Mendo Saturday 11/11/06

Way to go.  Mooch you dog, great catch.  As much as I love football I miss fishing tremendously, I will be in San Lorenzo Valley next weekend for the first round of CCS Playoff. I will be in Seaside on Friday. Not fishing

Jason

Has anyone tried circle hooks at Mendo? One of the fish I caught today was hooked too deep to get the hook out. I could have kept it but instead I cut the leader. I think a circle hook may be very helpful to the fish if you are going to release them. There are some brands out there that are small enough for the baits used at Mendo - Eagle Claw L702 sizes 12 thru 4/0, Lazer sharp, black finish; Owner Mutu is another in sizes 2 thru 5/0 in black chrome finish. Just a thought. I'll give it a try next time I'm up there. Tom

A few weeks ago when I was up there my girlfriend and I were both using some owner mutu circle hooks.  She hooked one perfectly in the lip.  They look a bit thin but it didn't seem to have a problem handling the 9lbs. fish.


Angel

Had a great time fishig with Erik, Mooch, Mickfish and Ben.  Only have pictures of fish after I got home--no light because the trip took 4 hours because of traffic in SF.  I got smaller stripers than the others: a 28" a 26" and a 21" largemouth.

Nice stripers you guys have there, I managed to get out to bullhead flats with bungle today for nothing buy a 40 lb batray.  There's been some sturgeon and stripers caught out there but I didn't see any today.  Fished straight off of mc nears pier in 18 to 20 ft of water... JTF..

I made it Sunday at 8. It was going to be here or for crab/rf, I love the ocean, but swayed the way of the seasoned majority and stuck to the lake. Besides were running low on striper meat. And Im still a newbie, hasnt been a year yet.
Met the usual suspects, had a little MBFs going on ( Mooch can fill in the details...). Water tuned into glass. Fun, fun day.
Stopped at some friends in Healdsberg and got in a hot tub for a good hour soak, I envie anyone with a hot tub.

                                                                    ><(((*>   Ben

Hey Ben,

Nice stripers!!!  If you're a newbie, then I'm wannabie.  I'd only done lake fishing from the shore once eons ago.  Must be nice to take the kayak in the lake; never done that yet.  Good call about Sunday; I drove by Ocean Beach (SF) yesterday and it was way ugly.  Yeah, hot tub must be very nice after a day of fishing.  Don't own one but I always bring 2 big jugs of HOT water in the car all the time when I go kayak fishing/diving in the ocean and rinse in the parking lot with hot water.  I learned it from my other dive friend 4 years ago and it's probably the 'best' thing after a day of fishing...

Later,
-Ron & Mackie

Got to the water around 9am and met Pelican at the launch, we went to the cove at the North and spent most of the day trolling and looking for boil.  Got a couple strikes but no hook-up!  Later in the afternoon, we paddled to the South cove and met Guitarzan, Mooch, and Marmite heading in since they got their limits.  Saw lots of bait fish and stripers on the FF but no takers today.  I wanted to fish until dark but the it started to rain so we decided to head in.  I really enjoy fishing here at Mendo lake and glad to meet new friends from NCKA and looking forward to another trip

            Way to HOOK EM' BOYS!!!  I knew I shoulda' went!!!     Regrets,regrets and more regrets...            

A little before noon, mooch paddled over to me in front of crappie cove saying "Hey... Erik... you got your camera?" and pulls out a nice 30 inch striper.  Just after we get done with photo session number one, his rod goes off right there and he takes forever to land his second fish... a 31 incher that went 10 lbs (with one rock in the stomach, we'll let mooch explain that). 

The second striper gave me one hell of a fight - only had 8# line - so I had to play it safe As soon as I got the striper near the yak, the hook was VISIBLE...which made me even nervous (and, I forgot to bring my net ). Had the fish jumped out of the water with a few head shakes, it would have been "off the hook". So I buried the rod tip into the water every time it was shooting towards the surface. The game plan worked and the fish got worked and it went belly up...which made it easier for me to use the plastic lip gripper to finally subdue the fish.

When I got my feet dry, I cleaned the fish and found a rock in it's stomach....hmmm, there seems to be a trend here. I caught a cabezon and a Ling from Bean Hollow not too long ago, and they both hads rocks in their stomach as well (which I also kept) Looks like I'll be starting a nice rock collection

Mooch, you need to smile!  I hope you were warm last night. I woke up to frost in my back yard. I'd hate to have been in a tent at the lake.

Dan, that's my "game face"    I actually slept comfortable in my truck (just got a new camper shell for it) Too bad the water front campsites are not available to use this time of year (I was hoping to do some cat-fishing at night) - Mike and I ended up camping on the higher camp grounds.

Met the usual suspects, had a little MBFs going on ( Mooch can fill in the details...)

Chris/Back slider, Ben / guitarzan and Mike/Mickfish had a bet ($5.00 a head) for the longerst fish at the end of the day (Sunday). It was hard keeping up with Mike cause he was constantly hooking up (and releasing) and I only had one on the stringer -  (28 incher). Ben and Chris were working hard for a first. Sure enough, Ben gets bit twice within half an hour. He even landed one with his trout rod - which only had 10 feet of mono Ben caught and released a few more after that. He ended up taking the pot = which was well deserved 

The high light of Sunday was the boil the erupted right next to the fleet - as well all "trooched" for stripers inside the cove. I was the first to cast out and on my second cast (with a kast master) , I hooked up but my line broke  Mike hooked up as well but iturned out to be a schoolie (released).

Had fun with the bozzz - was nice meeting more of the NCKA'ers  GOOD TIMES 


more pics to follow..............

  He ended up taking the pot = which was well deserved   

"COOL" (what Mooch said) ahuhh,ahuhhh....

Mooch,No waterfront sites??..because no water/level?

Adam - the current water level at Mendo is really low - the lowest I've seen. I guess the Park Rangers are concerend about the winter rain....it could possibly creep up and get too close to the water front sites.

I didn't feel any striper love this time out... one good bite, one failed hook set (newb).  I think I was having a hard time focusing on the fishing, what, with all the dialogue between Mooch and Mickfish... I couldn't stop laughing long enough to get a minnow on the hook.   Definitely good times, and we had perfect fishing weather... cloudy, hardly any wind.  Those guys caught some nice looking fish.

Mooch, hope you got the fiver I left in your tail-pipe.  That doesn't sound good, does it?

Backslider

Too late to post the pics last night. I think I need a way big cutting board for the Mendo stripers, 33" and 31". Lots of meat.
Lake fishing is lots of fun, I could use a recliner-seat there. Hanging out in Crappie Cove,not even moving around and getting SLAMMED, being very entertained with Mooch and Mickfish cracking us up with classic bantor, deer grazing on shore, Great Blue Herons squacking and cruising around. I think we saw a total of 3 or 4 PBs all day long. Wish I lived 20 minutes away.

Those two were swimming together just like that,before you had to drop that minnow in front them     Stupid Fish! 

The water level for lake Mendo is actually real high for this time of year. I believe it's due to the large amount of the new years eve rain storm and following rainy months in early 2006. It's been raining pretty good for the last two days. The total at my house is over 1".

I can't wait for the steelhead to start running.

Very nice report all!

CHEERS!