I Started My Year on the Mokelumne??!!

You're goddamn right I did.
After I fished the Moke the first time I vowed to never fish it again because of the trash I encountered all over the river. My buddy Rob emailed me and asked if I wanted to go out on New Years Day (opening day on the Moke) and of course I said "FUCK YEAH!" because I have no self control when someone wants to go fishing.

Rob guaranteed we would catch fish. I know from taking people out that this is a bold statement and not to be taken lightly but I trusted him and I wasn't disappointed. We definitely caught fish. We caught about a hundred between the two of us. They were all about the size of the one in the picture above.

As expected there were a bunch of guys with spinning gear out. They were all catching the same little hatchery fish we were and only a couple reported anything bigger. We saw one guy with a little ultra light and a spinner catch a nice 18 inch bow. As soon as he landed it he put it on a stringer and started walking towards the parking lot. He came over to us (we weren't fishing at this spot) and asked if we thought the adipose fin had been cut. It had, and we told him he'd be fine taking it home. He promptly got in his truck and drove home. He must have been hungry as hell.