fishinone
02-03-2013, 09:06 PM
My old Suzuki DT150 2 stroke "blew chunks" out of the side of the crankcase on Christmas Eve. I found a 2001 Suzuki DF115 that's been left out in the sun and has a rash from bouncing around the boat yard but it runs just fine. So now that I have a 4 stroke EFI, I can troll without breaking the bank.
On Saturday after a couple of times going out and trying the motor I decided to try my hand at trolling. I had taken a long break from trolling because the old engine would burn over $100 in fuel in a day of trolling.
Fishbones and I met at Gallion's Corner in Castaic, got some great sandwiches and headed out. We saw lots of schools on points 30 to 60 ft deep and trolled through them but they ignored our offerings. We trolled until about 9:30 but didn't get any interest from the obvious schools. We picked Loweboat up at the ramp and got back to it.
We finally got a troll fish about an hour later. We didn't see a school on the fish finder,we just noticed a rod bouncing. The fish was too small to pop the line out of the release but we were on the board with the right kind.
http://i454.photobucket.com/albums/qq265/fishinone/Castaic%20Trolling%202-2-13/IMAG0405_zpsb07cf700.jpg
The first troll fish of the year.
Things were so slow that we decided to try bait and wait. We anchored up on a great looking school of large fish marks. After a couple hours of trying all of our tricks we moved to Elizabeth Canyon and anchored up on some good looking medium to small looking fishmarks. The results were the same, except that I did see fishbones pole tip move just a little once here.
At 3:30 we went back on the troll. We hadn't gone too far when we noticed even smaller head shakes on the DR pole. Fishbones was up, He skied his quarry in across the surface as we kept right on going. This one was the wrong kind!
http://i454.photobucket.com/albums/qq265/fishinone/Castaic%20Trolling%202-2-13/IMAG0408_zpsa40facd1.jpg
This UGB put up almost no fight but at least fishbones beat the skunk.
We continued on trolling the far side of the Fish Arm toward C Point. We saw lots of schools and trolled through them but didn't get hit.
At C Point we found a school of inactive fish piled on a hump. We decided to badger them to see if we could get them to go. We made pass after pass through them, it was looking like we were going home with only 2 fish for the boat. We set up a pass heading for the ramp. I had given up when I saw the rod tip bounce. This fish actually popped the release! It was the biggest fish of the day.
http://i454.photobucket.com/albums/qq265/fishinone/Castaic%20Trolling%202-2-13/IMAG0411_zpsd2c19511.jpg
Here's Loweboat with the catch of the day!
That's the first smallmouth caught from my boat at Castaic. I had heard of them and seen pictures but this is the first one I've seen in there.
It was a slow day but none of us got skunked.
Thank you T/O for the good intel, all of the fish were caught on your recommendations.
On Saturday after a couple of times going out and trying the motor I decided to try my hand at trolling. I had taken a long break from trolling because the old engine would burn over $100 in fuel in a day of trolling.
Fishbones and I met at Gallion's Corner in Castaic, got some great sandwiches and headed out. We saw lots of schools on points 30 to 60 ft deep and trolled through them but they ignored our offerings. We trolled until about 9:30 but didn't get any interest from the obvious schools. We picked Loweboat up at the ramp and got back to it.
We finally got a troll fish about an hour later. We didn't see a school on the fish finder,we just noticed a rod bouncing. The fish was too small to pop the line out of the release but we were on the board with the right kind.
http://i454.photobucket.com/albums/qq265/fishinone/Castaic%20Trolling%202-2-13/IMAG0405_zpsb07cf700.jpg
The first troll fish of the year.
Things were so slow that we decided to try bait and wait. We anchored up on a great looking school of large fish marks. After a couple hours of trying all of our tricks we moved to Elizabeth Canyon and anchored up on some good looking medium to small looking fishmarks. The results were the same, except that I did see fishbones pole tip move just a little once here.
At 3:30 we went back on the troll. We hadn't gone too far when we noticed even smaller head shakes on the DR pole. Fishbones was up, He skied his quarry in across the surface as we kept right on going. This one was the wrong kind!
http://i454.photobucket.com/albums/qq265/fishinone/Castaic%20Trolling%202-2-13/IMAG0408_zpsa40facd1.jpg
This UGB put up almost no fight but at least fishbones beat the skunk.
We continued on trolling the far side of the Fish Arm toward C Point. We saw lots of schools and trolled through them but didn't get hit.
At C Point we found a school of inactive fish piled on a hump. We decided to badger them to see if we could get them to go. We made pass after pass through them, it was looking like we were going home with only 2 fish for the boat. We set up a pass heading for the ramp. I had given up when I saw the rod tip bounce. This fish actually popped the release! It was the biggest fish of the day.
http://i454.photobucket.com/albums/qq265/fishinone/Castaic%20Trolling%202-2-13/IMAG0411_zpsd2c19511.jpg
Here's Loweboat with the catch of the day!
That's the first smallmouth caught from my boat at Castaic. I had heard of them and seen pictures but this is the first one I've seen in there.
It was a slow day but none of us got skunked.
Thank you T/O for the good intel, all of the fish were caught on your recommendations.