4/15 Lake Sonoma

Got to the ramp 8 ish? Mike/Mickfish Chris/Backslider were already in and going up wind.
Oh, did I mention the wind? It was an ocean in the main body, Chris going up the left Mike up the right , and I went right between the running lights. Until I started hitting rogue(?) waves.
Then I hit Chris's side, we found a nice big calm cove where we started throwing plastics and I nailed this little monster...

I almost got a shot of Chris with an otter not 10 feet in front of him...
Then Mickfish nails a nice smallie, not his first of the day, Ill let him chime in...

And THEN, Mike gets this landlocked steelhead, a real fighter...
Great day on the water, my tally, 1 lmb and a few that got off and Mike gave me his fish for our bbq, thanks bro! See ya soon Chris!

Mike....your looking more like Jim Sammons with the facial furr  You wouldn't happen to have a tatoo on your right arm do you? 

Nice steelhead! Wanted to join you guys but was too lazy to drive

Nice steelie Mike....like the beard!

Windy it was    Trolled the shallow and cast plastic craws in hope of the big smallie it was slow hooked 4 landed two at 12/13" and 1 dink steelie water was a chilly 55 on the main part of the lake. At the end of the day we moved into the warm springs arm and 2 mins into the troll hooked that steelie great fight jumped 6 times did not want to come to the boat then jumped out of the net twice hot fish. Ton of bait in the warmer water in the arm 63 degrees hooked 3 more but lost them  they hit hard and are in the air before you can grab the rod. Should have fished longer but the wind burnt me pretty good. I'll hit it this week they were at 12/15 ft. Lot of nice fish caught this weekend but I did take so nice pictures.

Mike... nice pics.  It was good seeing you and Ben again... sorry about that wind, though.  I talked to a few guys in a canoe when I left and they also said the Warm Springs arm was biting pretty good.  Had a few laughs at the boat ramp watching all the PBers and JSers trying to figure it out.  How come they always think yelling will make eveything better??  There's nothing more pathetic than a couple of guys on the dock yelling at the crying girl in the boat.

Anyway, I threw a bunch of crap together late the night before so I wasn't really prepared for bass fishing... I was more interested in trying the downrigger set-up.  Needless to say, the wind played havoc with all of that.  The long and short is, it will definitely work, but I need to practice a bit more before I even think about using it in the ocean (ok, it's not really THAT bad).  A two pound ball worked just fine in the lake, even in all the chop and "rogue waves".  One thing I did note is that it's gotten a little crowded in the forward part of my boat. 

Oh, and no offense guys, but I would have rather been at Mendo.    Those guys slayed 'em.

Backslider

Thanks for the pics&port. yeah, it was windy everywhere Sunday. at least you got to set some hooks!...

Mike, Way to show us the unseen area of this lake. are those pics of the trees in the water, is that up in the WARM SPRINGS area?    

Nope main Lake

Man, that lake is just two hours away from me in the South Bay. I need to really start a regular visit there. And landlocked Steelhead even! Very special. Your guys have been blessed--not that you didn't work for the blessing nor that you didn't deserve it 

We had that steelie that Mickfish gave to me for dinner on Monday and MAN did that fish taste goooood! Baked, stuffed with onions n garlic and served with rice and veggies, some of the best fish evar!