Friday and I'm Back

Finally done with the antibiotics. Waited one day before venturing out to the wilds of Northern California. Actually I had to drive into Jackson (20 miles one way) on Thursday to get gas. Tank was a little too low to take a run up the hill. I had to get a couple of things at the store too, so I just postponed the trip until yesterday.

One quick thing about the mystery at Tabeaud. I was mostly yanking your chain about the volcanic gas bubble. Granted the town is called Volcano, but it's generally known that there aren't any volcano's around here. The town is named for its setting in a bowl-shaped valley, which early miners thought was caused by a volcano. I know it's been fun speculating, but it's probably just a simple purging of the pipe used as an outlet for the water flowing into the West Fork of Jackson Creek. Probably, but you never know. Oh, stop it Mark.

Picked up my neighbor Roy and stopped by Cooks Station for coffee. Drove over Carson Pass and down into the Carson Valley. Took a right on Highway 89 South and stopped in at the Carson River Resort and yaked with Todd for a while. He suggested we drive up the road 4 miles to the bridge where it was stocked with 2 truckloads the previous Saturday. Got to the bridge and to my surprise, NOT, there were 6 guys fishing in the small hole right under the bridge. Roy and I rigged up and walked to the up-stream side and practiced our casting. No sense trying to catch anything, since they other 6 guys weren't, at least as far as I could see.

Packed up and drove back down stream until we found a hole someone wasn't fishing in. Most of these were down in canyons where it would take climbing gear with ropes and repelling stuff (you can tell I don't know much about climbing) just to get there. We actually ended up at one of the spots I fished back on August 31st. Roy, being somewhat new at the fly fishing thing, not that I'm not new, set up in the center of the area, and I walked to the left and fished a hole. Didn't catch anything, but did get some interest by a couple of small (6 inchers or so) fish. Walked around Roy and fished another hole on his down stream side. Nothing there either. Roy practiced casting.

Packed up again and went to an area I saw guys fishing back on the 31st and thought we'd try that one. Roy upstream, me downstream. Fished a right hand drift up against the bank, but didn't produce anything. Did almost step on a foot long Garder Snake and a 6 inch Alligator Lizard. The most live action I'd seen so far.

Decided to call it a day on the East Fork of the Carson River and drove to the Hope Valley Cafe for lunch. A burger and fries later, set out for Red Lake. After all, it was on the way back home. No body there when we arrived, so Roy & I set up a slip sinker with Rainbow Power Bait and I used my second rod with silver Kastmaster. Always good at Red Lake. Got 3 good hits on the Kastmaster, but couldn't get the hook set. During the change of lures, you know I try everything, a 13" Brookie almost pulled my other rod into the lake. Got him to shore and on the stringer for dinner. After that I got one hit on a silver Panther Martin and that was it.

By then it was hitting 2:00pm and I was running out of energy, so we called it a day. On the way back, Caples was calling, but I restrained myself. It was getting pretty windy, actually there were whitecaps on the lake, and it would still be there next week. DFG is stocking Bear River, Caples, and Silver lake next week, I can't wait.

That's it from the newly de-bacteria'd Shoreman. Till next time, remember: "Forget the antibiotics, get out there fishing".

Shoreman