What Is Wrong With Me????

The plan for today was to go to a part of New Melones Reservoir called Tuttletown. Got to  the lake at 0900, 30 minutes later than I usually hit one of the lakes because this one is about 20 miles further than most. I wanted to use a new rig I had in mind because of the rock problem at the Glory Hole area I fished back at the beginning of the month. This is a left and right look at where I took up residence at the lake. Parking was only 20 feet behind me. 

To the left

To the right

Once I got settled and was ready to put out my rods, you can see in the right hand shot that there are some rocks, but not many. Straight out from where I was there were no rocks at all. The problem I ran into was weeds, so to circumvent that all I had to do was lengthen the leader. I'll save my plan for the next time I go to Glory Hole. While I was sitting and waiting for fish to hit, I took the next two pictures of some islands across the lake. 

Across the lake to the right

Across the lake to the left

I got one good hit, but lost it and then I watched all the surface action going on in front of me. The fish seemed to be working something in the film, but I couldn't see anything in the air so what ever it was, it was in the water. Around 11:00 I started noticing little, and I mean little, bugs here and there. As the hour went by, more little bugs appeared.

Then it hit me, I was in the middle of a hatch of some kind. I managed to snag one out of the air and guess what, Blue Winged Olive. Which brings me to the title of this post, did I have my fly rod and my new size 18 & 20 Baetis fly set? Not on your life. So here I sat with trout sipping something (probably nymphs and emergers, remember I'm an Entomologist in training) the film not more that 5 feet off shore at times and me with my fingers stuck somewhere (I won't go there). I could have dangled a fly in the water and not even had the leader touch the water they were so close.

One would think, since this happened once before and it wasn't all that long ago, that the bonehead that 's writing this blog post would have had his fly rod with him.

At least some of the fishermen (other than yours truly) that were out there today caught a fish or two. Two guys parked next to me and one put out his rod with a single hook, two small split shot, and chartreuse Power Bait maybe 15 feet from shore. In less than two minutes he hooked up and landed a nice Rainbow. Now here's the problem, he was right next to me and his name was Mark. I'm sure that the Rainbow was aiming for my line and got his by mistake just because of the similarity of the name. What do you think? Just kidding, Mark and his friend (and I apologize for not getting his name) were really nice guys and since Mark had a bad catching year in 2011, I glad he was starting out 2012 in a positive way.

As I was leaving, I snapped this picture of the view in front of where I was parked.   

Right in front of the truck

To sum up this post, I've got to get back out there with my fly rod that is, as long as the wind is not blowing. When there was the least amount of wind, there was no more surface feeding.

Till the next time this bonehead blogger does something to dazzle you.

Mark