I'm Back Somewhat

I was going fishing this morning come hell or high water. Back on May 15th I thought I'd be able to get up to Cat Creek the following week. Took me until today to do it. This Covid-19 is screwing everything up.

My wife went back to work yesterday so I figured it was time to get off my butt and go fishing.

Left at 8:15 and stopped by Java Drive for a cup of coffee and their machine was broke. Was this an omen? Zipped in to Safeway and filled up the truck and headed for the hills.

Got to Cat Creek and put my 3wt together. Stocked my vest with dry flies and walked all 25 feet down to the pool below the bridge. 

3 wt

Pool below the bridge on Cat Creek

First cast, hit, miss. Second cast, hit, miss. Boy am I out of shape. Took me about 6 hits until I finally brought one to hand.

First fish 

 Then I caught the second one.

Didn't get a picture of the second one so I used the first one again. 

 Then I got the third one.

Still the first fish

For some reason I had trouble holding on to the rod, the fish, and getting the camera (on my phone) out for a picture. Seems they weren't hooked very well and flopped back in the pond before I could get the shot.

After maybe another half dozen misses, I packed up and headed for the Cosumnes River at the bridge. Figured I'd fish the pools below the bridge before heading upstream. 

The Pool below the bridge

 Got a couple misses in that pool and made my way to the pool below the pool below the bridge.

To the right

Across

To the left.

 Got a lot of misses, but managed to bring a few to hand.

Snap and back in the pool.

I had forgotten that the fish in these pools have a clock. As usual at exactly 11:00 the bite stopped. I was using an Orange Stimulator, Green Sloan's Paralyzer, and a yellow Parachute something.

Since I wasn't getting any interest in the lower pool I made my way back up toward the truck. Stopped and took a picture of the falls under the bridge and into the pool below.

Pool under the bridge

Since I still had the yellow Parachute Something on my rod, I did one last cast in this pool and sure enough, I missed the hit. That was it for the day. I was too worn out to attempt upstream. Maybe another day.

As best as I can remember (it's hell getting old) I brought a half dozen to hand and probably missed a couple dozen. Just not fast enough.

Didn't have to worry about social distancing, there wasn't anyone up there but me.

Stay safe friends.

I hate to be a doomsayer, but I think the worst is yet to come with this Covid-19.

D-Day The 6th Of June

Just some thoughts about today.

Since I started this genealogy search, as you know if you've been following this blog, I've found some interesting things about my extended family.

One of my ancestors was August Valentine Kautz. Civil War General and whom Kautz Glacier on Mount Rainier in Washington State is named for. Has nothing to do with D-Day, but I thought I'd just throw that one in.

It was my firm belief that my dad was on a troop transport during the D-Day invasion at the beaches of Normandy, France. When I first started digging, all I knew was my dad was on a ship called the 
USS William P Biddle. 

APA-8 William P Biddle

 At first I dug and dug and dug around and could find nothing. Finally I found a group from the crew of the ship and in contact with them, notified them of my father's passing so they could update their records. They send me a little "book" with the crew and a short history of the ship. 

One of my concerns was, if my father was at the Normandy invasion and being of German decent, that it was a very odd occurrence. The German's didn't fight the German's any more than Japanese descendants fought the Japanese during the war. 

Then we got the introduction of Wikipedia. What I found out is that he was never at Normandy. Spent a lot of time all over the world, but mostly in the South Pacific. OK, enough about my father.  

I've come across many articles recently about this Coronavirus (Covid-19 there is a difference) and how so many of the survivors of D-Day are not going to be there to remember because of it. The number dwindles every year. 

We watch movies like the Longest Day and Saving Private Ryan and as gory as Saving Private Ryan was during the beach scenes I can not imagine what it was like being there. It's no wonder those that survived never talked about it. 

I managed to get a couple things out of my dad about the South Pacific Landings (he was at places like Tarawa, Guadalcanal, and Leyte and Luzon in the Phillippines) and what he said I'd rather not repeat. 

Such as it was at Normandy I'm sure. 

Let us not forgot those that gave their lives for this country. 

We could have been under the Third Reich although I'm not sure we're not. 

One last item, Novel Coronavirus is a new virus previously unknown. There are 7 viruses that can infect people. The four common ones are 229E, NL63, OC43, & HKU1. The 3 less common ones are Mers-coV, Sars-coV, and Sars-coV2 or as we know it, Covid-19. A whole bunch of nasty bugs. 

Stay safe my friends. 

Yakking On Camanche

Yuki and I planned to launch our kayaks this morning at North Shore Lake Camanche.

Northern California has been in a heat wave for the last 3 days. 3 days of 100+ are needed to be a "heatwave".

Hot

Yesterday at my house, it was exactly 100 degrees and that was at 5:00 pm. Lake Camanche is down hill from here and closer in temperature to Stockton which is due to be (according to the weather guessers) just below 90 and windy.

Windy

The temperature was supposed to drop to the low 80's today and as usual the weather guessers were wrong.

Now they are estimating the weather to be just below 90. OK, so you young pups wonder "What's wrong with yakking in the high 80's". Just keep in mind that Yuki and I are NOT young pups. High 80's would tend to fry us old guys no matter what we do or what we wear.

Who the hell can fish in water like this?

My wife calls me Mr. Exaggeration, but you get the point. 

Oh sure, we could have gone out for an hour or so, but what's the point. Yuki wants to chase Crappie and I want to chase anything metallic on the bottom. Oh s**t, I wasn't supposed to mention that. That's for later, much later.

OK, I could drown some worms and chase Crappie or anything that bites them.

So we postponed until another day when it's a bit cooler.

But know, I'm alive and virus free as is my family. Hope you is also.

So stay safe and stay tuned.