* New Brighton Beach - May 13th
I went down to New Brighton beach last night and was pleased to find out that conditions were good and halibut were being caught from the shore. I heard about 3 fish caught in the last two days from two anglers, mostly small, up to 29 inches but the best part is that there was a lot of bait (sardines) and it was close in. It's early for this to be happening which might mean that its going to be good into June. Fish from the bathrooms at/near New Brighton south to the cement ship. Tides are great for halibut today, i.e. very little difference between high and low, and waves were on the small side, no kelp to drive you mad and the wind was down. I have caught halibut matching the bait which was two-inch long anchovies using a 2" clouser. It was fairly easy because the fish were on the surface crashing schools they cornered near the shore so look for this activity as well as birds working. If I wanted to increase my odds of putting a filet on the grill I would go to conventional tackle and use a white lead head jig or a sardine or anchovy pattern swim bait available at the local tackle shops. There were guys using pencil poppers while I was there (a large lure that floats used to catch stripers on the surface) and there was some talk about stripers - mostly hearsay. The park closes at sunset but they don't make their final check till well after dark. Park on the street above the park and walk in to the parking lot area from the railroad tracks if you want to fish late or not have to pay to get in. Watch out for poison oak. The evening was gorgeous and it was great to be at the waters edge. It looks like it might be the same today. - Harry Petrakis
* Pyramid Lake Nevada, May 3rd - 5th
I will get to Pyramid Lake, but first, let me set the scene: On April 19th, Pat and I headed off to Carlsbad, NM to see the famous caverns. We traveled east on Highway 10, thru Blythe, Phoenix, and Tucson down to Las Cruces, NM. It looked like a nice town to live in. I inquired about fishing for striped bass at Elephant Butte Reservoir north of Las Cruces. I was told the fishing was poor, as the water was dirty. Guides I talked to didn't think you could catch stripers with a fly; and I felt it a waste of my time to differ. Crossing the Rio Grande River on Highway 10, the land was slightly elevated as we headed to El Paso. Fifty miles south, the ground sloped down to the river about a half mile away. There were huge dairy farms that continued for the next three miles, just off the Highway, with thousands of cows! All that effluent flows down to the river south to Texas and Mexico. As we entered the outskirts of El Paso, the Rio Grande was now two dirty water ditches, one for Texas the other for Mexico, two hundred yards across at one point. Well, so much for fishing that river!
We went east again out of El Paso to Carlsbad Caverns on a secondary highway. Our tour book said this was the route the Butterfield Stage traveled east and west in the old days. We passed historical markers stating "Here once stood a relief station for horse and human alike." Driving along this high desert you can actually see the earth curvature. It's beautiful country, however not suited for human settlement. My mind began to romanticize travel on that Butterfield Stage, being jostled back and forth on those bench seats, horses flatulating as they leaned into their harnesses, clip-pity clopping along, kicking up sand and dust into the coach. When reality hit my face from the cool breeze coming from the car's air conditioner as we traveled along on cruise control at 70 MPH, soft music on the satellite radio, I realized, hey, they didn't have these comforts! On to the caverns, which are a must see.
We then traveled north to Santa Fe and Taos. Again no luck fishing, water high and dirty. On to Albuquerque, Gallop, Flagstaff and down to Sedona to see an old navy buddy I had not seen in twenty years. My, do we look old! Then we were back on Hwy 40 headed west and home. After being home for a couple of days, I woke up in the middle of the night with my right hand raised over my head ready to make a forward cast, left hand poised for the double haul. Something needed to be dealt with. That morning I called Crosby's at Pyramid Lake. Yes, they had a room available. I left the next day. Now, let me get us back to the topic of this journey.
I fished at Pelican Beach Sunday from 2:00 PM until after 7:00 PM, catching eight fish to 6 pounds. Monday, back at Pelican started off great; on my second cast, I caught a beautiful 10-pound cutthroat. But the Pyramid weather gods were restless and the wind kicked up, making it difficult to cast. It blew so hard it knocked a trailer camped on the beach off its jacks! That evening, I needed ear plugs in order to sleep. Tuesday, the wind settled and fishing turned on. I wound up with 35 fish for the two-plus days.
Now, as for the distraction to Arizona and New Mexico, heartland of Native Americans, with eight days looking at cliff dwelling pictographs, several different tribal villages and reservations: in the back of my mind I'm thinking I'd get lucky and find some nice little artifact. Well, here at the Paiute reservation, fishing Pyramid Lake, I had to use the bathroom, got off my ladder, walked up to the porta-potties located some 100 yards away. I was looking down, not wanting to see how far I had to go for fear if I looked up I'd soil myself, not a pleasant thought with waders on, I noticed a strangely-shaped pebble. A second look, and to my utter amazement I discover it's an arrow head! WOW!!! Keep your fly in the water and your eye on the prize. - Gil Santos
* Rio Del Mar Beach - May 9th
Hi all. Here's a quick surf fishing report:
The Santa Cruz Flycasters monthly surf fishout was this morning, at Rio Del Mar Beach. My friend Jim Knecht, President of the San Jose Flycasters and I were there just after 5:00AM. It was still pretty dark, so we took our time getting rigged up. We started fishing around 5:45.
I caught my first Surf Perch of 2009 on my 3rd or 4th cast already, and I had a double hook up about 10 casts later. Then it slowed way down.
I caught two more an hour or so later. I had one more hook up after that but missed it, and then nothing. Jim and I fished for about 2.5 hrs. total. Many others were still flogging the water when Jim and I decided to call it a day. The fog was rolling in though, so maybe things picked up after we left. We'll have to wait for Sam's report...
There were a bunch of people fishing (15 to 20), from four different clubs (Santa Cruz, San Jose, Diablo Valley and Peninsula Clubs), actually five clubs if you count me as the Monterey Peninsula Club).
There were some really nice holes. I pulled my last two fish from this hole. The water was really nice, I expected more fish...but that's the way it goes sometimes. One guy I met up with said he was out last evening and did really good. I may have to try to get out in the late afternoons and evening sometime soon. I was using a 3 fly rig.
Here's a link to all the pix I took... http://gallery.me.com/michael.matica#100485 - Mike Matica
* Lower Sac w/Fly Shop Guide, Brian Bommarito - Thurs. April 23
Had an opportunity arise while on the road to The Fly Shop's trout opener a few weeks ago. Former club member and one of the current top guides from The Fly Shop out of Redding, Brian Bommarito, had an open day prior his employer's trout opener so off we went down the lower Sacramento on a tumultuous, windy day of fishing. Winds blew most of the day making strike detection difficult at best. Water flows were high due to demands down river, so Brian had a rather long leader system rigged to get the flies down to where the trout were holding. We employed a three-nymph system consisting of rubber-legged golden stones, yellow spawn eggs and various prince and pheasant tail patterns. Even with the wind, we brought close to 15 fish to the boat by lunch. The male rainbows are in their spawning colors and wow, were the horizontal red stripes brilliant! We found a long riffle and pulled at least six large 'bows out of the run with Brian landing a holdover steelhead on the last run through. As always, it's fun to fish with a pal and even better if that pal happens to be one of Nor Cal's premier guides. - Tim Loomis
* Los Padres Reservoir revisited - Wed.April 29th
Took a friend to get in some early season trout action up to Los Padres Reservoir last week. The drive in up Chachagua Rd. was full of springtime blossoms as the purple lupine took over acres of the roadsides. We arrived late for Los Padres (around 9 AM). The winds start to really blow between the 11- 11:30 AM time period making the kick back from the far end to the dam miserable. This left us about 2 1/2 hrs of fishing. Now I have been fishing Los Padres on opening day for the past 10 years and haven't really seen the reservoir fish that well in recent memory. The only really big fish (a large brown trout) was taken by club member Richard Kline on a black woolly bugger around four years ago. This year I felt that the fishing was due to get hot. Sure enough, I started landing juvenile steelhead in the 8"-10" range just after launching. In years past I always used lead core or T14 thinking that I had to be way down in the water column to land the big boys.
This year I used a clear/camo intermediate sinking line with a black woolly bugger on and a Rickert's still water nymph as a dropper. The small steelhead were all over the stillwater nymph as I kicked my way down up to the bottleneck section where the big ones are rumored to live. The trout grew in size as I approached the hunting grounds with fish between 15"-18" still hitting on the stillwater nymph.
Just inside a large pool area next to the primitive camp sites I made a cast thinking one more before the kick back as it was getting close to 10:30 AM. Wham, a big boy slammed my rig. Fifteen minutes and about 100 yards later I landed the largest brown trout of my fishing life. My mesh stripping platform is 24" in width and the brown hung over at least 2" on each side. The weight had to have been over five pounds. The brown displayed the butter yellow underside and large parr marks w/the purple dots inside.
The batteries in my camera chose the worst of times to die. My friend Rick was in a panic trying to get a photo before the camera shut down.
I called Richard Kline to brag on him but without an actual picture of the fish Richard still has a legitimate claim to The Los Padres Big Fish Title. - Tim Loomis