Thursday, December 22, 2016

You Couldn't Ask For A Nicer Day At The Lake

My wife was planning to go to Sacramento to do some Christmas shopping so I did the only logical thing, I went fishing.

When I usually go, I leave when she does for work, but today her being off, by the time I got ready to leave, it was the same time. Go figure.

I want to note that it was warmer this morning compared to Tuesday. Tuesday it was 28 when I left. Today it was 29. When I got to the lake on Tuesday it was 37, today 39. We're definitely in a warming trend. Not. We have a storm coming in tomorrow that should (according to the weather guessers) drop the snow levels to about 3000 ft. As much as 2 feet in the passes. 

OK, so let's talk about the lake. Got there at about 9:00 after picking up coffee at Starbucks. Two rods out, one with rainbow Power Bait and the other with a orange/green mice tail, at about 50 feet. Reports say the fish are cruising the shallows.

Parked here
I parked (since I had the whole peninsula to myself) a little further toward open water.

Where I was Tuesday.
Where I usually park.
How could you ask for a nicer day. The sun was out, it was pushing the mid-40's, and nary a breeze. So nice, in fact, that I was down to a long sleeved tee shirt buy 10:00.  Back in my hoodie by 11:00. Wind came up. Back in the tee by noon. Wind went away. 

I worked the peninsula with Kastmasters in the following order. Pink, Firetiger, orange/silver, German Brown, and for the finale, the Magic Bullet (replaced after the last one was lost) in green/yellow. There wasn't a fish to be found.

Somewhere around 11:30 I reeled in one line and restrung it with about 3 feet of leader and slung that sucker out as far as I could. It barely hit the water and "fish on". Goes to show you just can't trust the reports.

There were a couple gentlemen across the peninsula (having arrived a half hour or so earlier) so I asked if they wanted what ever was on the end of the line and they said sure. New friends made.

Since they were keeping the fish, out came the handy dandy Berkeley Digital Scale and the little gem in the picture below weighted in at 2 pounds 5 ounces. Had they not been there, I would have snapped a shot and put it back. This one was planted this year unlike the one Tuesday that was a holdover. How do I know it was a holdover? Copepod slime.

No skunk today
On a side note, I gave the guys a card for this blog and one asked if I wrote for the local paper. He recognized the name. Small county this Amador is.

So once again the one fish a day rut continues, but with fish this size, who cares.........

Next Tuesday the Float Tube Cumberland will be launched in the Trout Pond for the final trip this year.

One more thing before I go. There was a young man, his wife, and small child in a boat cruising by and none of them had PFD's on. Stupid, stupid, stupid. 

Stay tuned.

4 comments:

  1. I agree with you, Mark. When your "One a days" are that size, just smile and carry on. Happy Holidays from this Ol' Geezer to you and yours..........

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  2. The title is appropriate.
    And no PFD's is super stupid.

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  3. Mark
    What is the smallest size trout that is stocked in the lake? That two pounder would be a holdover on most the tailraces I fish here. Looking forward to the tube trip----Never ever get on the water without PFD---

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    1. Hi Bill. Most of the time they stock (in the Winter of course) 1 to 3 pounders, sometimes larger. A couple years back, you remember Yuki and I caught those 9+ pounders, they were both planted that year. No Copepod slime on them. This is why I keep fishing Camanche.

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