Wednesday, October 22, 2014

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.


8 comments:

  1. Mark, I was talking with a neighbor this morning about the drought in California. Your name and blog came up. I mentioned that you had pretty much kept us on top of how bad drought conditions were, plus, the fires! Anyway,sure feel for you folks..........................
    How deep is that lake anyway say in a normal water year?
    Good luck on bettering your personal best on Amandor.

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    Replies
    1. Don't know how deep, but there is still a lot of water in it. It's about 20 feet below full, but that makes a lot of the shoreline shallow.

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  2. Lets hope for a very wet winter/spring.
    In the second to last photo, is that a rise?

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    1. Not a rise, one of the little ducks that are all over the lake.

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  3. Eh, sorry no fish, but at least you didn't get the donkey behind door number 2. I always wondered if the people really got to take the donkey home...and if they didn't, what if they really wanted it.

    Kill 'em on Amador tomorrow!

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    Replies
    1. Don't know the answer about the donkey, but we did get some furniture, and a little bit of cash. The big prize was a boat, motor, and trail plus $10,000 in cash. I got neither, the ex got it all.

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  4. That's too bad! I want to fish Amador too!

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  5. Well, at least you're getting out so good for you.

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