You've Got To Be Flexible

Thank you all for the kind words about Dave. 

Today we (Bob and I) were supposed to do the "gravel the main road" thing. Two transfers of Class1 road gravel had been ordered for delivery starting this morning. A transfer is two trailers totaling about 24 tons of gravel. Late last night, we got an email from our "money" guy (a neighbor who collected the donations from all the other neighbors for road maintenance) saying the truckers rig was in the shop and wouldn't be available until later in the week. So I did what any good guy would do and that's go fishing. You just have to flexible about these things.

Howard at WDSTK 3 Handcrafted Lures sent me a half dozen of his lures to try in the lakes here locally. Last Friday when I was out at New Melones I stopped and picked up a box of treble hooks at Glory Hole Sports. I got them all attached and wanted to give the lures a shot at Lake Camanche this morning.

WDSTK 3 Handcrafted Lures

I pulled out of the house at 0715 and hit the North Shore Day Use Area at just before 0815. At most of the lakes in the area the water level is going down. Not so at Lake Camanche. Much to my surprise, the peninsula I parked on last week was now under water. That's OK, just be flexible.  

Used to be dry out there

I parked in the actual parking lot and found a spot that looked like it might have some deeper water. 

First time parking in the lot

I put out two rods with Power Bait and at about 150 feet (an estimate of distance) the water didn't seem to be much more than about 2 feet deep. I held off using the lures because of the depth.

The first fishing spot

Then I moved to the very point of the little peninsula I was on and set out two rods again. Once again the water at 150 feet (still an estimate) out was barely 3 feet deep (this is an estimate too). A half hour into the day and my first hit came on the rod with rainbow Power Bait and a dab of Pro-Cure garlic scent. This nice little 12 incher was attached to the end of the line.  

First fish of the day

For the next hour or so, I sat and sat and sat. I even closed my eyes and tried to take a nap. Fishing was pretty boring. My next thought (and this is where my wife says I get into trouble, thinking that is) was to go over to the south shore and fish the trout pond. I know the water is deeper right off shore and maybe the newness of the lures would attract a fish or two.

See, my wife is right. I thought I should go over there and there wasn't anything that looked like a fish in the pond. Oh, there were guys out in float tubes catching a fish here and there and from what I could glean from their conversations they were using Power Worms on fly rods. That is just not right.

I did give the lures about 10 casts each, but with the lack of fish anywhere in the area, It wasn't a very good test. Next time maybe I'll try them at Lake Amador.  I didn't get any hits on Power Bait either.

We're expecting the rain and snow to start tonight and go through tomorrow and into Thursday so I might try and get out again on Friday unless the gravel comes. I'll let you know.

Mark