I’ve had this head full since Christmas Eve. It started with
a small sore throat and progressed into a good snoot full as of yesterday.
Today it’s waning and by Friday I should be back to my usual lovable self.
Since I can’t go fishing and it’s too cold to even go
outdoors, I thought I’d do a quick recap of the year.
As fishing goes, it was pretty shitty until April 7th.
That was the day Yuki and I did the 7+ pound Cutbows at Lake Amador. Then it
wasn’t until May that things picked up.
Oh, I got a couple here and a couple there, but that was
until May 23rd. That was the day I caught my second Mackinaw (first
one was years ago at Lake Tahoe). You know the one with the weird jaw, up at
Silver Lake. It was one of eleven fish
caught that day.
Weird Jaw |
Mackinaw |
Then on the 29th, it was another eleven fish day at Silver Lake.
Remember they were dumping the hatchery and the catching was easy.
Then on June 20th while we were up at Hope Valley
Campground in the Clipper and we went to a new lake called Burnside Lake. It was
only a one fish day, but the discovery of the lake was the point.
Burnside Lake |
In July the drought really kicked in and I quit fishing the
small creeks. In fact, June 25th was the last day I caught anything
on a small creek. I did take a run up to Silver Fork after I found out that
Silver Lake had to continue releasing water into the creek, but came home empty
handed.
It was quiet until September 5th when I found out
that the EID had planted 1400 pounds in Silver Lake on August 28th. That was
also the day that I reclassified the Common Merganser and start calling it
TROUT THIEF. Twice, if you’ll recall,
they tried to steal the fish off the stringer.
Common Trout Thief |
Between September 5th and November 10th
where Yuki and I scored at New Melones, it was one fish here and another there.
Actually it was only 3 total for that whole period. The drought was wreaking
havoc on every lake and stream in the area. Even the “fish to extinction” crowd
was nowhere to be found. To this day I think they’re somewhere over in Nevada
trying to kill fish there, which is just fine with me.
Since then I’ve had one good day at Lake Camanche, but as
Porky Pig would say, “That’s, that’s, that’s all folks. 2014 is the worst year for catching since I've started keeping a journal back in 2008. I hope 2015 will be better.
Since my next post will be after the New Year, I want to
wish all of you a Happy New Year and I’ll see you next year.
Mark