About Time For A Post

[John H]

It has been two months since I made a post. Not a lot fly fishing has happened but I figured I would make a post anyway. I fished for bass so much in the spring that I think I kind of had my fill for awhile.

I have been out for bass and stripers a few times but nothing remarkable happened. I did see a guy fishing live bait in his boat and he claimed to be cleaning up. When I saw him he had two rods in the water and both had fish on them so I tend to believe that he was cleaning up. He showed me an 8" pike minnow that he said had caught five fish before it was to dead to use. He said he got one up to the boat that was 25 pounds but had not kept any. He said he was selling all his boats next year and moving to Florida. He was pretty excited about that.

I went up to Oregon this recently and got some crabs and coho and apples. Lots of surplus apples up there in the fall. The bay was full of big crabs that were eager to get in my trap. You had to limit your catch to what you could eat. The bay was also full of coho that were not eager to bite but I did catch some and cooked one whole in the oven.

I went out in the ocean in my kayak and got dumped by a wave on the way back in. It was too deep to touch the bottom and the boat was capsized so I spent about 15 minutes trying to swim the kayak in but could not make any progress. The water was about 55 degrees so I figured I needed to abandon ship and swim in before I was too exhausted and cold to do so. I had a camera, fly rod and phone in it and as I swam away I thought I might never see any of it again. When I got to the beach the kayak had miraculously drifted in close enough to wade to. Quite an experience. A guy on the beach watched me and said when I stood up his first thought was I still had my hat. If you still have your hat you are kind of in control of the situation. I felt like I was in control the whole time but there can be a thin line between being in control and being in the middle of a disaster. It is best to stay on the living side of that line.

I got a nice picture of a dipper bird on the Kilchis River. Everyone has seen them poking around for aquatic insects in trout streams. He is a fun bird to watch. I aslo got a picture of an Anna's hummingbird on our backyard feeder. I like watching them chase each other around. They seem to pretty mean and territorial.

Not a lot happening for flyfishing but that will hopefully change soon. Maybe a valley steelhead or a big striper that wants to bite a fly. We'll see.

That is the story.

[guido]

Great shots John!

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

We miss the Pacific coast of NorCal, Oregon and Washington state.

The seafood on the Pacific coast is wonderful, plus the apples and berries.



One of our grandsons just moved to Bellevue, WA with his fiancée.

[Mr T]

Wow John,

The story about the ocean and the kayak is chilling, not just figuratively.

I had a similar thing happen at Berryessa and could not get back on even though I had practiced it. I had to swim to shore pulling the yak, hanging on the side to catch my breath and repeating till i could stand. I got rid of the yak soon after.

As always, your shots are gorgeous!

Best,

Larry

[DLJeff]

Nice pic of the ouzel. I've been trying to get one just as it emerges from under the water as the water is flowing over a rock. Impressive little birds with what they can do in and under the water. Also want a pic of red winged black bird flying directly toward the camera - I want to capture the red epaulettes from that angle. Did see an evening grosbeak yesterday at the feeder but it didn't stick around long enough for a photo. Beautiful bird.

[John H]

DL - The ouzel is an interesting bird. He has long legs. Almost like a shorebird but in the rocky streams. I saw him in this spot in December last year so I went this year thinking I might find him again. My wife said she would wait in the the car while I went to have a look. I told her I would be gone 10 minutes but if I saw the dipper bird it would be an hour and a half. It ended up being about an hour. We did go to the dahlia farm twice on this trip though so I guess that is all part of the compromises of marriage.

Larry - I tried to swim and pull the kayak along but it would not move. It was hard to see if I was making progress but after 15 minutes I still could not touch the bottom so I guessed I was not moving. I may have been in an out going rip current and after I left the boat it blew north out of the rip current and was pushed in by waves. It was capsized and I tried to flip it over twice but could not. I could not climb on top of it either but that would not have helped my situation any. The only solution was getting to shore. I lost my sunglasses and fried my electronic scale. My camera was in a dry bag and lived to shoot another day. I was very happy my dry bag saved the camera. I use dry bags a lot and it paid off this time.

[Dugger]

Hey John

I think you have done a float on the Klamath near Happy Camp that I intend to do. Would you be willing to have a quick discussion or email exchange about the float? If so, please message me. Tx. Doug