string_wise
10-16-2010, 08:31 PM
Not sure how the pics will look but I resized them a bunch to upload them here. Hope they aren't too small.
Got to Castaic at 6:15 or so. Not a lot of boats in line this morning, we were probably 10 deep or so.
Cool, misty, foggy, just right for fishing :LOL:
We went straight for bait today, glass minnows and shad. Filled up the live well with 40 pieces or so but it probably took an hour. I have no netting skills, that's obvious. Mad props to SDDave for being so good at gathering bait and showing us where to fish.
Went to the fishing arm and saw some nice topwater action. I threw the KPN topwater at them but didn't get a bite. I read all the posts on folks killing it with the KPN but I just don't seem to get a lot of action on that lure (it's me, not the lure).
Saw a big fish swirling in the shallows. Grabbed my big rod, St Croix 7' 6", Curado 300E, 10 lb Seaguar Fluoro and a KPN sexy shad rattle trap. I kill with this KPN, by far my most productive.
Didn't want to troll towards the fish so a launched the KPN to the back of the cove. Nothing. Tossed it again and ripped it. Nothing. Couple of guys in a nice Nitro roll in, looking for shad maybe, not sure. Was a little worried they might have spooked the big girl but I made another really long cast all the way to the weeds. 10 feet off the bank and wham, fish on!
Wasn't sure what it was, big stripey or big LMB but I knew it was a big fish. I usually let my boy boat all the fish I catch but this was a pig and I didn't want to risk it.
20 seconds in and this honker LMB does a nice tail dance across the water. Holy Ship! Told Luke to grab the net. He couldn't get the fish net out of storage, told him to grab the shad net and quickly.
My big rig made it nice because I was pretty sure that unless I totally f'd this up, I was going to boat this piggy fish.
Another minute of a fight and we boated this nice 9 pounder in the attached pics. My personal best LMB. I grew up in the midwest and have caught some nice 5-7 pounders but nothing like this. Not a hawg for Castaic, but hey, I'm happy! I didn't retie the KPN and launched it into the depths on my next cast, but I'm not complaining. Always retie after a big fish!
After this my blood was pumping and I decided to help the boy boat some fish. I tied on a #8 red hook weightless and a glass minnow. Flipped it into the weeds, lip hooked, minnow did it's thing and caught a dink. Did this about 5 more times, all dinks, nothing over a pound. Didn't retie even though I should have after so many fish. Hell I just lost my KPN, still not smart enough to retie. :Embarrassed:
I told him to get a big one out of the live well and we lip hooked a 3" minnow.
I tossed it right to where we had been catching dinks and this big minnow did a nice surface breaking swirly swirly move then just stopped. I'm wondering what's wrong with it then all of a sudden from the depths I see a massive fish come up to the minnow...just staring at it with nothing but bad intentions. It's 6" under the surface, it's a freaking hawg, and I told Luke to get ready and handed him the pole as I had just boated my personal best LMB.
This is a St. Croix spinning real with 4 lb mono on it, 5 fish with no retie. :Secret:
This beast just sits under the surface eyeing this minnow. Minnow is frozen, not moving an ounce. All of a sudden this absolute pig of a bass, and I do mean PIG, just inhales the minnow without even rippling the surface. Giant mouth wide open, just a full on inhale.
I told Luke count to three and reel set the fish. Like a 20 year vet, he executes it perfectly.
Fish on!
Not just any fish, waaaaaaaaayyyyy too big of a fish though for a 7 year old with 4 lb mono!
The fish instantly peels off 40ft of line and nearly peels my son off of our boat. Rod tip is probably 2+ feet under the water and the fish is still taking line.
It heads to the the weeds but then almost magically turns away and heads right towards the boat. I'm thinking YES!
Luke's reeling up slack like a pro, tip up, not too high, keeps the tension on the line. I grab the net, the shad net of course :Rolls Eyes:, he's 10ft off the front of the boat and coming right at us.
Super light drag, ultra light 7 year old (he's 50 lbs dripping wet), the fish goes completely under the boat and right out the other side...no time to run around the end of the boat as this is a FAST mover...too fast in fact...snap.
Game over. :Sad:
We got to see this leviathan up close and personal twice. Once on the minnow slurp and once as he hauled *** under the boat.
How big? Don't know, but with a fresh memory of what a Socal 9 lbr looks like, I'd say quite a bit bigger. 20? No way. 15? doubt it. 12? Maybe. Bigger? Hate to guess. BIG though, really damn big.
We caught 21 LMB total today. A lot in the 1-2 lb size, not a single striper.
2 giants, one made it to the land of digital photos and one didn't. All were CNR though the big'n made it to the live well until I could find the camera and take pics.
What a great day...made some real memories out there. I didn't want to leave. If not for baseball practice and the fact the lake closes at 6:30, we'd still be out there.
Thanks for reading :Envious:
Got to Castaic at 6:15 or so. Not a lot of boats in line this morning, we were probably 10 deep or so.
Cool, misty, foggy, just right for fishing :LOL:
We went straight for bait today, glass minnows and shad. Filled up the live well with 40 pieces or so but it probably took an hour. I have no netting skills, that's obvious. Mad props to SDDave for being so good at gathering bait and showing us where to fish.
Went to the fishing arm and saw some nice topwater action. I threw the KPN topwater at them but didn't get a bite. I read all the posts on folks killing it with the KPN but I just don't seem to get a lot of action on that lure (it's me, not the lure).
Saw a big fish swirling in the shallows. Grabbed my big rod, St Croix 7' 6", Curado 300E, 10 lb Seaguar Fluoro and a KPN sexy shad rattle trap. I kill with this KPN, by far my most productive.
Didn't want to troll towards the fish so a launched the KPN to the back of the cove. Nothing. Tossed it again and ripped it. Nothing. Couple of guys in a nice Nitro roll in, looking for shad maybe, not sure. Was a little worried they might have spooked the big girl but I made another really long cast all the way to the weeds. 10 feet off the bank and wham, fish on!
Wasn't sure what it was, big stripey or big LMB but I knew it was a big fish. I usually let my boy boat all the fish I catch but this was a pig and I didn't want to risk it.
20 seconds in and this honker LMB does a nice tail dance across the water. Holy Ship! Told Luke to grab the net. He couldn't get the fish net out of storage, told him to grab the shad net and quickly.
My big rig made it nice because I was pretty sure that unless I totally f'd this up, I was going to boat this piggy fish.
Another minute of a fight and we boated this nice 9 pounder in the attached pics. My personal best LMB. I grew up in the midwest and have caught some nice 5-7 pounders but nothing like this. Not a hawg for Castaic, but hey, I'm happy! I didn't retie the KPN and launched it into the depths on my next cast, but I'm not complaining. Always retie after a big fish!
After this my blood was pumping and I decided to help the boy boat some fish. I tied on a #8 red hook weightless and a glass minnow. Flipped it into the weeds, lip hooked, minnow did it's thing and caught a dink. Did this about 5 more times, all dinks, nothing over a pound. Didn't retie even though I should have after so many fish. Hell I just lost my KPN, still not smart enough to retie. :Embarrassed:
I told him to get a big one out of the live well and we lip hooked a 3" minnow.
I tossed it right to where we had been catching dinks and this big minnow did a nice surface breaking swirly swirly move then just stopped. I'm wondering what's wrong with it then all of a sudden from the depths I see a massive fish come up to the minnow...just staring at it with nothing but bad intentions. It's 6" under the surface, it's a freaking hawg, and I told Luke to get ready and handed him the pole as I had just boated my personal best LMB.
This is a St. Croix spinning real with 4 lb mono on it, 5 fish with no retie. :Secret:
This beast just sits under the surface eyeing this minnow. Minnow is frozen, not moving an ounce. All of a sudden this absolute pig of a bass, and I do mean PIG, just inhales the minnow without even rippling the surface. Giant mouth wide open, just a full on inhale.
I told Luke count to three and reel set the fish. Like a 20 year vet, he executes it perfectly.
Fish on!
Not just any fish, waaaaaaaaayyyyy too big of a fish though for a 7 year old with 4 lb mono!
The fish instantly peels off 40ft of line and nearly peels my son off of our boat. Rod tip is probably 2+ feet under the water and the fish is still taking line.
It heads to the the weeds but then almost magically turns away and heads right towards the boat. I'm thinking YES!
Luke's reeling up slack like a pro, tip up, not too high, keeps the tension on the line. I grab the net, the shad net of course :Rolls Eyes:, he's 10ft off the front of the boat and coming right at us.
Super light drag, ultra light 7 year old (he's 50 lbs dripping wet), the fish goes completely under the boat and right out the other side...no time to run around the end of the boat as this is a FAST mover...too fast in fact...snap.
Game over. :Sad:
We got to see this leviathan up close and personal twice. Once on the minnow slurp and once as he hauled *** under the boat.
How big? Don't know, but with a fresh memory of what a Socal 9 lbr looks like, I'd say quite a bit bigger. 20? No way. 15? doubt it. 12? Maybe. Bigger? Hate to guess. BIG though, really damn big.
We caught 21 LMB total today. A lot in the 1-2 lb size, not a single striper.
2 giants, one made it to the land of digital photos and one didn't. All were CNR though the big'n made it to the live well until I could find the camera and take pics.
What a great day...made some real memories out there. I didn't want to leave. If not for baseball practice and the fact the lake closes at 6:30, we'd still be out there.
Thanks for reading :Envious: