Ok, part two. On Tueaday we did REAL good. Everybody got limits. Brian had 8 legal fish, his best five went about 10lbs. Daniel's five went 7 1/4lbs. and my five went about 7lbs. That's pretty much the best fishin at Cachuma ever on Kettler's boat. It was awesome. I didn't have a single bedfsih. I think all of them came on rip baits (Lucky Craft Pointer 78) while Daniel cheated and caught a couple bedfish and Brian #2 caught one or two also. Really good rip bite on Tuesday. 80% of the fish probably came on rip baits. The rest were either bedfish or senko fish.

If Monday was Daniel's day, and Tuesday was Brian's day, Wednesday was my day. We threw ripbaits in mianus and I got nailed. I was rippin it in the back of man-gina cove and the bait just stopped. I went "oh?" and set the hook, and then the fish started rippin drag, and I went "OH!". The fish turned out to be a 3.5 that just bulldogged for the log cover. We all thought for sure it was at least 5 judging by the fight. We moved down the bank and came up on a point. I threw the Lucky Craft on it and had a 4lber follow it to the boat. I paused the bait, and believe it or not, instead of just looking at it and swimming away, the fish actually sucked it in. Set the hook, and I was stoked. That was one of the best moments of the trip, just watching that fish suck it in, instead of just turning around and leaving like they always do. Now I know why I paid $17 for that bait... After that we fished around there some more and Brian and Daniel both caught a few fish. We moved to the shoreline opposite the backside of the island where Daniel proceeded to miss not 1, not 2 but 3 fish that blew up on his ripbait as soon as it hit the water. The fish that Daniel did manage to set the hook on, and the ones that Brian caught were all on wood, still in pre-spawn. I threw one right along this underwater log in about 10 feet of water and sure enough, KURTHUNK. Another good one!!! This one bulldogged it too, and went to deep water, and jetted around a little bit, but I could tell he didn't have much weight, and he went 3lbs. Not bad, 3 fish for 10 1/2lbs, but I still want a limit. We continued to fish around and I got a 1 3/4lb. smallie, but that was about it for the day. Brian ended up with about 3lbs. of fish, Daniel had 6 and I had 12 1/2. Good day. Later that day it rained a little bit, and we drove back to the marina in the rain. It cleared up by about 9pm.

Thursday Daniel had to leave, but Zach came up for a schoolin. Zach's new in the bass club and does most of his fishing on private ponds and lakes. He's really into bass fishing, but never really had anybody to teach him how to fish. Actually he never really knew bass fishing was THAT big, but he's a really eager learner. He's way into it, so we took him up to the lake to show him some stuff. The morning sucked. Stork flats was dead. I missed a fish that I totally should've had, but I was funkin around and not paying attention. So, we moved to mianus and nothin was cookin. After that we decided to go visit Federico (the bass that was so interested in my trout plugs on Monday). He came out and rushed the osprey just like before, but wasn't into it, just like before. We also hit Harvey's cove for bedfish sometime in there, and Brian got one. We hit Johnson also, where Brian got another one. We also had one bedfish interested in the toro tube, but just wouldn't eat it. Actually I had him nip at the tail, and I set the hook too soon. After that I added two trailer hooks to the back of it, but he was pretty not into it by then, so we let him be. Getting back to Federico- we decided that it was going to be a slow day and catching bedfish all day isn't really our idea of a good time, so we just decided to work on Zach's game. Brian and I gave a "lecture" about spinnerbaits (we figure we'll start with one thing and get him really good at it, then move on to something else) and when to use em, and bass habits in general. After that we gave him some pointers on underhand casting and got out of the wind, behind the island to give him some practice. We also introduced him to Mr. Loomis and Mrs. Curado. He's now addicted (or shall we say enlightened). So, in search of some more casting practice and a better shot at spinnerbait fish, we headed to Santa Cruz. Zach had a fish chase his spinnerbait to the boat and look at it for a really long time at boat side as Zach dragged it around. The fish turned out to be a bedfish which was pretty aggressive and didn't really have a set bed yet, but was probably in the process of making it or something. After throwing an assortment of blades, ripbaits, tubes, and dropshots, Zach finally hooked it on a wacky rig dropshot. Awesome. Zach's first public lake bass!!! That fish was about 2#. Further down the bank, Zach farms a fish on the blade as it jumps, it was about 1.5#. At the corner of the log barrier in the back, Zach sticks another one on the blade and boats a 2#er. Sweet!!! Zach's stoked and we're stoked too. During this period we didn't really fish much, just helped Zach and kicked back. It was kinda cool. Definitely a nice end to a great week of fishing. We later headed to Mianus, but the wind was gettin pretty bad so we booked early. It was a bumpy ride home, but we made it back with a small craft advisory (it was closer to double flag, but only one was flying). So, this week was definitely some of the best fishing I've ever experienced at Cachuma. For a couple days we didn't go an hour without somebody catching a fish. It was great. Here's pictography of the Spring Break mayhem-

Bed fish
http://www.calfishing.com/dcforum/User_files/3acd25534c3e1d65.jpg

Yeah, that's me
http://www.calfishing.com/dcforum/User_files/3acd25884cf1bf73.jpg

Brian #2
http://www.calfishing.com/dcforum/User_files/3acd25b84d91d9dd.jpg

Me again
http://www.calfishing.com/dcforum/User_files/3acd25e6539ecdfc.jpg

There's my 4#er
http://www.calfishing.com/dcforum/User_files/3acd2612543e9c7b.jpg

Jeez, I really did catch a lot of fish
http://www.calfishing.com/dcforum/User_files/3acd264c5522ced0.jpg

Mentos- the fresh maker
http://www.calfishing.com/dcforum/User_files/3acd268355bc7675.jpg

There's Chewey
http://www.calfishing.com/dcforum/User_files/3acd26b75663abb2.jpg

Daniel with a nice senko fish
http://www.calfishing.com/dcforum/User_files/3acd26f0573cc77d.jpg

Zach's first public fish!!!
http://www.calfishing.com/dcforum/User_files/3acd271f57dade71.jpg
Ahhhhh cable modem...

Whoa Brian you caught some at Cachuma! Dang dude!
That's the first good Cachuma report I think I've read ever in the history of Cachuma.
So did you figure out how to walk the dog under water with the Pointer minnow or what? That's one good rip bait I tell ya.
But what's up with mianus and these code names?? Is Brian #2 just becoming too much of a local up there or what?
Good report.

-Rob

Rob,
No hidden secrets or anything- Mianus and Man-gina Cove are just names we gave to these coves (and a stretch of bank) we found. Their location is in the entrance of the narrows, to the left as you enter the narrows. There's a main point on the left, with some rock walls. Just around that point is basically where Mianus starts. Man-gina Cove is like the 2nd or 3rd cove past that point.
-Brian

Hey sounds like you guys had a blast at Cachuma. What color pointers were you guys using? I think I will have to go out and buy a couple of them.

My pointer minnow was the ghost minnow color. Looks like a sweet clear water color. Brian Kettler was throwing an old rainbow trout colored owner bait that had faded so it was more like a dull white with light green back and black spots. The other bait had a brown back and yellow sides, so we had quite the array of colors. I don't think certain colors ever really out-produced the others, but there was a time or two when I was glad I had a Lucky Craft. Definitely change out the hooks though. I forgot to mention it, but this was the first time I've caught fish on the Lucky Craft, and just with the fish from this week, the black plating in the center of the treble hooks was literally being chewed off (I'm not complaining, but still...), so you could see the gold underneath. And I bent a hook or two out also. Definitely get some gammies on there. The hooks are fairly sharp, but definitely not strong enough. I did miss a couple fish, but surprisingly not many, so the stock hooks aren't that bad as far as function, but durability is where they suck.
-Brian

Interesting point on the Lucky Craft hooks.
The pointer minnows that I have are about a year old and have chrome hooks on them. They are not as bad as say the stock rattle trap hooks, but they are pretty bad. Recently I bought some of the LV500 cranks and they have the black hooks on them which are pretty sharp. I think these are the same hooks Brian is talking about. The black hooks I'm fine with but those chrome hooks have got to go in the round file and be replaced with gammies.

Yeah, the ones I'm referring to must be the newer black hooks. They are sharp, but like I said, they're pretty weak. You could probably get away with leaving them on there, but eventually you'll straighten one out and have to put gammies on there anyway.
-Brian

Dang Brian, sounds fun. Fish or no fish. Oh to be young and free again....

Amish Ed

p.s. Any word on next week? Loading up the boxes tomorrow at work.

Ed,
I'm pretty sure the trip is on. If it comes down to it, we may need to all just pitch in a couple extra bucks to go with a light load, but it sounds like Wayne is really lookin forward to this trip and really wants to go, so we'll see. I'll email you sometime next week with details of getting to the boat.
-Brian

They in Diego now?

Amish Ed

I think it's outta H&M but I'm not sure.
-Brian