Ham

73) Shadow Bass I made a trip over to the 11 Pt at Dalton, AR with my son yesterday. I was targeting Walleye, Sauger, Chain Pickerel, and Shadow Bass. I also had my Bug Launcher ready for micros. First stop was a proven Shadow Bass Hole. It took four casts. My other targets evaded me, but I was disciplined and focused on the right areas fishing appropriately. It paid off for Ian. we caught 10 species on the day. Ian had a really nice day with a Nice White Bass and some really nice Smallmouth Bass.

I Guess I missed my chance

72) Lingcod II’m kinda proud of this one too. I changed locations specifically looking for this guy. I had a rocky point with some kelp. I backed out a little deeper to avoid sone of the Black Rockfish and up the odds for a Lingcod. Got out in the 45-50 foot of water and it didn’t take long. The 9 weight was tested as he really wanted to get back down. I was so Happy to get one that I netted it to make sure I got it in the boat. Pics of it didn’t happen right? Well, he did a death roll in the net and I had the hardest time getting him out. it was so fun that I had to do it again. I did not use the net on the second one. It went a lot better. After that, I went looking for Cabezon it a deeper kelp bed where I caught my other one. No Cabezon. I think I caught a few Black Rockfish. Sadly, this was Friday afternoon. I was all out of chances. I took my medium spinning and fly rod apart and washed them In the shower and the reels in the sink to make the lost out in the morning better. I wish I had figured things out Thursday instead of Friday. I really think I could have gotten a Coho and maybe a King Salmon and almost certainly a halibut. Still, Super Happy with my results. Got me a long way towards my goofy goals.

71) Kelp Greenling This beautiful fish was an unexpected gift. When I first got color, it reminded me of a Brown Trout. I had to think for a minute and look at the mouth and day to myself, “maybe a female Kelp Greenling” I conferred with the guys at the Lodge and the “confirmed” it, but their ID’s have proven to be not 100% accurate. very different in appearance to the Male Kelp Greenling. Im Super Happy to have caught a male and a female.

Different people have varying sensitivity to Alphal Gal. I’m hoping that I can keep on dodging it.

70) Quillback These guys get Big and Bad, but this one was still Just a Baby. A pokey, ravenous Baby with a Big Mouth and tremendous jaw strength. All the guides were Super careful with Rockfish. The pokes from spines had a reputation for getting badly infected especially the Quillback.

Real recognizes real. The goat looked at me and said “ No way Bro”. I hope I don’t get cancelled for putting my hands on a female that clearly was not interested in being touched.

Honestly, I have no idea. My guess is low 80’s. Very pleasantly cool. Not a shock to the system, but cools you off in a hurry.

69) Copper Rockfish after the Pacific Cod, I struggled. I was starting to think I would only have the three Flyfers for the trip. I knew the problem was my inability to get the fly down/boat control. I finally came up with a way to add weight that helped me get down quickly. I think you still need a full sink and 700 is probably more than twice as good as the 300 I have, but I added a 1/2 oz bass casting sinker to it and that got me down and kept the fly down. I was told of a very promising multispecies area and headed there Friday afternoon, BUT wind and swell made that a No for me. I fished as close as I could and saw that my system was going to work. So, I headed back to the spot where I had caught that 18 lb Lingcod. First drop got me this Copper Rockfish. a little later, I got anothersorry that my hand is in the way, but they are Super Pokey and some of them have teeth or a lot of jaw strength and I’m not always willing to Lip them.

Made a trip down to Oil Trough again looking for a Hybrid Striper or Silver Carp or True Striper or something unexpected. got a little bit of a late start and planned on stopping early because of the heat. Sadly, I used to cool part of the day driving down. idling away from the ramp I saw dimples on the surface and I had to check it out.I got out the Bug Launcher and in a couple of minutes. I caught another one to make sure I wasn’t just Lucky. We had a little bit more water than the last time I was there so I checked out a pocket out of flow. Sure enough, it had Silver Carp. I made a bit of it. I ran further upriver to another promising spot. A little water running over a low water road. Big back Eddy. I have caught a variety of species there before. Today, I missed a bite. I had a fish on briefly. And I saw a big grass carp actively feeding. I ran to another of my spots. Nice flow cycles around and hits a clay wall. It should be fantastic. I have caught a couple there, but not like I should. I hung a heavy fish and it came off as I was stripping it in. I had a hard strike and brief hook up. I saw a few Mooneye looking at insects. I saw Skipjack flashing at my flys. Eventually…headed towards my best spot hoping to find Shad getting abused. But along the way we discovered this. the goat was stuck clinging to a small shelf on a Bluff wall. I have no idea how long it had been in the water or how far down river it had swam/floated. It was tired and frightened. I couldn’t leave the goat to drown. So we spent a 1/2 hour working on our Goat Problem. The simple solution of a goat in the boat was not without risk to our gear. The goat did not want in the boat. She considered it, but decided against it. So. We had to manhandle her down to a less steep section of bank where she would have enough of a footprint to scramble up. It took a little doing, but we got it safely up the Bluff and into a pasture. so we got to our “best” spot. I got a decent Largie immediately. We both caught a fair number of skipjack. Ian got a couple of White Bass. I lost another decent fish. I worked multiple groups of grass carp and they all said no. I rant to another side channel and tried for Silver Carp. We observed several, But I could not get a hook in one. We ran back towards the ramp and I hide that side pocket again. Clearly, observed more Silver carp, but no luck. it sure was Hot.

68) Alaskan Pollock so, I wasn’t shy about asking people where I could use my flyrod and what species I could try for. They weren’t able to be helpful on the How, but I did learn that there were juvenile Pacific Cod in the bay that the boat dock was in. Mind blown. The dock guys are great. They help you dock the boat and launch every time you come and go. They get your fish to the fish station for you. If you are there for any length of time, they tidy the boat up for you. Boats are refueled every evening. You just turn the key and go. Anyway, the dock guys were like, “we catch need anything from the store? At the end of the day at shift change all the time”. I busted up the Tenkara rod and a tiny trout fly and got one on the first flip. Keep in mind, I’ve been on the North Pacific for hours getting beat up by wind and waves and I’m on the boat dock at like 10 PM catching these tiny Pac Cod. IF I wanted to pump numbers up, I could have caught dozens of them. There were some larger ones so I tried to use a bigger fly and get further out for the bigger ones. using one of @BilletHead patterns I did get some larger ones and some Black Rockfish around the dock as well. edited: the guys that should know better, didn’t The Pacific Cod were actually Alaskan Pollock and likely my Rock Sole was a different flatfish. TBD Thanks to Random fish need and @Johnsfolly

67) Pink Salmon The guides have great disdain for the Pink Salmon. Smaller, don’t fight well, and the meat is of a lesser quality. still I was Happy to get my Lifer and My Flyfer. The Flyfer but up a minimal scrap, but no matter. Bad pic, but I was really struggling. I brought a lot of flys and used a fair amount of them. This was the one that caught my Pink. several were really chewed on. I lost one to kelp.

66) Black Rockfish Veey abundant when you find them. Very aggressive especially when the school gets turned on and gets competitive for food. I could have caught lots more of them, but every one of them you catch takes up a few minutes of time that could be used to get other species I even got some on top. In like 100 foot of water at the Langara rocks.

Carp can be greedy fats kids gorging on candy or they can be political prisoners on a Hunger Strike. I find them to be way more frustrating than accommodating

And Channel cats, Common carp, and bullheads too.

Got Home about Midnight. No Luggage. I hope to get info on that today.

2 1/2 freaking days ; I’ll shut my pie hole and quit complaining.

I’m stuck in a travel nightmare. I was scheduled to fly out of Vancouver to DFW then to LR:. I was originally schedule to get to LR about 4 and then the 3 hr drive. I’ve changed flights multiple times. I am now scheduled to hop aboard a plane leaving Dallas for LR at 8:42. Head home in the truck about 11 pm. Get home about 2 AM after a jacked up 21 hour day. pretty bad aftertaste to this drink.

I really need to hire @Johnsfolly to go with me and keep me straight on fish ID’s and in general keep me from being dumb. I caught what was a really nice sized Arrowtooth Flounder yesterday morning and in my haste assumed it was a small halibut and tossed it back and got my larger halibut next drop down. This is the only picture I have. ☹️

I’m chilling in Vancouver tonight. I’ll head to the airport at 0415 and plane departs at 0600. I did not die. I got my legal limits on all the fish I targeted. I caught 15 species, I think I had 7 Lifers, and 7 Flyfers. I had a Hunter Biden level Good Time minus the hookers and blow. There were a couple of brief windows to fish the West Side of the Island I missed them, but I caught most of the fish I would target over there anyway. I love that place and I may very well never visit again #sadface

The amount of spring fed water in the Current River keeps the smallies biting deep into Winter. I assume they stay active all summer too.

That’s the trouble with these Rockfish showing so much variation in colors. This is my Lifer China Rockfish. They don’t get a lot larger than this one. Quillback can get pretty big

I did!

This trip was originally planned for 2021. Covid shut everyone down. The guy that was going with me opted to do other stuff and not re-book. I had two other guys 1/2 way commit to going, but then decided not to go. It is an expensive trip, but really, really nice. it would never be my choice to do this solo.

So, I was up until 11:30 after trying for Ratfish off the dock. I knew it was a long shot, but I had to try. I caught a Copper Rockfish and another Pacific Cod while trying. I woke with leg cramps multiple times and gave up at 0400 and mostly packed up. I hopped in The boat at 0530 when I was given the green light to go. Really nasty on my spot this morning. I hung in there. I got my last keeper Coho at 0553. He hit while I was rigging my second rod. started trying for Hally. It was super tough in 5 foot swells. I got a Big Quillback. Then a dang salmon ate my swimbait. Then I got my Lifer Yelloweye Rockfish. Nice pull, but a lot of work from 259 foot of water. The descending device is awesome, but sucks to wind in. I changed spots and found much better seas. And caught another Coho while trying to drop the swimbait. I got my first Hally and decided I rather do without them keep one that small. Next drop I got my keeper Hally. Choosey Mom’s choose Jif, but today I could not be choosey. I’m glad I filled my limits. I headed in and got my stuff squared away for the flight out. Lots more I want to say about the trip and the lodge, but I gotta jump on a helicopter