steven's creek 5/9

since I lost my aleut paddle, and got a new swift 'wind' paddle (used demo) from kayak connection in santa cruz
over the weekend, I had to get out and try it. (also ordered a 'feather' paddle from patrick onno, will be interesting to compare).

was there for 5 o'clock to fairly late.

paddle was good, but I don't know if I like the whole spooned blade thing, the flatter blades come out of the water
better.  But it did the job. good power for a small blade.

I trolled a half crawler behind a gold seps sidekick dodger (also tried an old rapala like joels I got on ebay). the rapala caught
algae blooms. the half crawler caught a decent bass (2.5lbs? total guess) across from the launch in the cove over there.
it jumped twice and generallly gave a good account of itself. released safely, not hooked deep thank goodness.

no trout, maybe I used too much crawler, who knows.

7' kokanee/trout ultralight rod is great for trolling, the rod tip shows the lure action real well, the rod absorbs the fish
too, even with 4lb test, the bass stayed on through 2 good jumps and a couple decent runs. it's hard to find a long
rod that is ultralight, alien's noodle rod would probably make a good trout/bass trolling rod.

as the sun went down a ton of little trout in the tiny cove to the right of the launch (looking out) went nuts on some surface
bugs. I threw out a cast-a-bubble and a streamer and they pulled the cast-a-bubble under water but the streamer was too
big, they didn't get hooked. I only had baitcasting gear with me and could not throw anything small enough for them.
a bubble and a small fly would probably nail those little guys.  they were all but jumping in the kayak.

some young skinny rednecks nailed both the trout and bass from their little tin boat. the boys could fish.

chatted with pontoon dude, he said lexington is kicking out the bass right now.

J

John,
Were you trolling 2 rods at the same time (crawler/dodger and Rapala)?

According to my dad, they can definitely work at the same time.  However, GENERALLY speaking, you want to troll the crawler on the slow side and a rapala/rebel performs better a little on the faster side.

If you are using any type of spoon, you also want to troll a little slower for the wobble effect.

Just my $.02.  Every day is different so just the opposite can work, but generally speaking, it holds true.

Stuart

Stu, good advice as usual. thanks!

I agree that the rapala needs to be trolled faster than the dodger.

I was not trolling them at the same time although I do have a two rod stamp
and took two rods out there, but decided it would not work. The rod the
rapala was on was less than ideal, did not show the action in the tip well.

here's the sidekick dodger:

http://www.sepsprofishing.com/Products/seps_pro_sidekick_dodgers.htm

The seps website is a good one for ultralight trolling info.

With the ultralight trolling rod I was using with the dodger, there is a clear 2 beat movement when it is
dodging and it switches to a sustained throb when it starts spinning. I use a cheap ball bearing
swivel above the dodger cause every once in a while I like to speed up and get to a new spot
without pulling it out of the water. I did get at least one hit right when I sped up to spinning
speed once.

the dodger is pretty good as most weeds and algae do not end up on the hook.

trolling the rapala and dodger at the same time would be hard I agree as the rapala
needs more speed.

instead of the crawler, I think one can also use a grub, plastic worm, or fly (streamer). I'd like to
try that, especially the streamer fly, looks like a lot of action even real slow on that thing. looks
alive in the water.

J

John,

Sounds like you got the trolling thing down. 

Other's don't and wonder why they don't catch anything w/ a dodger, not realizing its spinning vs dodging.

Another popular setup for the crawler is to use "cow bells" or "Ford Fenders" in front of the crawler.  The dual single hook rig is also popular as it prevents the "short" bites and helps keep the crawler inline. 
Sort of like a halibut rig, but both hooks are singles.

Let's get out for some salmon soon,
Stuart

salmon sounds good, I might try this sunday if I can navigate the mother's day weekend thing.

as for freshwater trout trolling, I still have a lot to learn (need a FF eventually) but I'm
past the total newb phase now.

tim taylor (of dual striper and salmon fame on the same day) used a set of willow leaf blade 'trolls' behind a
silver size 0 deep six diver and an rsk for lindamar salmon.  That's a twist on the whole dodger/flasher thing.