Humboldt Freshwater Lagoon 3-28-2012

It's spring break for me and I'm up in Humboldt County with my wife & youngest daughter …  I brought my little hobie with me, all the way from L.A.

Today I got out to freshwater lagoon for the afternoon.   I was OTW at 12:30 pm and fished until about 6:45 pm. 

It was quite windy (out of the south) and cold and as I put in I questioned my sanity for doing this, but truth be told I had a great time even though I only caught (and released) three little hatchery rainbow trout.  I hooked up (but lost) two other fish.  They felt like they were small.

I spent the entire time trolling or casting a pink spinner.

The boat ramp is on the north end of the lagoon and that's where it was the windiest.   When I put in there was no one else on the water and no one else fishing.   There were about 5 osprey near the ramp and they were catching 8" - 10" trout about every ten minutes.  I wish the game warden was there 'cause I know those birds were WAY OVER their limit.   



At first I thought I was just going to stay for a short time so I did not put the fish finder on my kayak.



 I fought the wind and waves and pedaled down to the south end of the lagoon and caught my first little 10.5" fish on the troll.  The fish had an injury on one side.  It looked like he had been snagged by a bird but got away.



It was nice down on the south end of the lagoon, protected from the wind and I lost a 2nd fish down there.  I decided I wanted my fish finder, so I "sailed" back to the ramp, installed my fish finder, and got a bite to eat, then pedaled/ trolled back down to the south end.  As I got to the south end I picked up another little fish and this time I measured it. 



yep.  10.5 ".  Just like the other.  By now three people in a small skiff were fishing the east side.  I came up on them later and they were bass fishing.  They said they had a few. 



I fished the shallower water in the extreme south end of the lagoon but did not get much.  I went back to the southwest side and snagged/lost another fish.

As I finished up I decided to"sail back" along the southeast side I connected with another fish, this one was 12" .  I thought briefly about taking that one home for dinner but then decided it was pretty small and released it.



At about 6:30 I decided it was time to call it quits for the day and head back to Arcata.

I took a lot more pix than.  The wind looked "gnarly" on both Big Lagoon and Stone Lagoon.  Neither appears to have breeched like last spring.   

It's really beautiful up here.  Too bad I can't get my spring break about 3 weeks later, eh?   If all goes well we may be retiring up here.

Dave   

Thanks for the report and pictures.  You are an animal.  Those same condors were fishing there Sunday.

Scenery is spectacular, it doesn't come close to staring at those LA freeways.  When get back you'll be telling yourself, What I am I doing here?

Nice report looks like you had a good day out there.
Driving up to Crescent City this morning it was blowing pretty good as I passed the lake and said man it would suck to be out there dealing with the wind today. Looks like it calmed down alot because it had white caps this morning.

Also Big Lagoon is breeched at low tide the water actually goes down about 100 yards ill snap some pictures when I see the tide low again.

Way to go for it, Dave!  I'm glad you had more success out there than me!   

Dave, I'm glad that you, your wife and the Hobie were able to make the trip up north! Wtg in braving the weather and getting some good amount of hrs otw. Not bad at all on the trout either brother 

Glad ya had fun, and I hope that your retirement plans fall into place. It would be nice to have you up here in Nor Cal!

@ fishing addict - It took me THREE HOURS to get out of LA on Sunday.  It was ugly.  I'm not looking forward to being back there.    The scenery here is very different from fishing at Cabrillo.  Of course the SoCal beach scenery varies with the seasons and is sometimes pleasant in the summer. 

Question to all:  Stone Lagoon looks so beautiful.  I contemplated fishing there today just for the scenery but I probably will not.  My guess is that it occasionally produces cutthroat trout and possibly steelhead.  Does anyone here fish it regularly?

There was a truck parked at the creek that feeds Big Lagoon an I assumed someone was down there fishing.  Same question, does anyone here fish it regularly?

Finally:  The retirement thing is probably in about 4-5 years but we looked at some property this time and, this is scary, may have found something.  One of these days I may no longer be a tourist up here.   

ps -- Hey Daniel! -- I may be at Asilomar this June, will let you know.

Question to all:  Stone Lagoon looks so beautiful.  I contemplated fishing there today just for the scenery but I probably will not.  My guess is that it occasionally produces cutthroat trout and possibly steelhead.  Does anyone here fish it regularly?

There was a truck parked at the creek that feeds Big Lagoon an I assumed someone was down there fishing.  Same question, does anyone here fish it regularly?

Dont fish it regularly, just a few times.  They both have nice cuthroat and steelhead in them.  Stone lagoon is artificial only with barbless hooks.  Big Lagoon allows bait and artificial with barbless hooks.  Only cuthroat trout can be kept.

WTG Dave,
I to know of your SoCal pain
I was lucky enough to get out of there (Riverside) 31 years ago
Hope your retirement plans work out
Tad