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.”
It was a great day on the lake today. The weather may have been too good – slight overcast with heat and no wind. The algae is happy and my boat trailer looks Irish. Everybody was out today in force including a couple guides and Vaughn-Larry again. Amazingly, Larry who wasn’t able to cast three…
Redding Fly Shops Brad Jackson caught a 29 pounder at the trash racks at 7:30 in the morning on Tuesday May 7th on a Chartreuse and White Flashtail Clouser. Fishing with Dan Blanton (Source- Dan Blanton’s BBS), they reported another slower day from the low pressure. Another Pig comes from the Dam in the first…
Sometimes I think that I’m jinxed. Statistically, one would think that if you catch enough fish , that a couple of them should be big. That elusive 10 lb mark in San Luis. seemed to elude me this year–its been 5 months for Pete’s sake. I can still hear the advice of the old pros, “You…
With the Striper fishing going strong off the Trash Racks, the last 4 trips have been pretty crowded with at least 4 or 5 other boats jockying around the racks with the Damn Dam Police megaphoning us to get back from the wall at least 500 feet. I take my Calaway Range Finder out…
The Boys of Summer are back. Dan Blanton, Tom Malec, and Steve Santucci were all out on the lake this past week and slammin’ them. Mr Santuccci’s clients landed two 17 lbrs on the lake on Wednesday on large Brown and Blue Clousers. Impressive! I bet those big ones are on the other side of…
Fishingdate – Saturday April 27, 2013 It may not have been number one on Rick’s bucket list but i had a feeling it was near the top. Ive been fishing with Rick for about two years. He is 75 years old and a retired IBM engineer who knew my dad. One of many things I…
I went back for more this weekend just in case it was the day that my luck would change. Unfortunately it was a carbon copy of Saturday. Wes wrote today that they are letting water out of the dam and perhaps the striper fishing may pick up in the next couple days on the Feather. Why…
It been a long time since I felt the pull of a big striper. Today, I pulled on a bunch of dinks and its just not enough. Any day now, the Lake and Forebay should start getting better. Last year at this time the lake was 20 feet higher and there was timber in…
In searching for the lightest 7-8 wgt reels with the beefiest drags and sturdiest frames, there are two standout reels to look at–the Vanquish 7.8 LT and the Nautilus NV 8/9 G7. Nautalis NV 8/9 G7- The G7 spool was designed to fit a large arbor 7wgt reel and fits nicely into the light NV…
After being defeated by baitfishermen on Saturday, I though maybe I would take a friend out fishing today and try some baitfishing. We stopped by Coyote Bait and Tackle, picked up some anchovies, sardines, bloodworms, and a dozen medium size minnows. They were out of jumbos. We launched at the Forebay around 9:00. It…
Its like the Shark’s loosing streak. I just cant win one. The last 4 weeks of fly fishing the forebay has been so slow for me that I cant remember what a big striper feels like. Yikes Again today, great weather, 8 hours of good casts and nothing to show but the smallest striper I have ever…
Wow, my first fly fishing orthopedic injury. I felt it happen strip setting on a snag three weeks ago. After that incident, I fished three days on the lake and I could tell that fast stripping and double hauling was getting painful I put on a strap above my left elbow to help relieve the pain…
Its been a really long time since I had two zero fish days in a row at The O’Neilll Forebay. What started out as a day of promise ended up with only one hookup and it wasn’t a striper. While casting to the dam at Oneill, I got a really light hit on the…
I want to catch a big striped bass.by: kovacsxtranormal For the first time in years, I scored a Zero at the lake. I took my buddy Rick out and we put in a whole day looking around the Big Lake for eating fish. We saw plenty and even baitfished over a school of them for…
The solonar tables predicted an EPIC day today this Chinese New Year. But instead of a parade of landed fish, all I caught were 5 dinks. I concentrated on the edges of the channels and the rock wall today. I fished the area between the islands and not a touch. I tied some skulpin flies…
Yesterday was the flattest day I have ever seen on the Forebay and today I received this message in my fortune cookie. Im still trying to estimate how big that fish really was that was caught last week on the Big Lake. There was a great post on Dan Blanton’s BBS from Captain Mike Costello–one the most…
Rick and I launched at Basalt boat launch at 11 am and fished till 4. I thought we might pick up a few fish trolling flies around O’Neill Dam where I saw a couple guys catch a couple large fish day before yesterday. We trolled around till 2:00PM without a bump. I figured we would…
The good old days are back. I just dont want to jinx it. I can still remember those 5 Superbowls. 1982, 1985, 1989, 1990, 1995. The first Superbowl win occurred in my last year of Dental School at Northwestern. I remember watching that game at Streeters Sports Bar in Chicago surrounded by 9r fans in…
Finally a free day to get out to the lake after a cold and rainy weather pattern in the Bay area for the last several weeks. I havent done well in January in the past and the reports from the Delta and the lake have been pretty bad the last few weeks.…
The weather took a turn today and I headed out to O’neill Forebay for some exercise. Equipped with my new Helios II and Lamson Vanquish, I was more excited to cast than to catch. I left the house around 6:00 and by the time I hit the boat launch I was the tenth guy out…