What's going on?

Mike42 · Veteran Member

What's going on?

mudhen · Senior Member

Well, it's entirely possible that whomever caught this fish saw you coming and went and hid in the woods . That or an animal caught it and you spooked it. Probably not though. A critter would have taken the fish with him. So absent any apparent wounds, I would say there's a poacher around. Do you have CAL TIP on your phone? If not, Then you should do so.

nclay · Member

Was at A5 on weds teaching my brother in law how to fish, saw quite a few weird things... a couple with spinning gear and buckets (looked like dragging gear) and police with lights on parked at A4.

I see they put the new signs up for parking fees... but the envelope container was empty. I really wish the county would get on top of those new fees and really enforce them.

Rossflyguy · Senior Member

That fish looks spawned out. Could’ve been it’s last season and kicked the bucket.

lairdbaird · Veteran Member

Have to ask, did you put your fly rod down to take a picture with tbe fish? 😆 or did they leave the fly rod? This is the second time youve seen this?

lightfoot · Senior Member

What equates to "high up on the bank"? ie how far from the water was the fish?

BTW, 1x works well with big gap hooks.

Rossflyguy · Senior Member

Or people keep fishing for spawning fish and they don’t even know they’re killing them after they’ve spent all their time battling and reproducing on top of fighting a angler. That’s probably what really killed this fish. I really doubt it’s a poacher. A poacher just wouldn’t leave the fish in the bank.

lairdbaird · Veteran Member

Before i quit fishing the creek nov-feb it was not rare to see 4lb+ spawned out fish dead in the shallows from exhaustion during the winter, with net marks and cuts from fishing line on their bodies. I saw this especially up by the dam.

SK60 · Senior Member

In talking to CDFW I was told that there will always mortality with spawning fish. The few I have found during my 20 years on the Creek have had line cuts in the skin from getting wrapped in monofilament. Unfortunate cost of fishing during the spawn.

-- Edited by SK60 on Monday 27th of January 2020 03:37:17 PM