My Happy Place

I took advantage of the three day Memorial day weekend and returned to my happy place with Erika.  Not much to say other than it was as beautiful as ever.  The river was not as low as I originally expected it to be either.  The water temperature was incredibly cold.  So cold.  Wet wading could only be tolerated in short bursts until I felt body parts turn to ice. The golden stoneflies were hatching as well as sulphur dun's and a blizzard hatch of midges just before sun-fall.  Most of my fish were caught on a size 10 golden rubber legged stimulator.   I suspect this fishery to be prime mid June- July. 

Setup the garage.  I think it will make a nice place to tie flies and drink some brews during a sierra storm.

I am returning for you soon.

Alone at Prado

Since I got off work at 8:00am, I returned to Prado Lake to scratch away the topwater itch.  The lake was calm and glassy.  Clouds were just beginning to burn off and the topwater bite only lasted about an hour before I had to fish subsurface.  Considering that the lake was all to myself, I had expected the bass action to be more intense.  Large clumps of algae floated on the lake's surface and the water had a unusual tint to it.  Not thinking much of it at the time, I later asked a work buddy that used to control algae on lakes.  He confirmed that my description sounded like a copper sulfate treatment. 

The fishing was slow all morning and I called it quits around 1pm.  Water temps in the upper water column was 75degrees according to the finder.  It may be awhile before I return to this lake.

Topwater

Off guard and struggling with limited resources, our unexpected journey to Lake Perris was a hard battle.  The fishing partner showed up around 5:45 thinking that Prado Lake opened around 6:00am.  Tough times for us continues and I wasn't going to sit around until Prado opened their gates at 8:00pm.  We returned to my place to collect extra needed gear and made a mad dash to Perris.

Thinking that we were going to be fishing Prado, I did not bother charging my trolling motor battery or fish finder for that matter.  Nothing went as planned and we sailed off with a 50% charged battery and dead finder.  We were to fall back on good old instincts.  Luckily the sky was cloudy however wind made the topwater bite difficult that day.  I managed three topwater bass all on the frog gurgler fly.  I did get to fish with my new Winston BIIMX saltwater 6wt fly rod that I got for a steal on eBay.  It can really throw large flies with authority all while busting through wind.  It's my new versatile streamer stick that has accompanying me to the bay, bass lakes and eventually large trout water.

The new streamer rod.

Life support.  We limped into the boat ramp with 5% battery power.