Del Valle 12/9/06

Meet Mooch and Edsel at around 0830 and watch Mooch just tear them up.  My only striper was 19" and came to dinner. Will let Mooch and Edsel chime in on their day.

Joel and I (Edsel), arrived at Del Valle at exactly 6am today ... only problem was that gates now open at 7am (for Dec and Jan)!

Morning was foggy and overcast with slight drizzle.    Del Valle water level, as noted in previous posts, was very low.

I started trolling a LuckyCraft Live Pointer crankbait (ghost minnow color) south of the launch ramp.  Within the first 10 minutes, I hook up a 5lb rainbow trout in very shallow water (around 2 ft deep at most).  I keep trolling around the same area again, and 10 minutes later, I hook up with an 8lb rainbow trout.  Kept the 5-pounder and gave the 8-pounder away to another boater close by.  One hour later, I also caught a 2lb largemouth in the flats in the Narrows across from Hetch Hetchy campground.   Lost a 2lb smallmouth bass in the rockwall just before Swallow Bay.  My take for the day ... 2 rainbow trout and 1 largemouth bass.

Joel, on the other hand, started slow, then had an epic day.   After trying for stripers at the launch ramp for a while,  he gave that up and started moving away from the ramp.  Just as FrankFishing came on the radio to let us know he arrived,  Joel hooked up with striper #1.   After that, it was ridiculous!   He sat on a scattered school of stripers in the Narrows, just north and west of the launch ramp.  He was marking the fish on his FF.  He called us to the spot after he hooked up with striper #2.  And for about 3 hours or so, he hooked up with striper #3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.  It was insane!      Two came unbuttoned during the fight, but eight were landed.  He kept two, gave one to me, gave one to a little kid on shore, and released the rest.  All of the fish except one, were landed using a "carolina-rigged" live minnow. 

To top it off, he trolled and caught 3 rainbow trout south of the launch ramp.  Two bigger rainbows were also hooked but came unbuttoned, one apparently bending his hook straight before doing so.

The weather was up and down all day.  We were hoping for overcast and drizzle all day, but got some sun, some rain, wind came up, wind died down, etc.

A good day on Del Valle all in all.  Got to meet Frankfishing on the water.  Good to meet you Frank.
Nice job on the striper-slaying Mooch.

Nice work guys!

One thing about Del Valle that I've always liked besides the fishing is the scenery and the wildlife.

Got to meet one of the resident bald eagles at the lake today.   First saw him lunching on a caught trout in one of the trees. (see pic #1 below)   Was actually able to get to the shoreline just below the tree to watch him for a while.   Then,  as  I paddled away,  15 minutes later, he swoops in to another tree near where I was fishing.  I think he was actually eye-ing one of the fish on my stringer.  (see pic #2 below)     Paddle away shortly after, as he already had lunch and I wanted to keep mine.   

Edsel sorry about that! Nice shot of the Eagle and the Mooch. Not a bad stringer yourself. As soon as Joel paddled away to meet you at the launch, I finnally landed my first keeper.
Great meeting you and hope to hook up again.
Where the hell did I get Axel?

Frank, no worries.

Good to hear you hooked up a striper.  Mooch and I were saying that the storm front was coming in just after we left, and we were betting that the bite would turn back on again because of it.

Esdel,

You may want to just say that a person got his or her limit and released the rest.  It is called fishing over your limit.  And we (Kayakers) are not the only ones looking at this board.

A few years ago they (bunny huggers) tried to shutdown our duck club because of all the heads, bodies and guts laying on the ground near our picking shed.  They had guys climbing our fence to photo it.

We got wise and started putting them (The duck parts not the photo guys) in the garbage.  We did nothing wrong.  But the tree huggers are out there.

Also, just saw that 10 to 25 (forgot how many) guys got caught for over limits and undersize stripers in the delta.  These guys all had fishing licenses.  But, did not care about the rules.

Ken kickfish

Looks like I made a wroung turn @ Walnut Creek

I went to check out the hot bite @ Discovery Bay   One small striper on a pointer...... Good job guys,  looks really nice out there................Danglin

Ken,

Thanks for the heads up.

Just to clarify though,  Mooch kept two as per his limit and it was these two that he gave away.  All others past his limit were caught and released.

- Edsel

OK Edsel,

The way the wording is.  You can take the meaning both ways.

Ken kickfish

Ken,

Thanks for the heads up.

Just to clarify though,  Mooch kept two as per his limit and it was these two that he gave away.  All others past his limit were caught and released.

- Edsel

The way the law works is if you have caught and kept your limit, you have to stop fishing for that species.  This means that if you have 2 stripers on the clip you cannot continue to catch and release stripers.

Stupid, but that is the law.

MolBasser

Doh! Foiled by oversleeping again and it looks like you guys had an epic day, too.  WTG on all those fish fellas! 

After waking up too late to make it to Del Valle I decided to hit Coyote, instead.  Got skunked.  Oh well . . .once again nice job on those fish and hopefully I'll make it up there soon.

Wow! Great to have action like that. Makes me want to start driving right now!!!!
Great job you guys.

Don't fish that you give away count towards your limit?

-Allen

Nice Job all great report and photos.

one apparently bending his hook straight before doing so.

Mooch You using those skinny hooks.