Look Out Browns, Here I Come

I was ready, I had my gear loaded, I had crickets, I had Kastmasters, I had Rapala's, I was out of the house a little before 8:00 am. I was going to the "secret" lake to fish for Browns. 

That was right up to the part where I hit the "Road Closed until 12/31/2014" sign. Well, that sucked. 

At that point I had to consider my options. I could go home or I could go somewhere else. I opted for door #2. I want to mention, at this point, that when I was on "Let's Make a Deal" (sometime back in the 60's) the big prize was behind door #2 and my Ex picked door #1 or maybe it was #3, but I do know she didn't pick door #2. It's been so long I can't remember. There's that memory thing again.  

Since Bear River Reservoir was close (from where I was it was even closer than home) I decided to give it one more shot. Yes, I am a glutton for punishment.   

I got there, got a good spot next to a gentleman named Mike from Oakley, California. For those of you not local (and some that are) Oakley is over toward San Francisco, in the Delta, out there by Antioch. Mike had been fishing since before dawn broke and was biteless. 

I set up and started my routine. One rod with rainbow Power Bait and my little Okuma with a cricket under a bobber. You know from past posts that Bear River has been less than stellar, in fact it's been down right crappy. So there I sat.

A while later (and it could have been ten minutes or an hour) I noticed the line on the rod with the Power Bait had gone straight. Obviously I wasn't paying much attention or had great expectations. As it turned out, there was a Rainbow on the line about 8 inches and pretty much pooped.

On top of that, the poor thing was only lip hooked so I figured that after all it had endured, I don't know how long, being hooked, I let it go. I did have to give it a little CPR to get it back, but it finally swam off. NO there was no lip locking that fish.

After that I tried Pro-Cure Sweet Corn, Garlic, Anise, and even a Kastmaster, but that little one was probably the only fish in the lake. I figured that was a good time to take some pictures. There wasn't anything else to do. Here you go.  

Along the shore

That rock pile was under water the last time

The water was above that black line the last time

The clouds are from Hurricane Marie

That's all folks. Unfortunately there won't be any Fall fishing for Browns at the "secret' lake this year unless I want to go the round about way to the lake, which is about 300 miles out of my way. I think not.

Next week I think I'll use a dart and my California map to see where I should go. That should be a good way to pick a lake, don't you think?