The $87.00 Rainbow Trout

There was a lull in the storms this morning which gave me a chance to get out of the house and wet a line. I had several options and this is how they broke out. Keep in mind it's been raining off and on for days.

Lake Pardee: I haven't been out there this year, but on opening day this guy caught this Rainbow. Turned out to be 16 1/2 pound lake record. Here is my take, if you look at the tail, I doubt it put up much of a fight and since they stocked right before opening day February 14th, this sucker must have slipped into the stock truck.  

16 1/2 Pound Rainbow

Since it was supposed to rain by Noon and I didn't have a handle on this lake, I passed. 

Lake Amador: I wanted to fish this with the Float Tube Cumberland, but with rain due shortly, passed on this one until another time.

New Melones: Too far to drive for a short time to fish. Passed here to, so that left Lake Camanche. As you know, I've not had much luck at Camanche the last six times I've been there so with no expectations I wandered out there after a coffee stop at Starbucks in town. 

At check-in I asked if anyone has been catching anything from the shore. I know the guys in the boats have been doing fairly well. They said a few here and there on garlic Power  Bait.

This is what the lake looked like when I got there.

Across

Across and to the right

To the left, up the shore

The biggest part of the ground at the North Shore Day Use Area is made up of rocks and clay. With all the recent rain, you might as well have been walking on ice. I found a spot (actually I was the only one out there) by the double buoys and carefully threaded my way down to the edge only slipping four or five times. Nothing serious though. Did have a lot of clay caked on my sneakers.

I started with two rods with rainbow Power Bait. Half hour later changed them to one with RPB & garlic and the other with RPB & sweet corn.

An hour later I pulled in the one with sweet corn and worked all my colors of Kastmasters and the 1/4 oz. Magic Bullet. Nothing.

Put both back out with just plain rainbow PB, but one out about 15 feet and the other as far as I could toss it. It actually landed even with the buoy which is about 100 feet out.

Finally at 11:15 the one at 15 feet got a hit. I was so shocked that I slipped getting up from the red Coleman camping chair and almost fell into the lake.

I put it on the stringer long enough for a quick photo and then back into the lake. Seems a little extreme, but once it got into the water it was gone in a shot. No harm, no foul.  

Pound +

Which brings me to the title of this post. I've been skunked the last 6 times out here and at $12.50 for the entry fee, it comes to a little over $87.00 for this one fish. It's unfortunate that we have to pay to fish, but all the downcountry lakes are run by companies like East Bay MUD (Camanche and Pardee) and Amador by Lake Amador Resort. New Melones is a Bureau of Reclamation lake and I can use my Geezer pass, but I use up $12.00 in gas getting there or we don't fish. 

A little before Noon the storm was looming on the horizon. It got windy, colder, and I could hear thunder in the distance so I decided at 12:30 to pack it up and head home. 

Here comes the storm

So the Camanche skunk is finally gone and I'll probably be meeting Yuki and Jim at New Melones on Wednesday, if it's not raining that is.