Small waters

I really dig fishing small creeks and ponds with ultra light fly rods. I was on my way to for a carp session around noonish and decided to go another direction since the weather wasn't going to be conducive to sight fishing.

We are blessed with temperate Redwood forests close to home. Here, being the southern edge of the Redwood tree's range but still abundant with a few old growth still left. Redwoods and the places they are found are stunning and to catch wild native trout underneeth the canopy is something I love to do.

In about an hours time I had caught atleast one rainbow in every pool in the small section I fished. Also looked around an old homestead stairway to nowhere and outhouse. Rain started and went full on so I left them till next time.

Once out of the canyon the rain let up so I hit the trail for some gills with the 2#. The blast of warm weather we had last week was all we needed to extend the farm pond fishing. They were eating the dries well and I spent about an hour messing with them before I headed for the house. Fall is finally here and it feels good. All in all a pretty nice 3 hour hike with a dozen or so fish. I like it!

Thursday carp session

A beautiful warm day in late October. High 70s, light SW breeze to break up the surface and no one around. I couldn't wait to get out there for a few hours before the Giants Rangers WS game. The problem was, the first two areas I checked out were dead. No life at all on the flats except for a few Dragon flies here and there and some Hoppers kicking around the sparse thistle lined banks. October-November can have super prolific Dragon fly hatches that the carp take advantage of, especially on warm days like this, but the flies were few and far between.

The areas I fish are always changing through out the year as the lake levels drop. Every week is different structure, new flats, channels etc... I prefer low lake levels as it seems to corral them up a bit and provides more shots on feeding fish in an average day. Most of our lakes are still relativley high with the heavy rain we had last year. The photos below are on the upper end of a local lake with depth no more the about three feet and most of the fish tail in 12-18'.

As the shadows started getting longer and time was running out, I jumped in my truck and checked one last place. I could see a small school of about 4 or 5 quality fish mudding about 75 yards from where I perched on a hill side rock. They were headed my way so I hurried up and tried to cut them off. They finally made it with in range of me and I was able to get three or four really good shots with in 30'. They had the area churned up pretty good and were pushing at a good clip. I just wasn't able to get one of them to get a good look at my bug before they were gone. Somwtimes it goes there way, sometimes mine. It was fun none the less and the Giants took care of game 2!








Dragon Fly nymph

With the..

First front of the year I figured the fishing would be excellent, but it was only half ass. Lots of small Stripers on the Forebay both on the flats and deeper breaks and weed edges. I had mixed cloud/sun,sprinkles, wind, no wind ect..a little of everything. But the outside temp was in the mid 60s and low 70s when the sun came out for a couple of hours. The fish were aggressive and would eat when ever you put a fly infront of them so I cant complain except for size average. Also a few Largemouth mixed in through out the day as a bonus. I fished deep with a an 8wt/shotting head with lots of grabs but these fish were more suited to a 5/6wt and I used that on the skinny water.

There were pretty good schools of 15-20in babys chewing up baitfish in less than 3ft of water and it was perfect for a I-line and 5wt. The eats were fun as hell. Had a fun day and I got home in time to watch the GIANTS seal the deal on the NLCS. So stoked!

Will likely be my last trip to the FB for a while as I will focus more of my attention on the Delta the rest of the year but you never know. The water temp is still in the mid 60s there. Rained all night and I have wind rain and over all crappy weather today. Pefect to getg out and do some fishing!

Friday afternoon..

Steelhead was tough as it often is so I went up and checked a couple of lakes for carp and with the grey sky and wind called it as far as fishing goes. It was a nice warmish Friday afternoon and I thought it might rain at any moment. Non the less a nice day in the hills around here. Old twisted Oaks that have stood the test of time always catch my eye and it lookes like the Cactus fruit needs some picking! I stopped at a reject pumpkin farm and was greeted with a mean ass Pitbull so I got the hell out of there. It looked like he might take the pumpkin guarding job a little too serious. I'm outta here to do some fishing


Coyote Valley down below

Random photos

Cleaning up and archiving old images this morning and thought I would share some photos of different species from the last couple of years. These are from Mex, Fla, Wyoming, Nevada, Louisiana & Cali.