Another Shot At Pardee

Rich and I decided to meet at Lake Pardee yesterday. His son Mark, Mark's friend Ethen, and "Guppie" who's also a friend of Mark's, met at the "Mud Hole". The "Mud Hole" is named for obvious reasons. Every where you walk it's slimy, muddy, and wet, but there are trout there. At least I saw one or two caught.

I got there at 0835 (told Rich I'd be there 8:30ish) and put out two rigs with Rainbow Power Bait. Amid slogging around in the mud and socializing, I managed nothing in the first hour and a half. I packed up my gear and went over to the penninsula by the spillway. I think they call it Porcupine Point. The crowd was huge. About 10 feet between groups all the way around the point, across the spillway, and down the other side of the lake. Looked like everybody had two rod licenses because each group had at least 4 to 8 poles out depending on how many in the group.

I set up two rods with PB on the back side of the penninsula and shortly there after, Rich came over and set up next to me. The kids wandered over to the crowds on the other side of the penninsula. They found some friends and were blended into their groups. Rich was fishing one rod with Power Eggs and a Power Worm and the other with a variety of lures. We fished that spot for about an hour and then the group next to us left. We migrated to their area and put our rods back out. Still nothing, so we moved again to the point of the penninsula hoping for some drive-bys from the open part of the lake.

At just about Noon, I got my first bite. A nice chunky Rainbow about 10 inches. The weeds at the point were eating several of Rich's lures, so he decided to wander back to the "Mud Hole' and try his luck, again. I stayed at the point and right after Rich left, I landed another Rainbow about 13 inches. For me, that was it for the day.

Rich dropped me an email later and he didn't fair any better. "No room at 'Mud Hole'. Fished Rainbow Point for zilch except to enjoy the afternoon sun. Went back down to check 'Mud Hole', still all taken up. Went back to spillway. Saw them tearing the trout up off the spillway itself in the corners. Besides that, nothing outstanding". By the way, I don't think the Ranger allows people to fish on the spillway itself, but I'm not sure. I do know that the spillway at Amador is off limits, but that doesn't stop fishing there.

When I left home at 0730 it was 20 degrees. I don't know the temperature at the lake since I don't have a thermometer in my truck, but I can tell you it was cold, windy, and generally miserable, but the sun was shining. Every cloud has a silver lining. When I got home at 2:00pm, it was a blazing 40 degrees. I almost got out the lawn chair and shorts, but restrained myself.

We have two more storms coming in this week, but they appear to be "warm" storms. Warm being snow levels above 5000 ft. Hopefully some, if not all, of this snow, still on the ground, will be washed away and I can start cleaning up. I've found several more trees down on the property that need to be cut up and stacked for the burn pile although at this point, I can't find the burn pile.

That's it until the next adventure. till then.

Mark

The Storm Saturday Morning Update

Where'd it go??????

The only thing we got yesterday was a lot of wind. Not safe to be outside when the wind is blowing and the trees are full of snow. A lot of times it looked like whiteout conditions.

Raz - Sorry, but we beat the bullet.
Sowbug - We had the same grocery freak-out on Thursday night.
Cofisher - Guess you're still the snow capital. Wouldn't want to take that from you.
Mel - No power loss this time.
TFB - Psssssst.
David - Stay warm. Not experienced that cold of weather since 1990 when I was in Medford, OR and it was 1.

Yesterday afternoon we had sunshine and blue skies. Got out and snow blew the turn around. Bob (I plow for fish) scrapped the drive and this morning is clear as a bell.

Where'd it go??????

Off to Pardee tomorrow to meet Rich and Mark for some bait dunking.

Till next time.

Mark

The Storm Friday Morning Update

It was supposed to hit mid-day yesterday. I didn't go fishing in the morning so I could monitor what was happening at the house and let my wife know since she was at work, that way if it got ugly, I could run down the hill and get her. I made a quick run to Sacramento to pick up some paperwork and then back home.


Spent the rest of the day doing stuff around the house. No rain, no snow, nada until about 8:00pm when we got a very light dusting. Crap, I could have gone fishing. Rich and Mark went to Pardee and caught a bunch.


This morning at 7:30am I measured 8 inches of new snow on the front deck. The cold front is still west of Sacramento and coming our way, with more snow (no rain at this elevation) and wind. Should be fun. NOT. I'm huggin the wood stove today.


Till tomorrow mornings update, maybe if we have electricity. Currently PG&E is reporting 191 incidents, with 20,200 people without power in neighboring counties. The worst is yet to come.


Mark

The Day Before The Storm

If you've been watching the news, you know that California is about to get hit with one of those cold, snowy storms. Washington and Oregon are getting it as I write this and we are expecting it to hit mid-day tomorrow. When a storm comes in from the ocean there is always a warming factor which minimumizes the amount of snow we get. This particular storm is rolling right down the coast, but inland, not out to sea, therefore a much colder storm. They (the weather guessers) are comparing this storm to the one that hit the area in February of 1976 and dropped 2 inches of snow in Sacramento.

You know what I went through in the last one, this one is supposed to be bigger. They (again the weather guessers) say that the snow level is expected to be 500 -1000 ft in elevation. They also say that there is a chance of snow in Sacramento (elevation 26 ft).

At my elevation (3215 ft), feet of snow is expected. The suggestion is that everyone living above 1000 ft have 72 hours of food and water available. Don't worry, we're covered.

I thought I'd share a picture of our home this morning. Take this and add a couple of feet more? Whoopie............

I'll get some shots after the storm passes on Saturday so you can see what we have and be glad you're not here. Oh, the joys of country living.

Till then.

Mark

Shoreman Hits Lake Pardee

I wanted to fish Lake Pardee on opening day, last Friday, but due to circumstances beyond my control, today was the first chance I had to get out there. Some years ago, there was a Parkay Margarine commercial that that went something like this; ‘It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature”. Well, if you live upcountry you know, somebody fooled Mother Nature, because her wrath did fall upon us.


Friday morning, as you know, I awoke to 18 inches of snow, three trees down across my driveway, and no electric power, which lasted 94 hours. When it finally came back on Monday afternoon at 4:50pm, I got the chance to clear up all the chores that accompany you when you are without electricity so I could head out to the lake.


I did find out that the reason for the long delay getting power back, was the place where the line went down. PG&E didn't find it until their helicopter flew over and found where it went down. To the West of where I live is a canyon where a tree fell and took out two power poles. It was in such a place that PG&E almost had to make a new road to get to it. That, the snow, and the fact that it was right by the stream bed (water kept filling up the hole for the new pole), made it more difficult and longer to repair, than one would think.


Back to fishing Lake Pardee.

This is a "cross the lake" view of the "mud hole" at Lake Pardee.

When I got to the lake, I talked to the girl at check in and the guy at the marina and found out what happened on opening day. Here it is in a nutshell. The lines were long at check in, the place was crowded, and very few people went home without fish. I inquired where the fish were being caught today and was told that they were moving out of the coves and into the lake.

I stopped at a little island that is accessed by a wooden foot bridge to see if anyone was catching anything. The answer was a firm “no”. I spent a few minutes casting my white grub jig and had to agree, nothing there. Then I drove over to the Jackson Creek Spillway and fished there.

There were quite a few people fishing from the shore and several boats trawling the area. I talked to several people fishing there and they said one or two were caught. I found a spot, put one rod out with Berkley Power Bait on a slip sinker rig and on the other rod I used several colors of Kastmaster. Within 30 minutes, I had a chunky Rainbow on the Power Bait that went about 12 inches.

I also have to note that this is the first fish I’ve caught at Lake Pardee and it wasn't a bad size.

I fished from 8:30am until 11:30am and landed five chunky Rainbows in the 11” to 14" range which was my limit for the day. Others around me caught one here and one there on slip sinker rigs, and I have to think that, again, the 4lb Fluorocarbon leader was the key to catching the fish. Packed the five in ice and dropped them by Bob's on the way home. Hey, I got my driveway plowed.

I've got more pictures and if you want to take a look, stop over at California Dreaming.

Till next time.

Mark

A Guy Will Do Anything To Post

I'm currently at 86 hours without electricity. This all started at 7:00pm on Thursday night when the storm got nasty. Friday morning I woke up to between 14 and 18 inches of snow depending on where you were on the driveway. On top of that, I had 2 trees down that fell across the road on my property and one that fell across the road on Roy's property.


I spent most of Friday (it was still snowing) running the snow blower and trying to clear a path out. The Friday I was supposed to be at Lake Pardee for the opening, by the way. It took me until 1:30pm to get a path wide enough to get the truck through. Where's Bob with the tractor, you ask? I wasn't sure Bob was home. I didn't see any lights (of course, the power was out, duh) when I made the first pass with the snow blower. He might have still been asleep since it was about 7:30am when that happened. I had to clear a path to the first tree, cut a section out of it (a 9" diameter Pine), and then clear a path to the second one (another Pine, but this one was more like 11" diameter) and cut a section out of it too. Then I could continue toward Bob's house. At the third pass, I saw Bob getting the tractor out. He went out toward the road and cleared that, then came back and finished my drive.

I had left a message for Mark (from Rich & Mark) to let me know how the opening went. He and his friend Ethan were camping out the night before and had plans to hit it early Friday before the hoard got there. I haven't heard back from him by phone, but I might have an email somewhere out there in the email stratosphere, but I don't have access to Outlook. I'll let you know if I hear something.

Now, you're wondering, if this guy doesn't have electricity, how is he posting. We have a generator, you know that. It gives us some electricity in various parts of the house. One of them not being the nerve center of Northern California Trout. I'm sitting at my wife's laptop upstairs. It looks just like to one I was hoping for, from Santa at Christmas, but didn't show up. But just having a computer will not allow posting, so I ran an extension cord from that same generator through the downstairs door (using a bag of books to keep it somewhat shut) to the plug strip that has the DSL Modem and the Wi-Fi Router plugged into it. I can now post, but still no email or any of the other things I have on the external hard drive.

Next comes the Fly Fishing show this coming Friday. Ken and I had reserved a room and were planning to hit the show on Friday and Saturday. Well, guess what. We have another storm coming in on Thursday that is supposed to be colder and wetter than what just went through. I still have 10 to 12 inches of snow on the ground. Ken, on the other hand, doesn't have a "Bob" or a snow blower or a generator. He was without power for two days this last storm. He also broke the chains on his truck and his wife got the Jeep stuck, so he wants to be close to home too. So we chatted and decided to cancel the fly show and make sure out families were safe and secure.

Since my main focus is getting power back, getting the wood box filled, and finishing the clearing of the driveway, fishing will probably be on hold for this week unless power gets back on soon. If it does, then maybe I can sneak out for a day.

Till next time, I'll be outside shoveling, carrying wood in the wheel barrel, or on the phone harassing Pacific Gas & Electric. Oh, as I was typing this, I got a electronic call from them wanting to know how my customer service experience was and if I was satisfied with their service. It wasn't a pretty picture.

Mark

The Nerve Center of Northern California Trout

And, California Dreaming, and articles in the Amador Ledger Dispatch, and the posts on the Amador Ledger Dispatch's blog http://www.myachome.com/.

Some time ago, those lovely folks over at OBN wanted us to show you where we write. Here is Shoreman's inner sanctum. OK, so I'm a little slow getting it out. Hey, I've been busy catching fish and writing about it. I also thought it would be a good day since you can see the snow out the window (double click for a bigger picture).

What are you seeing? To the left of the monitor is the book (white, leaning against the printer) I keep the original articles I write for the paper. That black thing on the printer is a Wi-Fi router so my wife can use her computer upstairs without dragging out a cord. Under the table is the brains of the unit. A Dell XPS 400 and a remote 500 gigabyte hard drive.

On the sill above the monitor is my "collection" of stuff I've found fishing. Bobbers, flies, golf balls, etc. My Fly Fisherman calendar hangs just above the router. February's fly is called "Two Bit Hooker". Have to try that one. You know how I am with a fly, with that kind of name.

The last thing on the sill is the picture on the right. That is a place called Hull Bay. It's on St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands and when my wife and I were there, we did a night snorkle in that bay. A very unique experience.

OK, that's it. Everything you read comes from there.

Till next time.

Mark

Between Storms

Today we are between storms. Yesterday it rained and the wind blew. Today all we got was the wind blowing, although we are expecting snow tonight. Since I had to go to town to run a couple of errands, I took the opportunity to zip out to Lake Amador and wet a line or two. I set up at the point where we usually fish. One with Power Bait and the other with Kastmasters. You can see by the photo below, that the storm was coming.

I didn't get any interest with the Power Bait or the Kastmasters, so I left the rod with Power Bait sit and put the white grug jig on the other rod. Since I was the only one out there (maybe that should have been an omen) I walked around the point and started casting the grub. About half way back, I got a good drive-by, but couldn't get a second look. Got back to the corner I was fishing and started casting into the spillway. The picture below shows the spillway, but imagine it with about 3 feet less water. I was casting on the left side of the buoys and got a good solid hit. I fought the fish to the shore and then it saw me. It went something like this: It took off like a bat out of hell and snap went the line.

I tied on another grub and several casts later, I saw one cruising by and shot the grub out front of it. It grabbed it and then spit it back at me. Three chances, three misses. Must be bad,

pre-storm, Karma.

Today being Tuesday, is stocking day. I talked about it before, but this time I took a long distance picture of it happening. I jumped into the truck and drove over to get a better shot. On the way there, the truck was just leaving on it's second plant (1000 lbs per truck load) and would be back in about 20 minutes. I thought I'd throw the grub while I waited, but you can't do it where they stock, you have to go outside the "perimeters". While I was tieing on a second grub, the first one ended up in the trees, the stock truck drove by for the third time. Not 20 minutes, more like 5 minutes. So no close up shot today.

After that, I went back over to the point and fished a little while longer, but didn't see any more fish. By then, the wind was blowing pretty hard. I had to cast about 15 feet to the right of where I wanted to grub to fall. It was getting to the point that it was useless to keep trying. I packed up and headed home.

Friday is the opening of Lake Pardee. That will be the next adventure. The local Newspaper is expecting an article for the following Friday. I'll be there rain or shine.

Till next time.

Mark

Turkey Porn

Huh, made you look. If you want to see the story, go here.

http://californiadreaming-shoreman.blogspot.com/

Mark

A Positive Attitude

I started thinking about this at 5:00am this morning. What was I doing awake at 5:00am on Saturday morning? I have no clue. Just old, I guess. Since then (it's now 7:30am), I've been musing about this subject. I guess John over at Musings of Murphyfish, is rubbing off on me.


What brought this about is a comment that Mark Dahlquist made on my last post. " Mark I take it the water is pretty clear then if the fluorocarbon is needed?" and "Sounds like these trout are on the more educated side". The answer to this is yes and no.


Some years ago while I was in college, I was talking to one of the students I was taking a class with, about fishing. What came out of that conversation was to direct my life as a fisherman. I said that when you go fishing, you can't go with the attitude that "I want to catch fish". You have to go with the attitude that "The fish are there, come on and get on my hook".


Recently, I've been on a soapbox preaching the advantages of using fluorocarbon line as a leader and how the fish can not see it. From my experience over the last several years, I don't think it has anything to do with clear water (like Lake Camanche, Caples Lake, or Bear River Reservoir) or dirty or discolored water (like Lake Amador or Red Lake) because it works every where. I also don't think it has anything to do with the fish being educated.


So what is the secret? I think it has to do with a lot of things. You have to hit the lake, stream, or river, with the attitude that the fish are there, they are going to bite and you just have to find out what they want. A fluorocarbon leader doesn't hurt, but it isn't always the key. I've caught fish with lures tied straight to my line. Example: the 7 lb Cuttbow on February 3rd that was caught with a grub jig tied straight to my line. One I lost that would have gone more than 5 lbs, with a Kastmaster tied straight to my line. No fluorocarbon there, but the attitude that the fish are there, so hit the lure. I can't tell you how often I've come to where I'm calling it a day and say to myself "OK, I'm leaving in 30 or 60 minutes and I need one or two more to make a limit" and sure enough by the time I pack up, I've landed those other one or two I wanted.


On the other hand, I had one straighten my line at Caples Lake and snap it, using a fluorocarbon leader tied to my line with a double surgeon knot and a nightcrawler on a bait hook. It didn't snap the leader, or the knot, it was the line that snapped. Was it the fact that all the fish could see was the crawler? Would he have hit the crawler without the flurorcarbon leader? Was it my attitude that the fish are there, I was just waiting for the hit? I have to think, in this case, it was a combination of everything.


Is attitude enough? Probably not, but the combination of attitude, and having the right tools should be the key factors that put fish on the end of your line.


Where do we go from here? Personally, I'm going up upstairs and have breakfast. I'll shut up now.


Till next time.

Mark

Lake Camanche Again Today

Met my friend Yuki at the North Shore of Lake Camanche and fished in the Day use area. I set up both rods with a slip sinker rigs and plain old Rainbow Power Bait. Power Bait was the key again today. Over the period from 8:30 to 2:00pm I managed to land 4 Rainbows in the 10" to 11" range. Interesting thing today, I only got one bite. The other four (I missed one) was a straight pickup and swim away. The key to fishing Power Bait is, if you don't use fluorocarbon line for the leader, you're probably not going to catch too many fish. When I left, I had caught 4
(one was 1lb 10oz) and Yuki only caught one. Yuki caught 2 more after. Now all we have to do is figure out how to catch them at the same time.

Till next time.

Mark

The Black Hole

I would normally put this out on Outlook distribution, but I thought you would all enjoy this one. Don't laugh too hard.

Mark

Lake Camanche

I've been down on the Lake Camanche Trout Pond for a while now. I lambasted them both here on December 30th and in the local new paper on January 7th about the bird problem. Well, I have to tell you, the pen (in my case the key board) is mighter than the sword. They have stopped stocking the Trout Pond, at least for now, BUT they aren't telling people this. Over the weekend, I understand that the pond was packed and NO ONE was catching any fish. What is wrong with this picture?????

Enough about that. Today was not a burn day here in the beautiful Sierra Nevada Mountains. I had a couple of options. One, I could rake more pine needles. I don't think so, I'm still sore from raking yesterday morning. Two, I could run out to Lake Amador and fish out there. I think I need some place new. So three, I could run out to Lake Camanche and fish the big lake.

I've been hearing some rumors about fishing being good from the North Shore, so I went there. I had no idea where to fish, so when I checked in, I asked. "Go to the day use area and try there. If there are too many people, go around the bend and fish the point". The day use area was low enough that you could drive right to the water and park where you were fishing. That's cool.

Set up one rod with Rainbow Power Bait and the other with the usual assortment of Kastmasters, Thomas Buoyant Lake Lures, and Little Cleos. Lure didn't produce anything. The five I caught were all on Power Bait. They were spread out from 0900 to 1300, but 5 in that time period was good enough. They turned out to be 10" - 11" chunky little Rainbows. They are almost silver in color, but when you get them into the sun, you can see the pink.

I've got a couple of pictures I'll post on California Dreaming over the next couple of days, so stop in and take a look. Here's the link.

http://californiadreaming-shoreman.blogspot.com/

A very nice day to be at the lake. Sunshine, blue skies, and about 70 degrees. I know it won't last, but I'm enjoying it while it's there.

Till next time.

Mark

Records Are Meant To Be Broken

Today, I landed the most painful Rainbow I've ever caught. Painful how, you ask? The first fish I reeled in was one of those 10" DFG stockers. Caught it on a Brook Trout colored Kastmaster. It was all wrapped up in some elses hook, line, and sinker. In trying to get it unhooked, it flipped and managed to sink one of the hooks, from the treble, into the little finger of my right hand. All the way past the barb. So here I am, trying to unravel the line, the fish, and the lure, which I remind you was embedded in my finger, and the little sucker was flopping all over the place and me bleeding all over the place. I did manage, with the help of a couple of new friends, to get it on the stringer and the hook out of my finger. Fortunately, I carry a first aid kit in my truck. Got a bandage on it and back to fishing. I don't care so much that I got the hook caught in my finger, I just hate bleeding all over everything.

Which brings me to the title of this post. Back on Tuesday January 25th, I noted that I set a new personal best with the 5lb-2oz Cuttbow. Well, today I landed this one that was 7 lbs even. I'm not sure why, but when I landed it, it was already bleeding. So, even though it was a personal best that I would have preferred to release, I put it on the stringer. This one will be hard to beat. Oh, caught it on a little white crappie grub jig. You just never know.

The third thing today, I mentioned about the cold. Well, when I left home, it was 29 degrees. I figured, way too cold to put in the float tube. Little did I know, that when I got to the lake, it was around 40. By 10:30 or so, it was t-shirt weather. Would have been a great day for launching the Float Tube Cumberland. But then again, I would not have caught the "big" one.

To end the day, I managed one more of the little 10 inchers on the same Kastmaster I caught the first one on, minus all the blood from my finger. I figured that Bob might have a freezer full with all the big ones I've given him recently and since he wasn't home, I caught my neighbor Roy and gave him the three fish.

On the way home, I found the ideal place to fish. Check out California Dreaming to see where.

http://californiadreaming-shoreman.blogspot.com/

Till next time.

Mark

Best Blogger Award

Well, Dennis over at Adventures……With Dad, sent the Best Blogger Award to me and 14 other blogs. The award comes with 4 things that I have to do.

1. Thanks and link back to the person who gave me this award.

2. Share 7 things about yourself.

3. Give the award to 15 recently discovered, worthy bloggers.

4. Contact them to make them aware of the award

Thanks Dennis. I appreciate the thought. Here’s the link to his blog.

http://www.adventures-with-dad.com/

Here are the 7 things about me that the rest of you probably don’t know.

1. When I was in the hospital having my appendix taken out, I met a crusty old tugboat captain that said he would give me a ride in his tugboat as soon as I got well. For a 7 year old, that was big stuff. Never saw the guy again.

2. Moved to Florida in 1955. On the trip down, we passed through Georgia. They had the biggest peaches I have ever seen. Might have been because I was small that the peaches looked so big. As I recall, they were mighty good, though.

3. Until I moved to California when I was 16, we could go to the beach and never see another person all day. Don’t you wish you could do that today? We had a lot of beach parties during both, the daytime and the nighttime. The places we went are now filled with high rise hotels and condos.

4. Against all my protests, my parents moved me from Florida to Los Angeles between 11th and 12th grade. My picture was in neither year book. The high school in Pompano Beach, Florida (pictures taken in 12th grade) or Bell High School (pictures taken in 11th grade). They also deprived me of graduating with the kids I went to school with since I was in 4th grade.

5. Used to cruise a well known hangout called Harvey’s Broiler in South Gate, California. I had a 1959 Chevy, black with red interior. The engine was a 348, 4-speed, 4 barrel, with the front end jacked up and the bumper removed. Used to ride like a tank, but was cool stuff. Did a lot of street racing on Tweedy Blvd. Didn’t lose many races.

6. My wife, at the time, and I were on “Let’s Make A Deal”. Went for the door. Didn’t get the big deal which was a boat, motor, and trailer and $10,000 in cash. Ended up with furniture, air conditioner, and some other stuff I can’t remember worth about $2500.

7. Last, but not least. When Richard Nixon was President, I worked for the carpet company that manufactured the carpet that went into the “Western Whitehouse”. I, personally, was the one that inspected and OK’d the product for delivery. Pretty scary stuff for a 21 year old kid.

With as many of these awards going around, I’m not going to pass on sending out the link to 15 other blogs. We all know who they are and they all deserve the award. It’s my opinion that there isn’t a bad blog out there.

Thanks again, Dennis for the kind thought.

I'm headed out to the lake for a little 20+ degree fishing from the shore. Can't bring myself to stick my butt in the water and float tube when the air temp is in the 20's. Call me a weenie. Takes us old guys too long to thaw out.

Till next time.

Mark

Computer Problems

I'm just coming off the death of my DSL Modem and the new one is not performing as well as I'd like.

Just to let everyone know, I'm following your posts, but to make a comment is takes FOREVER. I just made one on Troutrageous and it took me more than 5 minutes to get the comment posted.

So, until I can get this thing fixed, I'll read and probably do little commenting. I'm still here with you. The rumors I'm hearing (from the IT Wife) is that the Internet Card is gasping it's last breaths. I think Santa should have brought me a new laptop. Wouldn't have fixed the modem and router problems, though.

Mark