Del Valle 4/14

Still enjoying temporary bachelorhood, I decided to try some freshwater, and planned on meeting Mooch at Del Valle.  My first time fishing this beauty of a lake.  Though Mooch was once again delayed by another overturned truck full of puppies, he, Angel, and Liz made it on to the water around 10 or so (by that time, I had already trolled to the dam and back to the narrows).

Was a beauty of a day, if you're a duck...



Mooch, Angel, and Liz all had some nice minnows, and shared a couple with me.  I rigged it on a drop shot, then within seconds had a smallish smallmouth, my only fish for the day.  The others also nailed several bass, but then I hear Liz shouting 'Dave, bring your net!!'...

By the time I paddled over, I see Mooch goin' Savage on something...



Geez, you don't typically need to whack a bass, do you?  Holy...  Naw...  What is it filling up that net?!?



Unbelievable!! It's the biggest rainbow I've ever seen!!





Mooch had tossed a minnow near a fallen tree, in about 8 feet of water, where it got slurped by the 'bow.  He lost his net while scrambling to paddle away from the tree, and used one from Liz -- hey, it is a trout net, right?  What should have been a bass turned into a 10.9 lb rainbow, caught on 6 lb test.  Way to go Mooch!!

It was pouring at times on the lake, but turned into a fairly reasonable day.  Great fishing with you all!!



I gotta say that I'm tired of being outfished by the Mooch.  Staying on dry land tomorrow...

-- Dave

  Holy crap!! Way to go, Mooch!

DOUBLE DIGIT 'BOW!! Way to go!!!
Is there a nuclear spillway near that lake?? There are some big funny lookin' fish coming out of there.
Nice job.

 Way to take down troutzilla!

Hate to say it but damn nice fish... Thanks for getting wet for me today Dave and fine report..

Wow... that's a big ol' planter.  Look at that tail.

Hey Mooch... that's the way to rack up those AOTY points!

You are signed up ...aren't you????

Nice catch Joel!

-Brian G

10.9Lbs Rainbow Mooch!!! Way to get the Buy Catch. I want to see the pic's On Monday. I know you dint have a PC at home. So I can't believe it till I see it!

I don't know what happen there, but i didn't see any picks the first time around.

Dammmmm D0g ! NIce Trout!!!!!!!!

Did You EAT It?

Thanks all! Thanks for the report and pics Dave   

That hatchery trout surely gave me an epic battle  This fish made 2 powerfull runs into the brush and I could feel my line rubbing against the stick-ups. I really thought I was going to loose it to a snag. But fortunately, I was able to turn the head away from it for a few seconds and lured it away from the snag. It went under my yak...then under Liz...it made several more runs till I managed to borrow Angel's "little sponge bob minnow catcher net"  Got control of the fish and made it swim head first into the tiny net - surprisingly the net did stretch long enough for the fish to fit in  My heart began to beat again 

Took it to the boat house at Del Valle for the official weight in and was pleasantly surprised - it turned out to be my all time record trout  I measured it: 26.5 long!

 

another view...(note the little net )

I think it was karma cuz I was making fun of Angle's net just before launching our yaks. When I hooked on to the trout, my net - that's suppose to float - cause it had a cork handle  - fell off my kayak and sank to the botton of the abyss during the scramble to get the fish away from the snag  At the end, Angel's little net got me my biggest trout  Gracias primo 

Dave with a SMB...

WTF Mooch.. that's a Mack truck of a bow!!  Congrats!
Z

WTF Mooch.. that's a Mack truck of a bow!!  Congrats!
Z

Thanks Z! Been looking for this bad boy for a looooong time 

Angel and a couple of his SMB....