American River drift report 10/15/06!

Eric and I are home, unloaded, I have a glass of 2buck and I'm tired.

We had a blast..the company was fun, the weather was nice, the river was smooth. Best of all, there are fish in the river, not a lot, but you will see after the story is told and the pictures are posted.

I'll tell my story after I take a shower.

Met up with Brian B3d outside Disco at 7am, loaded kayaks, dropped off trucks and headed to Howe.
Already at howe was KayakJames, Gabekap, and SteveO. Did our intros (nice meeting all of you ) and hit the water. On the water at 8am and headed down river towards the pump near sac state. Watched MudShark hook and play his salmon, too bad it came off. I thought this early hookup was an omen for a good day. (Hope you do well tomorrow Sunny).

As we drifted down I noticed a nice wood kayak. The gent was anchored and flyfishing, said hello and asked if we had met. It was Craig/kayakbuilder.

James, Brian, Eric and I then headed down river. Saw random salmon rolling on the way and a few caught by the radical bank fisherman. We had to go through three gauntlets of these guys. The first group was OK. The second had guys working both sides of the river throwing spinners right next to us. They cussed us and yelled at us, we just cruised through. The last group proceded to insult us because of the color of our fishing rods.

We worked our way down to the Dredger Holes below Cal Expo. As Eric and I stopped to watch a train go over us, James hooked a fish and was doing a sleigh ride upriver. I'll let him tell his story. But I will say this, it was fun to watch and the team work to land this beast was great. I also realized I need a much bigger net. To see James catch this fish made the day a success.

After that we headed down to the Disco ramp. Off the water by 1:30pm.

James and Brain, thanks for a very enjoyable day on the river. Eric and I had fun time exploring it with you.

 

Well I will tell my story now

    First I woke up late so I was in a rush all morning untill Igot to the water and found I was right on time. I then loaded my gear and paddled out a little and waited for Alfredo since I have never been fishing here before I wanted to stay close to someone who had.  We then drifted down to the pumphouse where we saw one kayaker hooked up but lost at the net nothing for us there.
   Then the quartet of alfredo, his son, Brian and myself took off down stream to see what we could find, at first it was a little discouraging lots of fast shallow water and some real diehard combat shore fisherman be jerks. then we found some nice slow moving water with many holes and we saw many fish jumping.
   Then we came acroos a railroad bridge and a train was on its way, Aland his son parked under the train for the effect and I paddled a little ahead and slighty twards shore I looked back thinking it might be cool to be under the bridge when the train went by,    THEN IT HAPPENED Whaaammoo fish on I kept it to myself for a minute or two the make sure it wasnt a snag then I realized it was swimming downstream takeing line very fast but not tugging hard I looked back to see alfredo digging the train effect then everyone noticed I was hooked up. After the first long run Id say 100 yards I began to gain line  almost done(I thought) then when it got close to the boat zzzzzzzz and the fight really began 3 or 4 good long runs and many smaller ones I realized this was no small fish.
   As the group realized with me,  that we all had regular sized nets I thought mine was big enough when we launched but now I was thinking it would be the end of me> then I glanced at brian already heading twards me with his still not big enough net(but bigger than mine) coming to help me out Then this really turned into a group effort brian with the net Al taking pictures and Al's son waiting eagerly to help at a monents notice. the fish came to the top and it seemed like everytime brian got close it would spook and run. I decided this would take awhile we had to take our time there would be no room for error Ihad 17lb mono
   Finally after a long fight we neted him amd got him on my yak so I could give hime the beating mission accomplished then we paddled to shore for a stratch and a weigh in .
    26.8lbs and around 41 inches long and very fat a big male

   after all the excitement we drifted downto the take out point and ended our journey

   Nice meeting everyone that showed up thanks to Al his son and brian for all the help.
  


   THE END my arms hurt

Nice job guys!!
Where are all the photos?????

coming soon

I feel your pain James, I am sore  although I lost him I had one hell of A ride. my net and I aren't on good terms.
 If I get in to one tomarrow,I am heading for the bank.

It was a great day on the water.  I got really excited watching Sunny fight such a large fish so early into the drift.  I hoped the action would continue like that, but it seemed to be slow for most people on the water.

I had great time meeting Sunny, Gabe, James and Al and his son Eric.  I saw someone with an impressive looking hand built kayak, but since he was flyfishing I tried to give him plenty of room on the way by.  I followed the group of Al, Eric and James downriver to disco park.  It was a relaxing float and I even quietly chuckled watching how annoyed the shore fisherman were with us.  Apparently the third group of shorefishers who seemed to be the more elite group (based on their tackle knowledge) does judge a man by the color of his rod.  It would have been perfect if James hooked his fish with in their view.

All in all, a great day and I look forward to fishing with everyone again.

Brian 3Dog

Congrats James...what were you using...time for a new avatar!!!

As soon as al gives me the pictures my avatar will change and you will see my beauty

Nice job guys!!
Where are all the photos?????

Sorry for the delay. Dad stopped by for dinner with another bottle of wine.

Here we go:

Craig/kayakbuilder


Brain and James trolling the river


Eric trolling


James doing the salmon sleigh ride up river


Team work landing the fish


On the boat


Weigh in: 26lb 8oz


James and the fish....good job buddy.

Just a side note if you look in the picture(on the boat) the mepps #5 came out of his mouth as soon as he hit the net

That thing is HUUUGE! Way to go KJ and great team work to the crew.

A few more pics:

James with salmon


Smooth river. looking towards Busines 80 near Cal Expo


Eric caught a clam


That's all folks!  Al

Congrats James... way to stick with it and get that one in the net!  Looks like a great day on the water.  Looking forward to getting up there sometime in November.

EK

That's MF-in' sweet!  Nice job James.  I am glad to hear there are fish in the river and that you scored.  That is one fat fish.

So, it sounds like it was caught on a Mepps # 5?  James, were you toplining it or did you use a splitter and weight?

And what did the rest of you use?

SWEET.

Peace,
Sean