BullFrog Pond before rain fall.

Using top water lures this time of year is the way to go because the pond is so thick with algae. I used an imitation frog and got 2 strikes. Counted my seconds on the third strike to set the hook and pulled this one in:

Bass caught on floating frog

One of the great fishing things about this pond is that you can use barbs and bait. There’s plenty of bluegill, that we could see but weren’t hitting the earthworm I left out in a simple sinker hook set up . Maybe because this bass my brother caught on the worm was guarding it for a snack:

Bro finally caught one

In 2 hours two fish. Not great but not bad considering we were there with full sun. I want to try again in may when the pond has more water and it’s just warming up. I wouldn’t my going out early evening for a few hours too. Just remember if there’s water and it’s not completely toxic, there’s probably fish. Listen to local suggestions and don’t dismiss it just because it doesn’t look right.

Just like when a local says there’s nice Largemouth on the Russian River (lower), even if the game wardens says otherwise:

1lbs 12 oz largemouth off of shale-side Villa Grande beach mouth closed

A june RRWSS newsletter was supposed to come out but because of scheduling and busyness it didn’t come out until this week, making my article (as strangely as I write) kinda obsolete. So here it is:

If only they hadn't taken out all the willows...

The Russian River In All Her Glory

Fishing almost every afternoon on the Russian River I look out to Her and I see this ever changing Being. She, like any of us, has Her mood swings. And I sometimes feel I have to reintroduce myself, as if courting Her, just so She pays attention to me. She deserves appreciation and respect so She might nurture the things we cherish like the osprey, bald eagle, migrating and local birds, otter, fox, mink, bass, shad, maybe most importantly Steelhead and Salmon. And us as well.

With voyeuristic greed we want to watch Her. And to do so many undress Her by stripping the land around Her so they may look into Her waters trying to catch reflections. Not only, in some cases, is this illegal but extreme actions can cause problems:

Tearing down willows and other brush on the banks takes away shade and warms up waters. Rock, sand and gravel fill in pools (ie. Villa Grande’s Hole filled in two feet from last year). Grasses used in lawns take fertilizer to keep green. All these things cause unnecessary erosion.

This spring I saw many properties lose all of their last year’s summer yard work. One property owner did what I thought was a beautiful shoring up of their bank with grapefruit sized boulders; ninety percent of the rocks are gone now. Another year round resident extended their grass lawn and trimmed up the willows in an almost Bonsai motif, the grass washed away. And yet another owner ripped out most of the plants along the bank of their property, putting in steps down to the water, they have lost ten feet of their land. All this erosion was done without flood.

We all want to see the Russian River. Why else do we choose to live here? But we need to be smart on how we undress Her or add to Her beauty. Trim already established plant life to shoulder level. Where needed plant local river plants to shore up Her banks and use properly sized boulders that will stand up to flood. If nothing else, question ourselves on what might be good for Her because in the long run it will be good for all of us.

Lastly, what a strange Shad Season: I caught my first shad (2lbs 9oz) April 30^th on a Woofish Shad Spoon and yet the big schools were being caught in June.  Pound for pound they are still my favorite freshwater fighting fish. There are speculations that the shad runs might have had the same relevance as Salmon runs to the East Coast Native Americans. The thrills, the theories and the opinions (some I don’t agree with) on Shad and fishing in general can be found in the book “The Founding Fish” by John McPhee. McPhee captures the exhilaration of the American Shad with a true angler’s heart. If you are a reader or want to learn more about this fish introduced to California in the 1870’s this is a great book.

And I finally brought her down to the river! There is a chance That a Newfoundland might not take to water. A chance… Not Poppy! Yay! She might not be confident yet but she swam and that’s all that matters to me. Newfoundlands have a unique doggie paddle. It’s a little like breast-stroke. I captured it on video a little but I haven’t figured out how to put the video on here yet. So instead here are some pictures:

Poppy imitates Phelps without a bong.

Wet dog!

Poppy is usually considered part of a plant Group. This Group Contains Eschscholzia one of my favorite local plants. And Papaver  (many other people’s favorite plant species) which contain ornamental flowers and opium based plants used for flavor, medical and for illicit(in many countries) or otherwise recreational use. Opium is a fundamental compound that should be researched and understood before judged, for its relaxant and pain relief qualities plus a myriad of other important uses. Overall the medical and economic importance of this plant is war inspiring for thousands of years. It can not be denied.

My Poppy (also known as JavaJavaJive for her interest in coffee and zoom-zoom qualities) also cannot be denied. She too can cause tiredness and may actually induce pain (though the neck cramp I had before picking her up is gone! miracle or too tired to care…). Smart, cute, and soon to be bigger than a sofa, our newest member to our family, the Newfoundland (Newfie), Meet Poppy Seed, aka JavaJavaJive, aka Rodeo Queen:  

Upside down Poppy Seed

But its in these memories magick exists, stored away and sometimes locked up. Not all good but not all bad, they are life lessons with emotional power we as living organisms need to tap into to be living.

For me Mother’s Day is one of the most important ancestor days. It doesn’t matter whether the holiday is a cry for revolution(Anna Jarvis) or a corporate sponsored economic stimulus vehicle. It is a day ingrained in the USA’s mind and should be used for Remembrance. And for those of us who have lost our Mother’s it is that much more important to tap into the life lessons that our mother’s gave us: the good, the bad, the embarassing, the horrific, the wonderful…

And so it has become tradition in my household to set up alters for our Mothers and even the Mothers of friends to help us to tap into the magick of memory and to honor those who gave birth to us.

Love you Mom

These Fish ROCK, no I mean they Led Zeplin the River! Catching them on fly or gear fishing don’t Freakin’ matter!!! Pound for pound I rather catch a 3 lb shad then a 8-10lbs steelhead. Yes I rather eat a hatchery steelhead but for the FIGHT, oh my GAWD!!!! Shad fishing on relative light gear is addictive.

Last year I didn’t catch one Shad. It was sooo disappointing. I tried to make up techniques; I tried dropshotting the most well used flies, I dart fished, I used some little Cleo spoons. But nothing. This year I did some research and found ‘Shad Spoons’ which are a kind of flutter spoon.

Specifically I found ‘Woo’s Shadspoons’ with a flat sinker system, he makes and paints them hisself. I was kinda worried that I was falling for the con but then again anyone who spends time making lures by hand should be supported as artwork, just like anyone else who creates art you’re interested in it should be supported. So I bought them… AND THEY WORKED!!!!!!

First Shad of the Season 2lbs 9oz

Articles I read online basically said that Shad spoons are really only good for active fish and that shad darts are better… A system of both using a shad dart as the weight/sinker, and the shad spoon is also used… Interesting but I hadn’t needed it. (tip I do use a clear glitter nail polish on each lure. Make sure you let them dry and air. Chartreuse and silver spoons have worked best so far).

Another problem I face on my location along the Russian River is Shad are known to key off of any kind of man-made pillars or structure — here they will school in large groups, during the full run it’s not uncommon to catch 25 shad. Only my stretch of the river doesn’t have structure like that. Yes I could stand shoulder to shoulder with other fisherman at places like Johnson’s Beach in Guerneville (tempting to see how my gear fishing shad spoon would compete with the fly fisherman) or the Summer Crossing or even at Monte Rio Bridge but shoulder to shoulder ignores my fundamental loves of fishing. So I have had to find areas that Shad come through, perhaps deeper runs down river before ripples. And when that’s failed, I have done well drifting runs.

Here’s the truth. I have caught one or two Shad a day. I have had days where I have lost shad too and I’m not fishing on the weekend. Rain and varying current seem to catch me off guard as I’m still learning, which is why drifting has been good for me. I still would love a School of shad experience (I pray it will happen with my bro) but the THRILL of one shad is intense. They can hit like a baseball bat or like a log sitting in the current thumping their tail as you wait for them to move. They run forever. And as my wife says they look like the kind of fish that children would draw — they are the archetypical Sports Fish!

Did I snag on a redwood stump? No a 3lbs2ozer

In the middle of the night after the storm had long past, I suddenly thought of the ospreys roosting on their nest. The next morning we went out there to see if the osprey at Villa Grande was okay. The female was still in her nest and she responded to my calls so I think she was all right. But today when I went by the nest she wasn’t in it. She might have lost her eggs. I hope not. And until the river clears up I won’t be able to check on the other nests I know about.

If this was the middle of the winter I wouldn’t mind soo much but because this is our spring, I’m getting annoyed that I can’t get out on the river. An early Shad run is out of the question and so is bass spawning with the cold the rain and hail brought. Not that I will actually be able to tell if there is a shad run because the River is high and muddy.  If the river system was a healthy one the mud would clear up in a day (the creeks already have flushed to a nice green) but because of Human disturbing the equilibrium the river stays muddy for weeks. These things are unhealthy for fish and fish egg developement. 

To understand further how man has disturbed this equilibrium (and not that the disturbance wasn’t a necessity but equal work that was used to destroy what the river was is needed to help fix the river) please take the time and buy and read, “Totem Salmon” by Freeman House, which talks about the Matole River here in CA. Every Naturalist, Biologist, and government official who has anything to do with River health and safety Should/Must read this book. Very well written.

Hail anybody:

What deck?

Must always collect some Hail for Woo-wooness

http://bottlearrowheads.wordpress.com/

Major reason I did this was because The Green Arcade Bookstore in San Francisco have offered to sell my Talismans.

I have worked hard  developing a product that I am proud to let the public see and possibly buy. And I’ve also  had the help of wonderful friend George Bull to help me design a Rack Card to set off my Talismans for others. The talent of this Guy is amazing and I will try to post a picture of my Rack cards on the Bottlearrowheads.Wordpress.com site.

This is a big nervous step for me. But with the support from my friends and family, I think I can make some cool and hopefully Magickal Talismans for the public. I definitely can’t get rich for them But I promise that each arrowhead will, in the least, be unique.

Then rains came which was desperately needed but muddied the river,  part of this is because the damns used for collecting and storing water for Use (ha!) which were desperately low are now filled to safety levels which means controlled releases — the water released is from the silt filled bottoms of Lake Sonoma and Lake Mendicino (Which doesn’t even have a top water release). Of course this doesn’t stop me from fishing and I had an almost child-like experiences catching hardheads from shore with worms.

Other than that though all I had was one steelhead that hit my Mepp spinner in december but barely had it on for a few seconds. And then later in january some bigger fish grabbed my worm and took off with it but my line snapped causeI hadn’t bothered changing the lines or hooks in months.

I had finally gotten in my canoe fished the Narrows. The current is till strong and had myself in precarious positions a few times. But fish wise (other than more hardheads) I had no noticeable luck. I bought a small side-planar and used a plug. I had no idea how it worked or even what it would be like if a fish would hit it. So Because i had no idea that this new technique (for me) would work I set it up on my little 6-foot Uglystick bass rod and the Casting reel which I still can’t cast well with (and since you don’t need to cast with a side-planar and it has such a great drag system this was the only thing I did right).

Villa Grande sandy beach has changed again and extends way out in the river. It made a channel with a swift current  (so swift that I can’t tie up too my usual spots, without swamping my canoe) that’s probably around 4 -6 feet deep. So, I tied up to the other shore and used the side planar. I put a worm on another rod and caught a small smolt that was released with out any damage. My rod tip on the plug did a little tappy thing that I hadn’t noticed before and wondered if a stick  or fish hit the line. Mind you at this point I don’t even know if the plug is snagged on the bottom, fowled in its own line or just swirling in loops or what. So I reel it in and  it seemed fine so I reset it.

Ten minutes later the 6 foot pole bends and I have a fish on. It pulls me out of the tree I’m tied to. My worm line freaking snags and I almost lose the rod and end up breaking that line. Meanwhile I’m being dragged down river and fighting this fish. I get out my net but without control and because my net is relatively small there’s no way I can  get the fish into the canoe. So of course I have to play it longer still  being dragged down river (though I did get my anchor down which does little than slows me down). Thinking there’s no way I’m going to get this fish in the canoe, I whip out my camera and snatch a picture as the fish gets close to the canoe before it takes off again – my all time favorite fish picture I personally have taken:

Gonna get her or not?

Just notice date is wrong — this is the 20th not 21st…

Anyhow the fish is tired out. I’m going crazy in the current. I decided I gotta get her in the net. I pull the fish into the net…  to big, she flops out and the front barbless treble hook snags on the net, with the fish dangling on the outside of the net I pull it into the boat. And I got her! Hatchery and beautifully pink!

My one fish I’m allowed to keep this year! Filleted the fish right up (and if my dad saw my filleting expertise — he’d fire me. I’m so freaking out of practice!) Froze 2/3rds and prepared a third for my wife and I. Absolutely delicious!

8lbs 6oz