Land of The Lost

June gloom is here in full swing in southern California.  Overcast days were hit and miss in May, and unfortunately the last Perris outing was a bust.  This time, we may have got more than we asked for... The morning was overcast for sure, however the visibility was less than 20' when we arrived.  The shoreline was hidden behind the curtain of fog and distant outlines became mind bending illusions.  I was expecting velociraptors and pterodactyls to appear as if we fell through a wormhole. 

As the fog slowly lifted, Charles and I finally realized that we had nearly lapped the middle island of the lake.  Nearly an hour was wasted fighting through the fog and weeds, we finally find the cove we were looking for.  I only brought one rod with me on this trip, my Sage XP 890 with RIO Powerfly floating line.  I started with a size 2 frog popper, working the reed lines and sticks.  It didn't take long to get my first and last topwater take.

 

The water in this cove was only a foot deep in sections.  Carp were tail walking over the reeds and making a ruckus.  Not many large mouths were found in this cove when compared to a few weekends in the past.  We left and headed east.  The sun pierced through the cloud layer by the time we reached the east cove and damselfly activity increased.  We switched to a foam backed adult damselfly that I tied the night before.

The damselfly got several takes but failed to connect due to poor timing or distractions.  Working fly line and flies in the sticks required zen patience as it will quickly wear down ones mind and spirit.  I will most likely tie more of these patterns and experiment with different hook types per Charles recommendation.  Once we left the east cove, Charles tied on his fugly fly which saved him from the skunk.  On our way out, the motor died yet again.  We rowed to the launch ramp this time as carrying it out of the beach was a hard lesson learned.  Hopefully covering distance will be easier with Cruise n Carry 6600 gas motor I picked up over the weekend.  Lets hope this Japanese machinery from the 80's will be as dependable as the cars from that era.