5.27.2013: MERCED RIVER w/ The Bob

Got up at 5:00 and left at about 6:10.
Went straight to the El Portal Mercado and started fishing.
Lost one right away when I fished the B and Y PM from the shallow calm to faster depths.
Lost another, and then a bit later hooked into a nice 'Bow.

I took the following video, but what it doesn't show clearly is that the fish made a beeline for the rocks. I put the rod tip out to the water and dragged him out. As I did I saw this huuuuuuuuuge shadow of a fish, three times the length of my 'Bow.
Geoff Malloway @Central Coast Fly Fishing said that it was probably a big brown or squawfish.
I thought it might be either, but my memory isn't as good as it was... : )



We then went to the Picnic Spot, and had no luck there.
We met some peeps fr/ Colorado and Kansas, who just had to decide to picnic right behind us, even w/ all of the wilderness to park...whatevs.

At Rocky Curve Bridge I had one solid take and missed him while focusing on getting a good drift. I was hitting the calmer seam where the brush met the swirls, across the river, where I had the rushing white water to contend with.
There were at least three or four other fish in that pool, as I saw them chasing my B&Y P.M.
I'll come back next time w/ those Super Dupers!

That 10" 'bow was an accident. I was picking up to begin casting again and lo! fish on!
It took me a couple seconds (maybe 5?) to think about landing the fish.
I have an old (and in a certain light, bad) habit of pulling on the line with my line (left) hand to set the hook, instead of simply clamping down with my index finger and raising the rod tip. (However, I have heard that this isn't as bad a way of setting the hook; in fact, I've heard it mentioned to be preferable in some circumstances.) I formed this "bad" habit on my first trip to the Stanislaus River last year.
The video from that trip proves my point.
Anyway, I remember consciously thinking that, "Okay, I've got a fish on, I'll just slowly release the pressure with my line hand while keeping the tension and meet my left hand with my right hand, handing the line to right index finger. From there, I'll just strip in the line."
And that's all she wrote! Bagged a beayouuuuutiful rainbow.
The interesting thing was, as video and photographic evidence show, the elk hair caddis (green, size 12?) I caught him on was pretty much destroyed by this fish. I am somewhat confident that the elk hair caddis I had still had the elk hair attached.

In this zoomed in photo there are still remnants of the elk hair:

In this later photo, you can really tell that the elk hair is almost nonexistent:

However, I will say that this hook was really in him good, and he didn't and couldn't spit this hook out until I took it out. Thus, I think he "chewed" on the fly for a bit and beat it up while it was in his lip, and thus a lot of the elk hair is gone.
At first I had assumed that the fly tier did not do a good job, but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.
One fly, one fish landed, and I'm happy to retire the fly in my fly box seeing as it's the first fish I've gotten off of a fly rod in 2013. Besides, the hooks are still pretty sharp!

At the South Fork->Main River I caught a 9" smallmouth bass on my first cast!
I had a good feeling, or good vibes about that location.
It's interesting. I've heard it called confidence as well.
It's that feeling where you just know you're gonna get action.

After catching the smallmouth, I moved down to some of the casting "portals" or "windows."
There are 4-5 of these windows, and each of them give a different view.
I've a mind to head down there sometime w/ my waders and hit those spots w/ the Fly Fishing setup.

All in all a good day, and I'll be heading back for sure before the summer's end!

Update: Intervention, Steelheading, the like

Intervention's been interesting.
I've finally gotten all schedules (for the most part) together, after a month-long process. The Newcomers will be on the 1:00-2:40 block. I've got the Kindergartner @8:20-ish to 8:40, 1st graders @8:45-9:30, one 6th grader 'til 10:05, 2nd graders up to and after lunch ('til 1:00), and then the Newcomers.

The 1st Grade and 2nd grade groups have been great.
Reading Mastery has been great with the 1st Grade group, and after struggling with where to go w/ my 2nd graders, have figured out a schedule for the 2nd graders using the Read Naturally stories.
We've been on a two-day Key Words exploration/prediction ->  Reading and Comprehension questions for 2 of the 3 stories thus far, and look to continue the cycle.

We're starting to offset on the stories due to Mr. L's desire to track his students' fluencies, but this shouldn't be a big deal.

Had my first session entering scores for Ms. W., and she gave me a century up front! I doubt I'll be using that much up (@ $30/hour), but we'll see. Praying all goes well with her.

I'm on the verge of exchanging my 8'6" 5Wt. Cahill rod/reel combo to Cabela's for a 9' 8Wt. for *wait for it...* Steelhead fishing!
Had a first scouting mission w/ Jer @Andrew Molera (see pics below), and saw some good spots, although the water was quite low. Since the season ends this Thursday, I'll have to wait 'til December (or next year) to try out the Steelhead rig.

Cabela's stock has been raised in my eyes, as they said there's no problem doing the aforementioned exchange even though I bought my item almost 7 months ago! I did only use the rod once, but I'm pretty sure they would've taken the exchange no problem either way. I've read in their reviews that their Customer Service is stellar, and I personally have nothing but amazing and great things to say about them!

Here are some pics fr/ the excursion w/ Jer:

This one in particular has a story behind it. I've provided the wide angle shot in addition to a highly zoomed-in and noisy/grainy shot of this bird's remarkable attempt to take something in its mouth upriver!

We were just doing our thing, when we saw this bird struggling upriver with something in its mouth! Quite amazing, and sadly Jer's card had, like no space left. (It was only after the bird had lost whatever's in its mouth that Jer was able to pull out his spare card.) I really wish we'd've (is that legal?) gotten video of it, because watching it fight up the current and watching it lose and then catch what it had caught was really awesome to see.

 ZOOMED IN:

What in the world is in its mouth? Another bird? A turtle? A fish?

10.29.2011 - LPD - Best single day of fishing action ever!

So last Saturday we (Jer, the bro, and I) headed out to the dam, brought along the kayak and inflatable raft, and had the single best fishing days of our lives.

Arrived at about 7:30-ish and got on the lake at around 8-ish. Cast around and didn't catch a thing 'til we got to the mouth.

Jer hooked up with 5 fish even before we had a bite, but then we got ours. Most were 8-9 inches, but in my estimations we caught over thirty (30!) fish that day! It was crazy!

We caught no browns whatsoever, but this may have been due to our 10 lb. test...

We're definitely looking into the P-Line Floroclear (4 or 6 lb. test) to rig up for our reels. Nick suggested this and I've seen some good reviews of this line, and he and I both think that we would've gotten the bigger fish had we been fishing with the clear P-Line, as I could easily see our 10 lb. Berkley Big Game test in the water in front of the lures.

All in all it was an epic day, topped off with an Orient Express outing to celebrate a day dear to my heart.
Here are some pics from that day, dear reader:

1st trout off a lure: 10.23.2011

This Rainbow Trout was the first I've ever caught off a lure.
The bro caught his FIRST FISH ever off a LURE on his FIRST cast of the day.