Lake Berryessa 6-13-10 - Berry Productive!

[HiTechKoke]

And yet more Berryessa reports....but this one is two reports in one as I fished 2 days at Berryessa... Sat for the PK derby and Sunday for fun and therapy. On Sat it was a scene directly out of the Deadliest Catch on a derby day with the roughest Kokanee fishing conditions I have ever experienced with 20-30 plus winds and 3 foot rollers if you wanted to brave it or you could hang out in some calmer waters and take your chances. I could not buy a Koke..... and I didn't...and I caught nothing which was a humbling experience and I'm not ashamed to report it. My partner for the derby, Robert, got a few so it wasn't a total skunk for our boat. Fast forward to Sunday....

Sunday was the complete opposite of Saturday.... dead calm and cooperative fish. I was with good friend Capt Al Millan on his boat and we started off with fish hitting the decks about five minutes after the lines were down. We had no problem getting a limits worth of fish with most in 15 to 17 inch class. We had a number of LDR's and some spectacular aerials as fish were still able to rocket up from 45 feet to give us a show.

The fish bit on a wide variety of things including Apex, Hoochies, Natural RGT and various spinners with a variety of sling blade style dodgers from RMT and Shasta Tackle along with Al's secretive custom ones we can't talk about! The fish were from 38 to 55 feet. Here's some pics of out bounty... definitely a day to remember.

First blood....

Now why couldn't I catch these Saturday...

Capt Al thinks the same thing...

There's more where that came from says Al!

Kevin

 

[HiTechKoke]

And our limit stick for the day....all fish caught behind these bushes.

 

[gon troln]

Double secret probation lure and locations, I love it! Nicely done Kevin.

 

[Fallriverguy]

Berry nice!

 

[HiTechKoke]

Double secret probation lure and locations, I love it! Nicely done Kevin.

Yah.. no real mystery in location, around the big island... we were on the back side of it when we took the pictures so technically they were caught behind those bushes, over the hill and other side is the Big Island face. Pink Hoochies did well and also some orange and UV pink and then there was the UV clear. I had a lot of fun rotating some new gear and setups.

Kevin

 

[Old School]

Nice Kevin,

Gotta love this time of year!

 

[Full_Monte]

Way to go, Kevin...it doesn't look like being boatless has slowed you down much.

 

[Dreamcatcher]

Way to go, Kevin...it doesn't look like being boatless has slowed you down much.

Premise:

Kevin fished with our friend Khanh in his Whaler and caught a couple of fish at Don Pedro.

The next day, Kevin fished with me in my boat (Boulton) at New Melones and slayed them kokes.

A week later, Kevin fishes with another friend in his Alumaweld and manages to catch only a suntan.

The next day, Kevin fished with me (in a Boulton) and we slayed em again.

Theory:

Kevin has to fish in a Boulton or he won't catch fish. nananana

 

[Full_Monte]

101goodpost101 signfishin Al...maybe the conclusion is that he has to fish with YOU in order to catch fish. Ha!

 

[Dreamcatcher]

101goodpost101 signfishin Al...maybe the conclusion is that he has to fish with YOU in order to catch fish. Ha!

I wouldn't take that credit at all. Kev doesn't need me to catch fish. Just a bigger tackle box for all his stray hoochies. (wink)

 

[HiTechKoke]

There is a strange boat correlation that I thought about as well now having fished on 3 different boats lately whilst my trailer is waiting parts. I guess it has to be Team Boulton Karma or something. The Hoochie factory was just blessed with a few more tackle buddy's and a Plano 3730 to help contain myself courtesy of a lunch trip to FW.

Kevin

 

[DC18FT]

Kevin, what's wrong/happened with the trailer?




Bryon

 

[HiTechKoke]

Kevin, what's wrong/happened with the trailer?
Bryon

Yah long story short which is never the case a fender weld broke a month ago on the way home for Berressa... I was able to stop and wire it up till I got home... all is good.... well not exactly...

I made the mistake of taking the trailer to a guy 1/4 mile away at his boat shop to fix the weld since it is so convenient. On the last trip to Berryessa the weld broke again due to his shoddy welding job on the way home again... but this time the tire grabbed the fender and shot it off the trailer and fortunately into the emergency lane and not through somebody's windshield behind me and it did not cut the tire so I made it home fenderless after recovering the mangled fender and marker lights.

I should have never taken it to this guy as I had a weld break before 6 years ago on my old boat trailer by his same wonderful repair style. So I had to order a new fender and mounts from the trailer manufacturer Carnai - in Spokane. Problem is they lost the parts at the galvanizer making me very unhappy so they just expedited that yesterday after two weeks and are overnight shipping. I took the trailer apart in anticipation tonight and found a few other problems in the spring area that were rubbing the bolts badly so I'll need to replace those and am also short a bushing for the leaf spring.

So it's been a mess but fortunately I've had several friends to fish with through a couple of derbies.

 

[DC18FT]

No person or boat was harmed.....Lucky guy!!!!!


Bryon

 

[HiTechKoke]

You can say that again. Just spent the last day and half upgrading the fender mounts and also some bigger fenders. Also discovered the leaf spring bushings on one side were show and one side missing cause the spring to eat into the bolts holding everything together so taking all of this apart has been a blessing in disguise even though I have been down 3+ weeks.

 

[KokeDealer]

Way to Make up for saturday with some fatties Kevin & Al

good to see you guys at Pedro

good luck with the trailer