Lake Del Valle - 12.26.06 (PICS)

Got to a late start - got my feet wet at 8:30AM. Weather was cold but no wind to deal with (ALL DAY ) Water clarity was still good, lot's of boats parked - soaking bait. Seemed like I was the only one trolling. Anyway, my first fish came by surprise  I was trolling in 8 ft. of water - hoping for a trout....ended up with a fish that looked like a crappie that crossed paths with a carp  Hoping the the Bio-fish dudes from this board can help me identify this fish - I'm pretty sure it's part of the Carp specie - just don't know which family it belongs to. Anyway, I trolled past the narrows and onto Swallow Bay and parked in front of a point and started fan casting the s-rap. The 5th cast right on the lip of the shoreline got me a nice bow - 3.8 pounder - 20 inches long As soon I got in the stringer, I got another one casting...but was too small to bother with, so I released it. There was a bass master on a nitro flux capacitor powered bass boat hanging out just behind me and asked if I was done fishing the point - I told him to fish way and also thanked him for being nice enough to wait till I was done fishing it - he simply gave me a  and I gave him a  .

Continued my trolling towards the dam and hooked up with a fat SMB right along the rockwall (released). Headed back towards tha narrows and got a LMB to bite (released). Trolled along the bouys across the launch ramp (about 6 to 8 ft. of water) and got rainbow number 3  (a 17 incher). Called it a day and got my feet dry at 2PM.

Saw a couple of gobblers marching around the hillside.....was hoping to see the Bald Eagle that Edsel saw a few weeks before...no luck

Nice trip Mooch, great going on the fish.

gracias primo Gotta love the varitey of fish at Del Valle....still can't believe a sturgeon was caught in there 

Geez mooch, everything except SB. Way to go!!! We should have a tournament on Del Valle where you have to catch LMB, SMB, SB and Trout all in one day. I think you caught a mutant crappie which was mutated by the high mercury levels at DV. I probably wouldn't eat one unless you want your kids to look like one.

scott

MOOCH! What UP!? Beauty trout on shad raps! SMB &LMB... and that Carppie thing! Freakin' good on ya!!
Way to go all species slayer! 

Z

Dude! that first fish is freakie lookin, what the?  Nice outting, i cant believe that shad rap got all those fish, amazing.  jtf..

never seen one of those fish before, mooch are you pulling our leg and got that photo from south america?

great report and pics, that is the way to fish!

J

Nice mix of species.  I found a fish that looked a lot like your mystery fish on the beach in Monterey.  My total saltwater experience at that time was maybe 3 weeks - I thought it was a perch and I "saved" it by putting it "back" into the ocean.  I posted a picture of it on another site and it was identified as a wild goldfish that washed out of El Estero Lake (across the st).

It looks pretty much just like your fish but with a different head, no?

Well Im no fish bioligist, but that looks like a type of shad to me. Great report Mooch, I am getting ansy and need to dust off the yak soon.


skyboy (joe)

I checked out some more pictures - curious about the mystery fish.  My official guess is that it is a hybrid goldfish/common carp.  The head is shaped like a common carp head and the body and fins like a goldfish.  Goldfish also lack the barbells that carp have.  Just a guess, tho . . .waiting for a bio dude to give us the definitive ID.

Mooch, that fish looks like what we used to catch in England. They were called "roach" in England. They were common in the canals. They were in the goldfish family. Maybe someone let their coi go in the lake?.... Nice mix ya got there... Trollin, never know what yer gonna get.

I think MByakker is on or close.  Its a carp, goldy, or a hybrid.

It sure looks like one of these:


It's a silver crusian carp. European origin.

http://www.mkk.szie.hu/~tejfol/halfajok.html

Its a goldfish.
Someone probably tried to use some store-bought goldfish for bait and this one escaped.
Cool looking fish!

And great job on all the other fish too!
PK

How did it taste?
Maybe aliens are invading earth in the form of fish. I hope you let it go they might talk to the other fishes and change your luck.