Saturday's Trout Derby

Well, I rolled out of the house at the early hour of 5:00am. With my two cup mug of coffee, I rolled down Highway 88 toward Stockton. I had high hopes, since the hype about 2000 trout being planted in a 10 acre pond gave the expectations of great fishing. I got to the park at about 6:30am, parked, and grabbed my tackle. I might mention I had to park in the second parking lot, since the first one I came to was already full. I walked over to the pond and found a space between two men on one side and a man and his daughter on the other.

Put a Panter Martin on my line and casted out a little to the right. First thing I caught was a line that belonged to one of the guys to my right. Seems they had two rods each in the water. Two lines straight out and the other to the left and right. Second cast was straight out. Third cast was a little to the left. Low and behold, I caught the line from the person to the left. They also had two lines each and were situated the same as the guys to the right. So that basically left me one small alley right in front of me.

I thought about going some where else, but there were so many people lined up along the bank, the problem would have been the same no matter where you went. So I bucked it up and put out a line with a slip sinker and Power Bait. I also rigged up a slip bobber rig with a night crawler. Figured with the others fishing on the bottom, this might get me some swing room near the surface. Problem was, the wind kept blowing the bobber from right to left and I had to reel in and cast out every couple of minutes. Needless to say this became a pain in the butt.

I fished for about an hour and a half of throwing out and reeling in and finally threw in the towel. What a miserable way to fish. Crowded, almost "shoulder to shoulder", was not what I expected. Too many people for such a small pond. They might have stocked 2000 trout, but I did not see one fish caught in the hour and a half I was there. It wasn't a good experience and I wouldn't do it again. If I find more information about who caught what, I'll pass it along.

Till next time, remember: "A bad day fishing is better than any day at work".

Shoreman