American River On Friday For Shad

The local weather guessers say it's supposed to be 105 on Friday. It's been my experience that 105 is probably a low estimate. We are under one of those high pressure umbrellas where it's hot everywhere.

Think I'll stay home and hug the air conditioner. Maybe next week.

I went out on the net and searched for a hot picture.

How's this?



Can't get much hotter than Brooklyn Decker.

This is more what I had in mind.



Or maybe this.





Good thing the ice maker works.

Be cool Y'all. If you're in Texas, think boat.

American River For Shad

I wanted to fish Rossmoor Bar because it's where I was introduced to Shad fishing with a little pink grub by, and I don't know if you remember these guys, Richie and his son Mark.

Yuki and I took off from the house at 8:00 and after a stop for coffee at the Local Bean Cafe in Rancho Murieta, got to the entrance of Rossmoor Bar only to find the road CLOSED.

We were redirected to the El Manto access. That was OK because I've fished there before and caught Shad, but not this time. So enjoy the pictures and I'll take up the adventure down below. 

El Manto Access

Yuki working the water

Across the river

Some local wildlife

So when things didn't pan out at El Manto we decided, after a couple chili/cheese dogs at The Weenie Dog (better know as Der Wienerschnitzel) headed over to the other side of the river at the Harrington access. I've fish here a lot too. If you've followed for any length of time you know I've done some Steelheading here. 

Yuki at Harrington Access

Down stream

Yours truly at El Manto. Instant replay.

A bird. I don't know why????

Wait, back to El Manto for another shot

 In the picture below is a shad that one of the other guys caught. It's the bloody thing on the stick.

Shad

 Still swinging away with the pink grub.

Oops, me again.

The other guys. Thought there were an awful lot of cars in the parking lot. This is only a couple of the approximately dozen or so guys fishing there.

Took a while, but they finally left and we could get to the "premium" spot.

Most guys that fish for Shad will tell you that either dawn or dusk are the best time to fish for Shad. I've caught them during the day, but to be there at dawn I would have to get up at 3:00 am and leave right away. Sunrise is 5:45 am. Not going to happen. To be there at sunset (8:21 pm) getting home would be way past my bed time. Not going to happen either.

So I guess we just take our chances. Sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn't. The Shad run only lasts a couple weeks and "they" (who ever "they" are) are saying this is the peak so we'll give it one more shot next Friday. We're bringing waders so we can stand in the river too. Maybe that's the key to catching them.

You guessed right, we didn't catch anything. Maybe next time. 

Skunkus Interuptus

I had two options this morning. Stay at home and pull weeds (all the painting is currently done) or take a drive out to the Trout Pond and see if there were any fish out there.

Yuki had prior plans, so I went it alone.

I got to the pond about 8:00 am. Girl at check-in said they hadn't planted since the 10th. That's almost two weeks. Not a good outlook.

Since there was not a soul to be found out there, I had my pick of places. I opted for the spot I fished the very first time I fished the pond. I was looking for some good mojo.

This is the original spot

No one to the right.

No one to the left.

No one even in the "combat" fishing spot.

I set up two rods with some old PB just to see if it had any oomph left.

I let it soak for an hour and then changed to some from a newly opened jar. Sometimes that is all it takes.  

While I was waiting for that first Trout Pond bite, I took a picture of the tree across the pond. If you make it big, you can see, just to the right of center a white crane roosting in the tree. Actually there were several roosting, but that is the only one you can see because the Turkey Vultures also roost in that tree. In fact, there was quite a bit of squabbling going on. Probably why the cranes were all hiding. I think it was a territorial thing. 

Roosting Cranes

At the end of the second hour without a bite, I pulled in one rod and started throwing Kastmasters in hopes of some action.

I started with pink, then silver/green, then silver/blue, then holographic followed up by pink again. Didn't interested anything that looked vaguely like a trout. Maybe that's why there wasn't anybody out there.

At the end of hour three, I called it a day. I figured I could sit there all day or head back home and do something constructive like pull weeds.

The girl at check-in said that they did stock the South Shore ramp last week, which was just down the street, but the last time I was there it took me three weeks to get all the mud out of my wheel wells and with the water in the lake rising, I didn't feel comfortable going down there.

Back to the title of this post and back to being skunked once again. And the skunk goes on........... 

Thursday Yuki and I are going to take a drive down to the American and dabble in a little Shad fishing if the water level in the river is adequate.

Stay tuned.

OMG This Is Pathetic

I was just updating my fishing log. I hadn't updated since the last trip to New Melones on 3/3/2016.

Date	# Fish	Where	What	From Where
1/7/16	2	Lake Camanche	Rainbow	Shore
1/8/16	2	Lake Camanche	Rainbow	Shore
1/28/16	1	Lake Camanche	Rainbow	Shore
2/7/16	0	Lake Camanche		Shore
2/13/16	0	Trout Pond		Float Tube Cumberland
2/17/16	0	North Shore and Trout Pond		Shore
2/29/16	0	Lake Amador		Shore
3/3/16	0	New Melones		Shore
3/11/16	0	North Shore and Trout Pond		Shore
3/25/16	0	Middle Bar Bridge		Bridge
3/29/16	0	North Shore and Trout Pond		Shore
4/7/16	0	Ice House		Shore
4/23/16	0	South Shore and Trout Pond		Shore
5/3/16	0	Bear River Reservoir		Shore
5/14/16	1	Rainbow Pool	Rainbow	Shore

Two things to notice here.

First, the skunk lasted (2/7/2016 to 5/3/2016) 11 trips which tied my worst year ever (2009).

Second, I've only caught 6 fish this year and it's almost half gone.

I think I'm going to be sick.

Here We Go Again

Six degrees of separation one more time.

You remember Yuki with Norman Maclean.

You remember Yuki with Mohammad Ali

Well, here's another. The guy on the right is an old, old friend I haven't seen in probably 35 years. Get this, he lives in the same town (Jackson, CA) that I do and I didn't even know. We've probably walked past each other in the store. On top of that, his wife works at the casino and she and my wife know each other. The connection that was missed was my wife doesn't have my last name and I've never talked to her about Joe. 

So, Joe and I are catching up on the phone this morning and he mentions that he knows Clint Eastwood.

There you have it, three degrees of separation.

Maybe I'll get to fishing next week. It's snowing in the high country again.

Wanted to ask all you guys and gals out there if you've ever heard of Top Cop 4 Vets? If not, go here and look at the website. It's a worthy cause. 

The Trout Pond Today

Promised you a report from the Trout Pond, but life, the Amgen tour leg 5 (professional racing bikes), and gophers got in the way.

More later.

I Wanted To fish Where Oprah Fished, Yosemite Part 3

I was going to do this in 4 parts, but Yuki & I are heading out to the Trout Pond tomorrow for probably the last trout fishing there until Fall.

Here is a couple more of those huge granite outcroppings that are everywhere in Yosemite. 

I didn't go to the usual places like Half Dome, Glacier Point, or Bridal Veil Falls because we'd had enough traffic for one day. Besides, if you haven't seen a commercial, a picture, or something on the web just go out and do a search. They usually show all those.

I forgot to mention the idiots that are in the park. We came upon one of those parking places where there are a million cars parked and people are walking across the street in droves. In fact, there were two young ladies crossing the road and were so oblivious to what was going on that I beeped the horn at them not once, but three times and when they finally realized that there were cars on the road, looked at us as if it was our fault we were on the road. Idiots.   

Mike (Troutrageous!) The previous pictures were for you. I hope you enjoyed.

Now, it's Sunday and I still wanted to do something else as long as we were in the area anyway so I asked the young lady at check-in about places we could go. She suggested Columbia State Park (we were just there), Jamestown Rail Museum (we were just there), Moccasin Creek fish hatchery (I asked if I could fish there? She said no). OK we'll pass on that one. Then she suggested Rainbow Pool and Rainbow Falls at the green bridge.  Can you fish there? She said they stock once in a while.

Dave (Bay Area Backwaters) you might know this place. It's on the South Fork of the Tuolumne River. We passed over this place on the way to the park on Saturday and it peaked my attention on just a drive by. Away we went.

When we got to the parking lot, there were several people walking around with fly rods and spinning rods in hand going here and there. I asked if anyone caught any fish and was told that one guy had caught three.

We walked down to the river and it looked very fishy. The first picture is actually the pool above the Falls, but very easy access for a Geezer. They provided cement steps and everything. We went back to the truck and got my gear. I chose to bring "3" along instead of a big river rod hoping that the Merced would not be as blown out as it was. Also I've never caught a trout on "3" that I can remember, but if I've forgotten, let me know. I'm old after all and have those "Senior Moments". They seem to be coming more often as the days go by.      

Pool above the falls

Once geared up, I put on the old faithful Sloan's Paralyzer and tried for a little top water action. It didn't even get any interest.
 

Look closely, your eyesight is going.

Follow the fly and pay attention

Since I couldn't get any top water action, I switched to the nymph below.

Caddis Pupa Brown size 10

No indicator, just the nymph. It only took three casts and there it was. The 12" (a guess) Rainbow that broke the 9 trip skunk and the first fish (if I remember correctly) on "3". Nice fight too.

Hot Dog a fish.

Made me feel better taking two pictures of the same fish. Made it seem like two fish. It's been so long..........

Same fish

As you can see in the photo below, there is a lot of water coming into the pool. Lady at the resort said it's a swimming hole in the summer as is the pool below.
.

Incoming

Same place

Further upstream

The pool from the bridge

I didn't mention, but the road to the pool is one way in and one way out. As we climbed out we took a picture of pool from a distance.

Fished under this bridge

The river further down the canyon.

The "green" bridge

Just some flowers

On the way back, there is a vista point where you can photo this huge canyon. This is not Yosemite, but scenery on the way to or the way back from the park.

From the vista point.

Well, that's it. Hope you enjoyed the trip. Our next adventure is at Collins Lake East of Marysville which is North of Sacramento. We are staying 2 nights and have a spot right on the lake (supposed to be). Juan Lopez from Breaking the Bank blog said he might pop in. He likes to fish Collins.

Mean while a little fishing locally and a lot of painting in the house along with mucho weed pulling. I made the mistake of letting the California Poppies go wild and they are literally all over the hill behind the house.

See you tomorrow for the Trout Pond report.    

I Wanted To fish Where Oprah Fished, Yosemite Part 2

OK, I know this is a fishing blog and I will get  to the fishing, but you'll just have to wait until then.

Once we got into the park, it was clear sailing down to Yosemite Valley. We passed a couple places for photo's and I was actually able to find a place to park and took the following two shots.

Both are the Merced River, but no fishing here.

Apparently dry in the Summer.

No fishing here either.

There was just no way I was going to stand in that river. I have enough trouble standing on flat ground.

Sorry about the focus in the next picture, amateur camera operator

 Same waterfall with professional photographer.

Granite outcropping. Kind of hard to get good pictures when you're holding up traffic. I think there is a waterfall in there too. Hard to tell.

 Same outcropping from a distance.

 Another waterfall. There are many this year.

The Merced River again. No fishing here.

One of the many beautiful valley's surrounded by granite mountains. We were able to get a parking spot to take this one and the one below.

There wasn't a clear shot of the outcropping below, but notice the dead trees.

The devastation of the forest by wildfires over the last three years or so is a real eye opener both inside the park and outside the park.

As I mentioned above, once inside the park it was clear sailing all the way down (if I remember correctly about 20 miles) to the valley until you hit the one way street. Then the driving door slammed shut and we were once again bumper to bumper with no way to turn around.

THEN, it went from two lanes to one lane for cars and one lane for buses only with some Park Ranger standing in the middle of the road (won't that slow down traffic) yelling at all the cars to stay in the left lane as if we couldn't read the sign. But there are always those that apparently can't read. Fine for driving in the bus lane - $175.00.

Finally after 15 hours of driving in the valley, OK maybe only one, but it seemed like 15, we got to a point where we could turn around and head back. No sense in fighting that traffic any longer. Found out later that Saturday is the worst day to visit the park. No Duh!

Come back tomorrow for "I Wanted To fish Where Oprah Fished, Yosemite Part 3" and I promise fishing.

See you then. 

Yes, I'm going to drag this out as long as I can.

I Wanted To fish Where Oprah Fished, Yosemite Part 1

If any of you watched that episode (actually 2 episodes) of Oprah where she and her BFF Gayle went camping at Yosemite, then you watched her fly fishing in the Merced River. If not, go out on the net and you can find about 5 seconds of them standing in the river.

We headed out of the house Friday morning about 11:15 and rambled down Highway 49 toward the park. Google said an hour and a half at about 65 miles. You have to go on Highway 49, then Highway 108, then Highway 120, oh never mind.  

We stopped at the vista point over looking New Melones Reservoir for lunch. I took a couple shots just to record the pathetic level of the water, STILL. Since we're about done with rain this season, what you see is what you get.

We fished here many times

Some are still trying. 

Got Yosemite Pines RV park and set up the Clipper. Only complaint I had is that the spaces are too close together.

Camping

This little gazebo in the center was the focal point of Saturday Night. Music from all era's, dancing (not us), and generally making a ruckus.

Center of the camping spots

The white flowers were in the drainage ditch behind the trailer. Not sure what kind, but they look like some kind of Lupin. Just thought they were cool.

Saturday morning we got up, ate breakfast (French Toast and sausage) then hit the road for the park.

When we hit this traffic jam we were still about two miles from the park entrance. Took us almost and hour and a half to go those last two miles.

Saturday traffic

I thought this sign was cute.

Reduce to what?

Once we got inside the park we headed toward Yosemite Valley. By the way, the cost for a car to enter the park is $30.00. Fortunately I have the "Geezer" pass and we zipped right through the gate. Actually we did have to stop and show the pass to the Ranger in the booth. We got in free though.

A lot of places to stop and take pictures. Did I mention that it was insanely crowded? Every, and I mean every pull-off was packed. We shot photo's as we drove by. It was crazy.

This is the first encounter with the Merced River, I think. In any event, no fishing here, besides where would you park? 

 You can see in the picture below just how fast the water was moving.

No fishing here either.

I have a lot more photo's as requested by Mike (Troutrageous!) so tune back in tomorrow for "I Wanted To fish Where Oprah Fished, Yosemite Part 2".

See you then.