Campbell Perc Ponds L8 Report

Forecast on preceding night was not auspicious, but we were undeterred.  

SAT...NW WINDS 15 TO 25 KT..DECREASING TO 10 TO 20 KT DURING THE MORNING. WIND WAVES 3 TO 5 FT. MIXED SWELL NW 3 TO 4 FT AT 8 SECONDS AND SW 3 FT AT 14 SECONDS. PATCHY FOG.

Launched at the crack of moonset.



Initially nice conditions on outbound leg of a 5+ mile paddle. Bout 3 miles into it we faced a stiff headwind.



Conditions deteriorated, but catching improved.





Minimized my gopher bycatch today by exclusively fishing jumbo irons and big swimbaits.  Rewarded with some nice trout.



Another ~ 5 lbs rainbow.



Fog rolled in on us at times.





Pisciform deployed his chute and was nailing em to the end, despite substantial swell and wind.  The steep pitch makes it look likes hes about to ride a breaker in the surfzone.  Kinda dicey with the wind waves, spray all up in ya grillz.



He ended up with a jumbo 24"er bouncing a custom jig.  I was also pleased with my stringer.



Down swell, downwind paddle home wasn’t bad, but required effort with all that cargo.  Nice scenery, though.



Likely my only meat trip of the season.



My kicker fish went about 23.5”, and was thicka than a snicka' bar.



On the chopping block.



Peritoneum was full of hitchhikers.  



Ugggg.  If fish have abdominal nociception, this pig musta been in a world of hurt.  Poor thing.



Otherwise, pulled some real clean fillets.  Had lots of skeletons so thought I’d try something to maximize yield.  Others have tried this to good effect.



Salt, broil, flake off meat, discard bones.



From here, it can go so many ways.  I just added some Dijon, mayo, Sriracha chili sauce, cornichons, onions, garlic, citrus, and salt to make a nice little sandwich spread.  Worth ~ 3-4 heaping servings.  Yummm.  

I usually get em on powerbait......nice trout.

Congrat on the nice catches.  Thanks for the report and nice pictures Martin.

Nice haul there Martin. Aaron does looks like a season pro on the water.

Jedmo

  I was raised in Los Gatos and my first apartment on my own was in Campbell, funny how your memory changes things, them ponds look huge now, and the secenery is so much better, must be a new park in the back ground there.  I see also they have stocked some of them mutant trout, and I second the thought that there is nothing better then gettem with chuncks of flourescent power bait, living life large! 

Nice grade-o-fish.

I must have missed the rainy season...looks like the Perc Ponds have filled up

i agree with mooch.  surprised you didn't catch any largemouths in the perc pond.  how deep was the water there? 15' or so?

Nice there were no bank fishermen at the ponds. Why no wide shot with the back splash tile in the background? jerk!

I didn't read this post for a while because of the title being not one of the regular haunts...........

Martin   "You funny guy!"

And all that time in High School I was hanging at Stevens Creek Res. Silly me.

Nice carps!

Where's the "MO" on this one?!   

Perc Ponds...  you're good!   

You must have got there right after they stocked the pond. Those trout definitly look like planters. LOL! Congrats!

The Perc ponds are full of mercury so don't eat those funny red Carp you got there though they sure look yummy. I don't remember kelp there but then I only go there to practice fly casting at the fly casting ponds and don't kayak.