A Fine Spring Bass

[matt johnson]

Went out for an evening session on the Sac out of Tisdale 4/24/2013. Flows had dropped dramatically from the week before, and according to local legend, the big schools of fish had moved south to Knights Landing. In addition, local experts suggested that the remaining bass in the area were spawning with the full moon and off the bite. Undeterred, boardmember "Notch" and I hit the river with high hopes. Well, the river was crazy low and the fishing in general sucked, but Notch beat long odds and stripped his chartruse and white Clouser Minnow enticingly in front of a beautiful #20 pound striper!



Totas chaos followed the second and final hook-up of the evening. A Lamson Konic 3.5 reel exploded under the strain of a runaway 20 pound striper, and the great fish finally materializing from the murkey waters of the Sacramento produced cheers of joy.

Flows out of Keswick have been increased to 10.5K. Hopefully this will shuffle the deck, bring the bass back upstream, and keep the spring spawning run going for a few more weeks. See you on the river, Matt.

[Adam Grace]

Awesome Striper! Good job

[Mark Kranhold]

Congrats!!! That's a STRIPER ....and a beauty too! Well done. What blew up on the reel? Spool?

[Tony Buzolich]

Way to go Matt.

If you can get away from some of that boat traffic the fish will cooperate too. As for the flows, who knows? Definitely more water will keep them around longer and maybe even bring some more fish up that haven't gotten here yet. They bumped the flows on the Feather yesterday too. I'll be out there tomorrow.
Tony

[matt johnson]

What blew up on the reel? Spool?

Not really sure? The fish started smokin' for mid river, and the spool started to tighten up on it's own. Luckily I had jumped on the trolling motor at this point and was moving toward the bass because next the drag knob back off on its own, a couple small reel bits and the spool feel into the bottom of the boat, and a funny look of panic came over Notch's face. I just told him to keep tight to the fish and used the trolling motor as the "drag". luckily the big bass had blown off a lot of steam at this point and stayed in the middle of the river.

[Mark Kranhold]

Now that's a fish story ! Sounds like you work good under pressure..great job!

[k.hanley]

Nice boat work there Matt. Notch sure caught a true beauty!

Cheers, Ken

[WinterrunRon]

THAT is a beeeuuuutiful fish, and photo! What a fine specimen. Congrats on overcoming the odds, gents. One of the very few stories or experiences I've heard/had regarding a big one bolting. My experience is they don't even know they're hooked, stay deep and PUUUULLL! Perhaps the low water had something to do with it and she immediately sought deeper water (if you caught it shallow)? Would love to hook one and have it take off on a screeming reel.

[Tony Buzolich]

That's FUNNY.
It sounds like one of my Chinese Fire Drills. Reels AREN'T supposed to fall apart when fighting fish.

Once in Zihuatanejo I hooked a sailfish while trolling ( we were actually fly fishing though ) and the reel handle fell off with screws and nuts bouncing around on the deck. The crew couldn't get it back together and the sail was going crazy so I pulled a "Tred Barta". I did it the hard way and threw the rod down and grabbed the line and hand-lined the sail all the way in.

I think hand-lining a big striper in the river would be tougher than that sail.
Tony

[Notch]

Good work on the trolling motor, Matt. That fish was definitely out of control and way too much for that TFO 8wt. Fighting a fish that big almost becomes scary because you don't want to loose it and there's really nothing you can do until it gives up.
Hope we get a few more days out there this Spring, but either way I'm stoked for life!