Mojave River Angler
08-24-2009, 11:32 AM
Report for Lake Isabella August 21-23 (Fri-Sun)
To start my report, there is a little background that goes into the telling of the journey.
My F-250 had a water pump that had been squealing for two months. I took it to Big Bear Lake last weekend and felt like the squealing sound had changed. Bad sign! I gave it a few sips of lube and hoped it would get me home. It did and I ordered a water pump for a 460. I’ve changed a water pump before on a 350 so I figured I could handle this. To make a long story short, it wasn’t easy…I had to pull everything off the engine…alternator, power steering, smog pump, AC…to get to the water pump. I tore into it one evening after work and only got TO the pump. The next evening I got the pump off and did all the prep to install the new one. I took a half day off work Friday morning so I could get this done before the weekend. Working out in the driveway in 105 degrees and humid was no fun…morning was the ticket. Got it all done about 11 am and hit the key. Hmm…no leaks! I guess I can drive it to work. Ok, so the pressure to get this done by the weekend is over and I split to work for 4 hours then come home and pack for the weekend and leave by 8 pm to arrive at the lake around 10:30.
Fishing activities.
Saturday morning we broke out the kayak and headed out about 9 from Stine Cove to the West and down the North shore about half way to Rocky Point. We picked up a couple of small cats and a couple of crappie and a couple of bluegill. I metered several schools of fish on the way. Metered groups were mixed about 30 or 40 percent on the medium sized fish. We then moved off to the south toward some stumps and hooked up on one of them for a while. Tim was pretty tired and starting to look a lot like melted crayons in the back of the kayak. Most of what we metered here were small fish. Not a lot of action by 11 am over there so I decided to change all of the baits to crawlers and troll slowly toward our camp. I baited the last pole and tossed it in and let out a little line. I put the pole in my lap for a few seconds to fiddle with something then grabbed it to hand it back to Tim. As I swung it back I felt something hit it. I continued to hand it off to Tim and told him there might be something on the line already. I figured a large crappie or a cat. Tim struggles to get it to come up for a few seconds…reeling but getting nowhere…then it turns and comes right at us…line slack…so I told Tim to keep reeling. I saw some white and jabbed the net it and bring it up quickly…then I see the green. I can’t believe my own eyes…Tim scores a healthy 2-10 largemouth bass . I yelled it out to Tim and he was back there jumping for joy. We had been talking about bass and how they can be pretty tough to find (I’m no bass fisherman) and they fight pretty good. Well, this really made Tim’s weekend an epic adventure. He was really energized and the melted crayons look faded away for the rest of the day. We didn’t catch anything else that I can remember after that. Got back to camp about 2 and put out lines for cats from shore again. We packed up camp and hit El Jacallito for dinner in Kernville around 5:30.
After dinner we swung around to Kissack Bay for the evening fishing. Only ever got carp nibbles there that night. We hit the water in the kayak around 8 I guess. Since it was going to be a short day we didn’t stray far from the west end of Kissack Bay. Buzzed around the tree stumps a bit and pulled in some small cats. I guess about mid morning Tim pulled in a nice channel cat of about 2 and a half pounds. The sun was melting Tim again and he was getting a little bored. About 11 am the wind started and the water was getting a little choppy. I figure we were about done for the day and would head in soon. We had drifted back in toward an area we crossed earlier in the day. Then I hear Tim say he “thinks” he has a bite. I turn around as I hear the sound of line ripping through the water. I see that his new pole is bent completely over and headed toward the water. I encouraged him to allow the line to go out and to just hand on. But this sucker is not going down easy. It pulls Tim’s pole all the way to the kayak and then under. I was all he could do to hang on. I told him not to reel, just to get the pole worked back up to the 45 degree position. He was a real trooper and fought with this one with patience. Finally he got the thing up to the side of the boat but I had a little trouble netting it. After a couple of attempts I got the thing netted and realized that I really don’t want that size of a cat between my legs in a kayak. I also noticed that this was no channel cat. It turned out to be a 3-3 white cat. Tim was stoked again and the look of boredom was chased away for another day.
Baits: Spent most of the weekend throwing crawlers by day from the boat and dough baits at night from shore. I did try shad from shore on the second evening for no joy. We threw out some crappie jigs in a couple of places for a short time…but I really didn’t want a mess of crappie to clean (Dad is getting lazy).
So Tim has set new PBs in several areas.
First Largemouth Bass at 2-10
First White Cat at 3-3 and his largest fish yet (and topped his dad)
One of the channel cats may have also been a new PB for him but we didn’t weigh it. It was pretty close to the same size as the other one he caught in the early summer.
Does anybody know what the brown blob of jelley is? I found it attached to a rock on the shore. It is about the size of a softball and was a stiff jelly like blob.
A great trip to Lake Isabella for us and one not to be forgotten any time soon. Thanks for reading.
MRA and Tim
To start my report, there is a little background that goes into the telling of the journey.
My F-250 had a water pump that had been squealing for two months. I took it to Big Bear Lake last weekend and felt like the squealing sound had changed. Bad sign! I gave it a few sips of lube and hoped it would get me home. It did and I ordered a water pump for a 460. I’ve changed a water pump before on a 350 so I figured I could handle this. To make a long story short, it wasn’t easy…I had to pull everything off the engine…alternator, power steering, smog pump, AC…to get to the water pump. I tore into it one evening after work and only got TO the pump. The next evening I got the pump off and did all the prep to install the new one. I took a half day off work Friday morning so I could get this done before the weekend. Working out in the driveway in 105 degrees and humid was no fun…morning was the ticket. Got it all done about 11 am and hit the key. Hmm…no leaks! I guess I can drive it to work. Ok, so the pressure to get this done by the weekend is over and I split to work for 4 hours then come home and pack for the weekend and leave by 8 pm to arrive at the lake around 10:30.
Fishing activities.
Saturday morning we broke out the kayak and headed out about 9 from Stine Cove to the West and down the North shore about half way to Rocky Point. We picked up a couple of small cats and a couple of crappie and a couple of bluegill. I metered several schools of fish on the way. Metered groups were mixed about 30 or 40 percent on the medium sized fish. We then moved off to the south toward some stumps and hooked up on one of them for a while. Tim was pretty tired and starting to look a lot like melted crayons in the back of the kayak. Most of what we metered here were small fish. Not a lot of action by 11 am over there so I decided to change all of the baits to crawlers and troll slowly toward our camp. I baited the last pole and tossed it in and let out a little line. I put the pole in my lap for a few seconds to fiddle with something then grabbed it to hand it back to Tim. As I swung it back I felt something hit it. I continued to hand it off to Tim and told him there might be something on the line already. I figured a large crappie or a cat. Tim struggles to get it to come up for a few seconds…reeling but getting nowhere…then it turns and comes right at us…line slack…so I told Tim to keep reeling. I saw some white and jabbed the net it and bring it up quickly…then I see the green. I can’t believe my own eyes…Tim scores a healthy 2-10 largemouth bass . I yelled it out to Tim and he was back there jumping for joy. We had been talking about bass and how they can be pretty tough to find (I’m no bass fisherman) and they fight pretty good. Well, this really made Tim’s weekend an epic adventure. He was really energized and the melted crayons look faded away for the rest of the day. We didn’t catch anything else that I can remember after that. Got back to camp about 2 and put out lines for cats from shore again. We packed up camp and hit El Jacallito for dinner in Kernville around 5:30.
After dinner we swung around to Kissack Bay for the evening fishing. Only ever got carp nibbles there that night. We hit the water in the kayak around 8 I guess. Since it was going to be a short day we didn’t stray far from the west end of Kissack Bay. Buzzed around the tree stumps a bit and pulled in some small cats. I guess about mid morning Tim pulled in a nice channel cat of about 2 and a half pounds. The sun was melting Tim again and he was getting a little bored. About 11 am the wind started and the water was getting a little choppy. I figure we were about done for the day and would head in soon. We had drifted back in toward an area we crossed earlier in the day. Then I hear Tim say he “thinks” he has a bite. I turn around as I hear the sound of line ripping through the water. I see that his new pole is bent completely over and headed toward the water. I encouraged him to allow the line to go out and to just hand on. But this sucker is not going down easy. It pulls Tim’s pole all the way to the kayak and then under. I was all he could do to hang on. I told him not to reel, just to get the pole worked back up to the 45 degree position. He was a real trooper and fought with this one with patience. Finally he got the thing up to the side of the boat but I had a little trouble netting it. After a couple of attempts I got the thing netted and realized that I really don’t want that size of a cat between my legs in a kayak. I also noticed that this was no channel cat. It turned out to be a 3-3 white cat. Tim was stoked again and the look of boredom was chased away for another day.
Baits: Spent most of the weekend throwing crawlers by day from the boat and dough baits at night from shore. I did try shad from shore on the second evening for no joy. We threw out some crappie jigs in a couple of places for a short time…but I really didn’t want a mess of crappie to clean (Dad is getting lazy).
So Tim has set new PBs in several areas.
First Largemouth Bass at 2-10
First White Cat at 3-3 and his largest fish yet (and topped his dad)
One of the channel cats may have also been a new PB for him but we didn’t weigh it. It was pretty close to the same size as the other one he caught in the early summer.
Does anybody know what the brown blob of jelley is? I found it attached to a rock on the shore. It is about the size of a softball and was a stiff jelly like blob.
A great trip to Lake Isabella for us and one not to be forgotten any time soon. Thanks for reading.
MRA and Tim