It's the Terrible at Fishing radio show on Gold
Country Radio. Here's your fishing expert and
host, Michael Ruffino. Welcome back to Terrible
at Fishing everybody. I hope you've had a very
good week. I was out of town last week. We'll
talk about that. Did some fishing out of town.
So you heard a replay of one of my old shows
last week. So apologize for that but 52 shows
a year I get a couple days off. So this week
has been We'll start with bad news and we'll
just forget about it for now, but This week was
a bad week for our family We had to make a decision
about our dog, and you all know what that decision
was. Great dog. Got her from a no -kill shelter
some 14 years ago, and she was a good dog. And
really, she adopted my oldest daughter. Slept
with her every day. So, it was the only time
I've ever been in the room when they euthanized
the animal. I had to support my daughters and
be there with them. So, it was hard. And you
guys know that. Losing a dog is different than
any other animal. And I don't know why we bond
so well to dogs, but we do. And well, if you've
ever had to lose, make that decision to lose
an animal, you know how our family's coping.
We're grieving still, and we probably will for
a while. On the other hand, there's a little
kitten in the backyard underneath the porch that
seems to have adopted our porch. So, I don't
know if that's just coincidence or not, but Named
Java. It's black with a little bit of white under
its chin. Anyway, in the backyard somewhere.
So, anyway, that was the bad news. Now, last
week I was out of town. My wife had graduated
from OIT with her bachelor's degree in hospital
administration and she she got a job right away,
which is whoo! So she started her new job this
week. So we wanted to celebrate her huge accomplishment,
so we went to Lincoln City. My youngest went
with us, and we went to Lincoln City, got a verbo
right on the beach there, opened the window.
There's the waves, the sound of the ocean. You
could see dolphins every once in a while surfing.
Really good surf. A lot of sand. It looked like
a California beach. And the dolphins were in
the... Well, actually, there was one time a dolphin
and a harbor seal were actually playing with
each other. They were just almost like playing
tag in the waves. And then whales showed up.
You know, several pods of whales were right there,
right off of Lincoln City there. So it was really
nice. I've never been to Lincoln City, and Lincoln
City's got everything you can imagine with a
view that is to die for. I strongly recommend
that. I'd probably do it again. We're sort of
working our way up the coast, but that definitely
is on the agenda to do it again. Now in the meantime,
I wanted to do some fishing, some deep -sea fishing.
So I went to Depot Bay and jumped onto a what
I used to call a cattle boat. Just a bunch of
people on a boat. And we had 18, I think, on
that boat. And so I get on one of these and it's
a bottom fishing where you catch lean cod, rock
cod, stuff like that. And I wasn't doing too
good. It was so funny. You know, the deckhand,
Grant, he asked me. He goes, so Mike, what do
you do for a living? I go, well, I'm terrible
at fishing. And he started laughing. He goes,
no, no, really. I go, really? I'm terrible at
fishing. I have a YouTube channel called Terrible
at Fishing. I have a radio show called Terrible
at Fishing. I have a best -selling book called
Terrible at Fishing. I go, you really do have
somebody on the boat that is defined by terrible
at fishing." And he started laughing, and so
did a few other people. He told the captain,
and the captain couldn't believe that he had
somebody called terrible at fishing on his boat.
I did catch one cod. I thought I'd do some crabbing
while I was on this group trip, and I pulled
up a crab cage, and so we had a lot of crab.
And so we caught a lot of crab. Which, by the
way, I have found out that crabbing, one, it's
easy. Two, they ain't worth it. I mean, it's
just, you gotta, you know, I'm a lobster guy,
not a crab guy. Lobster's easy. Big giant tail,
crack it open, boom, there's the meat. And it's
a lot of meat. Crabs, Dungeness crabs, not like
king crabs. You know, I've gotten king crabs.
There's a lot of meat inside a king crab. But
Dungeness crab, it's just not that big. And so,
you know, I'm cracking all the legs and pulling
the meat out and crack and pull, crack pull.
And I'm like, and I look down in that bowl where
all the crab meat is. It was about a pound. And
you think, Mike, a pound's pretty good. You know,
it's like $80 retail, right? It don't look like
that much. It's a lot of work for that, a pound
of meat. But, you know, the crew were fantastic.
They really were. I didn't do too good. I had
never gone deep sea fishing without using live
bait. Now, I'm from beach community, Santa Barbara
County and Southern California. I mean, we fished
off of, you know, took boats out of Avila, off
of, out of Ventura. It's just, you know, we always
fished our bait, usually squid, you know, you
know, one of those called sabiki rigs. We just
go up, put them down there, pull, pull, pull,
and just start pulling up bait fish, right? Usually
squid. And then after we catch a whole bunch,
then we go out and we go bottom fishing. And
you always catch a bunch. Well, in this boat,
they didn't use live bait. They used what I would
call just a jig. It was a big jig. It's about
a two ounce head on it with a curly tail plastic
on it. And then a small sort of rock cod jig
just above it. And people were catching, but
it's just not in the volume that I'm used to
it. If we used squid or mackerel or whatever
we have for bait fish up here, we caught a lot
of mackerel down in Southern Cal. You would catch
a lot more fish if you use live bait. And a sabiki
rig is easy. It's got like five hooks on it,
little balls on it, and you could just go off
of a boat or off of a pier and just drop it down,
jig it a little bit, and boom, get two or three
fish on it, pull it up, and that becomes your
bait. And that's the easy part about sabikis.
should have brought my pole with the Sabiki rig
and pulled up some live bait. I didn't think
about it. I didn't think I needed it because
every boat I've ever gone out does that. This
is the first boat I had my rod in the car and
my Sabiki rigs. Believe it or not, I had everything
in the car, but I thought I'd use their stuff.
I should have brought my stuff and if I used
it, great. If I didn't, fine. But next time,
live and learn. We're definitely using a Sibiki
next time and we're going to start pulling up
some bait fish and we'll be using that. But that
was, that was fun. It was fun. I had a great
time with everybody. You know me, I've never
met a stranger. Make friends with everybody.
and make them laugh and just have a good time.
And we had a good time, really did. And so, after
that, the next day, my daughter wanted to go
whale watching. So, I booked us on a two -hour
trip to go whale watching the next day. And the
gray whales, not a whole lot of them, In fact,
we just left Depot Bay and all of a sudden you
see this ring of boats. That's because they're
surrounding the only whale in the ocean. At least
that day. It was so funny. It was like all the
boats were keeping a distance from this whale,
which is legal. You have to give them distance.
And everybody's watching this whale. I put a
video of it on my Terrible at Fishing YouTube
channel, but it was funny because it was the
only whale. After a while, we left that whale
looking for more whales, and we go all the way
down to Devil's Punch Bowl and come back and
didn't see a whale. I didn't even see dolphins.
I really didn't. I was like, where's all the
mammals at? You know, I mean, I was looking hard.
I had my binoculars. I mean, I was looking hard.
But when we get back, my little girl loved it
because she got to see whales sort of up close.
You're only allowed certain distances from whales
legally. I think it's 100 feet. And so we get
back to our Verbo. little beach house. And then,
I think it was the next day, we see three whales
out our window. That's two more than we did when
we paid to see whales. So, yeah, it was really
cool. And we did some, you know, walking on the
beach, collecting some shells and whatnot, you
know, whatever, and did some shopping. I got
this new game called Canvas. It's a board game,
a family board game, and I love it. I love it.
You get to make pieces of art and score points.
Canvas is a great, great board game, by the way,
and to be honest, easy to learn and tricky and
complicated to... I mean, there's a strategy
to it, but it's a very easy game, and I am not
for complicated games. I'm just not for that.
You've got about 50 ,000 pieces in front of you,
and you've got to figure out what does what.
That's not fun. But that was, you know, again,
if you ever go online and check out that board
game called Canvas, they've got two expansion
modules. I only got the main one and wanted to
see if I liked it. Some girl inside the the game
store just said, you gotta get this! And I said,
okay, I'll get it. I was such a softy. I wasn't
feeling too good. Okay, I'll get it. So it was
it was just a lot of fun Lincoln City is I know
you all probably been there many times, but it
was my first time and I loved it Really was a
very nice place and the neighbors that lived
there. They were on the beach. They were very
sweet Seems like good people were living there.
So and we went into stores and stuff like that.
You know, I talked to everybody and they seemed
very down -to -earth, everybody there. But that
is this last week and a half, two weeks. Oh,
in our next segment we'll go over fishing reports,
but I'll also go over this week I went on my
first bike fishing trip. I know. I bought an
e -bike to go fishing and you're going to hear
all about it in this next segment. So stay tuned,
listen to our sponsors, and if you want to sponsor
and support community radio, please contact the
station and sponsor my show. I mean, it is the
number one show on the radio, so I think you
ought to sponsor my show. Maybe I'll give you
you know some free baits. Anyway, you guys take
care. We'll see ya. Well, actually you'll hear
me in just a few minutes This is Dave Dave makes
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my mom and a raccoon named Dennis. Then came
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started. Radio, small budget, big reach. real
results. All right, welcome back to terrible
at fishing. So how terrible am I at fishing?
Well, You know, I already told you about last
week, you know where I went deep -sea fishing
caught one cod a lot of crap one cod and Everybody
laughed because I was the terrible at fishing
guy on the boat And that's fine I mean if you're
gonna be if you're gonna be known as something
own it just soak it up It's that's you man. I
mean just be proud of your identity, even if
it's not really complimentary So this week, you
know, you guys know I bought an e -bike because
I can't drive anymore. And my neurological symptoms
have crept back in and basically, you know, I've
suffered blackouts. I mean, it's like turning
off a light switch. I'll be fine and then BAM!
I'm off. And then BAM! I'm back on again. dizzy,
disoriented, but I'm there. And you can't be
driving a car doing that. Just can't. So, in
order to have us, you know, to promote public
safety, I'm not driving. It's voluntary, but
I would hate to have that happen and somebody
get hurt or worse yet die. So, I don't drive.
But I bought a bike. You're thinking, Mike, what's
the difference between driving a car and a bike?
Well, the difference is three tons of metal and
me. I could hurt myself, but I'm not going to
hurt anybody else. But you got to get around.
I mean, it could black out crossing the street.
So, I mean, you can minimize the damage, but
you're not going to... you know, the best thing
to do is try not to hurt anybody else. So, I
got a bike and then I fitted my bike with fishing
rod holders, among other stuff. I mean, I made
my bike a fishing machine. I got three rod holders
on it and, you know, I think my rods are seven,
seven and a half feet, so they are the tallest
bike flags in town. And, I went bike fishing
Wednesday and I got up early. I put my phone
on the phone holder on my bike and I typed in
my Google and I wanted to go to Crystal Springs
Park ramp right there over at Lost River. So
I punch in Crystal Springs and it gives me this
bike route. Most of it is on the OCE trail. So
I get on my bike, and there's my map, and I wear
a full helmet. You know, I don't like those little
cap helmets. Because I really think if I, you
know, I know I'm gonna fall off one day. I'm
gonna crash. So what's gonna, you know, keep
my jaw from breaking? And then I can't talk.
You might as well kill an Italian. So I got a
full helmet. I've got my biker gloves and I've
got pads. I know I'm going to fall one day. It's
just going to happen. It might be a blackout
but I'll fall down and I just want to minimize
the damage to me. So I go down and I'm heading
down. I go down East Main Street there and by
Cook and it takes a little dirt road past a lot
of homeless people there until I find OCE Trail.
where there are more homeless people there. Never
went that way before, but I think that's where
homeless encampments are. And so I'm going down
the OCE trail, and it's about 10 miles to get
to this one spot. I've fished a spot before because
it's the boat ramp. I've launched there and fished
that area. It's best by the dam, by the way,
but we'll find out. If you watch the video, you'll
see that using a Google map is not the best thing
in the world. It's just not. So, it takes me
all the way down to this what did not look like
a road. It didn't. It looked like a path to somebody's
house, but it was called Reader Road, I think
it's called. So I'm looking at it, and you'll
see it in the video. I'm thinking that's not
really a road, but you know Google says go that
way, and I'm thinking if I'm going on some guy's
private property, I'm probably gonna die. You
know, it's an open -carry state. I'm gonna die.
So I go down this dirt road and I'm waiting for
a dog to chase me, a bull to gore me, a lot of
cows. Then I ran across this kamikaze chicken.
This thing chased, went in front of me. It was
missing like half its feathers. It was just an
ugly chicken. And I think it just wanted to kill
itself. But I got past the kamikaze chicken and
continued going down. And then the road turns
hard left. But Google says, keep going straight.
There's definitely not a road there. There are
tractor tread tracks. So I can see the finish
line. I can see the lake. All right. I'm thinking,
OK, I'll do it. But I'm going to stay in the
tread, you know, in the track. So I don't, you
know, if, you know, if I do hear dueling banjos,
I can beg for mercy because I did not damage
his property. So I start down this, you know,
tractor tread path and I could just hear a little
boy saying, Papa, Papa, there's a fat guy on
a bike in our field. And I'm thinking, Papa,
go grab his long, long gun. you know, zero in
on me. I'm waiting for the dueling banjos. And
it was long. I mean, this is a couple miles.
And I'm going through this guy's party and I
finally found Dirt Road. And I turn right. Because
that's what Google says. And I'm thinking, oh,
finally a road. But it doesn't feel like a road.
And then I notice I'm on somebody else's property.
So I stop at the guy's gate. And I'm looking
for, you know, trespassers will be killed signs.
That's what I'm looking for. You know, we will
shoot on sight. But I didn't see any signs like
that. I said, OK. Deep breath. I see a dog. It
looks like a nice dog. I go forward onto this
guy's property, through his property, and the
dog just looked at me while I drove by it. There's
some horses on the left, and I'm not too afraid
of horses. I keep going, get past that house,
go by another house, and finally get to a road,
Crystal Springs Road. So, all right, I made it.
I made it. and I didn't get shot. So there's
a guy over on the fishing dock, you know, at
the boat ramp. He was fishing. That really was
the spot I wanted, but that's all right. So I
went up onto the overpass, the bridge, and it's
got a wider area on the pedestrian walk in order
for you to fish. So I figure I'll just set up
shop here, fish off the bridge. and the water
was really, really stained, really stained, almost
a rust color. It looked bad, but I've seen water
like this, and even though the water, you know,
looks like rust, it actually isn't as dirty as
you think it is. And remember, this is Lost River,
basically, and the reason it's white is because
of the denim. So, I don't want you guys to see,
you know, necessarily see. There are places in
Florida and those are, they have brown water,
you know, and it's actually fine for fish to
be pulled from it and be eaten. I'm not sure
if that's the case here, but I've seen it. So
I started casting, I was using a small little
tube jig and threw that in there and it wasn't
getting any hits and so I figure, okay, I'll
throw a medium dive jig or bait out there. That
didn't get anything. I did see a small fish break
surface where there was an otter. And so I figured,
okay, I didn't check the temperature of the water,
but I figured, okay, I'll throw a frog over there.
You know, it's all a bunch of vegetation and
stuff. So I threw a frog over there and skipped
the frog through this vegetation. and still nothing.
I figure, okay, well, I'll go down to the dam,
see if I can't get over to the dam. So I take
Crystal Springs Road, some other road, and takes
it all the way down, and found out what I thought
was going to be there, a gate and a fence, because
there's a hatchery there, too, at the dam. So
I couldn't get in, I had to give it up, and I
put in about 40 miles on my bike, believe it
or not. I did. I put about 40 miles on it and
the bike did really, really well. It had about
25 percent charge on the bike even coming home.
So 40 miles for a fat guy on a bike. That's pretty
good. It's pretty good. So that was my fishing
adventure this week. So let's look at our stocking
schedules for our area. So, let's go to Southeast.
There we go, Southeast. Let's see if we can't
get this. Now, I backdated a little bit because
you didn't hear me last week. So, the week of
the 16th through the 20th, that was the Derby.
They had 970 fish stocked that week. 670 at Lake
of the Woods, 670 Legals, 300 trophies. Lake
of the Woods then, on the 23rd through 27th,
which is this week, they got 300 trophies. 300
trophies this week. So again, these are probably
stocked at the main ramp, although Aspen, I think,
should be open, so they might have gone there.
And Lake of the Woods, Next week, for 4th of
July weekend, they're going to have similar stockings
they had for the children's event. It's 670 legals
and 300 trophies for 970 fish. So that's next
week. um there and then the following week they're
getting a lot of fish Lake of the Woods the following
week is going to have 300 trophies so that's
the week after 4th of July so 300 trophies will
be stocked they usually stock Thursday or Friday
at Lake of the Woods but they did do it on a
Wednesday too this year or this year this season
so keep an eye out for that four mile lake The
week of the 16th got two thousand Put in there
one thousand Legals one thousand trophies they
also this Next week next week They're going to
get two thousand Legals. That's a lot for that
lake and 400 trophies so two thousand Legals
next week 400 trophies. That's at Four Mile Lake.
You really got to check out Four Mile Lake. The
following week, which is the week after 4th of
July, 1 ,000 legals and 400 trophies. A lot of
stocking right now. This is a great time to hit
the local lakes. Really good. Now there's Campbell
Lake. They're getting 2 ,200 or they got 2 ,200
actually this week, 2 ,200 Legals at Campbell.
Anna Reservoir also 2 ,400 next week, 2 ,400
Legals next week at Anna Reservoir. So there
are some really good stuff. Fish Lake, let's
look at Fish Lake. Fish Lake, the week of July
4th, which is next week. They're getting 2 ,000
legals and 500 trophies. So Fish Lake's getting
2 ,000 legals and 500 trophies next week. So
great fishing. Really, really, really good fishing.
You guys gotta get out there. I wish I had a
car I could get up there. I really do. I mean,
I could catch fish. All right, Medco Pond. I
keep telling you about this cute little pond
to go to. Medco Pond is a great pond to go to.
They just, a week and a half ago, got 1 ,100
legals put in there. That's a great little pond.
Great little pond. And this one right here's
got Lost Creek Reservoir. Okay, big reservoir.
They always get a whole bunch in it, and this
is no joke. So, a week and a half ago, they got
10 ,000 legals and 1 ,500 trophies put in it.
10 ,000 Legals and 1 ,500 Trophies a week and
a half ago. You guys got to check some of these
places out, because it is just fantastic. This
is the best time of year to go fishing. You've
got to believe me. You just got to believe me.
All right, where am I going here? Let's go all
zones and then... I always forget Willow Lake's
Willow Creek Reservoir. Or no, no, Willow Lake.
Formerly Willow Creek Reservoir. Whatever. And
let's see that because I love Willow Lake. And
they're not getting any stocking. Alright, so
those are some of the best things about what's
going on right now. And I've told you to follow
the stocking. I hope you enjoy fishing this time
of year. I will see you guys around town because
I'll be fishing around town. Just look for my
big bike flags. Take care and tight lines to
each and every one of you. Tune in next week
for the next episode and more great fishing tips
terrible and fishing Fridays at 7 p .m.. On Gold
Country radio