mil sonrisas
06-08-2011, 12:01 PM
[/INDENT]It has been quite a while since i last fished. a few of my co-workers wanted to get of ft irwin and head up to big bear. we decided that we could go on saturday, being that it was the first saturday we have had of together in about 3 months. unfortunately, i had to work friday night and wouldnt be able to head up there until about 8:30 saturday morning.
[/INDENT] after getting out of work, i loaded up my wagon, lol, yeah, i drive a wagon, and headed to barstow to pick up some grub at robertiroz. picked up some breakfast burritos, taquitos(carne asada and carnitas) and a couple of orders of fries. as we're eating our breakfast and making it down the road we get a call from a friend that was 30 minutes ahead of us and he said there were about 50 cars ahead of him going up the mountain. i figured that it being saturday morning it would be common for that many cars to be going up there. so after about 35-40 minutes, we get to big bear and drive around to find a spot. boulder bay was packed. the dam, on both sides, was packed. all along the north shore was also packed. we kept driving up a bit more and found a spot at one of the public ramps. we pulled up and sat on a couple of rocks for a while. the two docks/piers had people on them and i hate crowding in on people. about 20 minutes later, the 3 people on the small pier packed up and left. we hurried up and took there empty spot.
[/INDENT] finally got our lines out. the day started off beautiful. it was sunny with a slight breeze. one of my friends is a fellow texan that has been stationed here with me for the last 2 years. we both lived minutes from south padre island and had done tons of saltwater fishing in the gulf. he had never fished for rainbow trout before and i was hoping he would hook into one so that i would have someone to come back with me more often. initially i had our set-up with a 3/8oz weight above a swivel, with a hook at the end of a 12" leader. we kept getting hung up on the weeds and after about ten pounds of grass being reeled in, i decided to get rid of the weight, add a bobber, and a split shot above my hook. i set him up the same. ten minutes later i caught a small crappie. since the wind started o pick up, i set the leader lenght to barely brush over the top of the grass/weeds and would cast out at 1-2o'clock and have it float all the way to about 9 o'clock. it seemed to be working fine, as i caught another crappie.
[/INDENT] it had been about an hour and a half and the wind picked up and it started to get cold. not sure about the temperature, but being a south texas boy, it was cold. my friend had yet to catch anything. he seemed to be enjoying himself anyways, so it didnt bother me much. we were bs'ing when he tells me, " rod, i think you have another bite!" i figured i would let him reel it in and catch his first california fish. i figured we would both have caught some crappie that day.
[/INDENT]as soon as he sets the hook, he gets this huge smile on his face and starts reeling it in. all of a sudden, i see a fish that looks nothing like a crappie. at first i thought maybe a catfish? no whiskers. maybe a carp? nope, too light. no f'ing way, it's a rainbow! and a pretty good sized one too. i begin to tell him to reel it in and walk towards the shore(i didnt think we would catch anything requiring a net, so i left it at home). he finally gets it on shore and after struggling a bit to get it out of the water i ended up in the water. it was definitely gut hooked and he asked if he could atleast take a pic. i told him it's your fish, do as you want. it was bleeding a bit and my other friend decided we should keep it and string it up. once we were all done, got dry, and exchanged high fives, my friend told me it was awesome of me letting him land a fish like that. he said that had i known it was a trout i probably would have reeled it in myself. honestly, i wouldn't have done it any different. yes, it is bigger than any trout i have ever caught. yes, i could have had a picture to show my friends. yes, i would have probably released it, but the smile he had on his face when he picked it up was totally worth it! at the end of the day, we realized that the rod all the fish were caught on that day was the first fishing rod i made about a year and a half ago. it was a kit i bought online and my first attempt at an ultra-light spinning rod. i couldnt wait for the red thread to get home, so i wrapped it in the kit thread it came with, brown and metallic gold. first crappie and trout ever caught on it. that for me was the icing on the cake! well that's it guys! hope you enjoyed. let me try and get the pics up....
[/INDENT] after getting out of work, i loaded up my wagon, lol, yeah, i drive a wagon, and headed to barstow to pick up some grub at robertiroz. picked up some breakfast burritos, taquitos(carne asada and carnitas) and a couple of orders of fries. as we're eating our breakfast and making it down the road we get a call from a friend that was 30 minutes ahead of us and he said there were about 50 cars ahead of him going up the mountain. i figured that it being saturday morning it would be common for that many cars to be going up there. so after about 35-40 minutes, we get to big bear and drive around to find a spot. boulder bay was packed. the dam, on both sides, was packed. all along the north shore was also packed. we kept driving up a bit more and found a spot at one of the public ramps. we pulled up and sat on a couple of rocks for a while. the two docks/piers had people on them and i hate crowding in on people. about 20 minutes later, the 3 people on the small pier packed up and left. we hurried up and took there empty spot.
[/INDENT] finally got our lines out. the day started off beautiful. it was sunny with a slight breeze. one of my friends is a fellow texan that has been stationed here with me for the last 2 years. we both lived minutes from south padre island and had done tons of saltwater fishing in the gulf. he had never fished for rainbow trout before and i was hoping he would hook into one so that i would have someone to come back with me more often. initially i had our set-up with a 3/8oz weight above a swivel, with a hook at the end of a 12" leader. we kept getting hung up on the weeds and after about ten pounds of grass being reeled in, i decided to get rid of the weight, add a bobber, and a split shot above my hook. i set him up the same. ten minutes later i caught a small crappie. since the wind started o pick up, i set the leader lenght to barely brush over the top of the grass/weeds and would cast out at 1-2o'clock and have it float all the way to about 9 o'clock. it seemed to be working fine, as i caught another crappie.
[/INDENT] it had been about an hour and a half and the wind picked up and it started to get cold. not sure about the temperature, but being a south texas boy, it was cold. my friend had yet to catch anything. he seemed to be enjoying himself anyways, so it didnt bother me much. we were bs'ing when he tells me, " rod, i think you have another bite!" i figured i would let him reel it in and catch his first california fish. i figured we would both have caught some crappie that day.
[/INDENT]as soon as he sets the hook, he gets this huge smile on his face and starts reeling it in. all of a sudden, i see a fish that looks nothing like a crappie. at first i thought maybe a catfish? no whiskers. maybe a carp? nope, too light. no f'ing way, it's a rainbow! and a pretty good sized one too. i begin to tell him to reel it in and walk towards the shore(i didnt think we would catch anything requiring a net, so i left it at home). he finally gets it on shore and after struggling a bit to get it out of the water i ended up in the water. it was definitely gut hooked and he asked if he could atleast take a pic. i told him it's your fish, do as you want. it was bleeding a bit and my other friend decided we should keep it and string it up. once we were all done, got dry, and exchanged high fives, my friend told me it was awesome of me letting him land a fish like that. he said that had i known it was a trout i probably would have reeled it in myself. honestly, i wouldn't have done it any different. yes, it is bigger than any trout i have ever caught. yes, i could have had a picture to show my friends. yes, i would have probably released it, but the smile he had on his face when he picked it up was totally worth it! at the end of the day, we realized that the rod all the fish were caught on that day was the first fishing rod i made about a year and a half ago. it was a kit i bought online and my first attempt at an ultra-light spinning rod. i couldnt wait for the red thread to get home, so i wrapped it in the kit thread it came with, brown and metallic gold. first crappie and trout ever caught on it. that for me was the icing on the cake! well that's it guys! hope you enjoyed. let me try and get the pics up....