Castaic Lagoon Night Fishing 10-8. A Learning Experience...Skunked AND a $60 Ticket!
Last night for the 1st time, I went to try some night fishing. Korin from FNN and I were to meet there and "buddy up" for the 1st time. I'd planned on taking advantage of the free parking after 5:30pm at the lower lagoon.
I pulled into the lower lagoon parking lot at 5:27 pm and chatted with Ronnie (the booth attendant lady) at the booth until 5:37 pm. (Yes, this is significant, lol)
Ronnie told me to park in the other parking lot, above her parking lot for the free parking area. I parked at the farthermost space by the lagoon's launch ramp and excitedly unloaded my stuff.
Checklist:
*2 fishing rods.
*15 lb tacklebox
*Bag of drinks & snacks, camera, fishin license, phone, etc...
*A padded, insulated Trader Joe's bag to put fish in that I may catch
*Jacket
*One of those cool old lady 4 wheeled "shopping carts" to stow everything in
I tried rolling the cart down the stairs, then sort of had to half carry, half roll it. "What a pain! I wonder how other people do this??", I thought.
I noticed other anglers along the rocky shoreline and realized I couldn't take the cart down there. The "rocks" were actually boulders you'd have to hop on, and go from rock to rock to get down to the water. I have a bad back, so I went down to the dock to talk to the 2 lifeguards who were just motoring in from the lagoon. After greeting them, I noticed "NO FISHING" painted on the dock. I wheeled my granny cart up the dock to them and said I'd never been there, and asked where I could fish from. They were very nice and directed me to the pier, just up the ways a little. We talked a while about what types of fish are in the lagoon, and how you drive out when you were done, "since the gates get locked after 5:30 PM " (!!! failed to compute this!!!) and since I admitted I was a nube and hadn't been there before. I kerplunked my embarrassingly large cart all the way up the stairs again, feeling sure that I was a hilarious spectacle to anyway within sight.
Finally reaching the top of the stairs winded, I dragged the cart over to the pier, where I was relieved to see a smooth gangway to roll the cart down. I set up shop at the left end of the pier, and got both rods going.
Shortly Korin arrived and merrily waved and said "Hi Michelle!" I noticed she had 2 small rods in one hand and very sensible small nylon pouch for her gear in the other hand as she nimbly strolled down the gangway. (Why must I be so..."prepared" for everything and anything as if I were going on some sort of week-long expedition?!", I snarled to myself disgustedly...LOL)
Korin had actually gotten there a few hours earlier and fished the upper lake's shoreline near the west ramp, but drove around to the lower lagoon parking lot at about 6 pm to meet me at the pier. She too, spoke to Ronnie (the booth lady) earlier when she came through and paid for parking @ the lower lagoon toll booth. Since Korin had never been to Castaic, she 'd asked Ronnie about how to drive from the upper to the lower lake parking lots. In fact, Ronnie told me she had "talked to Korin earlier and seemed like a really nice gal"....<------*evidence*
Korin and I had a nice time getting to know eachother and had fun casting and fishing...and untangling lines for what seemed like an inordinate amount of time, lol. Korin's good people, easygoing and happy....just the kind of people I like.
Korin bid me farewell around 8 pm to head over to Mammoth Lakes, where she had planned a tube-fishing camping trip. A few minutes after she departed, my cell phone rang and it was Korin saying we BOTH got parking tickets, and that we were also LOCKED IN.
Anyway, she managed to squeeze her honda through a narrow path and 4-wheel her civvic off a curb, and went on her way to Mammoth. I figured I'd be able to do the same with my narrow Jeep Grand Cherokee, and decided not to let a ticket ruin my night. Shoving "husband-scolding chew-out scenarios" out of my mind, I regrouped and soon forgot all about the ticket. Until the cops showed up, that is.
Some people scattered as the 4 sherriff officers approachedI guess there was a report of alcohol consumption somewhere....but thinking of my ticket, I walked right up to them and enquired about why I got that ticket and what to do, how to get out, etc... Apparently, the booth lady Ronnie -who had only been working there 3 wks, misdirected both Korin and I through that lot that gets locked up after 5:30. The officers told me how to squeeze through a gravel path (meant for official vehicles only) to get my jeep into the right lot, where there is an UNLOCKED exit to get out onto the main road. WHEW!
Upon leaving later that night saw a sign at the mouth of that gravel road 50 ft from where my car was parked that said NO VEHICLE ENTRY...so...I feel that I will successfully be able to fight that ticket. You with me on this KORIN???
Sheesh.....I couldn't afford to buy an annual pass for my boat and car ($260), and in the last week, between the ticket and going fishing on tuesday upper lake, it's cost $84.00 so far.
I TOLD hubby we should just put an annual pass on a credit card!! Woulda been cheaper at the rate I'm goin;.Ok, so now I know my way pretty well around the Lagoon. Legal Ingress/Egress. lol
So anyway, I stayed fishing until about 1:15 AM with no fish caught. It was cold, I'd spilled all my pretzels, and had to pee the last 3 hours. I knew there was a restroom somewhere, but I didn't dare leave, lest I miss out on that one bite that would have prevented a skunking. Despite not catching any fishies, I met a whole bunch of neat people that were fun to talk to. One of them, it turns out lives right around the corner from me. (hey J.R., LOL). I met a young boy of 13 who had been fishing one month (Hi Allen!!) and had obviously been reading A LOT! He could cast like a pro, wayyyyyyyyyyy out there farther than anyone on that pier! lol...He re-tied a swivel and a hook for me, a snell and a clinch, both of which I don't know how to do yet. At least not without a step-by-step diagram in front of me!
A guy named Mike was with his girlfriend and sat next to me the whole time. He was the only angler who caught any fish off the pier last night during the time I was there for 7+ hours. He caught a fat green catfish but didn't want it, so he have it to me. He didn't have a camera with him, so I offered to take pix for him with my camera and email them to him.He also caught 2 small bluegill. His success was using this method: dropshotting nightcrawlers 18" off the bottom and then sitting comfortably in a camp chair just talking with his GF.
I didn't have any nightcrawlers and had forgotten to get the anchovies out of the freezer...so here I was trying every kinda lure and technique I had thus far, hahah....But I repeat: It WAS fun!
I noticed something very consistent about anglers. They seem quiet at 1st, (probably sizing you up)...then they really bend over backward to help you, freely giving tips and advice on things like tackle and technique. I told all of them about FNN. One guy already knew about FNN but wasn't a member. I hope there's no age limit for this forum, because that 13 yr old boy I met named Allen wants to come here to learn more about fishing!
Now...about the gift catfish. When Mike gave him to me, the thought occured that I didn't have a basket and rope to lower him back into the water. I had a stringer, but then I'd have to scale those treacherous rocks below the pier to get to the water. Momentarily, I thought about throwing him back in the water. I held him up and announced a public vote-Keep, or throw back?" People were saying "Ohhhh he's a perfect size to eat, keep him"...then I thought about how I'd keep him until I was done fishing. Probably sick of waiting to know his destiny, the catfish BIT me hard. Suprised, I dropped him on the pier deck flopping and gaping, staring me down with his beady eyes and his whiskers wiggling eerily. When he bit me, that's when it was decided that he was gonna be eaten. I tried to kill him with Mike's direction, by stabbing him in the brain. After 3 times, he seemed subdued.
When I got home at 2 am and that dang catfish was STILL alive!!!! How the heck do you kill them humanely when you're up on a pier???!! He started bleeding and I felt kinda gross after impaliing his head three times trying to hit his brain. (Mike helped hold him down for me so I could do it) Anyway, when the blood began to pour out of him, I threw him in an insulated trader joe's bag and tried to forget about the grisly act I'd commited, hoping he'd bleed out in the bag and be dead next time I looked in there.
You'd think stabbing a fish in the head 3 times would do it after he was found to still be alive after 45 min out of water would kill it, right?? But.....
Later, even after repeated head stab wounds and and being out of the water for like 4 or 5 hours, he was still alive.LOL...They really are like crazy prehistoric imortal freaks, aren't they?!
I felt bad that he was STILL alive, so I took some water out of my fishie's aquarium and put it in a large bowl and put that poor catfish in it headfirst. He was breathing my Oranda Goldfish's water gratefully and seemed to be revivving while I read online how to finnaly kill him properly. Turns out it was actually good I did put him in water because then he started bleeding out as he breathed and his heart started to pump more blood. I took him out after about 20 minutes in the bowl. The water was red with his blood, but that was good--because accoring to what I read, you want to bleed them out while alive so the meat will taste better.
Things I learned last night:
1)NEVER forget my basket and some rope when I go fishing.
2)Bring my camping chair (my back was killing me later)
3)Never trust officials implicitly
4)Always bring anchovies and night crawlers for night fishing
5)Bring a lantern; I gagged and almost puked several times trying to hold a flashlight in my mouth
6)Do not wear sandals when fishing.
7)Know the actual depths of everywhere you are throwing bait!! (that's it, portable depth/fish finder is in order!)
8)Throw away one of my reels and buy a nicer one, fer crying out loud--it doesn't even have a DRAG!
9)Learned how to kill and clean a catfish properly. Nail head to a board (or hang tail down) and cut off their tails so they will quickly bleed out, leaving meat whiter and better tasting.
10)You must have a "2nd rod stamp" on your angling license if you want to have two rods in the water at once. oooops. Luckily, the cops didn't seeme nor ask to see my lic. which was under my coat!
11)Bring good munchies and offer to fellow anglers who will then cheerfully share advice, info, and even fish!
Thank you for readinig yet another one of my mega posts.
Here's pix of me Korin and I, and of Mike's catches. I kinda feel did not get skunked because I was able to fish vicariously through Mike. Thanks Mike, if you ever see this! hehe
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Originally Posted by SDDave
