My Day Fishing

Yep, I'm still here. I've been working a lot more and fishing a lot less lately, but I still try to get over to the local pond when I can. I was talking with a couple guys there yesterday that were saying the pond had gone through an algae bloom and that's what had killed most of the bass. Not sure if it's true or not. I always have trouble catching bass there so I can't say I noticed a huge difference in the bite. But I did see a lot of dead bass a few weeks back.

Hopefully I'll have something more exciting to write about soon.... like a fish or something!! :)

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I headed out to DVL last Saturday with my son Jacob and met up with James and Amy there. We rented a pontoon and had a good day out on the water. Jacob landed his first Large Mouth Bass, and I landed my first Striped Bass.



We took that striper home and made fish tacos that night. A great day on the water, followed by a great dinner.

My wife is an incredible woman. So it was no surprise to me when after not being able to find a girl scout troop that had room for our daughter, she decided to start her own troop. And I'm not the only one that thinks she's amazing, which is why I wasn't surprised when the troop reached maximum capacity almost before they had their first meeting.

Now there's a scouting patch available through www.TakeMeFishing.org for scouting groups that plan and go on a fishing trip. I was blessed to be a part of getting that patch for my son's scout group a while back and thought, "Why not Girl Scouts too?"

I mentioned it to my wife and she was instantly excited, and so was every other mom and girl scout in the troop when they heard about it.

Well, I don't do too badly with kids, but I didn't think I would be able to handle teaching 12 little girls about fishing on my own so I called up James and asked him if he and Amy would be interested in helping me take these daisy scouts fishing. Understanding that kids often get bored quickly if they aren't catching anything, and being the generous person that he is, James offered to sponsor the girls for a trip to the Mt. Baldy Trout Pools.

So this past Saturday we all caravaned up to Mt. Baldy to meet up with James and Amy at the trout pools. We gave the girls a bit of an introduction to the different kinds of rods, reels, and bait that we use when we go fishing, then we all headed inside and started getting our gear.



A total of 9 girls were able to come so we set each of them up with their own rod and started baiting hooks. The parents that came along were a big help also and the first daisy scout to get her line wet had a fish on before I could even bait the second girl's hook. From then on it was like a Bugs Bunny cartoon with little kids tossing their lines in the water and hauling out rainbow trout almost as fast.



We fished for maybe an hour and a half and every daisy landed at least one rainbow, with some landing up to five.



Afterwards, all the girls washed up and we sat down at the picnic benches for some lunch before heading back home.

The girls absolutely loved it! And each one was excited to take their fish home. Our final tally was 9 daisy scouts with 27 rainbow trout.

What a blast. When I asked them afterwards if they had fun they almost deafened me with their cheers!

Thanks to all the parents that helped out, and an extra big thanks to James and Amy who by their generosity made it possible for the girls to have a great day!

Click here to view more photos of the day.

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I went to Fulmor a couple weeks ago and was happy to have James and Amy meet up with me there. But it was a pretty slow day. I caught one little guy at the beginning of the morning and that was it for the rest of the morning.

From the deck we were able to watch a few fish circling around, but didn't have much luck with them. Amy hooked up on something that made all of us curious. It looked almost golden brown. But it successfully threw her hook so we didn't get to see it up close.

I made a quick trip to the pond on Thursday after work to get some more practice in with my new Shimano and was disappointed when I started seeing dead bass floating in the pond.

I just received delivery of my first baitcast reel, a Shimano Citica. Anxious to test it out, I called up James, knowing he'd be fishing in the San Bernardino Mtns. He had mentioned that he might go to Jenks Lake. I had been wanting to try out Jenks Lake, so we agreed to meet there. I took off at about 6am and was watching the sunrise as I entered Beaumont.

I arrived at about 7:30am, and James and Amy got there around 8. I knew there was going to be a bit of a learning curve with the new baitcast reel, so I started small just pitching a frog out a few yards. James and Amy rigged up their fly rods and James hooked a little Warmouth on his first cast. It took most of the morning, but I eventually started getting the hang of casting with the new reel.

James and Amy hooked up on a number of fish, both trout and baby bass. I hooked up on this little bass that tried to eat a plastic worm almost as big as he was.


 I got the prize for the most insanely impossible hookup for snagging a dragonfly in mid air as I was casting a rooster tail (Mr. Miyagi eat your heart out!). Oh, I wish I had a picture to show you! But as I was hauling him back in to take him off my lure, he thrashed in the water, threw the hook, and took off. He must have learned that from watching the bass.

Compared to a lot of the bass you see, the one I caught was a decent sized one. That was until we saw Grandpa. We call him Grandpa because judging by his size he must be at least a few generations old. James spotted him just off the bank near the dock as we were getting ready to pack up and leave. He was cruising just under the surface, right above the underwater vegetation. He was enormous!!! Outside of the big fish tank at BassPro, I've never seen a bass that large before unless it was in a picture or video. He was an easy 10 pounder if he was an ounce, and it wouldn't surprise me if he was closer to 12+. He was absolutely huge!! We had been seeing surface strikes across the lake near the bank. We'd see one with a big splash, then another several yards away as you move towards us. Then another getting closer to where we were. We were thinking those surface strikes may have been Grandpa and he was just working his way around the bank towards the dock, then back towards the cover he came from. I'm telling you right now, if/when I go back to Jenks, I'm going to watch for those surface strikes and as soon I see them I'm going to start pitching my frog near the bank and wait for Grandpa to make his way over.

Around noon James and Amy invited me to go with them over to the stream. We fished several little pools until we found one with a couple dozen trout in it.


It also happened to be near by some guys that had driven up in a taxi to pan for gold. We fished that little pool for next few hours catching several trout of all sizes.

I've been fishing a couple times since my last post. Nothing big. Just a couple quick trips to the local ponds with no success.

Today I wanted to take my son to the local pond and get him to hook and land a fish on his own, even if it was a little one. Until now, all the fish he's caught have been hooked by someone else. I wanted him to feel the sensation for himself. So we grabbed some hotdogs and started searching for bluegill. Now bluegill are not the biggest fish, but they are fairly easy to catch at the pond. Plus, the ones we have at the pond are much larger than normal bluegill. Add on top of that a super sensitive ultra light rod and I knew he'd be able to experience a nice enough fight from those little guys.

We fished for about an hour trying different spots, working our way towards the far end of the pond but he was only getting bites from the turtles.

Finally at the far end of the pond he had some luck. He hooked a decent sized bluegill that actually bent his rod quite a bit and did a couple of jumps and tail walks (that was interesting).

Last time I went up to Lake Fulmor it was a very quiet morning. I caught 4 bass and saw only a few people while I was there. This morning was much different.

I arrived at the lake at about 5:45am. I was the first one in the parking lot, but before I got out of my truck 2 other cars pulled in, parked, unloaded, and headed for the lake.

I rigged up two rods and headed for the bank. I fished the bank moving slowly toward the wooden deck for about 2 hours without catching anything. During those 2 hours several more carloads of people showed up. Dads with their kids, families, etc... I figured it was going to be getting more and more difficult to find a place to fish the further in I went.

I made it to the deck at about 8am and was surprised to find only 2 guys on the deck and they were fishing together over on one side. I grabbed the bench and put my stuff down, rigged a power worm on a drop shot and cast it out into the middle of the lake to sit there while I worked a jig on my other rod right around the edge of the deck.

The deck makes a horseshoe shape that extends out over the water so you can actually fish both the inside and the outside of the horseshoe. I started working my jig along the outer edge for little while before moving to the inside. I dropped the jig straight down over the side near the bank and started popping it up and letting it drop as I slowly walked the inside of the horseshoe. I figured "It worked last time I was here. Maybe it'll work again!" And it did.

After getting that first fish back in the water I started working the brush that grows near the bank about 8 feet outside the deck. It looked like a nice place for a bass to hide and I remembered one of those fishing videos where the pro says, "When you're working structure, work every part of it all around." I started pitching that same jig in front and on the side of that brush in several different areas. Within a couple minutes I had my second bass.



I heard one of the men on the deck with me say to other, "He got another one!" I asked if they had had any luck, but they hadn't had a bite all morning. Shortly after that, one of them started pitching his bait in the same area where I had caught the first bass.

People continued to arrive throughout the morning. While I was on that deck a biker guy came over and we talked for a while. I wasn't getting any more bites and the other rod that I had in the water (now rigged with a bobber) had only seen some turtle action, but nothing else.

I left the deck and worked the bank a little ways down with no success, so I figured I'd start working my way back. I fished a couple more spots with no luck. By now the lake was full of people. Families having BBQ's, kids fishing, playing, yelling...and more people were continuing to arrive. By this time I had been there for about 4 1/2 hours. It turned out that the forestry dept had declared today a free day. No Adventure Passes were needed to park and explore the forest areas. And, if I'm not mistaken, no fishing license was necessary either. That could be why it was as crowded as it was.

Whatever the situation, I still managed to have a relatively quiet morning with 2 more bass caught out of Fulmor.

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Saturday morning I met up with James and Amy up in the San Bernardino mountains to do some stream fishing at one of their favorite streams. The weather was real nice. The morning was cool and as the day went on it warmed up but stayed cool in the shade where we were.

The scenery in this area was just beautiful and we got to do one of the things I love which is to just meander up/down stream as far as we wanted. Don't get me wrong, I like fishing in lakes. But when you're fishing a small lake or a pond you're pretty localized. The best you can do is walk completely around the bank. With stream fishing you can park your car and just keep on going, exploring new areas without fishing the same spot twice. There's always that question in your mind, "I wonder what I'll find a little further down." It makes it exciting. It's not some epic quest, but for myself I like to think of it as Venture Fishing.



The DFG stocks rainbows in this stream and there are also native browns to be found all over. I've caught rainbows before, but I had never caught a brown so I was hoping to catch one and get a picture before day's end.



As it turned out I caught 3 browns. None of the browns that were caught were very big, which I'd say is normal for this environment. But they are pretty. I guess when you're used to seeing one species it's nice to see something different. All of the browns that I caught were on a fly that James gave me to use. (DOH! I've got to get those back to him! I totally forgot 'till just now! Sorry James!)



Towards the end of the day we stopped at a section of stream that was pretty overrun with people, so we started heading upstream to get away from everyone. We found a real nice, deep pool that shallowed out and saw nearly a dozen browns hanging out in that area.



We stayed there for quite a while and eventually had some success. James hooked a brown ...



... and I hooked a rainbow on a small powerworm.



Anytime I fish someplace new I don't expect to catch anything. I figure I'm going to spend my first visit learning about the area and what the fish like or expect to see. So anytime I actually catch fish on my first visit to someplace new I consider it a win.

Saturday was a win. Fun Venturing. Awsome company. Beautiful scenery. Wonderful weather. And some pretty fish that let us take their pictures.

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Yesterday I took my wife and kids up to Big Bear lake for the afternoon. My wife and kids played in the water over at Meadow Park and had an absolute blast. I took the opportunity to spend the afternoon fishing the North shore of the lake.

I didn't get there until afternoon and there were already quite a few people fishing, so I didn't get to start as close to the dam as I wanted to. I found a nice quiet little spot at a big turnout in the road. No one else was there. I tried several different kinds of bait and rig combinations without any luck. The only thing I got any bites on was a Berkley Trout worm rigged on a drop shot, but it didn't feel like a fish bite. If I had to guess, I would say it was probably a turtle. I would feel a quick couple nibbles as the bait went by one particular spot each time but I was never able to hook anything.

So I didn't have any luck at that spot, but I did see a pirate ship.

After a couple of hours there I decided to move up the road. I had seen earlier when we first drove by an area that looked like it would be a good place to find bass. It was in the cove area at Fawnskin. There was a ton of vegetation that was floating in large patches on the top of the water. They weren't lilly pads, but that's what it looked like from a distance, so that's what I'll call them for now. The water was calmer because it was away from the main body of the lake and I just knew I'd find fish in that cover.

I parked at the little picnic area nearby and started fishing the bank of that cove area, working my way back around towards the main body of the lake. The lilly pads started about 20 feet off the bank and continued about 100 yards out. This left a 20 foot channel between the bank and the lilly pads that the kayakers like to use.

I fished the first spot for while without any strikes. I started by dropping my bait just on the edge of the lilly pads, then switched over to a weedless rig and started casting right out on top of the lilly pads. I saw evidence of fish in there because I would see sections of the vegetation get disturbed by something underneath, as if a fish was grabbing something just on the surface, but nothing ever took a strike at my bait.

I moved from there around the side that bordered the road. There I actually saw fish for the first time that day. There were a few large fish that I think were common carp, and several smaller fish that looked (and acted) like young bass. They would watch very intently as I would cast all kinds of stuff. Whenever I would cast in their direction, they'ed rush over and check out what it was I was throwing, but wouldn't bite. The larger fish were much more skittish. Anytime I cast anything in their direction they would spook.

I moved down a couple more times until I reached the bend in the road and the inlet to the cove that led out to the main body of the lake. There is a large boulder that jets out from the bank into the water there. I climbed up there and sat down for while, fishing from the top of the boulder. Pretty soon I started seeing lots of action. Unfortunately, none of it was happening on the end of my line.

Just beyond the range of my cast fish (probably carp) started jumping out of the water. This wasn't just surface strikes. This was fully body launch into the air, tail flapping, flipping upside down and heading back into the water. They were jumping on an average of about 1 every 5 seconds or so.

I tried casting out to those areas, but just wasn't able to get it there. So I contented myself to just watch the show.

I finished up and headed back to the truck, drove back to the park and picked up Julie and the kids at 5, and then treated everyone to real nice sit down dinner at a place with silverware, waiters and everything. By the way, did you know they now serve the Grand Slam Breakfast as a sandwich??

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I decided to take a few minutes just to wet my line at the lake yesterday during lunch. I figured I'd only be there for about 45 minutes because I didn't want to overextend my lunch break. Since I only had a few minutes, I figured, "Go with what you know." So I T-Rigged a ribbontail and started working it like normal.

I fished that way for about 30 minutes, but then started thinking that the water is pretty warm now, and a friend Chris from work who fishes here a lot says the bass are going for faster prey now. So I decided to start fishing like an idiot. And wouldn't you know it....?

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There is a private lake nearby that I've fished once before on Father's Day with no luck. Yesterday I had a chance to go back there and spend a little more time trying different things.

I remember thinking last time, "I should have brought a second rod rigged for bluegill." This time I did bring that second rod. I started out fishing the main dock area. I didn't catch anything but I had a blast just playing with the bluegill. It's a little trickier to catch them when you're using some kind of plastic bait instead of hotdog. They don't hold onto it as long, nor attack it as hard. I was using a small piece of power worm, dropping it in the water just off the edge of the dock. Each time dozens of bluegill would come up and go crazy, but none would hold on long enough.

I moved on and started making my way around the lake. My first success came at a little inlet. There was a lot of vegetation because of the inlet and I thought I'd at least see a couple of bluegill. I tossed my bluegill line out and saw my bobber duck a couple times but I think it was just a turtle. Then on one of the casts I began to reel my line in a bit faster in order to re-cast and that was all the tempation a young bass needed. He bolted out of the vegetation, grabbed my little power worm, and was in my hand in a matter of seconds.

Later I found another small dock and played with the turtles a little bit there. After moving around to the other side of the dock I caught a small bluegill that nearly devoured that little power worm.

Moving around to the other side of the lake I found another dock (many of the homes that back up to the lake have small private docks) that also had some tall vegetation growing up out of the water. It looked like perfect bass habitat. But apparently I was wrong or they were smarter than I am.

My last catch was another young bass (not quite as young as the first) that wanted to eat my Senko out in the open water. Turns out he wasn't the only creature interested in that bait. I let him go and was still in the same spot when a huge bird of prey came out of the tree right above my head. I'm not sure what he was, but he had a wing span of about 6 feet. He had been watching my plastic worm come up near the surface then sink back down and wanted to get a closer look. He flew back and forth over the spot I was fishing, checking me out and watching for that worm. Eventually he lost interest and took off.

It was nice to have some success at that lake. You can only get skunked a couple of times at a new location before thinking, "Ah, there's nothing here" and losing interest.

I'll go back soon.

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We just got back from visiting my dad up in Idaho. It was great to see him again, and to see my brother Larry and his family again also. We only get a chance to see them about once per year, so we always enjoy our time with them up there.

This year I wanted to take the opportunity to do some fishing up there also. What beautiful country!

I had to pick my son up from Boy Scout camp on Saturday morning, so I thought I'd head up early and try out the small lake that is near the camp. I arrived at 6 am and everything was nice and quiet. It really was quite beautiful.

What a fantastic morning. I caught my first bass after fishing for about 30 minutes. In the next hour and a half I caught 3 more for a total of 4. Plus I caught them on 3 different types of bait. One on a jig, one on a spinner bait, and the last two on a Berkley craw.



There was plenty of action. I was feeling smaller bites all over the place. It was also cool to watch as the fish would strike the insects on the surface of the water. I think fly fishing here (for those who know how) would be a lot of fun. (hint hint hint)



Twice I got to watch as the bass came out of the depths to hammer my bait. The best was the very first one I caught. I was flipping a jig near the shore and was popping it off the bottom as I retrieved it. When I had it almost all the way in, I popped it a couple more times directly under the tip of my rod with my line vertical. The jig came up just under the surface and had just started its decent when a bass struck like lightning. I didn't even have to set the hook. He struck so hard and fast that he set it himself and I just lifted him straight out of the water. Very cool to see.



It was also nice to fish a natural lake for a change.  All the stuff I've heard and learned about visualizing the structure and contour of the floor of the lake based on the surroundings actually came in handy. I was able to take a look at what the hills and bushes did naturally and picture what it was like underwater. The lake is set in a steep valley between two peaks, so as I analyzed the bank, it wasn't difficult to see where the lake gets deep quickly and where it's more shallow.

I fished for about 3 1/2 hours, and caught 4 bass on 3 different baits on a nice, beautiful, quiet, natural lake.  By far one of the best fishing days I've had yet.

Next time I'll have to bring someone to share it with.

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James came over on Saturday and I took him over to our local pond to do some fishing. He caught several bluegill on the fly, which was fun. The bluegill in that little pond sure have some nice color and markings. We also saw several bass and a large Koi.

I wanted to see if the bluegill would bite on a Berkley Power Worm for trout, so I cut a small piece off and suspended it under a little bobber. I turned away for a second to see how James was doing, then looked back to find my bobber heading off to my right under water. I set the hook on what I thought was a large bluegill, but up came a bass doing a headshake. Had I known it was a bass I would have set the hook a little better.

We fished the pond for several hours before heading off to lunch and the local fly shop. After browsing around the fly shop, we headed over to Harveston for a couple hours but didn't see any sign of life in the water at all.

After taking a bit of a break to participate in the Law Enforcement Torch Run for Special Olympics with my wife, we headed back over to the pond taking my son along.

James and my son proceeded to catch a few more bluegill in the short time we were there.

It was a fun day, all in all, and I was glad to have the chance to show James around to some of these local city ponds.

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I asked Daddy to take me fishing again on Saturday. He said we could go to the store and buy hotdogs and use them to catch fish. So we went to the store and I picked out the best hotdogs to catch fish. But after we got back in the truck, I fell asleep. So Daddy took me home and I took a nap.

When I woke up, we had dinner and Daddy asked me if I still wanted to go fishing. I said, "Yeah!"

Did you know that fish aren't the only ones who like hotdogs? The first fish I caught was a turtle. He was big and we used the net to take him out of the water. He had the hook stuck in his neck. Daddy took the hook out and the turtle was ok. He jumped back into the water and swam away.

After a while I wanted to go home, but Daddy said we should try a different spot. We tried 3 more spots. I let Daddy fish and I just watched. Daddy was fishing at the third spot and I told him I was gonna play on the hill. Right when I started playing Daddy called me and said we caught a fish. I reeled the fish in real fast.



I said, "Yea! We caught a fish! Now we can go home!" Daddy said, "Do you wanna try for another fish?" And I said, "Yeah!"

So Daddy put more hotdog on the hook and I got to catch another fish!


I was excited. "Now can we go home?" But Daddy wanted to catch one more.



This time I wanted Daddy to let me throw the fish back in the water. Daddy put the fish in my hands and told me to throw it in the water, but when I threw him he poked me.

Me: "Ouch! He poked me! It hurts..... Oooooooo..... Ouch..... He poked me, Daddy....... Ow! Ouch....... That hurt...... He poked me....... Daddy look! He poked me....... Ow....... That fish poked me...... It hurts...... That hurt....... Ouch."

Daddy: "You'll be ok."

Me: "Oh!"

[Note from Dad: This little exchange made me crack up. Jaden kept going on and on about how he got poked, sucking air in through his teeth, furrowing his brow. But all I had to say was "You'll be ok." and he perks up, "Oh!"]

Then I talked to Mommy on Daddy's phone and told her I 'catched 3 fishies.' She said, "3 Fish?! No way!!" I told her all about it.

Then Daddy said, "Good job! We got 3 fish!" And I said, "This was awsome, Dad!"


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So I'm stoked. Now that I know how easy it is to catch these bluegill using hotdog I'll be able to bring my little boy down to the pond with some confidence about how to put a fish on his line.

I can't wait!

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Things have slowed down just a bit at work, so I was able to hit up the lake with James during lunch. I hadn't taken any gear with me, but James was gracious enough to let me use his spinning rod while he fly fished.

We saw plenty of nice sized bass but didn't hook up on any of them during lunch. I was using a soft plastic wacky-rigged worm but wasn't able to entice a bite.

Actually, my bait was picked up once while my attention was elsewhere. I was using a slow intermittent retreive and was just looking around at some of the other people. When I looked back towards my line I noticed it was pulled straight and moving sideways (never felt a bite). I leaned in just a bit, ready to set the hook. Just as I began to set it my line when completely slack and I hooked a big ol' chunk of nuthin'.

A couple of casts later I felt my line get real heavy all of a sudden. I wasn't going to miss this one. I set the hook and watched as the rod bent way over. "Got him!" But there was no fight. As I started reeling I realized I had just hooked up on some junk in the water. It turns out I had set the hook right under the outer lip of a clear plastic cup and had hauled in nothing but plastic and about 12 oz of water.

So the follow up conversation could go one of two ways:

"Today I fished with plastics."
"Did you catch anything?"
"No. Got skunked."

- or -

"Today I fished for plastics."
"Did you catch anything?"
"Yep. A 12 ouncer!!"

That's it. A single preposition can make the difference between a successfull run and getting skunked.

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It was kind of a weird evening at the lake just now. Today (Saturday) was a really nice day, so I expected a lot of people to be at the lake this evening. Nope. There were a few families there, but nothing like the crowds that are usually there are on the weekends.

The lake is still a mess. Algae is everwhere. You can see it laying on the bottom. Some of it is attached to the bottom and floats up towards the surface. And some of it is detached and has formed large masses that float near the bank all over the place. It looks like fish poop lining the entire outer edge of the lake.

It's pretty gross when you're stripping algae off your dropshot on every retrieval and as you pinch the algae to remove it from the sinker you inadvertantly crush a bunch of tiny little snails that live inside the algae. You're trying to remove this grotesque mass which looks like something that came out of the Hulk's nose during allergy season, and your finding a bunch of little creatures that you can not identify crawling around (and onto your fingers).

This stuff is everywhere and unavoidable for the most part. I try to avoid the floating masses as I'm reeling my bait in to minimize the cleanup effort.

So, I had been there for only about 15 minutes when I feel a bite. I set the hook and the fish starts swimming around with all the direction and purpose of a confused butterfly. He didn't know where he was going. He didn't come up and do any headshakes and he wasn't really swimming hard, just ... swimming. So I was starting to wonder if I had caught something other than a bass, but eventually he came to the surface and I saw it was a bass.

Now I don't know if he was just having an off day, as was the rest of the lake, but as soon as he saw me he basically just gave up. He swam around a little bit but would then just come up the surface and lie there looking at me. I wanted to play him a bit, so I didn't haul him in right away. But he didn't want to play. He just looked at me as if he knew very well what a fisherman was and that I'd be releasing him soon enough. But I wasn't hauling him in right away. So what did he do? Remember those floating masses of algae I mentioned? He decided he'd go along pulling my line through those, collecting as much of it as he could on my line. That got my attention. I didn't want anything to do with that. I grabbed my net and he came to the surface again and just laid there calm as could be while I netted him. No headshakes, no fighting. Just an attitude of "Get this thing out of my lip and put me back in the water so I can go find some REAL food!!!" Unfortunately, I didn't have my phone with me so I couldn't take a picture of him.

I only stayed for about an hour. I was getting tired of the algae real quick. Then all the swarms of mosquitos came out as the sun was setting. It also started to get cold and I didn't have anything warm, so I decided to call it an evening. 1 Fish. That's all I ever ask.

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Went to the lake yesterday during lunch. It was pretty quiet there. Plenty of people walking, but only a couple guys fishing.
The sky was clear and bright but the water was real dirty and hard to see through. I figured I'd need something that could catch the sun light and be visible in all that murk, so I tied on my spinner bait.

I worked my way starting from the restaurants towards the point. When I got to the big trees and saw the shadows they were casting on the water, I figured that would be a good place for a bass to hang out waiting for a meal to pass by.

I cast a couple times and brought the bait back through that shadow but didn't find anything there. However, when I cast my line about 15 feet off the bank above the shadow I did manage to hook up and proceeded to catch my first bass on a spinner bait.




As I was landing him, a woman and her little boy were passing by and I got a chance to show the little boy my 'big fish'. We talked about the fish and what he felt like, then he watched as I let him go. The mom said she had brought him fishing here before, but had not seen any fish this size. Maybe now that they've seen a 'big fish', they'll come back and try again.

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Went to Harveston for about an hour this morning, but didn't catch anything. The water was really clear, but there was mossy algae everwhere. It was coating the bottom which made dropshotting a pain because I'd pull in a big ol' wad of moss with every cast. Eventually I switched to a spinner bait, but I was still pulling in junk with that because it floating everywhere. I'd expect to see that with real cloudy, dirty water. But the water itself was really clear, so it was weird.

The bass were chasing each other all over the place. I'm not sure what had them so worked up, but they were pretty active ... but not hungry apparently. I couldn't get any of them to bite.

There were also a bunch of gold fish. Well, I call them gold fish. I'm not exactly sure what they all are. It looks like someone took fish out of their fish tank at home and threw them in the lake, and they, being faster than most, lived long enough to grow really big. Some look a lot like Koi with the white, orange, and black spots everywhere. Others just look like feeder fish, like those that you get from a carnival, except these are on steroids.

One had long fins and was all white and he just hung out close to the bank the whole time. He wasn't really spooked by me at all and just spent most of his time wandering back and forth checking things out.

You can see a larger picture here

><)))>

Headed over to the lake near the office yesterday with James and Chris. James had been there earlier that morning and had landed a bass on a fly, so I was hopeful. The three of us kind of spread ourselves out around the lake, but none of us had any luck. There were others there that were catching fish, but they were all using methods that none of us really want to use. A couple of guys had caught a large catfish while fly-lining live crawfish. Another guy had been bait soaking with hotdog and ended up gut-hooking a large bass. By the time we saw him it was already floating belly up on a stringer.

We also learned that a lot of the kids that go there to fish will stop at the fast food joint and pick up the cheap cheeseburgers. Then they'll use bits of that cheeseburger as bait. The bass have grown so accustomed to cheeseburger that it's difficult to catch them on lures and other plastic baits, they said. At first we were a little bummed about what this did to our chances of catching fish there, until we realized that if that's the case, then we're actually doing pretty well catching as many as we do on lures and flies.

So we got skunked during lunch, but were encouraged about the other times that we've had successful runs.

After I got home my wife mentioned that the Twilight sequel had come from Netflix and that she and my son were going to be watching it that evening. "Let me guess ... that means you're going fishing?" she asked. "Uh, yeah. That pretty much says it all." So I headed over to Harveston and got there around 8pm for some evening fishing.

I had been there for a while without any action at all, but I was still hopeful. With my trusty ribbontail dropshot rig I started working one of my regular areas.

~THUNK!

I set the hook and end up yanking my bait right out of the water. Missed him! I cast back out and start my retrieve.

~THUNK THUNK!

"There he is." I set the hook, but again nothing.

"Hmmm. He must be swiping at my bait; maybe protecting some fry. Or maybe he's short biting my bait and I'm setting the hook to early. Third time's a charm!" I cast out again.

As I'm beginning my retrieve my peripheral vision picked up movement behind me. That's pretty normal. There are usually people all over the place and many of them are walking their dogs. I looked back to see what had moved and saw a small dog sniffing around a tree about 25 feet behind my left shoulder.

"Ah, someone's taking advantage of the fact there are so few people here this late and they're letting their dog walk off-leash."

I keep fishing, waiting for that third strike.

"But I didn't see anyone behind that dog. Hmmm....."

I look again and it's still sniffing around the tree facing my direction.

"That's not a dog. Is it a cat? No, it's to big to be a cat. OH! I wonder if it's a racoon!!!"
(It was pretty dark there)

I don't know if it was ambient light from the lights around the sidewalk, or if a car drove by on the other side of the lake, but as those words crossed my mind light from somewhere fell on that little animal.

"That's not a racoon! THAT'S A SKUNK!!!!!" And now his attention was on me.

Forget my methodic retrieve, I need to get my bait out of the water fast. I started walking away as I reeled, and as I walked he walked. The more I walked, the more he walked. The faster I walked, the faster he walked.

"Holy cow! I can't believe I'm being chased by a skunk!!"

I get my bait out of the water and start jogging away. As I turned I saw the skunk running my way.

" 'Incontheevable!!!' You gotta be kidding me!!!"

I ran all the way to the other end of the lake, my backpack bouncing up and down behind me (not a pretty site), before I finally stopped, turned and looked again.

No skunk.

"Whew!"

At this point I should have taken this as a sign because I fished for about another hour and half (on the opposite side of the lake from the skunk, of course) and never felt another bite.

"I can't believe that little guy stole my fish!" I thought.

Ok, he didn't really steal it from me, as if I had already landed it. But after 2 solid hits I was sure that fish would've struck a third time and I would've had him.

Instead, the lake traded me a skunk for that fish. Man! What a metaphore!

So I got skunked twice yesterday, but I'll take that anyday over getting skunked by a real skunk.

><)))>

This evening turned out to be truly magical for one young lady.

I arrived at the lake late this evening. It was cold and windy, and the sun was already down. I rigged up and began fishing my normal spots. With only a few people walking, the lake was very quiet.

The young man was already making his way towards that perfect spot. He had rehearsed the entire thing in his mind a hundred times for sure.

I was standing near the gazeebo. It was completely lit up like one of the storefronts on MainStreet at Disneyland during the Christmas holiday. With the night as clear as it was tonight, those lights shown clear and bright.

I looked up just in time to see a shooting star. And it didn't just streak across the sky. It split into smaller pieces as it burned, giving the affect of pixie dust being sprinkled over the gazeebo. It was quite a sight.

He walked into the center of the gazeebo with his arm around the young lady. They spoke briefly and I watched as he knelt on one knee. After a moment he stood and she held her hand out at arms length to admire the ring. They hugged and kissed, and took some 'just engaged' pictures with their cellphone cameras.

The full moon rose over the horizon. It was one of those moons that looks so big that it seems like someone pasted an oversized cut-out right onto the sky.

The perfectly decorated gazeebo, the shooting star, the full moon rising, and the ring she had been praying for. It was exactly the kind of evening she had probably fantasized about since she was a little girl. Walt Disney himself couldn't have imagineered a proposal that would have made her feel more like a princess than that young man did this evening.

A truly magical evening to be sure.

It seems that the only fantasy of the entire evening that didn't become reality was me actually catching a fish.

><)))>

Another cub scout campout was upon us and Jacob and I set out Friday for Lake Henshaw. The boys were going to spend Saturday doing a variety of activities, including fishing, kickball, astronomy, conservation, and hiking. It was promising to be a very full day.

We arrived, set up camp and went down for the initial flag ceremony. After the ceremony, the camp leader said he was going to need a couple of volunteers to help out at some of the activity stations, one being the fishing station. I told him I could help in that area.

The next morning, the scout leader that was going to run the fishing activity station and I headed down to the water to find a place to set up. He wanted to put up a 'Not-so' Easy-Up as a make-shift outdoor classroom. The activity wasn't just going to be fishing. The boys were going to learn about different types of reels, regulations, and fish. But the interesting part was they were going to make their own fishing poles. Bill, the leader, had brought several pieces of bamboo. The kids were going to select a piece, rap some rope around one end for a grip, run some line up to the top, tie it off, and extend the rest of the line that a leader could then be tied to. It was right out of Huckleberry Finn.

By the way, this wasn't just a scout camp, it was a family camp, which is a specific kind of scout camp in which families are welcome to join in full. We had approximately 30 cub scouts, plus siblings. In all, we were going to doing this with about 55 kids (my guess). So Bill and I set everything up, went back for lunch, then headed back to the water as the kids started coming.

The camp site was about 1/2 a mile from the actual spot where we were fishing, so they were shuttling the kids back and forth in groups according to scout rank. Each group's session was about an hour and half.

I gave some presentations on the different kinds of reels, and Bill would help them build their bamboo rod. When they were done with the rod, Bill would send them down to me to put a hook on their line, show them how to bait it (nightcrawlers), and help them get their line in the water. Many of the kids had brought their own rods, so after they made their bamboo rod they would put it away and use the one they brought. The activity lasted from 12 noon till 5pm. We went through 3 tubs of nightcrawlers, several plastic worms, and dozens of hooks.

People have been catching crappie out of Lake Henshaw lately, and I know that there are LMB in there also. So with it being spawning time (approximately) I had suggested that we set up on the bank of a cove that we had found. The cove was fairly quiet, away from the main fishermen traffic at the landing. The cove was also totally full of trees and brush that were growing up out of the water. I told Bill that this would be a good place to find fish. He was concerned that we'd spend all day helping kids get untangled from the brush, but the brush stopped about 40 feet before it reached shore. I told him the kids probably wouldn't be able to cast far enough for it to be a problem. He agreed, so we spent the day in that little cove tying and baiting hooks for the kids. Only a couple kids got snagged, but we were able to free each snag without losing the line or hook. I was suprised that we didn't lose any hooks, or really get in any trouble with tangles. The only thing we seemed to be losing was nightcrawlers as many of the kids would come back saying, "My bait's gone!"

As I was giving one of the presentations for some of the younger scouts I noticed the smallest of them with tears welling up in his eyes. He had already finished his time fishing and hadn't caught anything. "I didn't catch a fish," he said. I told him I understood how he felt. "I go fishing a lot and there are a lot of times that I don't catch anything," I told him. "I try to catch a fish almost everyday, but it doesn't always happen. In fact, nobody has even caught anything here today." My timing couldn't have been worse.

At that very moment I heard someone yell, "HE'S GOT ONE!!! HE'S GOT ONE!!!!" I looked up just in time to see one boy fishing on the point at the beginning of the cove and a young large mouth bass come out of the water attached to his line. The entire group of kids and adults took off running. One guy netted the bass and the adults started snapping pictures of this young fisherman with the very first fish he'd ever caught. The great thing about this was he had caught it with the bamboo pole he had just finished making. A simple bamboo pole with about 10 feet of line total. No reel, no fancy tackle. Just a homemade wooden bobber and a nightcrawler and this modern day Huck Finn had himself his first Large Mouth Bass. We were all stoked. He had brushed off the skunk for all of us.

That young scout was the only one to catch a fish that day. A couple of other kids had hooked fish, but hadn't set the hook and ended up losing it. At 5pm the last of kids went back to camp and Bill and I broke everything down and packed it back into his SUV. It had been a very long day. I was exhausted, but it had been an absolute blast.

That evening at the Pack Meeting, the scout leader asked the kids, "You've done a lot of activities today. Kickball, Astronomy, Fishing, Conservation, Hiking. What was your favorite?" In almost perfect unison the entire cub scout pack responded with a loud resounding ....

"FIIIIISSSSSHHHHHHIIIIIIIIINNNGG!!!!!!!"

I couldn't help but smile and hope that I had helped play a part in getting these 50+ young boys and girls interested in this great sport. If so, it would be my biggest catch yet.

><)))>

Today, Mommy had a meeting at Jacob's school, so Daddy watched me. Last night he asked me, "What do you want to do tomorrow while Mommy is at her meeting?" I said, "Let's go fishing!"

First we went to the fishing store. I like the big blue fish on the front of the store. When I walked into the store I said, "Daddy!!! This store is awsome!!" The man who works at the store said he thinks it's awsome, too.

Daddy bought some fishing things and I looked at the hooks. Then we went to the lake.

I saw a mommy duck with a bunch of baby ducks. The mommy duck chased all the other daddy ducks away.



Daddy put a bait on my fishing pole that looked like a fish. He casted my line out really far and I said, "Wow, Daddy!!! Good cast!"

We fished for a little while, but I didn't get a fish. Then I wanted a snack, so me and Daddy went back to the car to get the snacks. When we came back, Daddy fished and I ate crackers. Then we moved to another place.