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I ENJOYED MY VISIT WITH
THE DOC!
By: Ron Wilson
March 25, 2008.... Dr. Quen Young of San
Francisco recently made his annual trek over the hill to the valley to
do a little bass fishing.
We started off his mini vacation by going
to a private black bass fishing club. I handed Doc a rod and reel all
baited and ready to go. He tossed it out and was rewarded with a 3 pound
bass. "That’s the way I like to start off a trip, the fish gods are with
me", he said. I thought yes and having someone with all the right
equipment can help too!
Doc had a ball catching fish after fish.
His highlight other than a 6 pound bucket mouth for the day was when he
hooked a hawg that came up from the depths and gave Doc a birds eye view
of her wide open mouth as she wallowed on top of the water shaking her
head and tossing the hook back at him. While he enjoyed the view he
would of much rather had her in his hands for a photo op.
Doc wanted to go to Lake Don Pedro the
next day and since I had fished it a few times already I thought I had
the fish wired and would be as easy to catch as the pond fish.
We launched at Blue oaks and headed close
to some houseboats where the fish should be on beds. My approach to bed
fishing is to blind cast baits to where they should be. I don’t feel so
bad about catching them that way. I had on a watermelon candy Brushhog
that had been working, but the fish didn’t want it.
I decided to approach the day as if I was
in a tournament and go where I would start one. This time of year Rogers
Creek is a good area to start. On the drive with my little 17 foot bass
tracker and its roaring 40 horse engine I had some time to think. Why
had the fish changed their pattern? Why did they change there eating
habit? There is lots of whys and I had to find the answers.
We stopped near the back of the creek and
I started looking though my boxes of worms. I opened a box of
Keeper 082 red flake worms and the light came on. Of course, this time
of year it’s a red 1/16 ounce dart
head with Keeper 08 red flake worm that usually work for me.
On the first cast I felt the tick as the
fish sucked in the bait. As it swam off with it I set the hook. The bass
was hot and zoomed up to the surface and jumped and thrashed and threw
the bait back at me. Not a good start but I was developing a pattern. I
started down the bank and caught a couple dinks and a couple keepers
then nothing. I turned the boat around and Doc put in a keeper fish and
I followed with a couple more.
We had a pattern, so now all we had to do
was cover water. By noon we had our limit in the boat and the wind was
starting to toss white caps at us. I set the boat up for trolling and we
headed back against the wind toward Blue Oaks.
Quarter mile and Doc reels in a nice
trout. Another quarter mile and this time Doc reels in a small salmon
that had been attacked by a bass. It looked like it had been yanked off
the downrigger clip as the scaling was fresh. Another quarter mile and
the same thing happened. The water was so rough that we couldn’t see the
small salmon strike, so we were dragging them on the troll. Sure leads
me to so thinking about dragging swim baits around on the wire.
We had Ex-Cel blue-gold, Ex-Cel pink-blue and a silver flake Ex-Cel and
they were all catching trout, salmon and kokanee at 40 to 60 feet on the
wire.
A great day on the water and while we
were at the cleaning station cleaning the fish I couldn’t help but
wonder why Doc was going to all the trouble to clean fish since he
hardly every eats any. My guess is that he goes back home to brag a
little and give the fish away. I used to ask people if they wanted some
fish to eat and they usually asked are they cleaned. I pretty much quite
wasting my time cleaning fish unless I wanted some fresh for myself.
The next day Doc wanted to try New
Melones. I tried to get him to go back to Pedro but he wanted to try
another lake. Damn I thought now I have to find out what they want over
there.
We launched at Glory Hole and talked to
a couple bass fishermen. "What are they hitting on", I asked. "Senko's",
one said. "What color", I asked. They said, "try anything green, jigs,
plugs etc". I said thanks and that the fish were on Keepers 082 red
flake baits at Pedro all you had to do was go down the bank tossing them
in 10 feet of water and you could whack them. One of them said, "then
that’s where you should go". Damn smart ass bass fishermen I was ready
to tell them where they could stuff there fancy new bass boat.
We went across the way and headed down
the bank, 082 wasn't working. Doc missed a fish on a cinnamon senko. The
light went on again and I put on a Spring Bait worm that looks close to
the senko and was rewarded with a 3 pound bass. Doc followed suit with 4
pound spot. We had a pattern now we just had to cover water.
We fished from Glory Hole up past the bridge to get our limit of fish.
Not red hot but it was productive as we limited by 11 a.m.
On the way home we stopped by the pond to
check out the members. Seems like half the club decided to show up over
Easter Weekend as there were a half dozen boats there each day.
I launched and reminded several about
following the club rules. I stopped near the damn as Doc wanted to fish
back to the ramp before heading back down the hill. We probably pissed a
few members off as they were struggling and doc and I went down the bank
catching a dozen bass on our way to the ramp.
Doc hooked another toad but she wrapped
him in the weeds again and got away. It was time to head home for dinner
as Diana had cooked a ham, devil eggs, shrimp salad and prepared oven
baked olive oil drenched
asparagus with cheese waiting for our arrival.
My advice for bass fishing is what baits
that have worked for you last year at this time will more than likely
work for you at this time of year. That’s usually a good rule of thumb
for me but those darn Florida Pond Bass don’t follow any rules. |
