A Quick Note About Alex From Ukraine

Just got an email from the Polish Origins website. Alex and his family are Wintering in Canada all safe and sound.

And here they are:

Fishing Actually

Yesterday morning I texted Yuki giving him an update on whether I'd be able to fish Camanche North Shore. Passed on to him that my stability (mentioned in the last post) wasn't as good as I'd like it to be to fish the rocks. 

He suggested Middle Bar Bridge. I said that the last few times I'd been across the Highway 49 Bridge (just upstream from Middle Bar) that there wasn't much water in the river. 

The Mokelumne River is fed by the Electra Power House further upstream from the 49 bridge. This is the same area as the Electra Fire last July although the area around the power house is basically bare of any burnable material and it survived. 

We met at La Casa Kautz at 11:00 and he dragged me kicking and screaming out of the house (just kidding) and got his gear and part of my gear (he moves a lot faster than I) into my truck and off we went. 

The nice thing about MBB is that you can drive right to where you want to fish and unload. Then a short drive to the end of the bridge where you can park. 

You can see in the picture below where my truck is parked. 

There wasn't as much water in the river as I would have liked because the power plant is running at a minimum. Maybe another couple feet in depth would have been nice. It's Winter and electricity usage isn't nearly what it is in the Summer thus less water coming down the river. 

But since we were there and had made the 3 mile drive at less that 5 mph (rough road) I shortened my leaders and put out two lines with brand new Rainbow Power Bait. Everything I had before was old and hard. 

We spent maybe a couple hours and did a lot of catching up since we hadn't seen each other in many moons. 

Finally threw in the towel around 1:00 and voila, no bait on the end of both my lines. Did I have a couple bites? Won't ever know although both rods bounced a couple times but I couldn't tell if it was something other than the blustery winds blowing right down the canyon into our faces. 

Nothing caught, no bites (maybe), but caught up on our lives.  

North Shore Camanche is waiting. 

Stay tuned. 

Almost Fishing

Sorry to say that I'm not recovering as fast as I'd like to. 

I thought about going out to Camanche North Shore yesterday. I ordered a new six pack of Power Bait and got it on Wednesday. I'm itching to go, BUT. 

I'm still not as stable as I was even before all these surgeries so fishing will have to wait a little longer. 

Adding to that, I have four months of yard work that needs catching up on. I can do that although I can only put in a half hour or so a day. 

In the last week, I've removed the dead plants in the garden (we've had a couple good freezes) and I'm in the process of giving a couple bushes "hair cuts". 

This Winter we're planning on moving the garden off the "hill" down onto the flat ground you see at the bottom of the picture.  

 

Trying to negotiate the hill at our ages, is just not feasible anymore. We've tripped and fallen too many times and we just can't afford to fall anymore. 

So until I'm steadier, I'm going to forgo the rocky shoreline of Northshore Camanche.   

One would say, "That's not so bad.", but I've come close, in the past, to slipping and falling on the rocks. Again, can't fall. You'll understand this as you get older. 

The last time I fell (in the living room), about 4 months ago, it took me the better part of three hours to get off the floor. Granted, most of the problem was I was sweating like crazy and couldn't get any traction, but three hours is three hours. On top of that, my doctor wormed this out of me and had me do a Cat Scan and an MRI to make sure nothing in the hard German head was damaged. As it turned out, all was well. 

All that said, I will be back fishing, I'm just not sure how soon. 

Stay tuned. 

Oh yeh, the last surgery finally removed the problem Gall Bladder (I think I already mentioned this), but I also wanted say that since then I've had NO back pain. Back pain is something I've lived with for many years because of the Gall Bladder going bad and according to the doctor that removed it, it was bad.   

Veterans Day 2022

Friday (November 11th) is Veterans Day. I received this from one of my newly found cousins and thought it worth passing along. Embarrassingly I, at 76 years, did not know this. I can't imagine many others do either. So here goes. 

I spend a few minutes almost every day looking at YouTube. 

One of the videos I always look at is the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery. If you've never watched this, you are missing an awe inspiring occurrence that happens every hour on the hour when the cemetery is open to the public. I've never tired of watching these videos. 

It used to be every hour on the hour from October 1 thru March 30 and every half hour from April 1 thru September 30. Covid here, like other places, has made changes. 

My son was fortunate to have been at Arlington National Cemetery some years ago and has watched this in person. 

If you've never watched this, take 10 minutes or so and watch one. You won't be disappointed. 

Last thing today. I went to the doctor yesterday, he removed the staples from my stomach and the drain tube. Now all I have is to get the stent removed sometime after the 19th of December and I'm good to go. Based on there being no pain in my back, the doctor believes the infection in my spine to be gone. Good news there. 

So, a little recuperation time and a little time to build up my strength and I'm back at the lakes. 

Stay tuned.