PDA

View Full Version : Late Duct Report for AV on 10/26/2010,



FarmerJohn
10-30-2010, 05:37 AM
Sorry it’s so late.
The plan was to hit 4 or 5 spots in the AV that day and see what kind of damage I could do. Which for me means the only damage will be to my stress level because face it if you’re not lowering your stress level when your fishing you are doing something wrong!! Really Wrong!! And you should seek professional help!! LOL!!!!!!
This post/report is kind of important to me and calls for a little setup so bear with me and I’ll try to keep it entrusting.
I live in the AV, Lake LA to be exact. But since hardly anyone knows were that is I usually say I live in East Palmdale just north of Littlerock at 170th east and that will get rid of the “cornfused” look on their face.
I think it was in 2004 when I started fishing the Duct after finding the Website that put fishing the California Aqueduct for Striper on the map. The one the only “STRIPER BILL” who is to me anyways the Godfather of it, his site turned me into a striper junky and I for one will never pass up a chance to proudly brag that he is a very good friend of mine! I also know that I am close to being 100% correct in saying that “EVERYONE ON THE FNN” members and browsers who posted or researched Stripers knows of or has been on his site.
Oops! Sorry for starting to get sidetracked. ??? Let’s see where was I?? Oh yes!
So since 2004 I’ve done quite a bit of fishing in the AV Duct. But I never had landed a striper of any size out here, not even a school. In fact up till about 2 months ago I had not even witnessed anyone else does it either and I had never seen one swimming, boiling or fallowing my retrievals and really was starting to question the posts with pictures of good size stripers caught here in the AV. Now I have caught a few cats and have seen carp jumping but as far as stripers go I was beginning to think that these posts were just fabrications.
In 2007 and 2008 I made a couple of trips out to “TRAIL BLAZER” & “CUTBAIT’S” neck of the woods or the “BAKO BOY’S “as some people know them, in Bakersfield. Were they seem to tear it up pretty damn good and there is where I had some success? On 3 separated trips I landed a striper between 4 & 5lbs and there were schoolies mixed in the trips out there with a few or more than I am going to admit of dreaded “Skunkedges” which can be a real confidence crushers.
In April or May of 2010 I PM’ed KPN on the FNN and invited me to join me at Castaic for a day of fishing on the old boat that nursed back from the bone yard 6 months prior and since then I’ve lost count of how many times we’ve fished together at Castaic and I truly am proud to consider him my friend. He has also contributed to my Striper success rate improvement by 10 fold at Castaic but I still think that the AV Duct has very few if any striper population. So KPN, Fishinone, Alex and I all plan an evening too hit the AV Duct at a set of gates. We get out of our vehicles and I get my gear out of the back of my truck then I started walking towards the gates and their about 150’ ahead of me. As I walk up Khanh’s first cast hits the water and less than 5 seconds later (5 SECONDS)!!!!!! He yells HOOK UP!! And I’m thinking to myself?? Right! Oh I Get It!!!Skye!! NO REALLY!! And then I see the 8 pounder in his net. Now I keep saying to myself over & over like a broken record “NO F__KIN WAY “““ “ and then he did the same exact thing at the next set of gates we hit, like it was rehearsed or something .
HIS BAIT /LURE OF CHOICE IS HIS OWN (>KPN- Skinny Shad<).
And hard as we tried the rest of us were force to have SKUNK for dinner.
After that night I started getting out there with my KPN- Skinny Shad whenever I could. Still I had no luck. I even stopped and through my KPN for 2 hours on my way home from a full day at Castaic for no love. I was trying to copy Khanh’s retrieval but I guess it wasn’t good enough. Then called Khanh up I think it was last month and was just touching bases with him and drilling him on his DVL trip and informed him I didn’t have any luck with the Skinny Shad yet and told him I don’t give up that easy, I had just begun to fight! He said that now I’m on the right track and I have to keep trying, that it took him many skunked trips before he found a retrieval that worked. So I was hoping by using his or as close to it as I am able to then applying little changes to it and keeping track of them it FINALLY PAID OFF!!!!
NOW THIS IS WHAT IT IS ALL ABOUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I walked up to the gates and pulled out my older bait caster because I still had the 15 lbs test on it and the newer only has 12 lbs. which I will need seeing as the flow is stronger than I have ever seen it. Tied on my Skinny Shad and lobbed it into the middle of the churning white water. About 2 or 3 seconds pass and then it felt like a top fuel funny car hit on the first cast and as you’ve read before “The Fight Was On’.
Right away I was thinking that there was a good chance I was going to lose this fish!! My drag was too tight so when I took my hand off the crank handle I was reminded that I needed to take that reel apart and give it a good cleaning & lube and forgot. The bail button was up and the spool was in gear or connected to the crank handle but the anti-reverse crank mechanism did not engage so the crank handle did a hell of a tap dance on my thumb knuckle that sounded like the old card in the bicycle spokes thing you did as a kid and felt like someone chopped my thumb off with an axe. Now my thumb was hurting so bad that I didn’t think I would be able loosen the drag. Because of the current and the fish using it against me for all he’s was worth we had a see saw battle going like I had never experienced before. At this point I had so much adrenalin flowing through me I forgot about my thumb and somehow got the drag adjusted and as I was coming back to earth I noticed I was shaking or more like a real hard shiver then realized my legs were shivering or what some refer to as knees knocking and remembered I had total knee replacements done to both knees a few years ago meaning that there are no bones in my knee joints because they were cut out and replaced by titanium and plastic ones????
I am not even going to try and figure that one out, so back to the fight!
I really thought I was going to lose him when I saw he had almost dragged the line into the buoy cable and that would be the end of this fight. We are still on the see saw. I then try to work my way over so I can grab my net. Once I got it I realize that from behind the barbed wire I’m standing behind its 5’ down to the water and my net handle is only 5’. Seeing the net was not going to work I through it down and got the rod tip as close to the water as possible to keep him away from that buoy cable and loosened the drag even more and let run for it and when he stopped I’d crank as fast as I could and more or less gave him enough rope to hang himself. Then I got him up to where I could see him and when I did I about had a heart attack and new this is new personal best. Now he was worn out so I got him over to the concrete side and dragged he out and up the ramp and he did not try to flip-flop at all. His *** Was Mine!
I tried to weigh him but my scale would not work. He was defiantly bigger than the almost 9 pounder I caught at Castaic two months ago. I’m going to say he was 9.9 lbs. because I would like my first DD to be bigger.
I’ve read a few posts lately where members have made the statement!
KPN Rules!!
Here is my Statement!
KPN IS THE RULE TO RULE STRIPERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank You Khanh!

FarmerJohn
10-30-2010, 05:52 AM
2662126620Here are the pic's I forgot.26619

trail blazer
10-30-2010, 07:38 AM
NICEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE


WTG My persisent fellow STRIPER KILLER.

C O N G R A T S!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.


All the different aspects,,,THE FRUSTRATION:mad:,,,THE FREIGHT TRAIN SLAM:Razz:,,,THE ZZZZZZZZZZZ ZZZZZZZZZZ Of a heavy shoulderd duct striper:Big Grin:,,,,The drama of landing one around all the ropes,ladders,and fences:Big Grin:,,,
All that and MORE is what makes the 444 mile long CALI, AQUADUCT one of the most unique fisheries on the planet!


OOOOOO And by the way,,,,,,,,,Id say he,d go 11lbs EASILY,,JMO.


AGAIN,,,,

CONGRATS!!

TRAIL BLAZER

yolo
10-30-2010, 08:34 AM
John, Nice fish man. Seems like the AV duct DD's are strong this year. Nice job landing it. I know it's not easy to do solo with the buoys, fences, barbed wire etc. I nailed another one myself this morning. Will be posting in a few. Congrats again!

kpn
10-30-2010, 12:17 PM
OMG!!!!!!!!!!
I can't believe I read your report & also your history John :LOL:.
Congrats on your first ever AV Duct's striper..........and more to come.
When I listen your voice mail you left on my phone (my hand was dirty with clear coat) I can hear the excitement in your voice (I would....if my first fish is that big :Wink:). The only thing I missed is I wasn't there to celebrate it with you.

Congrats again my friend. Now.....Go out and get some more :Wink:.

Khanh.

koifish
10-30-2010, 02:20 PM
John

Congrat to your first pb...get some more... nice job.

huukup12
10-30-2010, 02:51 PM
Congrat John on your first Duct DD...and many more to come. I need to order the white KPN skinny shad.

novel44
10-30-2010, 03:09 PM
Congrats on the fish.
Although i have not met Stripper Bill, he has inspired my interest for duct fishing even before i found FNN...

M@M
10-30-2010, 03:13 PM
Nice Fish!!! Thanks for the report.

fishinone
10-31-2010, 08:55 PM
Nice catch John. I've been looking for your report. I enjoyed your write up.

You're on them now.

I can't wait for the report on the one you just told me about.

I don't want to steal your thunder but I'm going to tell everybody that you did a little trick or treating and made a good haul.

Everybody watch for John's next post.

sumojo
11-01-2010, 11:36 AM
Nice catch john on your striper . i only got a duct schoolie under my belt so far .good job thats awesome

HaiTheMeister
11-01-2010, 01:03 PM
NICE John! I am still searching for mine.
Congrats!

FarmerJohn
11-01-2010, 10:10 PM
Thanks Trail Blazer, I'd would be honored if I could join Cut Bait and you on one of your search and destroy missions. Or join me and Khanh at Castaic on my boat.
Thank you and everybody who replied to this post for your kind words.
FarmerJohn:

gletemfeelsteelgary
11-02-2010, 06:39 PM
congrats on your 1st av peeg...

saweet, I can remember my 1st as well...


Nicely done and that was quite a story : )

Way ta roll !
Gary