Mendo, 7/10, stripers and bass

Today is the last day of my vacation, back to work tomorrow and family obligations next weekend will keep me off the water for a little while, so I headed up to Mendo for the day.

Started out on the deep side of the dam and found some large bait balls with big marks under them.  Hooked three and landed one nice striper on a Storm swimbait, about 9 1/2 pounds.  The other two I hooked were vertical spooning a kastmaster through the bait balls and both shook off. 

About 8:00 i switched over to bass fishing and boated three decent largemouth and a nice smallie dropshoting and was off the water by 11:30.  Another nice day on the water!!

Congrats!!!  I made the mistake of being there Saturday, Sunday..  Only got one LM..  I was up at like 5 am , didnt see one boil both days! 

I guess the Power Boats kill the stripper boils?  oh well, the pics make it all worth going back!

Nice striper, dude. How long was he? Looks like a 29 or so. Ben

Holy Bejeebus, this dude is indeed coming in STRONG to the site.

Nice work!!

Lets hope they are still biting in late september for BaM II.

MolBasser

Nice report and good pics.I saw lots of bait-balls w/fish under but didnt know how to go about it Now I Know!thanks for the details and save some for "Bendo@Mendo"
Adam

It was 30 inches.....nice guess though!

Nice Striper!  What's a storm swim bait and can I pick them up anywhere?

Storm is the Company that manufactures them and the bait itself is a wild eye shad.  They are available nation wide (even WalMart has them) and are a 4+ inch bait with the leadhead molded inside the plastic.  They come in various colors, 6 to a bag for about 4 bucks a bag, I think.  They have a whole line of other similar plastic baits, but I have only used the wild eye's. 

Thanks Norm,

I'm heading to Mendo this weekend, hopefully get out before the motor boats.  What color did you use?  I saw them at Longs and saw a variety of colors, mainly the bluegill color but saw some rainbow looking ones as well.  Which color did you use?

George AKA: divn doc

Went to lake Mendo this weekend and the boils are over!   Everyone that I spoke with said that they haven't seen any boils since Monday or Tuesday.  Unfortunately for me, but sounds like you got the last of the good lake Mendo fishing for the year.

Hey divndc,

sorry I did not get back to you sooner, the color I have been using is Pearl, pretty much all white. 

I have not seen any boils up there over the last month or so myself.  The fish in the picture on this post was from under one of those bait balls at about 30 feet deep.  It's a little tougher to find them when they do not show themselves, but if you have a fishfinder you just need to hunt along the edges of the river channel for balled up bait.  If you find bait balled up with larger marks under or mixed in, that is where you want to drop your offering.  Takes a little more time, but worth the work if you find a few.....

Hey Norm,

Thanks for the info, but I think that I'm done with the lake for now.  Heading out to either Ft. Ross or Ocean cove this weekend for some lings, Interested in going?

Thanks again,

George AKA: Divndc

Would love to George, but I am headed to West Virginia for a week of training (work stuff).  perhaps in a few weeks?  Would love to check out some of the Fort Ross stuff, that was the first place i ever launchec my kayak in Nor Cal and the bottom looked great on my graph (didn't have any gear with me on that trip) and i have never been back to fish it.  I went out of Fort Bragg with some non-yaking friends on the Trek II yesterday and did well.  Limits of rockfish for the boat and almost limits for the boat of lings, i had 4 keeper lings and my friend with me also had 4.

Let me know if you are interested in another trip to one of those spots in a few weeks, would love to tag along and see some new water....

Norm

Fantastic!  4 lings... isn't the limit two, or did you give some away?  When you get back drop me a line (no pun intended) and we'll go.  Ab season will be back in season and we can do an ab and fish day.

Have a good trip,

George

Great George, that sounds like a great idea!!  Yeah we only kept two a piece, we also donated a few to some fising in the stern who had not done so well and let the rest go.

I will get in touch when I return....

Norm