American River 6/22

[Kevin Goding]

Went out with the bro, caught and released one just over 20 inches. Have a pic of that fish, will post it if I can figure it out at work where I can download the memory card. Then, the curse of the big striper hit me again, hooked a monster, after feeling a double bump on the fly. Peeled off about 150' of line then my reel just stopped, looked down and had an inner spool overlay for complete stoppage. Got deep line cuts on three fingers from trying to free the line up, but to no avail, fish straightened the hook out after about 15 seconds on max tension. 0-3 or 4 on fish of that caliber so far, one of these days I'll get one close enough or land it so I can get good estimates on how big they are. This was the one fish I felt good about though at first, hooked it in wide open deep water, with few snags around to hang me up on like the others. But oh well, part of the game we all enjoy so much.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

I talked with a guy who fishes them with live bait and their biggest last year was over 50 pounds in the Lower american River.

The big ones are eating lots of Shad now.

[Jgoding]

Yeah, I guess we should try to stick together next time. I'll add a little to the report...

I missed one good strike and dropped another fish after two headshakes. Tried some top water for nothing with my 'angry' rainbow pattern (had to see the fly to get it... bad hair cut and had angry looking 'eyebrows' sort of), then I put it on a sink tip to finish up and I guess it was pretty mad and attacked the first log it found on the first cast so it's property of the American River now (which kind of sucks as the fly had some crazy action)....

BTW, the hook that got straigthened was a size 6 TMC 8089np.

Jeff

[David Lee]

I'm sure the first order of the day is to re-wind the backing back on clear and tight :P .

Keep at 'em , Kev ......... you'll bring one to hand , sooner or later .

David

[Kevin Goding]

See if this works, for some pics. Yeah, I'll land one sooner or later, have no problem hooking em up so far.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?ai...1&id=577528948

If this doesn't get linked you can copy/paste it in your web browser I guess. Hopefully you don't need a stupid facebook account to view it.

[Jgoding]

My poor fly.... Guess I have to retire that one, see if I can restore most of it before I do though... The diaper stripes have been pretty abundant the last two years as you can tell. I guess I need to buy a camera so we can get more pics of some of the fish we get.

The fish in the water was the 20" or so from last night, and I believe the fish I have the hemostats clamped on was our first fish of 2008 (15-16"), and most of the other fish were last years when we had a camera.

Here's my first keeper of the year (yes, it went home with me, have to keep the wife happy sometimes, and now I can release the rest) and I caught this one the day after flows went to 2000cfs.

Prepared Asian style -steamed fish

take some ginger and green onions, cut into thin strips
clean and scale the fish (cut up as necessary to fit in steamer)
in the cavity (split to the end of tail lobe) rub in some soy sauce and sesame oil, add some ginger and green onions on both sides of cavity, little bit of black and white pepper, season the outside in a similar manner and steam for about 12 minutes. Remove fish from tray and take any onions and ginger along with it but leave any juices (mostly oils).

In a small pot, heat up mixture of equal amount soy/peanut oil til it's nice and hot (the soy will not mix, but kind of sizzle when it's hot enuff) (2-3T each is about right for a portion that serves 3-4) and flash the fish. Add some fresh green onions to the fish before flashing.

David, I'll call you after 3pm today...lol.

[Kevin Goding]

Yeah some of the pics are from last year, this year's pics I've missed some fish, as I tend to forget the camera half of the time, as well as my duck calls. The greenheads are ones that I've called in close, just learning how to call after getting introduced to serious duck hunting last year by a friend. One pic has a monster blacktail buck in it. He and his friend we've seen now for 3 years in a row. He's an awesome 5x5, not much spread, but looks like he may have added some this year, but he's very tall and has good mass, record book blacktail by far. Unfortunately, the time I blundered up on him bedded down last year I had forgot to put the memory card in the camera when he's standing broadside from me 10 feet away.