Syns, Twins and Fins

We have had marginal success on Lake Oroville the times we’ve been there but I wanted to shorten the learning curve. The guide was very nice and has a great personality. Some guides we have hired in the past should not be in the people business. Ron was immediately impressed with the boys fishing skills. He said repeatedly how exceptional their casting was and how they handle the fish. We fished only 4 areas but ended up with some good fishing for a short fishing time. We fished the north end of the lake and used Senkos rigged Wacky style with a small split shot. The largest fish was almost 16 inches and the boys caught 22 total bass (mixture of red eye bass and spotted bass). 

At 8:50 this morning, Matthew came up to me and asked if we can fish Lake Oroville before their violin recital this afternoon. I said it was going to be a very short trip and I told them it would not be worth it. Well, they got the OK from Mom as long as I got them back here before 1PM. So off we went. We left the house at 9:25 and was fishing by 10:15.

The fishing was not bad considering they boys snagged up a bunch and lost almost all the jigs they brought. They were down to one left before we had to leave. Michael hooked and landed the first one and before long the score was Michael 1 and Matthew 3. By the time we headed back to the dock (11:45am) the score was Michael 4 and Matthew 3. Fun little quickie trip!

Today (Saturday April 27th) was Emma’s first communion. She was so excited that she woke up early and was all dressed up ready to go hours before she was suppose to leave. She did a reading at the church and many guests told her she read great.  These pics are an early glimpse of what Emma will look like on her wedding day!

Notice the title did not include anything about fishing. We the truth of the matter is that we picked dates that gave us EXCELLENT weather for fishing just about everywhere else in the world… except for Pyramid Lake. The lake fishes well with wind and stormy weather. We got the opposite. However if we are going to have tough fishing, I’d much rather have it beautiful conditions.

Uncle Wesley joined us again and we had a great time camping right on the lake’s edge. The Chico Area FlyFishers were also there and they served us a great spaghetti dinner Thursday night.

Coach Kremer (the boys’ basketball coach) was there with 2 of his sons and with the fishing so slow, the boys played together a lot and had a great time.

We all managed to catch fish the first 2 days. There was no hot fly but we did get fish on 3 different offerings, a black wooly worm, albino wino and the white and chartreuse tadpole. We did not get anything huge but one of the fish was as long as Matthew’s arm (finger tips to the shoulder). We ate very well with Chilean Sea bass fish tacos first night and seared scallops and lobster the second night.

Next big trip will be 4 days at Antelope Creek Lodge in May but maybe we’ll head out for some bass or shad prior to that.

Uncle Wesley was gracious enough to guide us on the Feather River today. With out his knowledge of the river we would not have been able to scratch out the numbers we got. The flows have been dropping 200cfs daily and it’s making the fishing inconsistent. The fish are also heading back down river due to the lower flows so it’s difficult for us to stay on the fish.

We got to the launch ramp at 7:25am this morning and there was a line all the way out to the street waiting to launch! It was CROWDED today! We saw some friends fishing the river and they too had a slow day. The boys hooked 24 fish with the majority of the fish being 3-4 pounds but they did land a few up to 7 pounds. A small sparse clouser was their fly and Matthew even caught a fish using the fly he tied at the Fly Tying demonstration last weekend. The boys had 4 double hook ups during the day.  The fish were very strong today I think due the fact that they are gorging themselves on salmon smolts recently released in the river.

It was a great day watching the kids fish while Uncle Wesley and I supervised. We were back home by 4 and now we must get ready for Pyramid Lake next weekend.

The boys were invited to tie flies at the Fly Tying Exhibition at Turtle Bay yesterday.  They were a little apprehensive at first when asked to tie  for the Expo but warmed up to the idea and when tying day came around they were downright excited. We tied in the Turtle Bay museum from 9:30am to 12:30pm. Many guests were surprised to see such young tiers at the tables. The boys tied their version of a Clouser Minnow in Fire Tiger colors.  A couple of guests even asked if they could have one of their flies. Of course that made them very happy.

Pop B (Benson) was there too tying and we were visited by Aunty Eileen and Mr. Ansel. Even Bertha Michelak came by the the boys tying tables.

Immediately after the tying, we left for the Fly Fishing Only section of the Trinity River. We had been there a few years ago trying to time the release of the steelhead smolts but that year it was a bust. I think we might have had a handful of fish rise to the fly. It was the exact opposite yesterday. From the time the boys got on the water, they started hooking and releasing fish in big numbers. The fish are not very big but they are plentiful and it is great training for young dry fly fisherman to achieve a natural, drag free drift with a dry fly. When we decided to leave about three hours into the fishing, the totals where: Matthew landed 57 and Michael landed 60. That is not counting the MANY misses and long distance releases. One the way home we treated ourselves to the Grand Buffet in Redding and then it was home for a good night’s rest.

We initially planned on fishing the Bidwell Ponds but last minute I thought about fishing somewhere the boys had not fished before.  I thought the sight fishing at Lewiston Lake might be fun for the boys. I checked the weather forecast for Lewiston Ca. the night before we left and it said “sunny with 5-6 mph ESE winds”. When we arrived in Anderson to meet up with Pop B (Benson Kanemoto), he informed me that he just checked the Weather Channel forecast it it called for NNW wind at 19 mph by Noon!  With that kind of wind it would make the fishing difficult and it would not be worth going up there. However my forecast I got the night before was from the WeatherUnderground so I looked it up again and the forecast was the same as the night before. SO, which forecast was correct, the Weather Channel’s 19mph NNW wind or WeatherUnderground’s 5-6 mph ESE?? We left for Lewiston to find out.

When we arrived the wind was very light (below 5mph) and coming from ESE.  We saw fish working midges immediately and we  put on small midge pupaes to match the hatch. The boys were a bit rusty on their casting at first since they had not fly fished for trout since last summer.  They got their casting stroke back relatively quick and all was good.

The boys sight fished to many trout and they thought it was such a fun way to fish. By the end of the day Michael had landed 14 and Matthew 11. They lost a bunch of fish too. Matthew also caught his first Kokanee salmon.

Having Pop B guide us was such a treat. There is no one that I know that has more trout experience than he does. It’s amazing how much he knows about the different fisheries and the subtleties of the flies that fish eat. I learned a lot that day.

So back to the weather. The wind shifted to NNW mid morning and then back to ESE later in the day. The wind got to as high as 8 mph or so but that’s it. I think WeatherUnderground won this battle!

Our trip to Orlando was exciting and fun with the exception of us choosing one of the busiest weeks of the year. On the first weekend we were there Magic Kingdom was at CAPACITY! They were turning people away.

Our trip included one morning fishing in Bay Lake and it was very productive. We fished live shiners to bass from 1.5 to 4 pounds. Our guide explained to us that the fish were stocked there in the 60’s and has not been stocked since. They opened it to fishing not long ago so the fishing is usually very good and predictable. The lake is kept pristine with no fishing on the lake other than with a guide and there is no urinating in the lake. I was told that when nature called and we were advised not to pee overboard or he (the guide) would lose his job! Now that’s trying to keep the water clean.

We also spent a couple nights and one day at Universal Studios Orlando. That was a fun place and the kids really enjoyed the Harry Potter section the best. It was the first time I tasted Butter Beer and it was fabulous!

With Disneyland a lot closer to us here in California, I doubt we’ll be doing Disney World again for quite a while.