In Search Of The Tree Stump

As I said yesterday morning, I went fishing. Left the house around 8:45 and got to Lake Camanche right about 9:30.

It rained as I left, rained most of the way down the hill. It did stop for a moment so I could take the rainbow shots below.   

Far away

Zoom it into 10x

It was raining when I got to check-in so I drove over to the marina for a cup of coffee in case I had to sit a and wait out the rain. I had driven by Starbucks, but the parking lot was full. That time of the morning all the "let's get together and jam up the parking lot" crowd was there getting together and jamming up the parking lot. Granted it's a small lot, maybe 20 cars, but with two other businesses in the same small strip mall, finding a parking spot (even out on the street) is almost impossible most days.

It was raining when I left the marina, drove out to my usual spot at the Day Use area and low and behold, the rain stopped.

I have, in the back seat of the truck, tackle box #3. It has a plethora (I love that word) of lures I've collected over the years. I dragged it out with my usual tackle box and slid (literally) down to the edge of the lake. The ground at the lake is mostly clay. Need I say more?

Where I placed my red Coleman camping chair last week was now underwater. That's a good sign, yes? So I set up on the next level up. You have to measure the lake side in levels. It's like the sides of the mountains where they plant rice fields on different levels. Got the picture?

OK, one rod out with rainbow Power Bait and a snap swivel on the other rod.

First lure out of tackle box #3 is one called Tasmanian Devil. I had two colors (a brown fish looking color and a bright orange/yellow/chartreuse one.  

Did I mention it was a bit windy?

Windy

Nothing on the Tasmanian Devil so I pulled out a handful of Thomas Bouyant Lake Lures and started swinging them. Nothing there either. Now I'm not sure if it was because the lake was "kind of" dirty. I say that because the lake is usually pretty clear or maybe all the rain and run-off pushed them out, away from shore.

Then I tried a handful of different colored lures I got from Howard Hart up in Spokane. No luck with them either. OK, at that point I broke down and put on the pink Kastmaster. 

Earlier in the day I wandered out to one of the local forums and this guy below caught this 7.5 pound Rainbow off the shore (although he didn't say what shore) on a pink Kastmaster. Probably my tree stump. Good for him, bad for me.

7.5 Pounds

I wasn't having any luck with any lures so I PB'd up both rods, one with garlic and the other, I opened a new jar of PB in hopes of saving the day.

The longer I sat, the windier it got and when the clouds started rolling in again, called it a day. We were still expecting more rain yesterday which came just as I was leaving. Talk about sneaking a little fishing in between storms.

It only got worse.

By the time I got home, it was raining hard and continued the rest of the day. We're expecting more starting shortly.

I've got to go fill the wood box.