I wish I could play poker with my fellow anglers at lake Wohlford!

I have never seen a worst case of fishing Malpractice in my Life! When I go to Irvine lake, I meet up with the other regulars there and many of them are excellent fishermen! Not just in catching the silly undersized stocked trout! But Bass, Carp, Crappie etc. (I didn't mention Trophy catfish because that's my department!) So when I go to lake Wohlford, I expect to see some of that same expert angling. (the fly fishermen are the exception) But for everyone else, let's just say if I was playing poker with them and they played their cards the way they fished. I would have their pink slips to their cars, the deeds to their houses and their women would have to pay off some debts to me, if you know what I mean!!! Lol

Me and my fishing partners, understand how the trout act and think in lake Wohlford. So much that we spent our whole morning trying to catch some of the out of season Crappie & Catfish. (we knew we could catch all the trout we want later) We did get a couple of bites and 1 hookup on the mystery fish, but nothing made it to the boat. So around noon, we went in search of the trout. Let me explain how the trout act and think in lake Wohlford, so if anyone goes there, they should be able to make a good catch. The lake is stocked with trout on average twice a month. Obviously the stocked weeks are better then the non stocked weeks. We go there all the time, so it doesn't matter to us, if it's a stocked week or not. However, for the casual angler who is only going down there a couple of times a year. (go on a stocked week) You can tell that by reading the lake Wohlford report here on FNN. I'll give you another tip on how to know what day their going to stock it. Go to the Escondido lake Dixon fish report. They tell the exact day lake Dixon will be stocked. Lake Wohlford get's stocked on the same day as Dixon. (I fish in a boat, so I go 2 or more day's after they stocked it) Why because they stock the trout at the Boat dock area and it takes a couple of day's, until the main schools of trout work their way down to the shallow East end of the lake.

So now you know what day's should be good, based on when they stocked their trout. You should also know what area of the lake, you should be fishing for trout in a boat. (the East end) So far so good right?????? Everyone who fished on Thursday Dec 22, 2022 in a boat got it right up to this point. (it was a pretty crowded day, with most boats rented out) So a lot of people knew what I just told you! Now here is where it all went wrong for them! Last week was a non stock week and all the trout had settled down in Willow cove in the East end of the lake. (so all the reports said they were biting there) So that's where everyone went and most people stayed their all day. They did pick off a few left over trout from the previous stocking on Dec 9. But nobody but me and Racer X went looking for the newly stocked fish from 2 day's earlier!!!!!!! Most people were content to pick off those few leftovers from the previous stocking in Willow cove!

So when you go looking for newly stocked fish what do you do??????

You play the percentages and head for the East end of the lake and you drift your boat with the wind! (the wind doesn't usually come up till 10:00 am) So their is no need to get there early, unless you fear they will sell out of boats. Maybe they would sell out on a Saturday, but the rest of the week I wouldn't worry too much about it! We went on a Thursday ($20 boat rental special for senior's) and had no problem renting a boat when we arrived at 9:00 am. When it comes to bait and tackle, light line a number 5 split shot and yellow corn Power Bait dipped in garlic. (so simple a rig) When it comes to drifting, divide the lake in 3 quadrants in the East end in your mind. Left, Center and Right! (High & Low) Low means right above the last air ratter is where you start drifting and High means, start below the 2nd air ratter. So far this season it's all been Low. So I started Left Low and got no bites! I then went Center Low, right around the last air ratter and BINGO!!!! Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!!!!! The fish were all stacked up right next to the air ratter on the left side and all the way to the Buoy line! We were all done with a boat limit of trout in less then 2 hours! (we even missed 4 bites) These were all nice and beautifully Rainbow trout!!! We had 1 fish less the 2 pounds and all the rest were cookie cutter 2-3 pounders! At the same time we are knocking the snot out of them! Hardly anybody moved off the anchor in Willow cove! They all were just content to sit there and catch a few meager fish! I'm sure the Fly boats did Ok, but the bait and Mini Jiggers did a lot of sitting and working for a meager count at best!

Tip of the week.

Try to understand everything I wrote! Lol

Fish with Corn Power bait dipped in garlic in the East end of the lake, while drifting in a boat in the wind!

i think you said if the truck doesn't bring them there is nothing much to catch

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by capoisok

i think you said if the truck doesn't bring them there is nothing much to catch

---

Trout season that's true. But during the warm months the Crappie, Bass and the native catfish (the ones that are born there) provide non stop action all summer for us! Same thing with the trophy catfish I fish for during the Fall at Irvine lake. Those aren't trucked in!!!! They might have been stocked 10 years ago, but their wild for all intense and purposes! A good friend of mine for several weeks last Fall was fishing right next to me. But he was fishing for the catfish like they were stockers just out of the truck. He caught a few small ones! But the Big Double digit ones I was catching, wanted only red Raw meat fresh from the ocean! I caught 29 of that size and I think he caught 2!

like i said

stocked from a little cement pond after being
raised on mackerel pellets
and dumped in a bigger pond

not saying you don't know where they hide in the big pond

only that they are not wild or native

sure catching a big stocked fish is exciting
but not the same as catching a wild fish that grew up fighting currents and predators and it would be silly to say
it is
or the quality of the fish is comparable
i don't know why you would think catfish dumped from a hatchery are any different than the cardboard trout that gets dumped every week seasonally

maybe i am wrong

but i don't see how catching a wild trout or steelhead is the same

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by capoisok

like i said

stocked from a little cement pond after being
raised on mackerel pellets
and dumped in a bigger pond

not saying you don't know where they hide in the big pond

only that they are not wild or native

sure catching a big stocked fish is exciting
but not the same as catching a wild fish that grew up fighting currents and predators and it would be silly to say
it is
or the quality of the fish is comparable
i don't know why you would think catfish dumped from a hatchery are any different than the cardboard trout that gets dumped every week seasonally

maybe i am wrong

but i don't see how catching a wild trout or steelhead is the same

---

capoisk I like you, so don't think I'm trying too one up you! But instead, I like having a friendly and witty discussion! Lol

However, I've been fishing all of my life and up until 20 years ago, I was a Salt guy only fishing the partyboats. So I go back along way!

So I've got lots of experience but more important a lot of knowledge and yes opinions!!!

So let's just talk about the Salt!

If you really think about it, their is purists in both Fresh and Salt water fishing. So I'm not going to compare Salt against Fresh water fishing. Just Salt against Salt. I'm going to talk about the purists in the Salt water.

I cut my teeth in the Mid 1970's, so that meant Albacore. Back then they only had up and down meters on the partyboats. (no side scan) So how did they stop the boat on Albacore???? Easy trolling! A typical trip back then would make up to a dozen stops to get their fish count. Every stop had either just a few bait fish, or the mother load! But when the stop was over, it was back to trolling again. So at the end of a trip people would ask, "how many Albacore did you get???" Lets say I got 5. The purists would say, "yea, but how many of them were troll fish because in my book those don't count!" S--t trolling was part of the game in my book, so you better be trolling something good! If we had a rotation of trollers who were trolling plastic squid lures. (junk) That effected everyone who is waiting to catch a bait fish! So the purist in my opinion, who thought trolling was cheating and those fish shouldn't count in your personal fish count, were just Morons in my opinion!

I could do many examples, but I'll try to keep it short! People who know me, know I could talk forever about fishing! Lol

Let's talk about Cow YFT on the 16 day trips.

I went on the first ever, fly down, fly back Big Tuna and Wahoo trip. It was on the Q 105 and we flew down to Puerta Vallarta Mexico for the beginning of the trip! The Wahoo fishing was incredible, we got full boat limits of Wahoo! (no one done has that again in years) But let's talk about the YFT. John Klein the owner operator of the boat, is a personal friend of my BFF, who I went down there with. They both started decking together on the Holiday (that's the boat Tribute now) in 1976. So in giving the famous seminar on the way to the tuna islands. He told us, your personal goal should be to get a 100 pound tuna. (They even give a patch for it, if you get one) My best tuna that trip was 88 pounds, if anybody was wondering! Lol John also told us, "he had guy's come down on his boat to the tuna islands, 6 or 7 times before they get that 100 pounder!" That seems pretty modest by today's standards doesn't it?????? That was before they perfected 2 fishing methods, that are deadly for bigger fish. One was the Chunck!!! We did Chunck on this trip for chum to conserve bait. But nobody thought back then, to put a hook in the Chunck and fish it as bait! Lol The next was the greatest single invention of them all, "to catch the Big ones!" (Cow tuna which weigh over 200 pounds) Which is now the Gold standard for all tuna's! The Kite!!!!!!!!! Which none of our Long Range captains thought of, "they just stole the idea from the East coast guy's!" Good going bone head captains. Not!!!!!!

Now back to my original point.

How much skill does it take in hooking and landing a Cow tuna on a kite rig? Almost Zero!!!!!!! You are fishing super heavy line and the boat sets the rig up for you! All's you have to do is wind wind wind when your bit and after that, it's not that hard of a fight! To prove my point, "I'm having Christmas dinner with my good friend Shaun and his wife!" Shaun is a 6'3 225 pound concrete mason. So it sounds like a big scrappy guy like that, shouldn't have to much difficultly in landing a big tuna. Yea, that would be true, but it was his wife who landed the 220 BFT on the kite rig! She is 58 years old, 5'1 and 125 pounds. Like I said, "it doesn't take to much skill to land a big tuna on the kite!"

So let me be the purist!!!!

Anybody who catches a Big tuna on a kite! That's not a real catch and it shouldn't even be counted right???????

How many guy's and gals now a day's, would want their Cow tuna catches on the kite be poo poo away????

The best video posted last year on FNN, was the Web master getting some nice BFT caught on the troll!!! Do you think he wants to hear from some purists, that's not a real catch?????? I doubt it!!!!!

Let's talk about Rock Cod.

In my early day's of fishing, in the winter months when nothing else was happening. I would go Rock codding, now I go after those silly planted trout. Since Salt guy's now have a 3 month closure on Rockfish, they might want to consider fishing for those silly planted trout! After they caught all the Scuplin and Turd Bass (Sand Bass) they can stand! Back in the old day's, their was no depth restrictions or closed area's for Rock Codding. So fishing really deep. (600 feet or more was common) Just about everyone would fish ganoin's and bait for the Rock Cod. However, the purists with the motivation to catch some really Big Rock Cod (mostly Cow Cods) would fish a single lure. Now with the new restrictions on Rock fishing, that from Sept 15- Dec 31 you must fish deeper then 50 fathoms! (300 feet) So those 600 feet or more spots will be targeted now during that time period. So in reading some comments on other Salt water fishing websites. Some people are talking about buying an Electric reel for fishing. So now I'm talking like a purists, "what a bunch of pussy's buying an electric reel!" Back in the day, we would Man up and buy an 9/0 reel and a 5 pound weight to do our Rock Codding! See anybody can be a purists!

See where I'm going with this???? Their is sooo many kinds of fishing in both the Fresh and the Salt. That the purists can easily dismiss!!!!

Let me tell you capoisk a little secret of mine. Of the almost 5,000 post I've made on FNN. The one I'm the most proud of is, my post about purist fishing I made 8 years ago. Where I gave numerous examples of types of fishing, techniques and baits, that purists hate in both the Fresh and the Salt!

different perspectives

i see fishing as the end game and in southern california that means time and effort

i believe you see catching being that end game so you frequent places were fish are placed so you with skill or luck you can catch them because they're put there


which means crowds hassles and an inferior quality of fish and fishing time to me

not as easy to have to drive 500 miles to catch a wild steelhead were you need not only to be skilled but extremely lucky

or to drive out to the imperial valley to try for a record wild cat

can't remember a bad day of fishing on the mattole or the trinity but plenty of days where it was slow enough to look for bigfoot or bales of weed on the sand because nothing was snapping

but still great days of fishing

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by capoisok

different perspectives

i see fishing as the end game and in southern california that means time and effort

i believe you see catching being that end game so you frequent places were fish are placed so you with skill or luck you can catch them because they're put there


which means crowds hassles and an inferior quality of fish and fishing time to me

not as easy to have to drive 500 miles to catch a wild steelhead were you need not only to be skilled but extremely lucky

or to drive out to the imperial valley to try for a record wild cat

can't remember a bad day of fishing on the mattole or the trinity but plenty of days where it was slow enough to look for bigfoot or bales of weed on the sand because nothing was snapping

but still great days of fishing

---

I said earlier I like you capoisok because you keep the conversation going.

Do you think I'm not an Steelhead fishermen? (I'm an old Salt) But I go further then you do! The Chetco river in Oregon is my stomping grounds. Lucky to catch one???? It was unlucky for me not to catch one! Usually I get my limits, but I'll admit I first hired someone to teach me the in and outs. (After that it was easy) You do realize depending on the river, a big percentage of Steelhead are hatchery fish and not wild! Same thing with Salmon! So your wild fish theory doesn't really work on Steelhead.

I'm the King of the day trippers in the Fresh! I usually drive 100 miles or more one way to do my fresh water fishing. The only close lake I fish is Irvine lake. At Irvine lake, I'm usually fishing a lone for up to 1/4 mile away from the nearest angler. They have a back lake now that I do my fishing in and hardly anybody goes there.

As for fishing for planted fish is a total misunderstanding of what I fish for. Only in Dec & Jan do I exclusively fish for planted fish. After that it's mostly wild fish!

Here is my fishing schedule for a year. (Only the trout are planted that I fish for.)


Jan Trout at Irvine & Wohlford

Feb Trout at Irvine & Wohlford and Crappie at Hodges and Irvine

March Wohlford trout Crappie at the following lakes. Irvine, Hodges, Cachuma and Isabella Striped Bass at lake Silverwood and the California Aqueduct near Taft. Bass at Diamond valley

April Crappie at Irvine, Hodges, Cachuma, Isabella and Henshaw Striped Bass at Silverwood and the Aqueduct Bass at DVL

May Crappie at Irvine, Hodges Cachuma, Isabella, Henshaw and Wohlford Striped Bass at Silverwood and the Duct Bass at Barrett and DVL

June Crappie at Wohlford and Henshaw Catfish (natives not planted) Henshaw Wohlford and Irvine

July Crappie at Wohlford and Catfish at Wohlford and Irvine

Aug Crappie at Wohlford and Catfish at Wohlford and Irvine

Sept Catfish at Irvine and LMB at Barrett

Oct Catfish at Irvine and Trout at Big Bear lake

Nov Catfish at Irvine

Dec Trout at Wohlford and Irvine

Only a few months out of the year I fish for planted fish. Most of the time it's wild fish that I fish for!

they were all planted
by wild your talking holdovers of introduced non native species


no such thing as native bass or catfish in california


best of the list of native fresh water fish to target are trout and salmon and sturgeon
got shad and smelt along with sucker fish

I have friends who swear that wild trout is the only trout you should fish for and travel for weeks in search for some wild trout that will bite the fly. But these same guys can't hook a stocked trout to save their lives. At the end, it's still fishing. One version isn't better than the other. Also, fishing for wild fish takes a lot of money to travel to areas a lot farther than I'm personally willing to travel for trout. But to each their own.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by lazyfisherman

I have friends who swear that wild trout is the only trout you should fish for and travel for weeks in search for some wild trout that will bite the fly. But these same guys can't hook a stocked trout to save their lives. At the end, it's still fishing. One version isn't better than the other. Also, fishing for wild fish takes a lot of money to travel to areas a lot farther than I'm personally willing to travel for trout. But to each their own.

---

It's been my personal experience to catch any truly wild trout that had any size to them. I had to go to the great White North! (Canada) I did piggy back them on other Hunting trips. (those that are new to this website, probably don't know, "I am also a great white hunter") So to me, killing two critters with one trip made a lot of sense! I'll share one of my experiences because it's good story.

I went on a Caribou hunt in Quebec Canada only a 100 miles south of the Arctic circle. (I bagged 2 beautiful horned Bull Caribou) In telling the story to one of my good friends, he then wanted to go where I went. (I told him, "I'd take him there the next year") After taking 4 planes, we finally arrived at our very distant location in Quebec. The last plane was a float plane landing on some lake, that doesn't even have a name. That's where the Caribou camp was. (it was nothing but a bunch of tents) No fancy Alaskan lodge here! Lol After settling in, the French Canadian named Poco who ran the camp in very bad English, said we could take one of the 2 boats he had fishing any time we want. Fishing, did someone say fishing??? Lol I only had a trout rod with 4 pound test and a box of trout spinners with me. But how big could these trout possible be??? I'm thinking they would be Rainbows, but they turned out to be Lakers! No not the Basketball team but Lake trout!!!! The stocking truck had just got there the week before, so it should be really good fishing!!!! I hope nobody believed what I just said!!!!!! No not about being in Canada, but the stocking truck! We are 100's of miles away from the nearest road! We are up on the tundra chasing Quebec Labrador Caribou. So the stocking truck was a joke!!!

Poco told us for good fishing, to head south on down the lake where a small stream emptied into the lake. (a good spot to go fishing) I decided to troll along the way and before we got there, I then thought I snagged a log or something. The pole just bent over and didn't even move! After a few seconds, he did some head shakes and started to move! I circled the boat 4 times before I even got a look at it! It was a double digit Lake trout! Holy crap and I had only 4 pound test! I eventually did land it and 4 other ones that day! A long story short, "the Caribou hunt was scraped in favor of the Lake trout fishing!" My buddy did want to get his 2 Caribou and he did! But to me, "this Lake trout fishing was too bitchen to turn down!" We did end up (me and my buddy) catching 32 Lake trout on this trip and half of them were DD! I donated my Caribou tag to Poco to shoot a Caribou for camp meat, because canned spaghetos only will take you so far! After a while, I just kept eating the Lake trout I kept catching! Caribou meat is pretty gamey, because all's they have to eat is arctic tundra! Lol