* Belle Chasse, Louisiana - Nov. 8th
Landed in Belle Chasse on Sunday greeted by tropical storm Ida. She went through with minimal damage but kept us from fishing Monday, Tuesday and half a day Wednesday. Water clarity borderline, wind more than we wanted on Wednesday. Five fish to hand with higher than usual missed opportunities due to first day jitters for Harry. Gil was very consistent. We blind-fished at the end of the day when light was so low that you could not see fish. Our captain Rich fished us hard until sundown.
Day two was a full day with abundant sunshine and good wind conditions. Thirty-plus fish we could have cast to, and we landed nine; a couple of twelve-pounders and a thirty three-pounder. The rest were all smaller. Fish were a little spooky. One was a five-plus-pound black drum; the rest redfish. Tomorrow is the last day. Weather outlook is good. - Harry Petrakis
* Trinity River - November 7th
Along with our November guest speaker Phil Fischer and his pal Yancey, Mike DiCiano and I all went together on a guided steelhead trip down the Trinity River. Our guide of choice was Brian Bommarito, former club member and assistant casting master. Due to the early time we selected, the drift Brian recommended was out of Junction City. Using caddis emerger patterns with legs as the dropper nymph, we bobbercated down through some very clear water until the fish responded. Besides the early date (Nov.7th) it was also on a Saturday. Many of the best riffles were either occupied by other drift boats or by waders leaving parts of the day available for yapping with Brian or just chilling out and enjoying the fall scenery along the Trinity as Brian rowed down to open water. Altogether we nailed six steelhead. Mike landed a solid 10-pound fish as did Phil Fisher and the rest of the steelhead weighed in or around the 7-8-pound range. More fish will be entering the system as heavier rains fall into the watershed. - Tim Loomis
* Indian Creek - Mid November
The term multi-tasking was employed a weekend or so ago as I combined a business trip up to the Kirkwood area with a little recreational fly fishing. Mike DiCiano allowed me the use of his condo at the Kirkwood ski resort, which was used as my mobile office for the entertainment of clients. Here it was mid November and I was still selling stand up paddle boards to kayak retailers in the Lake Tahoe region. In between appointments with the kayakers, I was able to get away with Mike to meet with clients from the fly fishing side of my business and land a few nice fish. It's important to impress upon one's fly fishing clients that I do know how to fly fish. We drove to the Markleeville area to fish in a local reservoir called Indian Creek. Mike again landed a hog of a rainbow almost matching the size of his big steelhead he caught on the Trinity a week earlier. We all battled with the low temps as the day wore on. Even bundled up our fingers froze soon matched the temperature of the air and we had to call it quits. As the sun set we started the hike back to our car with the coyotes howling and an owl hooting signaling the end of another great day of fly fishing in the Sierras - Tim Loomis
* Los Padres Reservoir - Mid November
Efrain Montana, Kirk Mathew and I all took advantage of the last days to fish at Los Padres Reservoir. Its obvious that Efrain had the advantage over Kirk and me as he was able to land this hefty 23.5" brown. Kirk and I went mid week and had the water all to ourselves. Way back near the bottleneck Kirk spotted Bigfoot and to my surprise Kirk said it was stalking me. I was only able to catch a glimpse of the hairy beast and I can attest that it was as tall as a human. Besides the urban legend sighting, we all had a fun day on the water. Kirk landed a good 20" rainbow just as we returned to the launch area. There is a necklace of metal tube floats connected to keep debris from going into the dam and run off area. Kirk cast inside of that and wham, he landed the big fish of the day. There is a photo of Kirk's fish that will be published in the on-line version of the newsletter. Efrain went on the last legal weekend to land his brown. We used Efrain's advice and fished with sinking lines and black wooly buggers with legs (see the snout of Efrain's brown). With the reservoir only a short drive away it's a really good example of fishing locally. - Tim Loomis