That's About It For Upcountry

I had three options this morning. One, stay home and read. Two, Stay home and watch the idiot box. Three, go fishing.

I picked door number three. When I was on "Let's Make A Deal" many years ago, I picked door number 2 that was the wrong one. Number one was the wrong one too. Get my logic? Good.

Got to Silver Lake at 8:00 and instead of heading to my usual spot, just parked in the boat trailer lot (there weren't a lot of boat trailers there) and walked out to the peninsula. Thought I'd try some place different. 

I had talked to a friend on Monday and he said that he and his family went to Bear River over the weekend and got skunked, that's why I picked Silver Lake.

Different Spot

Back Toward The Parking Lot

First line in the water and I realized the water wasn't all that deep even as far as I could case. When I say "not that deep" I mean maybe 18". Yes I tried all areas in between me and as far as I could cast and 18" was about as good as it got. I was using a short 12" leader on my slip sinker rig. 

But I left them out there for an hour or so just in case there was lone Rainbow cruising around in 18" of water. There wasn't. 

I know the picture below is familiar, but the reason I took it was that it rained on Monday night and there was supposed to be snow down to 7000 ft. Silver Lake is 7261 and you know that hill is a lot higher and guess what? No snow.

Familiar Peak

I'm not sure why I took this one across the lake. Guess I just got carried away with the picture snapping thing.

The Other Side

Then I moved to my old spot and the first cast out told me that this wasn't going to be any better. At a guess, I'd say maybe 24" to 36" deep at furthest cast and all areas in between.

When I got to the lake at 8:00, it was parka and gloves (32 in South Shore this morning) and by 9:30 it was long sleeved t-shirt time. By 11:00 I could have used a short sleeve tee.    

The drought has just sucked down Silver Lake, that's all there is to it. 

A little fall color on the Aspens

Another little grove of Aspens

Well, it turned out to be a fishless day. I suspect that any fish in his right mind wouldn't be crusing in 18" to 36" of water especially since there were a couple Cormorants flying around.

Calm as glass at Noon

I figured that if I didn't get a single hit in 4 hours, I probably wasn't going to get one at all, so I packed up and headed home. Interesting what a difference a year and a drought makes. Last year at this time we were knocking off limits almost on a daily basis. This year, NADA.

So I guess that will do it for upcountry fishing until next spring.

I heard a rumor they are supposed to start stocking Lake Amador (person best last year at 7 lb.10oz.) tomorrow. I guess I'll have to take a drive out there and make a stop at Camanche next week to see what's shaking. 

Stay tuned.