It Started Off So Nice

The plan was to run up to Bear River Reservoir and fish in a place that I haven't fished before. As you know I always stop for coffee at Cook's Station and if you read the comments from the last few posts, you saw the one from Howard over at Windknots & Tangled Lines where he said I always talk about the coffee, but never show the cup.

Well, Howard, here you are and I threw in the carton of night crawlers just because I'm a good guy.  

The cup, the carton, and Cook's.

I got to the lake at just before 0800 and drove across both dams looking for a place to fish. I saw a good one, but continued down the road just to see what else was there. I decided to go back to that place and set up there.

A new spot

Since I got a carton of crawlers and there are some BIG browns in this lake, I had plans to rig up one with a slip sinker rig, couple of white power eggs (for bouyancy) and a night crawler. The other with Power Bait and what ever bait scent would work today.

I figured the best way to start was to put out plain Power Bait on the first rod and then fiddle with the other tying on a #6 bait hook, egg, worms, etc. The Power Bait hit the water and before I could tie the hook on the other rod, I had the first fish on. It was an eleven inch stocker Rainbow.

I put the Power Bait back out and I barely got the eggs and crawler on the other rod and I had another hit on the Power Bait. That one I missed and with that rod out of the water I cast out the night crawler. Power Bait back on the first rod and again, it barely hit the water and I had another hit, but alas, I missed that one too.

The night crawler was drowning nicely and out went the Power Bait. It was now just before 0900 and once again I got a hit on the Power Bait, but this time I had him and another eleven inch stocker rainbow went on the stringer. At this point I decided to put both out with Power Bait. When I reeled in the worm all that was left was about a half inch of worm. Apparently the crawdad's got the rest.       

Then it went quiet. I was sitting in my red camping chair and marveling at the warm, but not hot or cold, temperature with a light breeze coming in from the south. While I had a little time I broke out the camera and shot some pictures since you haven't seen this side of Bear River before.

South

If you enlarge the picture below you can see the resort on the very left.

North

Northwest

In the picture below you can see the dam for Upper Bear River just to the right of center. Enlarge it and you can see it better.

East

Around 10:00 the wind started to pick up from the Northwest. Locally we call this the Delta Breeze, but in the Delta and around the Fairfield area it can get roaring up to 25 mph or more. I've seen it as high as almost 40 mph, but it's still called the Delta Breeze. New weather guessers are all trained to call it that because you call it the Delta Wind and man do you get phone calls.

The Delta Breeze does two things. One, it cools the valley (high today expected to be 85 in Sacramento) and it also blows so hard in the mountains that it makes it all but impossible to fish. It got to a point that even holding the rod I couldn't detect a bite so at 11:30 I called it a day.

Oh, I forgot the visit by the Department of Fish and Wildlife. I'm sitting there quietly taking in the wonderful conditions and I hear "Hi, catch anything?" Not looking over my shoulder I just responded that I caught two and missed two. Then I found out who they were and of course your first reaction is "Do I have my fishing license" "Have I caught too many fish, even though you know you only have two on the stringer" and panic sets in.

As it turned out, it was two very nice ladies from DFW doing a fish survey which I gladly participated in. They measured my two (that's how I know they were both eleven inches) and then asked me a few questions. Then the "It's a small world" thing came in. One of them is a reader of Sport Fishing Weekly and has read my articles. So I gave them each a card to this blog and they said they'd stop by. They said their goodbys and went off to talk to the next people down the way.

I didn't bring any ice to put the fish in for Bob, so rather than dash for the nearest store (many miles away) I gave the two away. Sorry Bob. 

Back on July 13th Howard (Windknots &Tangled Lines ) did a post about turning 64. Well in the coming month, somewhere around the 8th, I'm going to put it all out there too. Over the weekend I went through some old pictures and I think you'll get a laugh.

But before that happens, I will be fishing again, so stay tuned.     

Mark