1st Fish of the Year!

Got up circa 9:30.

Helped dad out in the house and w/ the KIA, plus had to buy a small padlock for the bike from the 0.99 cent store.
Finally got out there and was going to bike the road.

A farm worker stopped by in his truck and asked if I had 4WD. I said, "Yeah, but I don't know how to use it!" So he takes a look at the stick and says to use 4H (I guess 4L is for really slow and/or steep). So I wade into the mud and I'm praying I don't tip over into the water and mud or get stuck, but finally get through to the parking lot.

I get the bike out, and read all the signs below:

I bike down the immediate trail to the right and see this sign:

So I then turn around (after some exploring) and do the loop back and then around. Again, I'm met with the same sign as above, so I call the hotline phone # fr/ the sign and the lady doesn't really have any idea whether or not I can fish and where I can, but says I should follow whatever the signs say. [I had issue because the DFW (formerly the DFG) has a rule that the Salinas River can be fished during this time until March 7.]

So I turn around and head toward the ocean, stopping at the bike rack (as there was no bike access allowed past this point.

I walk maybe 20 yards and decide it's not worth it.

So I head back to Sally's bridge (after getting back through the mud again) and bag this guy at 3 o'clock.

                                      

He didn't take a long time to bring in. As you know, the river's bottom has some junk on the bottom, so you're used to getting a little snagged on the bottom. As a habit, you always set the hook when something doesn't feel right or you think you might be snagged just in case it really is a fish. So I set the hook, and something was pulling on the line!

I wish I had a picture of my lure in his mouth, because he just engulfed that thing! The head of the lure was just behind the front part of his mouth, and the hook was so far back I had a little trouble getting my pliers back to remove the hook. I stayed 'til ~ 4:00 and then left for home.

2 days later I filleted my first striper!

It was different from the many trout I'd gutted because with trout, you just have to gut them and that's it, but w/ Striper, you have to fillet the meat and have some good fillet knives. (Thanks to Jer for the great fishing CutCo knife!)

We're planning on heading out to kayak the river as I've heard some pretty good things from the kayakers!

Hopefully more posts coming with pictures of more fish!