Merced River Thanksgiving Morning with Dilbeck

Met up with Dilbeck below McSwain dam this morning at O Dark 45.

We loaded up and made a relatively uneventful launch into the river, and started our way up towards the dam with no action then trolled downstream. 

It was a beautiful start to the day, clear and surprisingly warm:


I missed a hit, then dilbeck missed one, then I was the first to land one:


Unfortunately that was all the action I received for a while. But dilbeck knocked them dead!

First fish for him, sorry that it is fuzzy:


We trolled down below the hornitos bridge, then to Merced Falls.  Dilbeck caught 1 there and lost 1. 

Pics of Merced Falls (notice the fog came in on top of us)



Anyways, total results for me were 2 caught (1 small one released)
Dilbeck - 5 fish caught (1 small one released)

The rainbows were around 13-15 inches from our estimates.  Fairly good fighting fish.

I definitely enjoyed myself out there and was happy to get on some new water to me.  I will be heading out there again for sure!

We caught fish on just about everything we used, I caught one on a grub, 1 on a crawler
Dilbeck was able to catch fish on crawlers, spinner + crawler combo, a dick nite spoon and kastmaster.

Some more pics-
My island - great for cleaning fish:


Dilbeck at work cleaning:


All pictures for the day:
http://s50.photobucket.com/albums/f313/bassmanben/Merced%20River%20112708/

Great report and those were some nice fish for that area.
Thanks for the photos as well, really tells the story
Eric

I wish I could have spent my Turkey Day that way!!!.... Thanks for the report,..Andy

Good report fellas! 

Did you guys launch from the little boat ramp or out towards the bridge?

I tried fishing there once, up towards the damn but I kept getting snagged and gave up.

A while back they dug some hole near the power plant, it's apparently pretty deep there.  The few times I've been there just to check it out I've run into an older gentleman who launches his tiny aluminum boat and fishes the hole...he says he does pretty well.  A couple of times I've helped him load his boat back into his truck and afterwards we've sat there having a few beers (he asked me not to offer him any if his wife is around  ) he's got some very cool fishing stories about the surounding area.  He's gotta be one of the coolest people I've met while fishing that place, and if you've spent any time there at all you know there are definetely some "interesting" characters to run into.

For some reason I've settled on the pink and white with black spots kastmaster as my confidence lure there... so far it's never failed  me even when everything else has.

Pacifico,  we launched at the little boat ramp about 200 yards below the dam.  We started off near the dam but there were some bait dunkers there who were trying to cast about 100 yards with 1 oz sinkers at us, so we trolled all the way down below the bridge and down to the falls and back.  We did find some nice deeper areas near the power plant, which I am sure is what you and that other gentleman have seen.  Lots of fish jumping, we probably saw over 20 fish jump.  There are a bunch of fish in that river out of the range of normal bankies.

Nice report - ya can't complain about a T-day morning like that.

Nice work boys...thats a solid stringer there Mike!

Hey Pacifico, does that older man happen to paddle that boat with a kayak paddle?  Me and Michael saw someone out there yesterday morning paddling out of the fog in a small fiberglass or aluminum.  He parked near the spillway and apparently walked down below though.

No, I've seen him paddle out with an oar. He launches from the powerplant.

Thanks for the report and pictures bassmanben. Glad you guys had a nice productive day. Nice stringer Mike.

Jedmo

Nice outing guys. ..also time for the rest of us to focus on trouts now that the RF is over...