Friday Sept 4, 2021 – I needed one more day on the water to tune my spey rod for my Alaska trip next week t minus three days and counting. Glen Chenn emailed us that there is a spike in Covid in Alaska and our entire group of Seniors is getting a bit nervous. No…
Saturday August 28, 2021 – Mother Nature threw some hurdles at me today trying to get me to not fish , The temps were predicted to be 105 degrees from noon to 4:00 and I was a bit worried that the Smoke from the Northern California Fires might waft into the valley and close the…
Monday August 9, 2021 Today was suppose to be the calmest day of my four day weekend but it turned out to be the most windy. The yellow light was on all day. I was really looking forward to fishing some calm water with a shot at some topwater but as soon as I crested…
Friday Aug 6, 2021 Vaughn and I figure we’ve been fishing buddies for about ten years now. Yet today was the first time we fished in my boat together. A couple weeks ago we fished with Bryce Tedford together and it seemed like we had fished together for year him in the front and I…
After fishing the Forebay for many years, I basically forgot how many skills you must master to catch a Striped Bass on a fly . It starts with fly casting. Len Bearden’s memorable quote was ” Meng. you are only as good a fisherman as you cast…”. To Fly Fish for Stripers, you must learn…
I was beginning to think I was jinkxed with the weather at O’neill Forebay. For the last two weeks I’ve been trying to get out every day that I have been off work. Unfortunately, I’m about 50 percent these last two weeks when it comes to actually making the ride due to inaccurate wind…
July 25, 2021 – I receive many emails and texts asking what fly Im using in the Forebay and in the Lake. The truth is that I dont really have more than 6 flies in any style that are identical. One of the aspects of fishing the forebay and lake as my “home” waters is…
Friday July 23, 2021 – Today I scouted the Main Lake and Forebay. This year’s drought has already drawn the lake down to nearly 40 percent capacity. I haven’t seen it this low since the great drought. When the water gets low like this, sometimes you can catch some really big fish off the shoreline. …
Monday July 19, 2021 – Vaughn and I had the pleasure of being guided by Bryce Tedford on the Delta for some Topwater LMB Action. In all the years that I’ve known Vaughn, this is the first time we actually shared a boat. Having been heavily outfished by Vaughn , it will probably be the…
Sunday July 18, 2021 – There is nothing quite as satisfying as fishing with your dog or in this case fishing with your kids dog. Kimmie and I spent a nice day on the forebay . Some rare cloud cover and heat helped keep the winds down till 3:30. We had a window of calm…
Wednesday July 15 2012 -It wasn’t till 11:00 today when I decided to go and fish the forebay again. The last two opportunities paid off big and the odds seemed in my favor today. Last night I checked the wind to see if the pattern had changed and to my suprise, the winds were…
MONDAY July 12, 2021 – I have the week off. This week I was supposed to be in Cuba fly fishing the Jardines de la Reina but because of COVID, the airlines cancelled flights to Havana. It looks like we dodged a bullet since today (the day we were to land in Havana) thousands of…
FRIDAY July 9, 2021 -The Wind basically wipe the month of June off my fishing diary with high winds and ambiguous wind predictions. The best fishing of the month was when I challenged the wind predictions and won. Today was one of those days. The wind predictions have consistently predicted a small windows of…
Sunday July 27 2021 – It was August 2013 when San Luis hit its lowest level in history. Since then, The DWR vowed never to let the lake drop that low ever again. The algae blooms nearly ruined the lakes plumbing and the local reservoirs that depend on San Luis Reservoir dried up . The…
Behind most great Pyramid Lake fishermen is a custom made ladder. Pyramid lake is famous for fishing from ladders. Over the last 40 years, Ladder fishing has evolved from its beginnings when anglers would stand on milk crates in deeper water to allow them to wade deeper and cast farther. Pyramid lake is surrounded by…
After weeks of windy weekends, I finally made it to the Racks during a still day. Yesterdays report from Brian and Tim had me “pumped” for the racks. This time of year, the fish are big and fat and ready to spawn. When the racks are good, its non stop action and…
Hoping to get on those stripers in the trench again, I called up Pee Wee to see if he wanted to join me and take a chance on a small window of opportunity. Unfortunately, we only had a hour of somewhat calm before the white caps started rolling in. The fish were in the trench…
The winds of March 2021 have been relentless and it’s been tough to coordinate my off days with the calm windows. Two Days ago, Brian got his PB at the trash racks- an 18 lb beauty. God know he’s put the time in. I think he fishes San Luis and Forebay more than any of…
The winds at San Luis Reservoir and Forebay have been very unpredictable this weekend. I tried to arrange a day of fishing with my old friend Pee Wee Marshal but as it would turn out, there is no such thing as a firm fishing date on San Luis since the winds can build up…
It’s been months since I fished the Lake and I felt very rusty. I had to unlearn some striper habits fishing for big cutthroat trout at Pyramid Lake. Three weeks ago I fished the forebay and I can’t remember the last time I fished the lake. While in Hawaii last week, Brian was texting me…
“Pilots” – the largest growing trout native to North America also known as the Lahontan Cutthroat Trout once thought extinct but resurrected in the last decade. In 1995 a genetic reservoir of the Lahontan Cutthroat was discovered near Pilot Peak Utah. Known as “Pilots”, monster catches in the last couple years point to the unprecedented…
Two years ago at the Pleasanton Fly Fishing Show, I decided to upgrade my float tube. Convinced by Don Cheserek that the ultimate tube was a Dave Scaddon Zonker, I bought one and mounted a Bixby Jet on it to fish Henderson Springs last year which got cancelled. This year’s Henderson Springs trip…
I hope that after I die, a small group of friends might meet every year after my death and have a good time in my memory Two of the group are gone now, 8 remain and all are pushing 80 or more. Sometimes I feel like the historian for this event being the youngest at…
I left the house optimistic that the wind would finally die down so I could fish the Racks. Like last year this month, this is the time when the water starts to warm and big stripers start getting aggressive as they begin to spawn. Full moons, wind currents and warmer water (around 60) makes those…
My memories of the first time I ever fished Pyramid lake are bit fuzzy. It was on a fishout with the San Jose Flycasters around 1973. The 5 hour drive from San Jose made me think that it was on another planet at the time. The stories I had heard about easily catching fish…
