Hi everyone.
Sorry, but this is not like the "secret" lake that everybody knew about. This is something I was told in strict confidence and unfortunately I can't tell you about.
It is so off the wall that you wouldn't believe it if I told you, but I can't.
Let me say that I told someone about a place that was good, in strict confidence, and then it was passed along to everyone.
Can't do it this time, but thanks for trying.
Friday, May 29, 2015
Wednesday, May 27, 2015
Oh So Lonely
I have no idea what's going on in the fishing community. Two months of moving, a week of sitting with my foot up because it was smunched, and no one is saying anything out on the forums about fishing the upcountry lakes has left me fishing blind.
So, with little expectation I drove up the hill this morning. Made my usual stop at Cooks for coffee, but let me make a note here that what used to be a 10 minute trip from the old house to Cooks, now takes me 30 minutes. What used to be about 5 miles is now 27 miles. There seems to be some disadvantage to living in town. ALTHOUGH, come Winter, fishing downcountry is going to be a breeze.
That said, I made my first stop at Bear River Reservoir. Since nobody is talking, I didn't know what the water level was going to be and was pleasantly surprised to find quite a bit. It wasn't May levels, but more like late August/early September levels.
Still nursing a bum foot, I did find a nice, flat spot not too far from the water. See below.
There were two other groups fishing to my left and one to my right. The gentleman next to me said that fishing last week was good (of course), but today not so good.
Over the period of two hours I fished rainbow Power Bait plain, with sweet corn, with garlic, with anise, and a hand full of Kastmasters to no avail.
Then everybody left, leaving my by my lonesome.
Then a couple of young men dropped off the dam and started fishing right next to it. All during the time I was there people kept looking over the side of the dam and noting multiple fish swimming around. You know as well as I do that just because you can see them doesn't mean you can get them to bite.
One of the two young men started pulling in fish after fish. What the hell? So I hobbled over to see what he was using. I was stopped by some invisible force field fifty feet from where they were. I guess what they were using was a secret.
That said, they were kind enough to tell this poor, hobbling old fart what they were using, but swore me to secrecy. It was one of those cut your palm and slap palms with the other guy kind of blood oath thing, BUT NOW I KNOW.
So I went home skunked, but as Arnold said "I'll be back".
So, with little expectation I drove up the hill this morning. Made my usual stop at Cooks for coffee, but let me make a note here that what used to be a 10 minute trip from the old house to Cooks, now takes me 30 minutes. What used to be about 5 miles is now 27 miles. There seems to be some disadvantage to living in town. ALTHOUGH, come Winter, fishing downcountry is going to be a breeze.
That said, I made my first stop at Bear River Reservoir. Since nobody is talking, I didn't know what the water level was going to be and was pleasantly surprised to find quite a bit. It wasn't May levels, but more like late August/early September levels.
Still nursing a bum foot, I did find a nice, flat spot not too far from the water. See below.
Not so far from the water |
Those to my left |
The dam over yonder |
Then everybody left, leaving my by my lonesome.
Only the lonely remained. |
One of the two young men started pulling in fish after fish. What the hell? So I hobbled over to see what he was using. I was stopped by some invisible force field fifty feet from where they were. I guess what they were using was a secret.
That said, they were kind enough to tell this poor, hobbling old fart what they were using, but swore me to secrecy. It was one of those cut your palm and slap palms with the other guy kind of blood oath thing, BUT NOW I KNOW.
So I went home skunked, but as Arnold said "I'll be back".
Saturday, May 23, 2015
For All You Fly Fishers Out There
This is the article I wrote for the local paper yesterday.I think you'll find it interesting.
Who would have thunk it?
People used to play a game called
six degrees of separation. I don’t know, maybe they still do. According to
Wikipedia, six degrees of separation is the theory that everyone and everything
is six or fewer steps away, by way of introduction, from any other person in
the world, so that a chain of “a friend of a friend” statements can be made to
connect any two people in a maximum of six steps.
Being a fly fisherman, in part
anyway, I’ve read many books about fly fishing and was even inspired to write
my own book, after reading Seth Norman’s (A well-known author in the fly
fishing community) book “Meanderings of a Fly Fisherman.” If you’d like a copy
of my book Fishing, Ghosts, and my Mother’s Gray Hair, just email me at
markkautz1946@comcast.net.
The six degrees or in this case
three degrees put me three steps away from Seth Norman. Here is how it went.
Yuki met Seth Norman, got a signed copy of his book and gave it to me as a
present.
Thursday the 14th Yuki was going to
stop by the house and we were supposed to head up to Bear River Reservoir for a
day of fishing. Following the weather guessers, they said that rain and snow
down to 6000 ft. was the prediction for not only Thursday, but Friday as well.
My new truck is not equipped for
snow travel although it is a 4x4, it has those mud & snow radials that are
absolutely useless in snow, so the only logical thing to do was cancel and fish
another day.
Yuki, on the other hand, didn’t get
my email cancellation until after he got to the house. I was gone running
errands so Yuki decided to do a little river fishing on the Mokelumne off
Electra Road.
Later in the day I received an email
about his day.
He said the river reminded him of
the movie “A River Runs Through It.” Then he casually mentioned that he knew
Norman Maclean. Casually mentions that he knew Norman Maclean.
He said that Maclean just walked
into his office one day and after a while became friends. Yuki described
Maclean as a short, shy, modest professor.
Have you ever watched this movie?
This is THE BEST fly fishing movie ever made. It is the “Holy Grail” of fly
fishing movies. I have the CD and watch it at least three times a year. Yuki
casually mentions that he knew Norman Maclean.
Yuki was working at the University
of Chicago. Norman Maclean had just retired from a teaching job in the English
Department and shyly mentioned to Yuki that his novel was just published by the
University of Chicago Press. This was kind of odd because of two things. One,
he couldn’t find anyone to publish the book (little did they know) and two, the
University of Chicago Press only published academic and cooking books. Maclean
told Yuki that being a Professor in the English Department changed their policy
about publishing the book.
So, once again we have the six
degrees of separation and once again it’s only three degrees, from me, to Yuki,
to Norman Maclean.
Makes me wonder who else Yuki knows.
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