringer. Decided to take a picture cause it look so pretty in the water. The picture does not do it just. The smaller cat is the average size I was catching. There was a good size bull catfish also, but I did not know if that counted towards my limit of catfish, so I did count it towards my limit. I don't want to go to jail. =X
Here is stripers. All properly bled. I cut their throats immediately after landing them. Throw them in a bucket of water and let the heart pump all the blood out. Flesh comes out super white and a very mild flavor. No blood whatsoever when they get cleaned.
I was pretty much done by 1:30pm and headed in to beat Friday evening traffic. Got the boat out of the water by 2ish and got home around 3. Cleaned the boat and gave pops the fish. Showered and finished up some errands and hop into bed close to 5pm. Slept til 10am Saturday morning. Even got in a nap from 1pm-3pm. Life is good.
Hope you guys had fun fishing with me.
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