Search This Blog

Thursday, April 7, 2011

It is all about the # of reps......

This time of year, I sometimes find it hard to get out on the water.  Weather, work, kids sports and life gets in the way sometimes.  I always keep an eye on my local waters (Truckee, Little Truckee) so that if a window opens up in weather and my schedule I can sneak out and go fishing.  This year with all the snow it has been a challenge but I told myself,  even if I needed to snowshoe in, i was going soon!

We have a place at Old Greenwood making it very convenient for me to get close and have a place to crash at the end of the day.  I turned 44 recently and my wife scheduled a guide day with Frank Pisciotta of CyberFly.com this past weekend as a gift for my birthday.


I really had a great time fishing & learning from Frank.  He has been on the water in the Truckee area guiding for over 25 years and it SHOWS!  Frank put me into some "new" water for me that I would normally pass right by.  We got into fish right away, hooking 3 & landing a nice 17" wild rainbow. 

Thanks again Frank! 

Mammoth/Owens River Spring Blizzard

Every year in March the boys and I go south, Mammoth area that is, to fish the Lower Owens.  In 9 years weather has never been an issue; not the case this year.  The storm of the decade occurred a few days prior to departure dumping mass "snowage" on our beloved Sierras! 

Carson & I made the road trip.  Tyler has been sick and needed more time to recover (long story). 
So we set out only to be stopped 30 miles from home with a road closure on Highway 50 in Pollock Pines.

With some "creative maneuvering,  I was able to sneak back on the road and continue in 4WD over the summit and into Tahoe.  Once onto 395 it was smooth sailing. 

As a good fisherman, I checked the flows on the Lower Owens before we left....they were sitting around 100 cfs, and reports were really good.  But, thanks to LADWP, by the time we rolled into Bishop in the afternoon, the flows had been increased to well over 300 cfs and climbing.  Water was murky at best and just too big of a change too fast for fish to be actively feeding.  Bummer!  When things are right on the Lower, it is a great fishery for kids to learn how to fly fish. 

We tried the Upper Owens where flows were perfect, but the wind and 25 degrees made it a bit "nippy".  Carson was a trooper and stuck it out for a couple of hours. 

Overall, the fishing trip was a bust, but we did manage to hook four fish but brought none to net.  We made the best of it and it was great to see the amount of snow that blanketed the Sierras!


 

Lower Sac Float with Tyler

Two days of floating on the Lower Sacramento River in early spring can be "iffy" when it comes to weather.  However, the fishing is consistently very good.   Tyler and I took a fews days to travel up to Redding and float the river with Tim Root from SacRiver Outfitters.  We have floated with Tim before and he is great; no matter your angling skills, Tim can get you "hooked up"! 




We ran into some rain on day two, but that didn't stop the action.  We floated from Turtlebay/Sundial Bridge down to the first take out & had plenty of action.  Average fish was in the 17-18" range with a few (caught by yours truly) over 20 inches.