FishAholics Fishing Challenge At The California Aqueduct: Part Three

You know, every time these posts or videos help someone catch fish, I’m one step closer to achieving my goal.  To bring fulfillment to as many people as I can through fishing.

Believe it or not at one point in my life, I was looking for that fulfillment.  I felt like I was trapped, running the same routine day after day, imprisoned in a cubical.  I found my escape through fishing.

That feeling you get when your line starts peeling.  The drag is screaming.  When you’re reeling in that fish and the whole world shuts out.  The only thing you can think about is not losing your catch.

That high you get when you catch a fish.  Not too many things can give you that feeling.  

It’s amazing how fishing can enlighten the soul like that.  That’s why I started these fishing challenges.  To help more people experience this sense of euphoria by helping them see what’s currently working.  The worlds a better place when everyone is happier.

This is the last in the Fishing Challenge series at the California Aqueduct. For this challenge, I had the FAm choose what depth to fish.  This helped me determine what lures to use for this challenge.  They chose to fish mid depth which was 6 to 10 feet.  If you missed the previous two fishing challenges, you can check em out below.

Fishing Challenge 1  

Fishing Challenge 2

I wanted to try something different this time.  It was going to be tough blind casting for a bite so I decided to troll…but with a twist.  I chose to use a Diptsy Diver. 

Now if you’re not familiar with a Diptsy Diver, it’s a rig that dives your lure down to a specific depth while trolling from a boat.  Only, I’m trolling on land.   

So to make this rig work, I had to use a heavy duty planar board that can pull my Diptsy Diver out and stay afloat.  I decided to use the Church Tackle TX-44 Planar Board.  It’s a planar board 12 inches long and 4 inches high.  It’s big enough to handle the pull from the Diptsy Diver and plane out far enough to allow me to fish.

As a word of caution, this technique is not for everyone.  It’s one of those crazy ideas I’ve always wanted to try and finally came around to.  It would come in handy when the fish are suspended in the depths.

It was tough to launch this rig.  In the video, I was able to accomplish this by launching it from a pipe that went across the canal. With the current flowing, I was high enough to allow the planar board to take my rig out.  

Launching this rig can also be accomplish from the canal edge.  The important thing is to find places where the canal wall is free of vegetation.  A floating type lure will make things easier when launching the rig because as the planar board is slowly planing out, the lure slowly follows the board in suspended motion.  This will allow the the lure to reach the deeper water before it begins to dive.

To pull this rig, I used heavier tackle.  I used my 10′ Shimano surf rod with 80lb braided line.  Pulling the Diptsy Diver was quite an exercise.  My rod was bent down with the full force of the rig while I was walking along the road.

It was tough figuring out if I had a fish or not when smaller fish were hooked.  I had shakers take my lure but didn’t realize I had them on until I pulled the rig in.

The fishing challenge did not yield any big fish but it showed that using a Diptsy Diver from shore works.  Hopefully you’ll find this useful when you’re out there.  Now that you know what’s worked for me, see if it works for you.

That’s my challenge to you.