San Luis Reservoir and Oneill Forebay are my home waters. The pages beneath, chronicle my trips to these waters with photography and video over the last years. With the advent of GoPro Cameras and advances in video editing software, I’ve tried to capture the feel of fly fisihng these bodies of waters through the seasons having fished there since the 70’s. As many have pointed out, it seems the fishing was better years ago. As tribute to the great fishermen who loved this body of water who are now gone including my father–I say fish for the moment. There are links in this blog to Len Bearden’s 1991-92 fishing diaries giving me a reference to “the way it was” 25 years ago. Someday these blog post will also be considered the old days so till then – YOLO. I try to fish there weekly when work allows.
“…On some of those rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs. I am haunted by waters.”
The most Catastrophic event in my lifetime is freshly underway. Our family is being tested by a worldwide event that will change the way we live from here on out. What feels like a science fiction movie or the first episode of Fear the Walking Dead is now a reality. A new tiny piece of…
Sunday March 8, 2020 The rains have returned leaving only one day this weekend without wind and rain. I thought last week I would be in Disneyland with family, but travel planes were postponed because of the ‘rona’ and I decided to “self quarantine” myself to the middle of San Luis Reservoir. Also I decided…
Friday Feb 29, 2020 – Its official, San Luis Reservoir Fly Fishing for Stripers is on. Dan Blanton, Vaughn, and Steph all had great days yesterday. I was counting the days, doing dentistry this week , anticipating the weekend for another great shot at and epic day after last weeks great day with Kimmie the…
Feb 22, 2020 -I don’t know what happened this week that was different from the last that would make such a difference in the fishing in only 5 days ago. Maybe the racks have been hot since the beginning of the year. So many things came together today. Mark left for Cabo for his…
Sunday Feb 16, 2020 After a month of working on boats, I finally got the Crestliner out on the water today trying to catch some stripers. My first trip out on the big lake in January, I got skunked and since then others have hit the big lake and forebay with very little luck. …
The fishing gods found it appropriate to hand me a zero today–a long day with no hits or fish. The weather was perfect considering it had been blowing over 15 mph for the last three days. Gina gifted me a 10 inch Garmin GPSmap XSV Chartplotter and Sonar which I built into my…
This past year has seen amazing success for our daughter in her business -Nutrition By Mia. Her job as a social media influencer, nutrition and lifestyle consultant and TV personality has brought her success in ways we never imagined as parents. On this Christmas Eve 2019, she again appeared on Fox Business to talk…
November 18, 2019 (Monday) – The water temps are hovering around 61 degrees and the stripers seem not to be in a biting mood. The weather is still warm but the full moon cycles seem to have slowed the daytime bite. I heard through the grapevine that several large fish were caught this weekend…
November 11, 2019 – I thought the day might be tough because of the big full moon the night before. If it would be anything like last week, I figured I would find a few good fish right off the rocks of the dam. Today I concentrated my efforts on the dam and fished…
Saturday November 2, 2019 As the water gets colder, the fishing usually picks up at San Luis. November has always been a pretty good month over the years. I guess I am not the only person who knows about November. I launched early today hoping to find some topwater stripers and despite getting to…
It was tough fishing today. It was defined by a thousand casts in 6 hours for 4 hits and 4 fish. A day like today reminds me that fishing is not just the ten minutes of actually hooking and playing a fish. Fishing is the whole process of getting the boat ready, tying the…
Sunday October 11, 2019 -The harvest moon Is this week and I can feel the fishing entering the Fall Cycle. I arrived at the lake late today because of a Flat Tire on the trailer driving up 101. Luckily, the tire didn’t delaminate and blow my fender off like it did last time. …
Sept 1, 2019 – It figures that this Labor Day Saturday would be a hard day of fishing. I wanted to get one more day of Striper Fishing in before taking off for Alaska this week to try to catch Silver Salmon on the Sapsuk River. I met Tim Anderson on the lake. He…
Monday August 27, 2019 – After a week in Charleston not fishing, I was excited to get back to the lake as soon as possible. The wind pattern has changed and calm hot days are the norm this month. I got to the lake at 7:00 and it was already about 80 degrees. I was…
Sunday August 12, 2019 – It feels like going back to school fishing on the lake today. I haven’t fished the Lake in over a month and I had to relearn the lake from scratch. Over the “summer break” I changed the oil on the outboard, replaced the prop, and installed a Garmin ECHOMAP…
It is easy as a flyfisherman to forget that most of the Stripers caught in San Luis reservoir are caught by Baitfishermen, and gear guys. Many of the gear guys are experts and catch way more fish than I do. There is whole new generation of San Luis Striper fishermen that troll umbrella rigs, cast…
Sunday June 26, 2019 – The wind has been very fluky as of late at the San Luis Reservoir. When the highway signs warn of “Gusty Winds” over Pacheco Pass even when its calm, you can bet that the wind predictions may not be accurate. Yesterday (Saturday) I got excited when the wind predictions was…
Sunday March 9, 2019 – Sunday was my idea of a perfect opportunity at San Luis, hot weather, no wind and the pumps pushing water into the lake. With the warm weather melting the snow in the sierras and the late rains of a couple weeks ago, for the first time in many years, the…
Saturday May 18, 2019– I snuck out to the lake this Saturday morning to get a couple hours of fishing in despite the small window of opportunity forecasted by the weather gurus. I launched at the Dinosaur Point ramp at 7:30 in ZERO wind with only one other boat on the water. The forcast was…
Sunday May 12, 2019 – Despite it being Mothers Day no mother stripers were caught–at least no big mamas. The winds on the lake have been fluky this week. The pattern seems to be wind in the early morning with a lull around 9:00 with increasing winds in the afternoon. Today there was a very…