Saturday, August 3, 2013
Diarrhea Water and Clooping Carp
Last night I had no intention of fishing but when I woke this morning I had an itch. So I headed to the local carp water without taking it consideration what the recent rains may have done to the river. Once I reached the water I realized it was going to a waste of time. The water was up even more than last time and it was completely black. Visibility was only a few inches so I wouldnt be sight casting today. For the first time ever in my brief carping career I finally saw clooping carp (or rising carp). Ive only read or seen it on video, never in person. My carp box has very little in a dry fly selection and I tried an emerger dry without much success. I moved toward shallower water where I could briefly spot cruising and tailing carp. With even the most perfect cast to these fish, they refused.
Friday, August 2, 2013
Department of Fish and Game Loses The Game Now Wildlife
For whatever reason, this retarded state of California has changed the name of the Department of Fish & Game to Department of Fish and Wildlife at the beginning of this year. Why would they do such a thing? Who knows but in the opinion of this sportsman there is an agenda among antis to chip away our ability to hunt. The definition of game: animals under pursuit or taken in hunting; especially : wild animals hunted for sport or food (2) : the flesh of game animals
The definition of wildlife: living things and especially mammals, birds, and fishes that are neither human nor domesticated
One word- the old word- has implications of hunting and sport. The other is merely living things and had no implication of sport or hunting.
This is a subtle way to slowly chip away at our rights to hunt. Call me paranoid but in a state with so many non-sportsman and antis I think my hypothesis is on the money. When a DFG commissioner loses his job for legally hunting a mountain lion in another state in Idaho, than you know this state is out of control. Let us not forget that certain hunts are now banned from using hounds. Its only a matter of time an attempt ban all types of hunting with a dog.
Given the current economic condition of California, is it prudent to change the name? Dont we have bigger issues to handle. How much will this name change cost? Remember all logos from banners, uniforms, hats, patches, decals, websites, etc. need to be eventually changed. All that is time and MONEY that this state does not have. Keep in mind all uniformed DFW workers pay for their uniforms and hats etc. (although they get a small stipend but Ive been told it is not enough).
California again you prove how stupid you really are. It is no wonder every other state in this union hates your guts. And rightfully so. I labeled this under humor because California youre a joke.
San Gabriel Rivers with my new 49 3 weight
Early this month I fished the San Gabriel rivers both the the East and West Forks to try out my new rod I bought in Japan. It is a NAC Microfy49 #2/3 6 piece rod. According to the salesman at Sansui, it is made in Japan. It cost ¥22,000 or $230US or thereabouts. Once I saw it on the rack I knew I had to have it. This rod is very unique and quite a niche product. Slow actioned and tiny, I doubt it would ever catch on here in the states. Although I think it would do well here in SoCal or in the small streams of the northeast. Backpackers would also like this rod.
Well back to the fishing, I fished the East Fork the Saturday of the memorial day weekend. Talk about a circus. Luckily we missed the "diaper hatch" near the campgrounds. Although I wanted to hike deep before we started fishing, my fishing partner was getting a bit impatient and we fished alittle closer than I really wanted to. I cant blame him though the water always looks so good. But I know the better fish are further up stream. It didnt really matter this day, as Ed had to be home for a BBQ anyways, so going in too deep wasnt much of an option anyways.
The river was high and fast. Ive fished these waters hundreds of times and never had I seen it with so much water. Wading was not difficult but challenging at some places, especially since Im used to just raging through this place without a second thought.
The fishing was great. Ed was trying Czech nymphing and I was dry fly fishing. Why anyone would ever doing anything but dry fly fishing here is a mystery to me. So very few waters allow you to dry fly fish and consistently catch fish. Usually you need to wait for a hatch. or me I get plenty of subsurface fishing in the seirras and so whenever I get a chance to dry fly I will. Ed caught several. Im not sure how many but I got at least 100 strikes on the dry fly. That is a very conservative estimate. At some holes I was getting bit on every cast on my first 20 casts. Amazing. All on the surface. We left so Ed could meet his timeline.
Amped, I decided to return the following Thursday (June 3rd). But once I came to the road that leads to the EF, I decided I wanted to try the West Fork and Bear Creek instead. I hiked up to Bear Creek and decided to fish that first. I headed up the creek and hiked in. Still using the same fly from the last outing, the result was much the same as the last. Another 100+ fish day. On some holes a fish rose on every cast. I did not derig from the last outing, I wanted to see how long I could make this setup last. Kind of like a deranged version of the famous one fly contest. Eventually I lost my fly, so I switched and tried others. They were not so effective but still good. I fished to the San Gabriel Wilderness boundary until deciding to head back. The trail was hard to follow and I was tried of bushwacking.
Once out I decide to head up the West Fork. I fished several holes that produced over 20 fish each. Some holes trout were coming up taking flies. After a few hours I had enough and decided to head home.
Some observations from the two outings:
The EF has alot of water on it and moving pretty quick. Some areas were challenging to wade- not hard but challenging. I not used to having the EF move so fast.
Bear creek is a lot easier although the deeper you go in the bushwacking is out of control and obviously the WF is simple because of the controled flows.
There were a ton of bugs on the WF. I was bit all over and even snorted a few through the nose. I never noticed any bugs on the EF.
The fish at Bear creek seem to fight the hardest. The EF had the largest average size.
Thursday, August 1, 2013
Fine Gun Calendar On Sale
Prado Preseason Training
Yesterday I received a call from my hunting buddy and he asked me if I was up for some dog training. My intention was to fish carp on my one weight but I decided that could wait another day. Its been some time since Kaiser and have hit Prado dog park for some training so Lous invitation was more than welcome. Having not shot my Merkel 47e since I got it back from the gunsmiths at Steyr USA, it was a good time to make sure they did the job properly (although I had no doubt that they did).
Kaiser definitely was rusty. He no longer is steady at wing and shot. Ill have to rectify that this summer. After the bird training I took him to the ponds and worked on his whistle and hand commands. He had not forgotten those, so I think hell do just fine in the blinds at Wister and San Jacinto. Last season I intentionally left Kaiser home during my duck hunts as I did no training last preseason so I was not comfortable with him in the blind. This year that wont be the case.
Loading my DT Systems bird launcher. Lou has the LCS launcher. One flaw in the DTS is that to arm it requires a magnet tool to lower the lever. Although I attached it to a lanyard that is connected to the launcher, I find that this is a poor design. What if one loses the magnet during training? You essentially then have a useless box as you can not arm the system without the tool.
Scenting conditions were poor. Kaiser is literally right above the bird before scenting it and going on point.
Bird launches as Lou takes the shot.
Lous dog. Two GWPs and one GSP. Each dog had three birds which made for a very long training session.
Sidelined last year, the Merkel 47e is back and ready for some quail this season. It will be nice carrying a light sub gauge again.
Double Hall Ball At LBCC
Since Im over the whole surf scene now and have moved on from it- Ive caught my share of corbina, croakers and halibut in the surf- I did show up not for the seminars but rather to catch up with some old faces I rarely see anymore, specifically Doug Uyematsu, Joe Libeu and Bill Calhoun. I wanted to catch up and see what each guy was up to and get their contact info so we could fish together sometime. I did,though, find the portion by Robby King regarding making fly fishing videos particularly interesting as well as the fly tiers at attendance.
Ive always like Uyematsus flies so I spent sometime looking at his flies he brought and found this one particularly interesting, its an oldie but I had never seen it since I left the surf scene:
Dougs Ghost Minnow
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