August Stripers

After last week’s disappointing fishing trip on the forebay and hearing a great report from Brian about the lake, I was really looking forward to a successful day on the water. I set out a little early to fuel up the boat, but soon found myself stuck in standstill traffic on Highway 152 near San…

Covid, Round 2, Day 6

Tuesday August 6. 2024 – I’m not entirely sure what cosmic crime I committed to earn last week’s mess, but I’m feeling the desperate need for some kind of divine intervention. The world is spiraling into chaos, with a war escalating in the Middle East, and the stock market took a nosedive that felt like…

The Stones one more time…

… If I could stick my pen in my heartAnd spill it all over the stageWould it satisfy ya, would it slide on by yaWould you think the boy is strange?Ain’t he strange? The call unexpectedly blasted in like a lightning bolt out of a clear sky.   My old neighbor Tom was on the line, offering…

Dink Blitz on the Forebay

After more than five decades of fishing the forebay, my hopes were high for today to be unexpectedly good. Just two days ago, Frank had reported the best day on the forebay this year, with 10 solid catches and a screenshot of a school of large spawning stripers. That was all the motivation I needed…

Yap Attack at the Rack

June 21, 2024.   The winds had been a howling, relentless beast at the lake for the past week, a savage, unpredictable force that gave me the strange luxury of catching up on house chores and accounting. Yesterday, in a fit of idle curiosity, I checked the wind forecasts. I wasn’t expecting a window of calm…

The 80th Anniversary of D-Day

To my Children, In-laws, and Grandchildren, June 6, 2024 On this 80th anniversary of D-Day, let me remind you of how significant this day is to your very lives. On this day, Nicholas Gray, grandfather to Mia and Mark, father to Gina Gray, landed on Omaha Beach, Easy Red Sector, in the first wave of…

Tony Yap on San Luis Reservoir

It’s a savage task, wrangling old comrades for a day on the water when the piscatorial gods are as unpredictable as a three-legged mule on a greasy slope. These jaunts are fraught with complications—not least because the ravages of time have clawed at my friends, leaving them speckled with ailments and age. But these old…

Strange Day on the Lake today…

Monday  May 6, 2024 – Just two days ago, the weather at San Luis Reservoir was dreary with rain, wind, and cold, and I wasn’t optimistic about today’s prospects given the iffy wind forecast. However, upon arriving at the lake, I noticed the inspection station had been permanently relocated to the front gate, equipped with…

Fish Window and the Washing Machine

Monday APRIL 22, 2024 – I flipped a coin this morning to determine whether I’d spend the day fishing the forebay or the main lake. Before leaving in the morning I made some speculative moves on NVIDIA stock in my investment accounts following last Fridays slide, and things were looking great at the start of…

Big Fun on the Big Lake

Today proved to be an unexpectedly delightful day out on the lake with Dan Blanton. The usual rhythms of March seemed disrupted as the fish didn’t adhere to their typical pre-spawning behavior. Notably absent were the sizable schools of stripers in the shallower waters, with depths less than 30 feet, where they’d usually gather. The…