My Day Fishing

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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