When I’m not fly fishing in the Sierra you can catch me slingin’ hardware for monster trout at Lake Del Valle or throwing plastic’s at big bass! This East Bay Area’s choice lake is only minutes from my home in Livermore and has many recreational outlets from fishing, camping, hiking, bird watching or mountain biking. You may have seen me kayaking with my golden retriever in the front seat during the summer months! I’ve been coming to Del Valle since I was a child and feel very blessed to have something so special in my neighborhood. PM
“The name California is the invention of another Spanish fiction writer: one Ardonez de Montalvo, who wrote around 1510:
“At the right hand of the Indies there is an island called California, very near to the Terrestrial Paradise. This island is inhabited by robust dark women of great strength and great warm hearts; when children are born the females are preserved but the males are killed at once, saving only those required to guard against depopulation…”
excerpt taken from~ Men To Match My Mountains, Chp.V Pg.13
Irving Stone
Most rivers in the Sierra open today for fishing! Unfortunately I’m unable to go, but would love to hear about YOUR fishing adventure’s this weekend! Give me a report and I will post your catch here! Tight lines! PM
Here’s our pooch, affectionately called ‘Honey’, full name ‘Honey Graham Cracker’, unaffectionately called ‘My dang dog’. She has been everywhere I have been. I’m not sure it was always a wise choice getting a dog who loves the water so much, because she can get in the way of my feeble attempts to land wild trout, however I have made up for it by removing small snippets of her tail for my streamer patterns. Here she is with me travelling to the Eastern slope of the Sierra with Half Dome in the background. If Honey could talk she would be telling me, “When are you gonna take me out again! Hello!” She loves the outdoors as much as I do and I’m so fortunate to own a doggy like her! Tight lines! PM
Ok, you do your part and I’ll do mine! Here’s how I saved the day and a world record trout survived my fly fishing misdemeanor!….
I was on the Lower Stanislaus and it was raining really hard and I had suffered a large gash on my left thigh while slipping off a wet boulder. (pure embellishment to make this story appear more interesting than it is) Well, after successfully gliding myself down the epic canyon face and with securing the tourniquet to my wound I was able to make a brief roll cast to the outer piece of white water I believed a massive trout to be holding.
With the twitch of my caddis upon the rolling foam this beauty of a Rainbow slashed the surface water fly in lip and sent me reeling after I watched her soar another two feet into the sky! I set the hook while falling backwards and landed my buttocks against a tree trunk with a loud thud.
As I managed to keep my hands on my rod with the tip now parallel with the river she spun quickly upstream and pulled many yards of line out. The blood on my thigh spurt out underneath the crimson rag and the throbbing was only momentarily a nuisance as the pounding in my heart rose with every play of my line!(more embellishment) I kept the drag just tight enough as not go far into the backing and whenever I had the opportunity I pulled some line ashore.
After several long stretches of time which seemed like an eternity and frequent blasts into the air followed by splashes of water against my bloodied stump I eventually wore her down and pulled her into my net.
When it came to to release her she leapt straight up into the air some 6 feet and splashed down into a deep hole surrounded by rocks that trapped her body in an aquatic cocoon. I felt she was going to die if I didn’t do something drastic so I stripped naked and plunged my whole body into the icy river to free her from her watery prison.
In the end it was was not only the right thing to do, but the freezing cold river water clogged my gash in my thigh which kept me from bleeding to death. I now I stand here to tell of this heroic story! So please while you are hugging trees this Earth Day, don’t forget to hug a fish as well! Tight lines! PM
Weather in my home town is expected to be around 95-100 degrees today. These stats are usually a little on the conservative side.
This heat wave in California followed by some rain this weekend will not produce the most favorable conditions for the 2009 Fishing opener in just five days. My experience of fishing the Sierra over my life has shown me with early heat and some warm rains the rivers are always blown out. It’s better to wait a few more weeks until things settle down. However, if you can’t contain yourself I understand, heh. The best thing to do is target some smaller tributaries. I have a few that I frequent in the early season that have produced some fine trout although a bit smaller in size, usually around 8-10 inches. I just get my lighter rod and some small dries and mini nymphs and go to my favorite haunts. Keep me posted how you do! Tight lines! PM
Every year around Springtime I like to recognize one of my favorite blogs. Yosemite blog by Loyd Schutte. He does a great job keeping it current with amazing photography as well. I know personally being a blogger how hard a task this is and so I’m able to appreciate all of his hard work. This time of year Yosemite is a great place to visit if you want to admire the falls which are beginning to flow at a higher rate with the snow melting. Please be careful to drive safely and respect the impact upon a highly travelled park! Check out Yosemite Blog on my links often as it is full of surprises and give Loyd a shout out!
The 2009 Fly Fishing season for most streams in the Sierra opens on April 25th this year! I’ve been talking with many fellow anglers and the excitement is building! For me I will have to wait until my knee is done healing from surgery, but I would love to hear from you about what rivers and lakes you are going to hit up? So give me a shout out and let me know where you will be fishing for the opener! If you leave me your email address I’ll email you and you can send me pictures that I will post here! Tight Lines! PM
Here’s a couple Adams dry flies I tied. You can use different color dubbing to match various hatches. Just make sure to apply the dubbing very light at first so you get a nice taper to the body. The yellow has been known to work well at Convict Lake on the Eastern slope of the Sierra just south of Mammoth lakes. I like to use the yellow Adams and yellow Humpies all through the Sierra in the summer monthes. Tight Lines! PM
One of my favorite spots besides near the dam is this section of riffle. The fish here are really hard to hook, because of the ’spook factor’. I’ve seen them chasing after my nymphs and streamers and then bounce away at the last second. I have caught a few beautiful Rainbow’s right here though in the 15″ range. Tight lines! PM
