In Between Storms

Plan A was to go out to Lake Camanche North Shore on Saturday. A good plan except for one thing. The weather Guessers who said it was going to be nice on Saturday were, once again, wrong.

It rained. I mean it really rained. In fact it rained so much that Folsom Lake (the lake covers 976,000 acre feet of water), between Saturday and Monday, the water level rose 15 feet. Granted Folsom Lake is fed by the three arms of the American River, but none the less, that is a lot of water.

Plan B was to go on Sunday then. The wife was going to Sacramento to lunch and shop with a girl friend that she's known since she was about 19. First thing in the morning we have coffee and catch-up on the news. I got up to go get ready to leave and (I don't know how) I pulled a muscle in my lower back. It hurt so bad that I couldn't even stand up straight. I spent the day being one with the heating pad and by days end, still couldn't stand up straight. If you've never experienced this, I highly recommend you don't. Even drugs didn't take the edge off.

Plan C would have been to go on Monday, but it was my wife's birthday and I thought it rude to "I'm going fishing honey, see you later" go.

Which brings us to today. The back is considerably better (three days of drugs will do that for you) so I packed up and headed for the lake when the wife left for work. I didn't have any exact plans because I didn't know how much water came into Lake Camanche or where I would need to be to fish. We also had this little problem of another storm coming in this afternoon that is supposed to last until Friday afternoon.

Got out to the lake and the guy at check-in said they planted last Friday. OK, good. Got to the North Shore Day Use area and the spot I've been fishing in was under about two feet of water. I picked another spot on that same peninsula and put out one rod with rainbow Power Bait. I put the second rod out with two green Power Eggs and one orange Power Egg on the same hook.

I waited a half hour and then reeled in the Power Egg rod so I could start throwing the pink Kastmaster on my new little Okuma. Just about 9:25 the rod with power Bait started doing the "fish on" bounce.

I estimate this one to be between 17" and 20". Just a quick photo and back for another day.         

Bigger than 17" for sure.

When I got to the lake, it was a bit chilly, but doable.

Not to bad weather wise.

Around 11:00 the wind picked up and the temperature dropped like a rock. So cold that I went to the truck and put on my parka and gloves (like a Boy Scout, be prepared). The lake changed from blue to gray very quickly. A good indication that the rain was on it's way.

Really cold and windy.

Being the die hard fisherman I am, I continued to fish. I worked one of the lures called "Magic Bullet". On one retrieve it stopped dead. I thought it was finally the first fish on the little Okuma. Nope, more like a bush or a rock in the water. There went a $4.00 lure.

Tied on a new snap swivel and started working the pink Kastmaster. On one cast I got this nice little "ping". Ever had one? It's when your lure sails 400 feet or so out into the lake, but isn't attached to your rod anymore. Yeh, that "ping". There went a $6.00 lure, but hey, you have to expect that kind of thing to occur when you're throwing a 1/4 oz. lure with 2# test line. As they say, "dodo occurs".

That was the so called "straw that broke the camel's back". I was cold, the wind was blowing, and I'd just lost 10 bucks worth of lures. I called it a day.

Rain probably the rest of the week so I don't think I'll be out again until next week.  

Stay tuned.