Today was unreal Sonoma/RR

Got up at 5 felt sick was going to stay home said shit would rather feel bad on the the lake than sitting around. Driving up Dry Ck Rd. and there is a truck towing a boat about 1/2 mile in front of me all of a sudden brake lites and smoke coming off the tires then he keeps going . Get to the spot and I see something flopping in the road crap I pull over its a rabbit, I have never heard a rabbit scream before it was really high pitched loud and raised the hairs on my neck. Poor dude was bleeding from everywhere and its back half was crushed no way he was going to make it but was in a lotta pain, I thought of taking it to the Shelter but no way he would wait till 9. So I got my gloves picked him up and snapped his neck. Not a good way to start Easter Monday .

Got up the lake saw the guy that hit him chewed his ass a little and said crap its windy again well not as bad as last week and proceed to troll toward my spot halfway there get a big drive by nada. Get to the spot and troll around for 3 hours for 1 dink LMB and 3 really small steelies (9/10"). Figure this lakes not going to beat me again so I cross the lake and start hitting the points trying jigs,dropshots, senkos, cranks for nothing. So I duck into the coves a least its nice no wind. Then I find the magic depth 6' smallies by every rock and yes Adam every piece of wood  I'm having too much fun smallies are a blast and they are really hungry even the little ones throw the lure half the time nothing big all 12/15" but they fight great. Every cove is good for 5-10 fish they are mostly males getting ready in 2 weeks it will be on. troll a little more back to the ramp for nada.

Grab a little grub and hit my cabin for some long over due yard work. Work up a big sweat for 3/4 hours then decide to cool off in the river of course gotta take a rod. I cross the river and spook a steelie but he goes downstream instead of up where I was going to fish. I tie my favorite wee wart on my bass pole and the 3rd cast I get hit hard set the hook and pop goes the line then I reel up and see my knot still intact what the frick I guess I spread the little figure 8 eyelet on the lure which pisses my off even more. I figure if I wait a little while the lure will pop up since it's barbless and the last WW of that color that I have. Sure enough after about 15 min I see the lure and wade out to get it but wait I see a big smallie right about where the lure popped up. So I tie on a robo worm and he picks it up by the tail and swims off I set for nada, but wait he comes back to the same spot about 10' from where I am wading in 2' of water. So for 15 min I cast the worm and he just looks at it,I start cutting of the worm to give him a different look and he just mouths it a few times. So I tie on a Brads and he just watches it, then it hits him in the nose and he attacks it set fish on 1 jump fish off. But crap he swims back to the same spot and he is lit up with all the dark bars. So I cast again and he nails the lure and gives a great fight but I win this time he was startting to piss me off and SOB he swims back to the same spot again WTF.

Sorry for the long post but today was weird but fun, allot of other thing happened but I  am pooped. Side note I used the metered trolling line that J and I bought and it is AWESOME and Cabela's has it on sale for $9.99 If anybody is going to by some let me know and I will split the shipping.

Great report and pics, Mike.  Action-packed day for sure!   

Nice jump-shot pic!
 
Gratz on the fishing and thanks for taking care of the rabbit (I've had to do it with squirrels and it's not as easy as it sounds...took guts and heart to help the bunny).

sounds like alot of fun

Wow...! Nice looking smallies. Fish like those make me think... It's about time I hit that lake up... never fished it before. Too bad about the rabbit. Reminds me of a time when some guy hit a rabbit down the street and pulled out a nice level to whack it... again and again and again... the whole time while he was whacking it, he just kept asking the Lord for forgiveness. I stood back and watched the show. I couldn't help but laugh at this guy. Yikes...!

Hope you're feeling better.

Freddie

Still a lot of fish in the river, the Ukiah hatchery is getting about 90 a day...crazy day Mike!

I think smallmouth are about my favorite local fish. They fight the good fight. WTG Mike.

CHEERS!

Nice report and pics. I'm going to give CC a rest for awhile and concentrate on lake Sonoma. THANKS for the intel.

Congrats on the smallies Mike! Sorry about the rabbit, been there, done that, no fun. I'll check out the Cabela's line you recommended and let you know if I will order some - would really help with line control.

Sean - good to hear there are more fish in the RR, that's great news!

 You had a sad morning turn into a happy day of hookin....seeing that vegetation touching the water gets me excited in a very weird way..... then TAILS of smallies hittin lures is only ADDING to that WEIRDNESS!
If you were trying for BIG smallies....would Sonoma or Berryessa be YOUR call?
justTRYINGtoITCHmySCRATCH!

Off the hook!! Or rather on the hook but sounds like a great day with the exception of the widdo wabit.

-FF

Great story/report Mick! Thanks for that.
It is smallie time. There's a hot bite down here at Lake San Antonio right now too. Hardest fighting bass in showbiz.
PK

Good report & awesome action shot, Mickfish!
& the trees...    the road trip to north doesn't sound good, so I might try there on Thursday...

I like those action packed days with a lot of variety!  great pics and report, 

what lb test of that line did you try? I tried 10lb and 20lb on sunday on smallish spinning reels. both are fine, 20lb is a little bit thicker than they say it is, more like 8lb than 6lb mono diameter, but easy to handle and tie because of that. 10lb is thicker than 2lb mono like they say, but still pretty darn thin, down in the not-so-easy-to-handle diameter.   15lb might be a good all-around freshwater solution.
I ordered a couple spools of that to try.

here's more on how I rigged my two rods last sunday, just for comparison to what you did.

I tied a rod length leader of 10lb mono/flouro to both rods. First I doubled the braid for about 2 feet and used a surgeon's knot instead of a bimini to make the doubled line. then uni-to-uni from doubled braid to the leader. compa does something similar to avoid abrasion to the braid near the swivel, both on the bottom or when landing a fish. easier to tie the 10lb leader to the swivel, dodger or trolling weight too.

I was prepared to cast or troll with the same lightweight no-hassle spinning combo.  kind of hard to beat as much as I prefer the feeling of a baitcaster...

J

Sounds like the smallie in the river was on it's nest. Only thing that'll keep em going back to the same spot like that. Nice to have the mojo where ever you go eh?