Alisal...Very long!

[Kelly Ripa]

I have been meaning to write up my experience from June 10th but I am swamped here at work. Here is the story.

We arrived at the Alisal golf course at 6:45 and waited for the van to take us to the lake. I had been there once before but didn't know if we were just studs that day or what. It was difficult but I packed one bag with my baits and brought 6 rods. My friend who was allowing me to tag along did the same. When we got to the water we were told we would have to bring the boat back at 12:00 noon as there was a guided trip going out but we could switch our gear to another boat. We had an aluminum tracker with a 40 hp 4-stroke and a motorguide trolling motor with lowrance elewctronics. Totally all you would ever need to fish this lake, in fact we never did fire up the main motor we just fished.

My partner Mace who was footing the thousand dollar price tag for us to fish was up front at my insistance. Yes, that is right $1000 to fish! I didn't know that part of the story until later. I had him throwing a buzzbait and I sat in the back and decided to toss watermelon senkos rigged wacky weedless on my 15 pound power pro/15 pound flourocarbon rig. I tossed to the tulies while he worked his way down the shoreline. I pitched tight and let it sink....pulled it up and dropped 2 more times....I'm on. 2 pounder. My partner Mace was still without a fish when I got out another senko and pitched to the tulies again...Instantly my line takes of sideways ...Hook up. The fish swallowed it. I did some dilicate work with my needlenose and get another senko back out ...I'm on. Mace "my Buddy" hasn't been touched so of course ....Uhhh what kind of senkos are you using. Here guy take my rod and toss up in there tight....We procedid to go through 3 bags of senko's pretty quick so I pulled out a Tango dancer " cultiva " baby bass and started playing around because it was nice and foggy and I haven't had a good topwater bite this year.

Jerk pause jerk pause...Wham! Most of our fish were between 2 1/2 and three pounds. Since there was a serious depletion in my senko bags I tried to find one they wouldn't eat...Berkley Gulp... I think these suck but we were able to get 4-5 fish per senko on this bait. I Decidid it was time for my double buzz to make an appearance. Dead eye shad color with a zoom fork tail worm and 3/0 Gamagatsu trailer hook. It was obliterated on the first cast. We both started tossing the buzzbait " it was cheaper than senkos " and the fun began in ernest.

The buzzbait fish were a little better quality fish and we caught I don't know 50? in one spot the size of my truck we pulled 16 fish with numorous double hook-ups. It was some serious fun KNOWING that that buzzbait wasn't going to get back to the boat without a fish unloading on it...About 10:00 the fog started to clear and I pulled out a frog. Nothing! I couldn't believe it! We both threw frogs and we couldn't get touched. I told Mace that the water infront of us looked deeper and gave him a PMS Revenge dbl. chrome willow. They ate the paint off of it while I tried to figure out WHY they would eat a senko right on the tulies but not a frog.

I was using a Sumo frog black with blue spots and Mace had been using a Snag Proof white with chart/white skirt. I finally cut that frog off and tied on an all white Sumo. I cast to the tullies and let it sit...rip,rip,pause long rip ..Smash. Nice fish...Hmmm... Mace I think the frog bite is color specific. He was to busy tearing the crap out of the blade fish to care. He would bring up a fish and there would be 2-3 chasing it trying to get the blade from the caught fish's mouth. I continued with the frog and Mace had to stop with the blade because the frog fish were much better in size. I gave him another all white frog and he missed three in a row. Dude" it's that wimpy rod, use mine....He was reluctant because he doesn't get out as often as the rest of us and he has a knack for wicked backlashes. I finally got him to use my rod. It was spooled up with 65 power Pro and doesn't really even bend until the fish are over 4 pounds...A pool cue. Once he figured out how to cast it ....Game on: He thinks power pro is the answer to all problems now!

Well now we had to bring in the boat and transfer the gear...Into this little 12 foot aluminum boat with one oar, a hand tiller trolling motor with 5 good forward speeds and two " instead of five " for reverse. I was sitting on the dock while Mace transfered some of his stuff over and I tossed the frog to a patch of weeds out front ....6 pounder knocked it into orbit! It missed the bait but I gave her an A+ for effort. Back out we had a little breeze but hey how tough could it be? I ran the boat and tried to keep Mace fishing while I was cussing out the for crap trolling motor and missing fish everytime I looked down to see what it's issues were this time. I must have done 300 sit ups with one foot on the 1 inch wide transom and the other on the seat.

We stopped fishing and made the long run with our trolling motor all the way up to the dam area and started the frog thing again. I was having a lttle trouble with the motor so I'd toss over the 8 pound anchor and we would fish an area and then pull it up and do it again 50 feet down the bank. The action was epic and nonstop when I saw IT. In Mace's tackle box there was a Rago Rat sitting there. Dibs I cried when I saw it. Mace's reaction was ...I was wondering if that would work! I tied up and sailed that rat into a neat little pocket... I looked at Mace and said...It'll never get out of there alive...Having never seen/used this bait I can assure you all it is SWEET. I got the thing half way back CRUSH... Oh dude this one is good....About 4 and change. we then took turns with the RAGO RAT while the other guy ONLY caught frog fish. It was hilarious... You'd drag it past a tulie point and you'd see the fish rush out and stop... decide how best to eat it and then WHAM! you were on! I don't know how many we hooked/lost but it was phonomenal just to watch! I mean GAWD I'd hate to be rat in this lake...If you fall in you better be packing a knife or your life expectancy is about 10 seconds. I mean guys these fish are eating mammals for cry'n out loud!

Well we got off the water at 5 with about 150 fish to our credit and who knows how many lost/missed and the next day Mace called me and said he had trouble going to sleep that night because it felt like the room was bouncing around from the smaller boat. I told him I had the same problem but for a different reason. I would just start to drift off and I would SWING on another fish...After the third time my girlfriend sent me off to our other bedroom to sleep it off. Wow...It is one HELL of a fishery and I'd love to get to know it better...Maybe in my dreams. It's going to be tough to fish Cachuma after this.

Rip

[Rick G]

*NM*

[Kelly Ripa]

It is frigg'n unreal....I appologized to the owner as we scuffed up 150 of his fish and if I remember right only TWO had marks from being previously caught. They must have thought it was rainning frogs because they just CRUSHED 'em I'll tell ya if ya ever wanted to learn a bait and catch fish on it too then this just might be worth the bucks. I didn't even pull out the trout baits because Heck when do you get a shot at unlimited frog fish? I'm thinking that some of our more worldly traveled fisherman might have some really good input for the owner. I can think of alot I would be doing differently and I thought maybe we could get together guys like Ron C. and Ray L. ...yourself and go have a chat with Him ....IF.....Big IF....he would like to get our feed back....Of course we "might" have to sample the waters to give a more educated plan ...Since I was there two years ago they have added a aeration system and at lower pool they put in some rock type structure. Oh yeah.... they dumped in 1500 trout a while back. He said it was so the fly guys could catch some trout and there would be some fish to catch in the cooler winter months I guess the bass just hibernate? ... I figure the last three trout are hole up back to back down in the 45 foot range trying to keep the bass from swallowing them whole....There are a zillion bluegill and two of our fish had claws sticking out there throats when we got them in.....It is actually kind of sick to tear them up so badly as they are plain dumb as stumps there. I watched a 2 year old while we ate our lunch running up and down the dock while dad and grandpa video'd him with a stick...4 feet of line with a bobber and a minnie jig and he repeatedly caught blue gill and small bass and just drug them onto the dock for the two proud dads to take care of. I don't think the owner knows that he's got this killer warm water fisherey and I don't know about you but I would'nt feel the same about catching some trout out of a stocked pond as I would feel about taking on the largemouth. I'd add some bull bluegill for the fly guys. I'm currently writing a letter so let me know what you think....Ray's in and I will wait to hear from Ron if he has any spare time to look into this ....IF... they will even entertain our thinking processes.

[mark poulson]

in my Alisal fund, and counting. Maybe when the 10 year old is finished wth college. Here's hoping the price comes down before then.
Mark

[TopGrJim]

Thanks for the info on Alisal. I had heard rumors but never got a first hand report. A guy named Howdy Bernth, now deceased, used to get in there occasionally. Great trip is sounds like!! Best I had was fishing live bait at Casitas. Not as costly as the Alisal.

[Kelly Ripa]

was a damn fine guide when he wasn't tearing up Mexico or Cachuma....He taught most of the finer points to guys all up and down this State. He and Bill Cedar were the roots of the California sticks like Jay Yelas , etc.... Yes, Alisal is fun!....and was a great tune up for my Clear Lake Nutcase adventure this August...Keep at it Jim ....I'm hearing little somethings about Cachuma right now Topwater just might be going off right about now!

Rip