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.”
Friday March 18, 2022 -This years Striper fishing in the forebay has gotten off to a very soft start. I haven’t been fishing it much because reports have been slow to fair and few attempts Ive made this year have been really tough. It’s so different than last year. But today I felt like the…
Friday February 19 2022 Even though the best reports from the lake and forebay these last few weeks have been fair to poor, I had to go back and look for myself, especially with February getting closer to the possible closure of the Lake. Some people have been hinting that the lake would remain…
Sunday January 23, 2022 – It took 23 days into the New Year to head back out to the Forebay after my Zero Fish end of the 2021 day more than 4 weeks ago. Maybe my longest absence from the lake in a long time, it has been hard to go back and try after…
December 31, 2021 NEW YEARS EVE – It’s not like I didn’t try hard enough to catch one more striper in the year 2021. I did get to use my Annual Poppy Pass and Boat launch one more time. and it felt like making money at least. It was as tough a day as…
Dec 11, 2024 – With the biggest atmospheric river storm expected to soak the Bay Area tomorrow, I figured the fish might be on the feed with the barometer drop. But with last nights bright moon and a poor solonar rating, the day was spent looking for biting fish-more looking than catching. We did some…
Saturday Dec 4, 2021 – I’m getting a feeling that nobody really knows what makes stripers in the Oneill Forebay eat. This year has been a strange Striper year all around. There are many who are saying that its one of the worst seasons on record. Many of the San Luis regulars in November…
Monday – November 22, 2021 Fly Fishing reports from forebay this week have been bleak. The moon was full last night and I had a feeling it would be a tough day. It will be two weeks before I’ll be able to fish the Forebay again and I decided to go out anyways and test…
November 4, 2021 – It was best not to expect too much today especially when I crested Pacheco Pass on a sunny morning only to find a thick fog bank hanging over the forebay all day. The Wind Line is broken and has been registering Zero Miles and hour for the last weeks. The…
Monday November 4, 2021 – Every time I decide to fish the Forebay, there is a split second while driving over the pass, when I get that first view of the East side of the lake of Romero to the Bay of Pigs, that there is an urge to blow off the forebay and head…
October 31, 2021 – The forebay sure looked different to me than three weeks ago. The pattern has definitely changed. The weedlines are gone, the first storms of the year have gone through making the water muddy. the DWR is pumping water into the lake which has lowered the Forebay three feet since I last…
Sunday October 10, 2021 After taking my dear friend Jerry out last week for a shutout, I felt like the Giants after losing to Dodgers. I needed a win and I was determined to get Jerry on some Stripers even after scouting the forebay yesterday with mixed results. I also knew that the “A” team …
Saturday Oct 8, 2021 – My high expectations for today was met with a minimum wage day. I landed 22 but it was tough fishing today. I found the big schools in the middle again but they were tough to stay on. I got three on the wall in the morning during the solonar…
Monday October 4, 2021 I set out fishing this morning with low expectations. Two days ago, I had high expectations taking Jerry out for the first time. I don’t like taking people out unless I have high expectations especially with friends that don’t fish every week. I’m use to bad days but when I take…
Friday October 1, 2021 – I was really hoping that my first invitation to Jerry on the forebay would be epic. But wishing and having arent the same when it comes to fishing. I waited till Steph finished his scouting trip on the main lake today before writing this report , hoping to go…
September 27,2021 -Yesterday, Steph and Vaughn had a good day on the Forebay. Steph was very persuasive after describing his luck in the open water using his “grid” search but today I couldn’t find a fish in deep water that would bite. I did see lots of bait and other fish. There must be American…
September 24, 2021 – Something is in the water in the Forebay. I have never seen the fish from the forebay all consistently fat and healthy as they were today. This unusual trend has to be from a change in the food chain in the forebay. All the regular food sources are present. Delta Smelt,…
Friday Sept 4, 2021 – I needed one more day on the water to tune my spey rod for my Alaska trip next week t minus three days and counting. Glen Chenn emailed us that there is a spike in Covid in Alaska and our entire group of Seniors is getting a bit nervous. No…
Saturday August 28, 2021 – Mother Nature threw some hurdles at me today trying to get me to not fish , The temps were predicted to be 105 degrees from noon to 4:00 and I was a bit worried that the Smoke from the Northern California Fires might waft into the valley and close the…
Monday August 9, 2021 Today was suppose to be the calmest day of my four day weekend but it turned out to be the most windy. The yellow light was on all day. I was really looking forward to fishing some calm water with a shot at some topwater but as soon as I crested…
Friday Aug 6, 2021 Vaughn and I figure we’ve been fishing buddies for about ten years now. Yet today was the first time we fished in my boat together. A couple weeks ago we fished with Bryce Tedford together and it seemed like we had fished together for year him in the front and I…