And Then There Was..........Something New

Before I get started, I wanted to reply to Mike's (Troutrageous!) question about the lakes out here. We've had so much rain this year that all the lakes are within 15% of being full. They're not full because they are holding space for when the massive snow pack in the Sierra melts.

Then I wanted to pass along a little statistic I saw this morning. The US flood fatalities graph I saw went something like this:

66% died while driving.
7%   died while walking
5%   died while playing (what I have no idea)
12% died by falling in
7%   fell into an other category
and finally
3%  died while fishing.

So, I've come to the conclusion that if you have a flood, fish. You'll be the safest you can be.

Now on to fishing.  

Yuki and I decided to try someplace besides North Shore Lake Camanche since it's been rather fishless out there lately.

We met at Lake Amador out on the point where we've fished many, many times.

It looks a lot fuller that it has in a loooong time.

Toward the dam.

Across the lake from the point

Across to the left.

Over to the left

Out toward the spillway

Now if you've followed this blog for any length of time, you're pretty familiar with Lake Amador. Used to be they grew those HUGE Cutbows (or Donaldson Trout),

Unfortunately their hatchery fell to the drought just like the hatchery that supplies the Highway 88 corridor. So they started getting trout from the Mt. Lassen Trout Hatchery just like Lake Camanche does.  

The only difference between Lake Amador trout and Lake Camanche trout is that Amador gets trout called Lightning Trout. Ever seen one? You are in for a treat.

Put out one rod with rainbow Power Bait and started throwing Kastmasters. Nothing on the Kastmasters, but a nice bump on the Power Bait. To our surprise, it was a Lightning Trout. First one I've ever caught. I heard they were in Lake Amador, but had no idea they looked like this.

First fish of the day. 

One of our new friends next to us was nice enough to come over and net the fish. There was a drop of about 2 feet from were we were to the water and you needed a longer handle.

So here is what a Lightning Trout looks like. Nice huh! Double click on it and it looks really big.

About a pound and a half.

Then Yuki got his first Lightning Trout. His a little bit bigger than mine about two pounds. 

Yuki's first.

We got a couple bumps each that we missed, then we sat for the rest of the day. I decided to call it about 1:00, go home and watch the Giants lose to the Dodgers. Should have stayed and fished. I packed up enough gear to make one trip up to the truck, but left my rods in the water. 

Back down to the lake for the rods and my tackle box and one rod started bouncing. Actually it was a little bounce. Well, maybe a rod tip movement, but I picked it up and sure enough there was a fish on. 

Our neighbor came over with his long handle net and scooped it up and boy was it a biggie.    

I tried to put it on the Handy Dandy Berkeley Digital Scale, but forgot to put new batteries in it the last time I tried (it has new batteries now) to use it. fortunately one of the other guys had a manual scale and the fish (a run of the mill Rainbow) came in at about 6 1/2 pounds. I happened to look at mine just after and it said 6 lbs. 6 oz. so I'll go with that.

And there it is. 

So I left at 1:00, Yuki stayed and caught one more, as did one of our neighbors. All in all, not a bad day.  

Just might have to go back out there again.

Stay tuned.

I'm Still Here.............

Besides the fact that it's been raining AGAIN, Yuki and I did go to Lake Camanche last Friday, I think. I've been losing track of the days. Oh yeh, we didn't catch anything which is why I didn't post, but then again no one else caught anything either.

I mentioned a while back about the ancestry thing. I've discovered it's like having a blog. The damn thing has a life of it's own. I'll be working on it and all of a sudden, it's 6:00 pm and I've been searching since really early in the morning.

I started out with 11 Aunts and Uncles, two grand parents and one Great Grandfather. That's a total of 14 for those that, never mind.

My family tree currently stands at 179 people and I have a lot more that need to be added.

Funny thing, I did the DNA test. It told me I have a first cousin that I already knew about. I have a second cousin that I already knew about and the other 82 hits, I've not been able to find anyone on those trees that I can connect to me.

Here is another kicker. I just went out and looked at the DNA results for the above 82 number and they've just added a 3rd cousin that I have no idea who she is. Guess I'd better go do some digging.

Did I mention that the man I was told was my Grandfather for the last 70 years on my mother's side, isn't. Weird.

Oh wait, I'd better feed the cats first. They've been coming in every 15 minutes or so (both of them) since about 1:00 pm to remind me, so I don't forget their dinner that they get around 4:00.

Crap, here they come again. Gotta go.

Maybe fishing tomorrow or Friday.

Stay tuned.  

The Guy With The Kite

I stood on the walk and watched this guy fly the kite for about a half an hour. I don't think I've ever seen anyone this good.

He took the kite up and down, around in circles, and straight up and straight down, but when he dipped the right wing into the wave, then brought it back up, absolutely amazing.

That about the best I can describe it.

Half Moon Bay State Beach

Arrived at the campground at about 1:00 pm on Thursday. It rained off and on all the way down, but held off long enough for us to get set up.

Space 33

 Took a couple quick shots around the campground so you could see what the place looked like. If you want to see the campground set up, go to Reserve America.com and type in Half Moon Bay SB. It shows you the whole place.

Directly across

Across and to the left

Down the road to the right

and to the left

Keep in mind that even though it's sunshine and blue skies, the wind was blowing like crazy. Just look at the trees in the back of the picture.

I walked by this field of Ice Plant. Ice Plant was all over the place and if you could find a little spot that didn't have any wind, you could even smell them.

Ice Plant

The wind was blowing directly off the water at 15 to 20. It caused a lot of BIG waves. I contemplated fishing, but if you were a fish, would you be this close to shore? You'd get the crap beat out of you.

Down the shore to the right

Down the shore to the left

That was Thursday, this was Friday. Looked the same, just a different day.

Rough water

So Friday we went into town, had lunch, and picked up a couple of things at the local hardware store. They didn't give me any discounts so I'm not giving out any kudos.

Friday afternoon brought calmer water, but there was so much sand in the water I figured any fish there probably couldn't see a lure if I threw one at it.

So instead of fishing, I took sunset pictures. Enjoy.......

OK, so there's 7 of them. I got carried away.

Saturday morning brought out the surfers. The water was calmer and clearer, but still there were enough waves that fishing was out of the question AND it only lasted a couple hours and the wind was back.

Surfs Up.

See this? Been there, done that.

Although my surfing days were a while ago. Think Beach Boys. Think late 60's. That was when I was a surfer dude.

This morning brought the rain and wind again. So the weekend was pretty much a wash, har, har,
 

Here comes the rain. 

Although I did see one boy walk by with a fishing rod and a lure that looked like a big chartreuse and white Muskie lure, it looks like I'll have to stick to trout fishing.

Maybe it won't rain all week.....One can hope.

Stay tuned.

It's All About The Timeline

I don't know about you, but when TV stations have beat a story to DEATH, they have to do something to keep it going, so they do a "timeline".

You, as a watcher of "what ever station you watch" (with the exception of Yuki who doesn't own a TV) know of what I speak.

So I thought, since I fished once again at North Shore Camanche yesterday I'd just do a timeline of what occurred and beat it to death. By the way, if you hadn't noticed, I have my computer back, better than ever. The wife re-installed Windows 10 and I only lost one thing. That was the total wins on a Solitaire game called Adelaide. I wanted to get to 1000 wins with no losses, but it tanked at 990 wins with no losses. Guess I'll just have to start over.

On to fishing:

• 8:00 am arrived at the lake. 
• 8:10 am had two rods in the water, one with rainbow Power Bait and the other with orange Power Eggs.
• 8:15 am sucked down my cup of Starbucks Pike Place coffee. 
• 8:45 am reeled in the rod with the orange Power Eggs. 
• 8:50 am started casting Kastmasters on my little Okuma with 2# line. 
• 9:15 am threw out the orange Power Eggs again and parked my butt in the red Coleman Camping chair. Think I need a new chair, this one is starting to fall apart. 
• 10:00 am reeled in the orange Power Eggs and replaced it with rainbow Power Bait and a slathering (love that word) of Pro-Cure Anise flavor. I was desperate. 
• 10:15 am reeled in the rod with rainbow Power Bait, re-baited and slathered some Pro-Cure Sweet Corn flavor on. Now I'm really desperate. 
• 10:45 am reeled in the rod with the Anise flavor, reattached a #6 bait hook and put on three white fluorescent Power Eggs. 
• You getting sick of this timeline thing yet??
• Wasn't but a couple minutes and I had a fish one.      

Only fish of the day

I gave it to a couple guys next to me that drove all the way out there from the Bay Area to take a shot at Camanche. It weighted in at 1 lb. 10 ozs. Pretty much standard size.

• 11:00 am put out both rods with white fluorescent Power Eggs, but the one above must have been a fish of opportunity because nothing else came along. 
• 11:30 am, packed up, drove home, and watched the SF Giants game. 

So, I hope I bored you (not really) with the whole timeline thing. Promise I won't do this again.

Getting close to our first trip of the summer in the Freedom Express. I don't know how I did it, but the trip is scheduled for Easter weekend. We leave Thursday the 13th and come home on Easter Sunday the 16th. Don't forget (all of you that have kids, grand-kids, etc) to spoil them with candy and dyed eggs.

Oh, I might mention that we are going to Half Moon Bay State Beach right on the ocean. I plan to try a little ocean fishing since I've not dipped a rod in the ocean for many, many years. I've got another cool camping item to show you, but you'll have to wait until we get back.

Stay tuned.