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.”
Addendum: Nov 23, 2011 After watching a bunch of other striper fillet vids, I think this guy has the most skill and looks like he does it alot. As a dental surgeon, I can see this guy has some real skills–he doesnt recut incisions, he uses long accurate cuts, hes fast because he know precisly…
Today, Victor from the California Fly shop hosted a San Luis Fly Fishing Clinic at Oneal Forebay. According to Victor, 20 people showed up and the fishing was good when you could find the schools of fish. They caught over 100 strippers that day. I spent the morning on the main lake concentrating on…
Fished the morning this Monday with Jim Cramer and had a pretty successful day. We managed a few fish over 7 lbs and caught all the fish today on flies. The bite was much better in the morning. We found a school of fish feeding or cruising the surface but could not get a grab…
Tom Tan, my uncle told me on the way up to the lake that he hadn’t fished it in 20 years and remembers catching tiny stripers on anchovies off the bank. I told him today, we are not doing that. We had a great day together–my uncle is a retired postal carrier and…
Not a stellar day but good nonetheless with 16 fish total all caught from 6AM to 9AM. The one keeper was about 20 inches caught in the trench on a white fly. I released several other keepers thinking I would catch plenty, but every thing turned off at 9AM leaving me one short. Caught…
Because Gina wanted a fish to eat for dinner, I fished the forebay this morning from 7:00am till noon and put 37 fish in the boat. It was awesome and it seemed, for awhile, a fish or a take on every cast. I went out alone and launched at sunrise. The first thing i…
For the the first time in a long time, Mark wanted to go fishing with me this weekend. I started checking the wind three days ago and a storm front was approaching with predictions of rain for today. We had planned to get up at 5:30 am and head out for some topwater, but the…
After chasing the elusive “windless morning” on San Luis reservoir for the last three weeks, the perfect morning greeted us as we made the boat launch at 6:30 am Monday morning at Basalt. As we pulled up, two guys from Santa Barbara were already leaving for the day. They told us that large fish were…
Imagine a huge windless lake with no boats except yours on a fresh warm Monday morning . Few shorefisheman, an empty boat launch at 6:30 in the morning with nothing to do but fish all day. A full tank of gas in the boat, fly rods, donwriggers, bait and time. Drinks food, and a 12…
Len Bearden told me once that for every two fishless trips to San Luis, you get a good one. Well today we are half way there to another good day. At least I bought a Year Pass to get on the lake. At $200 a year, ill have to go 13 times to break even. …
Update: This morning Friday July 22, 2011, I called the wind line at 8:00 am to see how the wind was in anticipation of heading there tommorrow early. The wind line said it was blowing 16-32 mph with and average speed of 27mph. This wind chart showed it blowing at 15 MPH. It was really…
I actually enjoy eating stripers! Some interesting trivia about Stripers. Striped Bass Recipes started with the Pilgrims. Captain John Smith, wrote in his journal in 1614 “that Striped Bass was a most sweet and wholesome fish as ever I did eat” And In 1634: William Wood, in his New England’s Prospect, called the Striped Bass…
Today I was schooled by a pair of Midget Fly Fishing Pros masquerading as twin 8 year olds. There are no better Flyfishing kids than Mathew and Michael. Today we landed 55 stripers near Franks Track on the Delta on Flies that the boys tied. They cast a 350 Grain shooting head with no assistance…
“Here’s tae us! There’s gey few like us–and they’re a’ damned or deid!” Hogmanay toast, trad. attr. Gordon Highlanders Few people stay connected to you for your whole life from childhood that are not your relatives. Because we shared the same passion for FLY FISHING in the 70’s, Len took a chance on a young…