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.”
July 15, 2023 – Two hundred and fifty feet down and a football field out from the trash racks exists a fishing phenomena I call “The Upwelling”. It occurs when water is pumped into the lake from the forebay through the massive pumps at the base of the trash racks. On a calm day like…
June 23, 2023 – Just a couple of days ago, I couldn’t help but think that you can never have enough of a good thing. Well, that turned out to be a jinx. It seemed like the wind was finally going to calm down and give us a break for a couple of days. However,…
Today, Wednesday, June 21, 2023, serves as a poignant reminder of life’s blessings and my imminent retirement. After 40 years of running a private practice, transitioning from four days of clinical work to just two has brought about noticeable changes. This year, I’ve taken up fishing the lake and forebay on Wednesdays for the first…
Saturday June 17, 2023 – A few weeks ago, my friend Steph and I had an amazing day fishing on the lake, and ever since then, I’ve been eager to get back out there almost every day. Today was the first day in three weeks that the “Red Light” warning for the lake and Forebay…
Wednesday June 7, 2023. – The lake has been good for the last couple weeks for those fishermen brave enough to go out in unpredictable winds. As of late, The three phone apps that I use to predict the wind conditions on the lake are WindAlert, Windfinder and Windy have been wrong. In the…
Saturday June 4, 2023 After my fishless day at the Forebay last week, I had a hunch that things were about to change. The sonar showed a significant number of fish, and the weed growth was slightly behind schedule. Once the weeds reach their peak, it’s a sign that the bait will flourish, and…
May 15, 2023. It was great to get back out on the lake after three weeks off . As predicted , the lake went off these last weeks while I was in Spain. I was planning on exploring the full lake alone yesterday but invited Vaughn at the last movement. After a long recovery…
Friday April 14, 2023. The next three weeks are going to busy for me with a Henderson Springs trip next week and a long awaited Cruise to Spain, Morocco and Portugal following that, it may be mid May till I can fish the forebay again. I fished hard the last couple weeks almost every other…
April 10, 2023 – After an exceptionally good day two days ago, I was optimistic that the forebay would be even better today. There was a huge amount of pressure on Easter Sunday according to Tim Anderson who was also on the lake today as was Brian. It was Tim’s third day in a row…
Saturday April 8, 2023 – I have always held the belief that sharing fishing reports comes with a great deal of Karma. Whether it is writing this blog, offering tackle to those who are learning, or simply sharing what you have learned at the dock, Karma operates on the principle of cause and effect. This…
Wednesday April 6, 2023 – As part of my five-year transition into retirement, I’ve decided to fish on Wednesdays this year. Last week, I had some success fishing at the Forebay and was excited to try the lake today. What struck me immediately was how full the lake was. Even in 2018, after a severe…
Flyfishing for Stripers in muddy and cold water has always been challenging and often frustrating over the years. One. might say you have to be a Fool to even waste the gas trying to catch a fish in the Forebay. My goal was to test equipment today and hopefully get ONE fish for diner- its…
Saturday February 18, 2023 – Today I got One Hit and Im Wondering where all the fish are. After last weeks skunk on the Forebay, I decided to torture myself again on the Big Lake and hopefully get better odds in the clearer water. The Forebay is still extremely turbid. When the fishing …
Last Weeks Atmospheric River did a real number on the Lake and Forebay as it did on every river and lake in Northern California. Fishing after the big rains has been challenging for me having done pretty poorly the last couple times out. But there are others that are doing pretty well on the lake. …
One of the nice things about keeping a fishing diary is the ability to go back in time and look at years past at nearly the same day of the year. After having one of the best days I have ever had on the Forebay only a couple weeks ago, I thought that maybe…
Man I was pumped to show Dan the best day in years at the forebay but great makes good feel bad. We launched about the same time as yesterday but the morning was fogged in at 9:00. It was warm and still because of the fog. I headed out slowly to Check 12 and…
Friday Dec 16, 2022 – As I pulled up to the forebay, my phone message lit up. Frank C had texted me in a rare tech moment, to get over to our spot from two weeks ago. There were no birds working the forebay for as far as I could see from the dock. …
Friday Dec 9, 2022. The day almost was cancelled on Wednesday when rain was predicted all day. I wanted to take Dan out again to give him another shot at those video game stripers now that he had the right flies and lines dialed in from last week. The more you fish with someone, the…
Sunday Dec 4,2022 Hoping for a day just like two days ago on the forebay, I jumped on the opportunity to fish when the weather report changed. Another calm west wind day with no rain was predicted for Sunday. The fishing has been good for me these last weeks and Im figuring out how to…
Friday Dec 2, 2022 Some work weeks can’t go by fast enough. All last week seemed like there would not be a weather window to fish this weekend, but on Wednesday a windless rainless day popped up on the prediction and I was all in to get back to those big schools of stripers. I…