Sac River Jim

i was on the lake when it hit last night. hardest rain i ever fished thru i ran bilge pump every 10 minutes an it would run for 5 minutes, the drain in the bottom of the ole ranger looked like a toilet bowl swirl lmbo!!!!! It had to have rained an inch an hour i'd say. Didn't bother the fish one bit. i had a good bag but unfortunately two other guys had better of course we only had 5 boats hahaha!!!! the others that usually fish with us had better sense i guess, darrell i found fish again similar pattern, same presentation and same locations as we got on em that first time. only difference they are strictly staged on those main lake points, nothing on the banks in between them. its best to skip point to point then turn around and hit em again.

thnx for the report skeeter. i put in at ruark at 5:30 ya shudda hung around a couple more hours it got kinda interesting to say the least. every 10 minutes i had to turn on my bilge pump and it would run for 5. did pretty good considering the weather same type of pattern you had points but no single depth per say, ned to find them and shakey to catch them. are you catching any mean mouth i caught three just above point four and a couple fri night down at 5 fingers. this is the first year ive caught them besides a single stray a couple times a year.

thnx for the heads up now i know i made the right decision not to fish th wednesday nighter out of the 39 bridge ramp.

Darren thnx for the report and i'm impressed the boys figured out the pattern so fast. I've been fishing the same areas and pattern except I;m not going all the way to the dam. Mutton to Five Fingers is as far as I have to go and i'm setting up a little deeper and throwing into 25 fow.. Your son has learned something it has taken many of us years to learn about Stockton and thats the do nothing sterile looking points and banks hold fish!!!!!! I fished both friday night saturday and sunday till dark and i had to really work hard for the fish i caught. between all the rain and the pleasure boaters it made it a tough bite and very hard to fish the main lake points. Plz send my congradulations to your son and his partner they did a fantastic job under less than good conditions!!!

ck out o reilly's

all i can remember how my hands cramped up after throwing salt craws all night then hitting the main lake points with spinner baits till it was time for the weigh in lol!!!

yep sure wudda to me its not about the bass it is about an illegal stringer and i may be wrong if they clipped the fins on the fish to keep them seperated and identified. kwall youve been on the stockton forums long enough to know i dont really consider myself a basser i consider myself a fisherman and a sportsman. several of my friends tournament fish and i enjoy the friendly competition between us and i get lucky ever so often and take their money lmbo!!!!! Back 30 years ago I was a basser and a pretty salty stick at that Crap now i have trouble getting up and down off my decks it's a bite in the butt to get old lol!!!!!

i cut my teeth on the 5500c's

pm me your number we'll hook up

my next project is to upgrade all my rods to razR rods. they are pretty expensive and cant do it all at once but i;ll let you know when i have other equipment for sale. ive got mostly team lews rods i want to upgrade. let me do some figuring on how to shuffle some reels around ive got three quantum smokes i bought last winter ive been wanting to upgrade to lews reels . i'll see what i can figure out. my goal is to have all razR rods with lew's reels. i like the bb1's the super duties and the team lite reels. crap last count i have 22 lew's combos in the boat so i can afford to thin em down a little and still feel secure with my just in case syndrome hahaha!!!!!!

kk i'll try to be at ruark either real early so you can fish with it or i'll be at your weigh in. ive got to take a thousand ned heads up to lew;s next couple of days so i was planning on picking up the team lite reel. if i do i'll have one the lew's reels with me too.

My whole point and the only reason I got involved in this is there's a right way and a wrong way to do things I don't wanna see anyone get a ticket when its preventable. Weve discussed how to separate fish a few times on the Stockton forum because a lot of guys take friends and family out on pontoons and all catch there limits and have learned how to keep them separate. That's what I call educational and productive. I just wish these kind of arguments wouldn't happen I've learned a lot from everyone on this site and just hope someone new don't get a bad taste in their mouth and leave over threads like this that take a bad turn. I want them to have the same opportunity to improve both their knowledge and skills as I have. Thnx for your input and point of view smallie. Bottom line is not everyone is going to see eye to eye but we can respect each others opinions and try to get along.

passing on what was passed to me by my grandpa and dad is very important to me. that 1960's looking stringer in my opinion doesn't set a good example even tho he had every right to do so. to me its not about rights it's about responsibility. this pic summs it up for me in a nutshell.

kwall i understand i usually stay neutral on these types of threads everyone has the right to do what they want with fish as long as it falls under MDC regulations I don't have a problem with that at all. I personally would rather have a big mess of gigantic bluegill myself, two things bothered me tho. number one why even mention you kept them for a fish fry and they was full of eggs when we know it was gonna cause a sht storm but what i'm more concerned about is setting an example for the younger generations that will see that pic of the 9 bass on a single stringer and think its ok to do it themselves next time they go fishing. i know when i was a kid i immortalized Harold Ensley and Virgil Ward and if I seen them doing that I'd think it was ok to do it too. I'm using that as an examp;e referring to complying to MDC regulations.

yea seemed a little overkill to me too. i fish mostly nights so not sure i need a crap load of ice and drain half my live wells. a little hydrogen peroxide and fishy valium goes a long ways.

Fill your livewell as soon as you launch your boat and turn on the aerator to build up dissolved oxygen levels. Run your aerator continuously, no matter what time of year. Fish confined in livewells use oxygen faster than an aerator can replace it. Add ice to the livewell. When water surface temperatures are higher than 85 degrees, adding ice will reduce the water temperature in a livewell by 10 degrees. Use block ice if possible. It melts slower than crushed or cubed ice, and it cools water more evenly. One eight-pound block will cool a 30-gallon livewell for about three hours. Carry extra blocks in an ice chest to use later. Add non-iodized salt, 1/3-cup per five gallons of livewell capacity, to help reduce stress on fish. Re-circulate water through your aerator rather than pump in hot surface water. Replace at least half of the livewell water two or three times daily to remove ammonia. Add additional ice and salt, and then resume recirculation. Commercial livewell additives help calm fish in livewells, helping reduce stress and decreasing their oxygen respiratory rates.

heres a cut and paste for managing your live well during the summer Fill your livewell as soon as you launch your boat and turn on the aerator to build up dissolved oxygen levels. Run your aerator continuously, no matter what time of year. Fish confined in livewells use oxygen faster than an aerator can replace it. Add ice to the livewell. When water surface temperatures are higher than 85 degrees, adding ice will reduce the water temperature in a livewell by 10 degrees. Use block ice if possible. It melts slower than crushed or cubed ice, and it cools water more evenly. One eight-pound block will cool a 30-gallon livewell for about three hours. Carry extra blocks in an ice chest to use later. Add non-iodized salt, 1/3-cup per five gallons of livewell capacity, to help reduce stress on fish. Re-circulate water through your aerator rather than pump in hot surface water. Replace at least half of the livewell water two or three times daily to remove ammonia. Add additional ice and salt, and then resume recirculation. Commercial livewell additives help calm fish in livewells, helping reduce stress and decreasing their oxygen respiratory rates.

I've been fishing the Wednesday nighter at the 39 bridge. Only one evening three weeks ago did I have a good jig bite where I've picked up multiple fish including keeps on the same bank. The rest of the time been one here one there and NO distinguishable pattern. Jig and night thumper spinner bait has been best for me but that isn't saying a whole lot.

I too had a chance back in the late 80's early 90's to go pro, a comittment to uncle sam and a short vacation in Iraq put a damper on it. This brings up another point I've been concerned about. To fish competively on a high level actually any level takes a huge committment let alone alot of hard work money and time. I've been following the High School fishing program pretty closely and sure they are having a great time wearing their jerseys some thinking they are following in the foot steps of the big boys but in a couple of years these kids have to choose a path for their life and I hope they don't let all the notoriety they are getting influence their decisions. whether you are a daily fishermen, a guide or a local pro trying to branch out into the bigger picture its takes a incredible amount of time work and money just to keep your boat and equipment well maintained. i always explained it as my second job. When you start getting sponsors and traveling well that's a whole different scenario of its own. Theres a certain glamour to our sport when you get to a certain level but the facts are it's darn hard work and can affect many different areas of your life.

Sportsman factory outlet has a good selection of zinker z's zeros and TRD along with 1/16 and 1/8thoz ned heads and chompers.

before anyone starst pointing fingers at tournament fisherman let me ask you this what happens to a big femalecaught and relocated in the middle of her spawn. how do bass spawn in general and what precautions do most tournament fisherman take to ensure the survival of spawning fish. i myself will not keep and most others that i know will not keep a bloody tail male building or guarding a nest. males on the nest are stressed because they are fasting for up to three weeks and need to go back in the water as fast as possible. females on the other hand are not as stressed because all she does is lay her ripe eggs in the nest the male does the rest. a female after laying part of her eggs on an individual nest will search out another male to spawn with even if she is relocated to a different part of the lake. we take precautions to ensure the safety of out live well fish everything from cleaning and general maintenance of our live well systems, fizzing fish caught deep to using everything from hydrogen peroxide and ice to chemicals like rejuvenate. some the series i fish furnish bags to transport our fish from the live well to the weigh in. this ensures the bags are clean and willl hold water. I've spent up to 30 minutes sometimes nursing a weak stressed fish back to strength. The only thing that is going to stop these long drawn out bunch of crap debates is education and knowledge along with people that been on here long enough to know that if a picture of a large bass is taken away from the water its going to stir up a sht storm.We just had the same type of argument on the Stockton forum not to long ago and i told the guys on there just wait awhile this dispute will happen again and so it has and sooner than i expected. As Phil mentioned a couple weeks ago all the mudslinging, stereotyping and name calling does is make us lose members that contribute to this sight. Here's a link to general information on the spawn I hope people take the time to read it. http://www.ultimatebass.com/content/view/181/48/

I'm at a point in my life where i can fish as many days a week i want. i'm one that works hard on and off the water to improve my skills but reading and studying just dont replace actual time on the water. I was on a really good roll all spring I placed in six of seven tournament up thru May but I've been doing this for alot of years and knew my little milk run and the patterns I was fishing would run out eventually. the last two friday nighters out of state park weren't very productive and on Saturday I struggled trying to get a friend on keeper fish. My point is this sport can be very challenging and can get frustrating. You can go from hero to zero at a drop of a hat. You can't expect to be on fish all the time even like Hackney said the best of the best have good days and bad days they can be on a roll then go in a slump. The key for me is to get on the water as much as possible and try different things till I get things figured back out. Don't take yourself too darn serious and set standards for yourself which are unrealistic just get out on the water and have fun you will find you will start having more good days than bad. Tight Lines!!!! SRJ Oh and take a kid fishing!!!!

i have to build a dozen and a half short arms tomorrow in blk/ blue chrome but while I'm at it I'm gonna ck out papis skirts and see if I cant build a couple blk/purple chrome or blk chrome/purple thumpers. thnx hammer blk/purple combination can be very good on the rock.

I never followed him much but after reading his very honest article I have alot more respect for the man. http://www.bassmaster.com/blog/hackney-nothing-replaces-time-water

blk/purple fleck or grn pumpkin 6'' gary yamamoto senko on a shakey, blk/blue chrome short arm spinner bait built on .035 wire so it really thumps with a blk colorado blade, grn pumpkin magic/salsa and touch of orange jig with a critter craw for a trailer and as hammer said don;t forget about the ole blk jitterbug. it can be deadly on big fish.those are my go to baits on the rock but i'll be honest with you the rock has kicked my butt so far this spring.