Fished the Santa Ynez river on Saturday May 17th. The day started out breezy and chilly when I arrived at the crossing I intended to fish. It was about 8:30am. I was the lone person fishing at that hour and it was incredible up there. There is always something special about being the solo on the water in the early morning. I could see and hear the fish rising and splashing as they ate... I managed to hook but miss two smaller fish in that first pool before I was competing with several other fisherman who had arrived. I moved up the river and found an incredible pool with larger trout, several of which I could see rising. I managed to land about 7 fish in the next few hours all in the 10" range with the largest going about 12". These were suprisingly active lil trout with several spastic leaps per fish as I fought them on my light tackle. I also caught a smallish sunfish on a nightcrawler but I couldn't tell what variety it was. It looked like a green sunfish, but I can't find anywhere that mentions green sunfish in the river or in Cachuma further downstream. Anyone have any idea what type of sunfish are in there (besides smallmouth bass)? I fished this river many times in my life and have never had anyone give me a definite answer. It isn't a bluegill or redear as it has a slightly elongated body and is paler than a bluegill. All fish came on either a silver castmaster or cut nightcrawlers. The nightcrawlers worked really well but the trout really inhaled those things and two of em were gill hooked. I kept those two for dinner last night, for farm fish they were pretty tasty. :9 The contents of the stomachs was interesting... on of them had almost no discernable material, while the other one was absolutely stuffed full of black pond snails. I had no idea that trout ate those little black 'pond' snails. I took a picture of it and will post, but I left it at home. Has anyone else seen this in a trouts stomach before? All in all a really fun day on a really pretty little river just 20 minutes from home. I was hoping for some smallmouth bass, but maybe next trip. I will try to post some pics later.
#9776, "RE: Santa Ynez River 5-17-03" In response to Reply # 2
That is what I thought too. Funny you don't see them show up in Cachuma! For their size they fight very well. I have caught them up there for many many years and never really hear anything about them. Fun to catch tho on really light tackle, they are stout little fighters. It is amazing the population comes back every year as that river usually runs pretty dry during droughts. They must survive in the smallest of pools and repopulate every wet season. Pretty cool.