Wide Open Striper, Night Fishing with Capt'n 7/19/2014
Capt'n invited me to fish with him at the Castaic Night Fishing on Saturday.
I got reports of good bites from Bassfan and Striper Mike all day while I puttered with projects at home but later in the day the news was that the fish had shown up and wanted to play.
It was absolutely beautiful out when we got in line around 5:45. We were the second boat in line and the guys ahead of us were planning to bass fish.
Everyone in line was ready to go long before we were allowed in. It looked like some kind of group pacing therapy.
Fishin4Runner (Chris) made his way down from the back of the line and said hello. Nice to see you again F4R. Chris was planning to troll. I've never tried trolling in the dark. I hope he did well.
Capt'n and I went straight for the latest honey hole and set up in a hurry. The fish were there in numbers as we set up but appeared in great numbers as soon as we got set up. It took a few minutes for us to get our first hits when we put the baits (sardine chunks) out. Capt'n's first fish was a keeper. Mine was a baby, I sent it to get it's mom again (wonder if it was the same one).
After that the fish finder appeared to be in simulator mode for the rest of the night. We had fish piled on the bottom under the boat 5 ft deep and above them in a layer from 10 to 25 feet there was bait and striper almost constantly.
Soon the bites were hard to keep up with. Scott (Capt'n) noted that we really weren't fishing with 2 poles each because we couldn't keep them in the water. We bailed fish after fish sorting a few nicer ones from the multitude along the way. the only time our rods sat without being hit was when our bait was stolen.
One fish got Capt'n tangled in the drop light and Capt'n's fishing pole snapped on the hook set. He recovered quickly, the pole is under warranty. Replacing it should be a snap!
The dink slay continued as we sorted just a few larger ones from them.
Then I got hit on the pole in the holder while I was playing a fish. I grabbed the pole in the holder, set the hook and threw it back into the holder. At first I thought that I had missed the fish since it just sat there, then the rod tip bent and pulled down into the water as I was playing the fish on the other pole. That's when the rod butt started swinging up out of the holder. I dove for the pole and missed! I tried to tangle the line that I was playing the other fish on, around the sinking pole and missed! I watched as one of my hot sticks sank in the glow of the drop light, out of sight.
Man was I bummed! I don't think that Cabela's is going to warrant one lost in the lake!
Of coarse the problem was operator error but I was a little hard to convince of that at first.
I landed the fish that I was playing, grabbed a big Rattle Trap tied it onto the remaining pole and tried to jig up my lost pole. After a few minutes of trying with no luck I switched the lure out to a Cicada. That's a sheet metal blade bait that sinks faster and might be easier to keep right on bottom.
When I had tried for a while and was about to give up. The lure got hit a couple feet off of bottom. I could feel the fish but it wasn't quite right. It felt mushy. I landed the fish but it wasn't on my lure. It was on the line tangled in my lure! I grabbed the 6 lb. line and pulled my lost pole gently up to the boat. Unbelievable! Awesome! Wow!
The slay continued. Scott and I landed fish after fish and untied knot after knot.
Then Scott said there's water coming in the back, my bilge pump isn't working! He opened the access hatch for the bilge and water poured into the bilge though the scuppers on the transom. He replaced the access hatch. Clearly, we couldn't try to fix the pump while we were on the water.
We pulled anchor and headed for the ramp. I think it was about Midnight.
We had caught 50 fish, if not more. 10 were keepers.
Here's a dead well shot. There are a couple more in there somewhere.
Thanks for inviting me for the most entertaining night fishing trip that I can remember Scott. It was a great time!
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Stumpknocker
