Crash and Burn

Last week my friend Yuki emailed me and ask if I wanted to join him and a couple of co-workers from Cal Berkeley for a day of fishing on Monday. He'd been telling them that I was the master fisherman and could guide them to where the fish were. Since Lake Camanche North Shore has been good, I suggested we go there instead of Lake Amador which has been OK, but hasn't been good. 

I arrived at 8:45am donuts in hand, threw out two rods with Rainbow Power Bait, and waited for them to get there. They showed up just after at 9:15am.

Dave - Paul - Yuki

I re-rigged Paul and Dave's rods with slip sinker rigs, 30" of Fluorocarbon leader, #18 gold treble hooks and Rainbow Power Bait with a dab of sweet corn. Between us, we had 7 lines out by 9:30am. Out they stayed. 10:00am, 10:30am, 11:00am, and finally at 11:30 Paul landed the first fish. He had changed from Rainbow Power Bait to Pink Power Bait. 

Paul'sRainbow

 

Oh, there was one bite on Yuki's line (he was using chartreuse Power Bait), but he missed it. Then sometime later (I forgot to write the time down) there was a bite on one of my rods. Since I wasn't fishing that day (my plan was for them to catch all the fish) I told Dave to grab it. He started to reel it in and it seemed to have bit and run. I took the rod and started the retrieve for re-baiting and realized the fish was still on. Must have grabbed the bait and headed for shore. I handed the rod back to Dave and he finished the fight. 

Dave's Rainbow

From then on, we huddled behind our trucks (Yuki parked his truck nose to nose with mine) to keep out of the, and I'm guessing here, 20mph wind that was blowing across the lake.

I pulled out at 2:30pm to be home in time to feed the kids (cats). You know how they are. Not fed by 3:30 and I'm getting calls from the SPCA about cat abuse.

That just goes to show you that no matter how good the fishing has been in a particular place, at any time you can crash and burn just like I did on Monday. AND, after I left, Yuki didn't catch anything although that has been SOP when we fish together.

With my mystic shattered and my reputation in shambles I'll just have to regroup for another day. Maybe the four of us could try again sometime in the future. Maybe at Lake Amador, maybe some other lake. Maybe, sometime when the fish are biting.

Till the next adventure.

Mark