SHigSpeed
04-19-2010, 11:26 AM
Well, my first Pyramid adventure was a success.
First off, I drove. Bryan (Blueracer) rode shotgun. We didn't suffer any mechanical difficulties, we didn't drive through any gates or fences. We didn't get stuck in the sand. We did get turned around in Sparks, but we managed to get to the 'res okay.
Musings on:
Ladder fishing - I always thought this was curious. I love to float, and Bryan was skeptical and was leaning towards floating, but all of the gale force winds and tsunami warnings I've seen in the past had me convinced that it was safer to do as the Romans do, at least for the first trip out. Well, it was dead calm. Floating would've been perfectly safe, but I'm convinced that I wouldn't have done as well. The calves are a bit sore today, and the knees were a bit stiff last night, but I made it 10 hours on the blasted thing without falling off (definition: Didn't get water over my waders, though I did have to execute an unscheduled "dismount" once after the ladder started settling into the sand unevenly). A bit of water in the stripping basket and I was launching my full line (8 wt type 6 full sink) with a cast of NO MORE THAN TWO flies with relative ease. Need some pegs for my basket for next time. The Rio Mainstream full sink is only 82 feet though, which is a bit odd. I would have liked to have the full 90 or 100 because I didn't feel like shooting backing. I was overhead casting my 10'8" switch to great effect.
Weather - Like I mentioned, it was GORGEOUS! Pretty much only a "fishin ripple" on the water all day, went to glass at sunset. Stepped out of the car and never donned a jacket all day. I was worried since I'd heard that calm bluebird weather was not the best fishing weather...
Water - Gin clear, though the chemistry of it left ugly water spots on all of my gear. Temp went from 52 to 56 through the day. There were loads of fish in pods swimming through the ladders all day. It was amazing to see them jetting around behind the ladders in the shallow like bones in Bermuda! Some real toad in there too, though those tended to be more solitary.
Fishing - Not bad. I had a report from Saturday of 8 fish for 3 rods so I didn't go in with high expectations. It took a while to crack the code, which is even more frustrating when you see the roving pods all around. They wanted nothing to do with midges/nymphs. I had multiple pods run straight through my multi-fly booby-traps and I would tense up and hang on expecting the 'mabobber to shoot under with a trail of following bubbles, but NOTHING! Tried beetles, wooly worms, soft hackles, assorted nymphs, but I ended up getting all of my fish on olive or black buggers - small ones, size 8/10. All fish on the strip, and though I was zinging 90 feet, most takes were with a huge pile in the basket, necessitating some creative line management. Only needed the reel a couple of times. I'm guessing some days the ballistic cast is required, this day I could have made do with half of that. Steady catching all day that would come and go based on the pods coming through. Between Bryan and I we got over 20 fish to the net. He did better than me, and I'm blaming that on my stubborn insistence on not moving my ladder. Truth is the same fish most likely did laps and he just managed to cash in better than I did. Next time Gadget!! My biggest was 23", his just over that. No giants, but I'm thinking that's for the best. If I had nailed a 15 pounder this trip, the subsequent trips would be ruined out of expectation of similar results.
Miscellany:
- Not as crowded as I'd feared. Even though multiple groups were having "fests" this weekend, we managed to score a nice stretch of beach with a hundred feet or so between us.
- One guy who was with a Chico group managed to launch a fly THROUGH his eyeball across his pupil. Wind and darkness in the morning + no safety glasses = <shudder>! The doctors cut the eyeball across the two puncture wounds and pulled the fly out. Apparently the fly was barbed (oops!) so they couldn't simply pull it back, and they were afraid to put the cutters on it.
- Didn't see any giant fish caught, most were in the same range as we were getting (15"-24")
- Bryan and I were well ahead of average where we were fishing, though there were a couple obvious veterans who were clearly dialed in. Can't complain at all for rank newbies.
- My caster's/tennis elbow survived the full day of bomber casting. The lower grip on the switch rod is to be credited for this. I had it tucked against my elbow for the back cast relieving my wrist and forearm from the brunt of the work of hauling so much junk in the air and off of the water. That spot in the crook of my arm was tender by the end of the day, but no bruising, and the elbow lives to fight another day. Great tool that switch rod.
Oh yeah, gratuitous hero shot:
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4038/4535016930_e8c5781cca.jpg
I'll definitely be back out. This upcoming weekend is fried, but I may make a game-day call to play hooky one day during the week - who knows... It definitely seems like a nice place to camp though. The day trip is an exhausting undertaking, and it may take a couple/few days to laser into the zone and into the big 'uns. That or I need to build up a network of lake-saavy spies so we can compare notes to stay dialed.
Good times, new water no-skunk success is hard to beat.
_SHig
First off, I drove. Bryan (Blueracer) rode shotgun. We didn't suffer any mechanical difficulties, we didn't drive through any gates or fences. We didn't get stuck in the sand. We did get turned around in Sparks, but we managed to get to the 'res okay.
Musings on:
Ladder fishing - I always thought this was curious. I love to float, and Bryan was skeptical and was leaning towards floating, but all of the gale force winds and tsunami warnings I've seen in the past had me convinced that it was safer to do as the Romans do, at least for the first trip out. Well, it was dead calm. Floating would've been perfectly safe, but I'm convinced that I wouldn't have done as well. The calves are a bit sore today, and the knees were a bit stiff last night, but I made it 10 hours on the blasted thing without falling off (definition: Didn't get water over my waders, though I did have to execute an unscheduled "dismount" once after the ladder started settling into the sand unevenly). A bit of water in the stripping basket and I was launching my full line (8 wt type 6 full sink) with a cast of NO MORE THAN TWO flies with relative ease. Need some pegs for my basket for next time. The Rio Mainstream full sink is only 82 feet though, which is a bit odd. I would have liked to have the full 90 or 100 because I didn't feel like shooting backing. I was overhead casting my 10'8" switch to great effect.
Weather - Like I mentioned, it was GORGEOUS! Pretty much only a "fishin ripple" on the water all day, went to glass at sunset. Stepped out of the car and never donned a jacket all day. I was worried since I'd heard that calm bluebird weather was not the best fishing weather...
Water - Gin clear, though the chemistry of it left ugly water spots on all of my gear. Temp went from 52 to 56 through the day. There were loads of fish in pods swimming through the ladders all day. It was amazing to see them jetting around behind the ladders in the shallow like bones in Bermuda! Some real toad in there too, though those tended to be more solitary.
Fishing - Not bad. I had a report from Saturday of 8 fish for 3 rods so I didn't go in with high expectations. It took a while to crack the code, which is even more frustrating when you see the roving pods all around. They wanted nothing to do with midges/nymphs. I had multiple pods run straight through my multi-fly booby-traps and I would tense up and hang on expecting the 'mabobber to shoot under with a trail of following bubbles, but NOTHING! Tried beetles, wooly worms, soft hackles, assorted nymphs, but I ended up getting all of my fish on olive or black buggers - small ones, size 8/10. All fish on the strip, and though I was zinging 90 feet, most takes were with a huge pile in the basket, necessitating some creative line management. Only needed the reel a couple of times. I'm guessing some days the ballistic cast is required, this day I could have made do with half of that. Steady catching all day that would come and go based on the pods coming through. Between Bryan and I we got over 20 fish to the net. He did better than me, and I'm blaming that on my stubborn insistence on not moving my ladder. Truth is the same fish most likely did laps and he just managed to cash in better than I did. Next time Gadget!! My biggest was 23", his just over that. No giants, but I'm thinking that's for the best. If I had nailed a 15 pounder this trip, the subsequent trips would be ruined out of expectation of similar results.
Miscellany:
- Not as crowded as I'd feared. Even though multiple groups were having "fests" this weekend, we managed to score a nice stretch of beach with a hundred feet or so between us.
- One guy who was with a Chico group managed to launch a fly THROUGH his eyeball across his pupil. Wind and darkness in the morning + no safety glasses = <shudder>! The doctors cut the eyeball across the two puncture wounds and pulled the fly out. Apparently the fly was barbed (oops!) so they couldn't simply pull it back, and they were afraid to put the cutters on it.
- Didn't see any giant fish caught, most were in the same range as we were getting (15"-24")
- Bryan and I were well ahead of average where we were fishing, though there were a couple obvious veterans who were clearly dialed in. Can't complain at all for rank newbies.
- My caster's/tennis elbow survived the full day of bomber casting. The lower grip on the switch rod is to be credited for this. I had it tucked against my elbow for the back cast relieving my wrist and forearm from the brunt of the work of hauling so much junk in the air and off of the water. That spot in the crook of my arm was tender by the end of the day, but no bruising, and the elbow lives to fight another day. Great tool that switch rod.
Oh yeah, gratuitous hero shot:
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4038/4535016930_e8c5781cca.jpg
I'll definitely be back out. This upcoming weekend is fried, but I may make a game-day call to play hooky one day during the week - who knows... It definitely seems like a nice place to camp though. The day trip is an exhausting undertaking, and it may take a couple/few days to laser into the zone and into the big 'uns. That or I need to build up a network of lake-saavy spies so we can compare notes to stay dialed.
Good times, new water no-skunk success is hard to beat.
_SHig