Fishing and Chillin North 4/5-4/6 Lake Sonoma

Well it started out kind of marginal but turned out to be a great day. Over-slept and didn't get to LS until 715AM. Hooked up with Fishunter, Mickfish and ChuckE at the main rec area and launched around 745AM. Fished the area near the power plant with Chuck and Adam. About 5 minutes into the troll for steelies, my 30 year old Penn spinning reel has a seizure so I decide to repair it on the water. The only problem is that the wind and chop are really nasty and I am no Alan Tani.  I eventually repaired the reel, but it costs me almost an hour of fishing time. I really wanted to catch a steelie so I targeted them trolling and jigging for 3 hours for nada. Marked a lot of them from 60-150 ft down but couldn't get them to hit a jig or spoon. Around 11 AM, smelling a 3rd straight skunk, I gave up on steelies and switched to bass. Paddled over to near the launch ramp where Adam and Chuck were working the coves for bass. Switched to a Shadrap JSR5 silver/black on the outside and Shadrap SR5 silver/green/black, on the inside trolling and wacky senko casting. Paddled past the point of a medium sized cove and marked a few fish. Noticed Adam inside the cove working senkos and asked him if he had any luck and he said no. Just as the Shadraps pass the point of the cove both clickers go off, DOUBLE HOOKUP!!!  The inside rod looked like a small fish but the outside rod was major bendo and taking line. There was a submerged tree to my right about 50 ft off the bow so I decided to turn left and paddle 50ft to open water before starting the fight. I picked up the outside rod and OMG, this fish had some weight to it. After 5 minutes and 3 runs, I was thinking that I should haved used 12# test instead of 8# since I was making little ground and I had 100 ft of line out. I had this flashback of Abkings lost giant fishfish, so I started swearing at the fish and after another 5 minutes brought the fish to the boat. Man this fish was a toad, 8.5# on the boga. Called Adam and Chuck who came over to take pictures. Released the fish unharmed and Chuck threw a lure at him as he swam off.  I decided to pack it up and to my surprise, I still had a fish on the other rod.  Brought the little fellow in and released him unharmed. Made it to my business meeting in Santa Rosa on time, although a little fishy smelling and home in time to see the UCLA game. BTW, Chuck's new Hobie Revo is the bomb.

Scott

WOW Scott, nice fish!    Thems is some nice AOTY points!    And the double hook-up - still waiting for one of those on the yak.  Never caught a bass on the troll before, probably pretty cool.  I've always been told that the big hogs don't work very hard for food, you must have drug that JSR-5 right across his grill.

Sorry to hear about the lack of love on the steelies    but I'm sure that the big mama made up for that.

Michael

Good job Scott thats a nice bass for Sonoma! The smallie at the same time is cool.

Very nice fish!  Way to go!  On the troll even, with a double hook-up.  Sweet.

Bryan

Nice fish, Spoke to a acquittance of mine who fishes LS for bass once or twice A WEEK and he stated that this has been one of the poorest years to date that he can remember. You made it look easy, good job.

scott, you should get extra points for landing a fish that weighs more than the breaking test of your line!

and a two-species double, that is a winner too!

looks fun, I was surfing today, but maybe I will do a little trolling tomorrow.

John

SOLID double...real nice work Scott!!!

Very cool Scott - congrats!

Way to go Scott you finally got the fresh water skunk off and a monster to-boot, is that your all time record and realest to fight another day nice job .

Pat R

Great report, Scott.  Gotta love the double!  Sounds like another great NCKA hookup.

Good Times.   

I had this flashback of Abkings lost giant fishfish, so I started swearing at the fish and after another 5 minutes brought the fish to the boat.

It's become a technique!     Love it!!   

Way to go Scott you finally got the fresh water skunk off and a monster to-boot, is that your all time record and realest to fight another day nice job .

Pat R

Thanks guys. Yes this is my personal record LMB. My previous record was 4#. I am much more of a trout angler than bass angler inspite of my screen name. Yesterday I was just lucky on the "hail Mary" troll.

Scott

Neat report & pictures......and WOW........the lake level has really come up.

I clicked on your report specifically hoping to see pix of the shoreline.
I kind of figured that this would be a "bad water year" for Sonoma.

I like that lake.
Nice place.

Judd

WTScore GB!!!!

 Nice Smallie and Hawg.....

Fun weekend, I fished hard for 2 released lmb and a big fat pig of a crappie that came home with me. Chuck gave me another so we had a big fish din din last night, some kind of tastey!
Camping, company was great, do another soon.

Nice Scott just take the fish and run

Got to the lake at O dark thirty waited for the boys to show wanted to fish the dam area a little but I knew Rick and I had a long paddle and it was getting windy fast. So I made my way up the lake ducking into coves along the way picking up a few Chunky LMB, but I wanted Steel 1 quick drive by for paddling the whole lake into a stiff breeze . Got to camp set up took a break then fished the area around the camp for a couple of dinks.  Then the Boys started showing up and the laughs began, had a some good food did a little shore fishing some more laughs. I was feeling a little sleepy so I decided to roll down the hill to my tent but that didn't work so I drug myself. Got up the next morning to glass but with the high clouds I figured that the wind would kick in soon so after coffee Thanks Adam I fished with the boys foe awhile then trolled down to the the main lake where Ben and I trolled for a couple of hours Ben got a Slab Crappie and I got a few LMB but no Steel. I saw Rick shoot past me and I wanted to fish the Main part of the lake so I gave a Radio Good Bye to the boys and started trolling once again, the main part of the lake was like an ocean and I was getting blown at about 3mph using my paddle as a rudder. Picked up a few smallies on the troll and ducking into coves. Fishing was slow but there were fish there to catch the wind just made it tough. Paddling in with all my gear was fun I wanna do this again but stay 2 nites.
Thanks guys I had a great time.