Syns, Twins and Fins

Monster Bluegill from a nearby Wilderness Unlimited Pond.

We fished the delta on Friday and Sat. and it was tough fishing. The boys managed 10 stripers on clousers on Friday. The wind picked in the afternoon and we were off the water by 1pm. On Sat. morning, the wind forecast was suppose to be 3 mph….. NOT. It was around 10 mph and this kind of wind is difficult for the boys to cast in so we looked for wind cover but did not hook many fish. We graphed LOTS and LOTS of fish but the water temps were in the mid 70’s and we could not get them to bite. The wind picked up mid morning so we packed it up and headed home. The boys landed 5 stripers that morning.

Sat. evening we decided to fish for salmon on the Sac. River at Ord Bend. As I back trolled plugs for salmon the boys took turn at the bow fly casting to the rip rap bank with a white rattle clouser. Matthew hooked up with a good size squawfish in a short time. Michael took over and hooked a feisty striper and landed it and hooked another one and lost it. Matthew was back on the rod and he missed a big fish that he saw try to eat his fly!

No salmon, only saw one roll and one on the graph. DFG at the launch ramp said they went from Hamilton City to Colusa this morning and noted only one fish caught.

The boys fished a lot over the weekend. I took them and Uncle Jon and Zane to the Hat Creek area to camp. It’s the first time I had the camper at an RV park with full hook ups. Wow that was great to have AC the whole weekend!

  I wanted the boys to fish Hat Creek PH2 because it was so special to me as a kid starting fly fishing. The fishing was exponentially better back then. They loved Hat Creek PH2! They caught lots of little fish on dries and they said they could fish it all day long. They did not want to leave. I had to force them to get out of the water.  I had a chance to video them casting dry flies to rising fish.  I also took them to Bidwell too. There was a great mayfly hatch at the inlet of Pond 2 and they boys did well on nymphs and dries. 

The creek above the inlet was fishing well too. It’s basically a spring creek and the fish are a lot tougher to get. Right before dark there was a riser in the creek and Michael wanted to catch gim. I retied his leader to a 15 foot 6X leader and put on a #18 CDC BWO. He made 3 casts and got him! Oh my we were both so excited!

The boys fished 5 days last week! Papa John took them out three days this week and I took them out two. Unfortunately Papa John did not have a camera so there are no pics of their big fly caught bass. They landed fish that were over 4 pounds on flies.

I took them to a small local pond Friday night and they landed 10 bass on topwater flies.

We fished the river (Sacramento) Saturday evening for salmon and got zero. But they got 6 Striper blow ups on Zara Spooks although no hook ups .

The snapper fishing was fun but not worth doing again. We brought 2 fly rods to fish with in Malaysia and Singapore and that’s what we really wanted to do but we just could not make it happen. Matthew did catch a barramundi. That is a species we wanted to catch.

Well, We drove out to the Feather again today. Great weather and light boat traffic. The boys landed 30 from 8 am to 1pm. Danny and Wes had 60 at by 10:30! We stink. Seriously, the fishing was still great for the boys.
WS

Fishing for Bass with Papa Jon

Antelope Creek Lodge 2011 -Three Generation of Syn Flyfishermen from Meng Syn DDS on Vimeo.

It was slow to fair fishing. The weather was cold and wet and the water temps were under 50 degrees. We arrived late Thursday and was able to only fish for an hour or so. Michael hooked 5 and landed 3 and Mathew only got one.
The next day it was slow and steady al day. No real pods of fish come by but a fish now and then kept us interested. Michael was the hot stick of the line up! He was hooking more fish than anyone else in the line up. The guys were al staring at him and we even had people come down from their lawn chairs on the beach to say how they have ben watching him catch al the fish. It was like 4-1. The guys directly next to Michael landed maybe 3-5 fish and Michael hooked 16-17 and landed 12 or 13. Michael insisted on casting for himself so he really did catch all his own fish. Matthew did not want to cast for himself so I casted for him and he did well to but no where close to what Michael was doing.
So overall a slow trip at Pyramid but it was really great to see the boys get into some nice fish and for Michael to have so many hours of practice throwing 350 gr. heads.
The use of the camper is THE ONLY WAY TO GO! When we got cold we went inside and had some hot chocolate or coffee and snacks. It was nice to get up and fish right away too instead of having to drive to the spot.
WS

From: Wayne Syn
Sent: Sunday, April 03, 2011 9:25 AM
To: Wayne Syn
Subject: Pronghorn Lake Ranch fishing report

I’ll start by saying the fishing at Pronghorn Lake showed GREAT potential! That being said, we had some tough conditions and thus tough fishing for us on Friday and Sat.

The drive from Orland is about 4 hours and 10 minutes and an easy drive with no windy roads. When we arrived we noticed the water was off color. When we actually got on the water the visibility was 3 feet or less.

The Ranch owner did not tell us that before we came about the water conditions but I’m not sure that would have deterred me from going anyway. I needed to see the Ranch before I book for our Memorial Day trip there and this was one of the few weekends I could have gone.

For the price of admission ($155/person for up to 4 people OR $145/person if you have 5 or 6 people) you can stay in their very comfortable cabins. They are very small but cozy with a microwave oven and refrigerator and coffee maker. There is no sink or running water and no bathroom. The outhouse is about 50 feet away. The interesting thing about the cabins is that there is satellite TV to watch. I would consider the over all accommodations “fancy” camping. There are no showers so multiple day stays will be tough on some people unless you bring a solar shower.

Now to the fishing. There are 2 boats for rent but the lake is easily fishable from pontoon boats or prams. We began fishing our first day at 2pm and there were fish rising here and there. If you could get your fly on them, they would eat! Other than that it was pretty slim pickins. The visibility was so bad that you would have to get your fly on the nose of the fish for him to see it. The quality of the fish are right there at the top. I was amazed and their athletic build and their strength. I have not caught fish like this in California and the last time I saw fish like this was in Alberta.
We did not get into any huge fish but they are in there. A few fish in the mid to high teens were landed a few days before we arrived and another angler was there sharing the lake with us and he said he landed a 12 pounder.

The boys were primarily using small nymphs under and indicator and Benson was mainly stripping leeches. The weather was fantastic the first day with very little wind and almost blue bird skies. The next morning was a different story. The skies were gray with a stiff cold breeze that penetrated most of my layers. The fishing all but shut off most of the morning. We still managed to land a few fish but not as many as we had hoped for.

Bottom line…. I would go back there in a heartbeat. I love the condition of the fish and I think the lake has great potential.

WS

BTW, they do have RV hook-ups.