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FISHING WITH ONE OF THE
STATES FINEST
By: Ron Wilson
April 17, 2003.... Department Of Fish and
Game Warden Tim Galas, guide Bruce Hamby and I went to Lake
Camanche last Saturday to catch trout. The wind was blowing and we would
be lucky if we could get on the water at all! We knew a storm was
heading our way and would arrive with all its fury by 11 a.m. We were in
for a real good blow.
We left Ripon at 5 a.m. with a limited time frame to put fish in the
boat before the storm hit. We were anxious to get on the water. We
arrived and the wind was blowing pretty good, no whitecaps, but some
pretty good waves.
Bruce took off towards Little Hat Island where we stopped and quickly
set out four rods. We then took off toward the dam and within a few
minutes Tim had his first fish in the boat, one in the 2 pound class.
Tim quickly put fish number two in the box and said, "Ok Ron its
your turn now".
Seems Bruce had left his fishing license
in the truck so he couldn't fish. Not sure if Tim would have written him
a ticket or not, but a couple trout are definitely not worth a
ticket!
The 3rd fish hit and we hollered at Tim,
"fish on". Tim wanted me to reel it in, but I told him,
"the goal is to get your limit in the boat first". I told Tim,
"I get to fish every weekend while your out there working to
protect the fish we love to catch"!
Within an hour Tim had four fish in the
box and had lost one. The wind was really blowing hard now, and white
caps were everywhere. A jumping fish behind the boat told us Tim had
fish number 5 on, but we couldn't tell which rod it was on! Bruce and I
checked the outside rods and nobody was home. We picked up the inside
rods and Bruce found him on the inside rod on his side.
I put Tim's 5th fish in the box and as I turned around my first fish of
the day was on. It was a nice one and
Bruce said, "quit horsing him". I didn't pay him no mind as I
really didn't care if I landed him or not. It was now raining and I was
getting wet. No I wouldn't melt, but the weather was just plain getting
too nasty to fish in! I got the fish within 30 feet of the boat, he was
swimming through the top of the waves, and as he made another run I
forgot to bow the rod and the fish pulled free. "You horsed him off
didn't you", Bruce said. I just grinned at him in reply!
With wind in the 20 mile an hour plus
range and spitting rain, it was just too nasty to fish in the main lake,
so we headed up to the narrows to get away from it.
We trolled around with just one hit and then went past the no ski buoys
toward the rock piles upriver. There were a few trout jumping, but no
takers. However, when we got through the narrows, all heck broke lose.
The wind blew the boat sideways so fast that we were out of control and
had to use the big motor just to keep us off the rocky bank!
We landed one more fish and decided we
had enough and it was time to call it a day. It was just to nasty to try
and fish, heck you couldn't if you wanted to!
Bruce and I had accomplished our goal for Tim to land his 5 fish limit,
but we were just hoping for one in the 6 pound class to end the day,
those are fun!
All in all it was a very successful day, I got to become better
acquainted with one of our finest game wardens in the field. How do I
know that, well I know you can interview somebody all you want and still
not know anything about them, but when you get them in a boat and talk
with them one on one, you find out a lot about them just through idle
conversation.
Bruce is still using his standard grubs
that I wrote about in a previous story,
while I am experimenting. I used a red curl tail worm to catch a fish, a
white grub and a sand grub, that the big one threw back at me! Bruce
stuck with orange as his favorite color. The swimming action on the tail
of the grubs are deadly and the baits are very easy to use.
The fish are really boat shy and the key
to being successful seems to be getting the bait 150 feet or more behind
the boat.
I got a kick out of Tim, especially when
we were letting out line, he would talk, but Bruce and I would not
answer his questions as we were counting the pulls of line we were
letting out behind the boat.
I got a good chuckle when Bruce finally
told him, "just a minute I can't count and talk at the same
time".
We finally informed Tim what we were
doing. I'm not sure, but I think he was harassing us a bit later on. I
know he knew we were counting pulls, but he still would ask us questions
like, "how many feet per pull do you figure your doing each
time". I think they were meant to get our goat!
It may have been Tim's dry humor, I don't
know, but I've got a future ride along with DFG Warden Hugh Rutherford.
We'll be on the San Joaquin River checking for sturgeon poachers. I'll
be sure to find out more about Tim on that trip with Hugh.
Give Bruce a call at (209) 599-2023 to
book a trip, or visit his website.
I think you will find the outing a fun filled lesson!
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