Lake Isabella Derby/ Upper Kern 4/3-4/6

[Skaguy04]

Im going to start off by saying that I will never fish the Lake Isabella derby ever again. This derby was a joke; ONE fish in three days. Let just say that there were many people out there that did not get one fish in days. I talked to many people, (since on one was catching fish) and I was hearing the same story from everyone. There was a guy out there that only caught 3 fish the whole week. I was part of the select few anglers that did not get the skunk. There were "13,000 lbs" of trout stocked; each trout was averaging 1 lb. There were 8,820 people registered for the derby this year. (13,000 trout, thats 1.47 fish per person). There needs to be more organization going in to the derby for next year.

4/3
We arrived at our campiste around 3pm, but didnt do any fishing.
Nice campsites (camp James)
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b19/Skaguy04/04032009163.jpg

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b19/Skaguy04/04052009183.jpg

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b19/Skaguy04/04052009189.jpg

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b19/Skaguy04/04052009190.jpg


4/4
We were fishin by the main dam. Did not catch any trout. Monkey caught a blue gill, thats it.
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b19/Skaguy04/04042009166.jpg
After the skunk at the lake for the day, we went up to one of my favorite places to fish in the river. It was 5:30 pm when we droped the line in the river. Within 5 mins I caught a nice trout. (I caught a fish at the place that has not been stocked since 11/26/08.
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b19/Skaguy04/04042009167.jpg

4/5
Since no one was catching any fish at the derby, we didnt even attempt to go to the lake. It was saturday and it was a zoo at the lake, so we fished elsewhere. We went up to the Johnsondale bridge to do some fishing in the wild section of the river. We hiked in 2 miles into the wild section. It was well worth it. It was nice and quiet. We only saw about 3 other people there.

First fish for me
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b19/Skaguy04/04052009171.jpg

Monkey soon followed with his first of the day
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b19/Skaguy04/04052009174.jpg

My buddy also managed to catch one too
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b19/Skaguy04/04052009175.jpg

The highlight of the day was catching my PB Brown trout. It was about 19'' and fat with beautiful colors. I was a happy camper!
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b19/Skaguy04/04052009176.jpg

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b19/Skaguy04/04052009177.jpg

This was the last fish of the day
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b19/Skaguy04/04052009179.jpg

Totals
Me- 3 landed and 1 lost at the shore
monkey- 1
buddy-1


4/6
Fished Kissack cove for one trout.
End of derby for me.
Pics of the lake
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b19/Skaguy04/04062009194.jpg

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b19/Skaguy04/04052009184.jpg

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b19/Skaguy04/04042009165.jpg

[jase33]

yeah man the derby gets crazier every year.least it didnt rain this time.heard the wind
blew like crazy.nice job on the upper river....didnt think above J-dale was open yet...
ill have to check it out.thanks for the report.

[mth1997]

Booyah son!!!! Those are some beauties brutha!!!! I ain't gonna lie, you got me jealous as a mofo, I really need to get back up there and do some river fishin.

Whats up for 2 weekends from now? I gotta stay around home for the holiday next weekend but the weekend after that I think I might be able to convince the wifey to let me out of my cage.

Wow, dude, congrats on such wild beauties, and your bro too mang!!!! Nice job fellas!!

[Skaguy04]

yeah man the derby gets crazier every year.least it didnt rain this time.heard the wind
blew like crazy.nice job on the upper river....didnt think above J-dale was open yet...
ill have to check it out.thanks for the report.


Its open, but special regulations are in place...
Barbless Hooks, artificials only, and NO KEEPING fish.

[BakoBassin]

That brown makes up for everything IMO.

[Skaguy04]

That brown makes up for everything IMO.

Hell yea it does....

[buck liggett]

Yeah the derby blew! So did the wind the whole time. We moored the boat at the marina, instead of trying to launch everyday. So We just ended up going back there a crappie fishing. I seen very few stringers, very few catches.
Everyone I talked to said the same? I heard them announce at the marina on saturday someone caught a $10,000 fish. All We came up with was a mess of crappie, two catfish, I got one trout 20" on friday off the docks & My buddy caught an 8" trout during the derby thats it. We too just changed stratigies & had fun anyways.

I seen several float tubers out, and seen some DA$$ in a rental pontoon
drift into three different boats and lake patrol done 39 boat tows on saturday alone. It was pretty crazy out there! When I left today about 10:00 They said they have paid out $14,000 in tagged fish.

[Skaguy04]

Yeah the derby blew! So did the wind the whole time. We moored the boat at the marina, instead of trying to launch everyday. So We just ended up going back there a crappie fishing. I seen very few stringers, very few catches.
Everyone I talked to said the same? I heard them announce at the marina on saturday someone caught a $10,000 fish. All We came up with was a mess of crappie, two catfish, I got one trout 20" on friday off the docks & My buddy caught an 8" trout during the derby thats it!

I seen several float tubers out, and seen some DA$$ in a rental pontoon
drift into three different boats and lake patrol done 39 boat tows on saturday alone. It was pretty crazy out there! When I left today about 10:00 They said they have paid out $14,000 in tagged fish.

There was another 10k fish caught today...(2 10K fish caught total)

[Hawk]

We nailed them in French Gulch on Sat and Sun. No tags though.. I saw a guy in a blue float tube fishing Lip Ripperz getting hit about every ten minutes. Not big fish, but TONS of them. The crappie bite at the marina was nice and steady. My best was close to a pound.

That was the best weather in years except for the wind Sat.

[trail blazer]

Nice brown s,guy!!

[BakoBassin]

Hmm...I may be up for some crappie fishing this week (weekday).

Could I get a PM with what's working?

[DEADROOTS]

I was at the derby also :Smile: I only managed to catch one 9 incher and that was it! There were several huge schools holding 60-70 feet deep in the French gulch, my sonar was beeping out of control but no bites! I saw a total of 9 fish come out on other anglers hooks but that was it for Saturday. Anyway, nice pictures and awesome brownie! I wish I hit the upper river like you did, I hit the lower on the way home and caught nada :Sad:.

[BUDdhaBIG]

that's a beautiful brown trout! congrats!

[FISH ON]

great report like always skaguy. i have given up on the derby a few years back. you got to know when to hold and when to fold. you made the right move going up river and the reward was a big ol brownie. congrats serg.

[Skaguy04]

great report like always skaguy. i have given up on the derby a few years back. you got to know when to hold and when to fold. you made the right move going up river and the reward was a big ol brownie. congrats serg.

Lol everyone was telling me not to go. lol Should have listened

[SNEAKS]

Whats the temp of the lake right now?

[Mojave River Angler]

Ya, I've been learning that lake since last year. Been there at least half a dozen time, some on boat, and some from shore. Ovrall results have varied significantly...from skunked for two days of fishing to sudden rushes of dozens of fish in a few hours. My results for the weekend are as follows.

Saturday- fished the east branch of the lake from a boat from Stine Cove right down the center toward Rocky Point.
--Results--6 Catfish ranging is size from 12" to a 4 lb. 6 0z. Channels and white.

Sunday- fished a few hundred yards out from Stine Cove from a boat until the wind hit at 9 am then from shore at Stine Cove for the rest of the day.
--Results--1 small rainbow trout from the middle of the lake right before the wind hit. Nothing after that for the day.

Monday- fished from sun up on the east end of the lake just east of Stine Cove from a boat until the wind came up at 11ish. Got blown onto shore. Fished from west end of Stine Cove from 1 ish until sundown.
--Results--15 rainbows all from shore...all on power bait in all colors.

Of the 16 rainbows...no tags
1 of the rainbows was a hold over nice full body too.
1 has a red sore where it looked like they tried to tag it but the floppy booger got away without the tag.

Most fish returned to the water unharmed.

Your results may vary
MRA

[Eat Sleep Fish]

now that you do the math, thats effin ridiculous!!

straight up like a casino man.

[Trout-Slayer77]

dude, way to go on some beautiful bows and a good looking big brownie from the river. way better quality fish than those stocked trout.

[fishfinder]

It was the same way last year, in fact at most derbys the fishing is slow.
last year we averaged about 3 fish per angler in our boat with a 5 lber being the biggie.
the crappie are what i am after.

[Skaguy04]

now that you do the math, thats effin ridiculous!!

straight up like a casino man.

I guess thats where we all get caught....

[Hawk]

Whats the temp of the lake right now?

On average 57ish

[Lipripper93561]

The wife and I stayed Sat, Sun, and Monday for a total of two trout, heard from everybody that I talked to that it sucked into I ran into a guy in French gulch marina, he fishes Crowley a bunch so I guess he is used to the "Alpers" that were stocked, he and his budy got 20 between the two on Saturday on floated garden night crawlers, fished next to him in my boat for two hours and didn't see him catch crap, stated the wind kills the trout fishing. I got one on a mack's wedding ring tipped with a crawler, and the other one a pb, that had a size 4 hook with 20 pound test on it burried deep, clipped the line and push the barb down and realeased this suicidal fish for a third angler to catch. Boater etiquite sucks out there, had one guy drift right into my while he was watching, so the wife cast into there boat to let them know whats up, another guy cuts me off while he's trolling and gets his freakin line wrapped in my prop, then states, you cut me off, that was the breaking point, the wifes yelling while I"m taking line off my prop....3 minutes into it, he aplogizes and admits he was at fault, nuff said, freaking trash everywhere, don't think I"ll be back.

[joe man]

It was my first and very likely my last Isabella derby. I will return to Issie when the traffic has died down a little. I was told by a Isebella resident that they did not drop the money fish in the lake until 4/3 which would very likely be the reason that only a few tags were caught. I did not dare to use my float tube due to the heavy (and very dangerous) boat crowd on the lake. I would not have felt that my little girl was safe on the water and I darn sure was not fishing without her.

[Skaguy04]

so, im not the only one claiming that was my last derby

[tacklejunkie]

Very nice fish man! Congrats on those fatties! :EyePop:
Beats derby fishin any day! Way to go guys.

[breadman]

I understand your frustration but It looks like a good time, and it is what it is, loved your photos makes me want to hit the river and looked like alot more fun than working,

[Skaguy04]

I understand your frustration but It looks like a good time, and it is what it is, loved your photos makes me want to hit the river and looked like alot more fun than working,

Now is the time to hit the river

[smitty99]

Nice job and thanks for posting your report! What was working? Flies? Spoons?

[dalean08]

Serg nice job on the trout hey did you see the hillbillys from last year in the trailer? Yelling the F- bomb every 2 minutes and throwing Sh34 out the door at her old man?? what no snow this year?

[Skaguy04]

Serg nice job on the trout hey did you see the hillbillys from last year in the trailer? Yelling the F- bomb every 2 minutes and throwing Sh34 out the door at her old man?? what no snow this year?

No, they were not there this year. They put on a good show last year.