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JUST WHAT THE DOCTOR
ORDERED
By: Ron Wilson
June 10, 2003.... For the past 3 months I
have been going to physical therapy at 1400 Florida Avenue. I've been
dealing with an old injury I received at work.
One of the first things I noticed was a
mounted fish hanging on the wall. Advance Physical Therapy director
Kelley Cornelsen, had caught that fish.
For the next 3 months Kelley and I talked
about fishing. She told me if she every got a break from her 7 day a
week working routine she would love to wet a line.
Last Saturday fishing guide Bruce Hamby, of Sierra Sportfishing, and I
were going to New Melones to locate kokanee for a guide trip he had the
next day.
I called Kelly to see if she would be interested. At first she didn't
think she would be able to, but after a day of working on the books, she
decided a break would be great.
We arrived at Glory Hole Point right at daylight. The Wind was blowing
and it was chilly.
We headed out onto the main part of the
lake toward the Tuttletown Boat ramp. As we headed that way the wind and
waves just go worse. Bruce stopped the boat, turned around and we
started fishing our way back towards Glory Hole Point against the 20 to
30 mile and hour wind.
This was weird weather, cold windy and as
we looked back on the hills over Angel Creek, there was a fog bank
hanging there.
Fishing was slow as Kelley caught a fish then lost one. Bruce spent some
time instructing Kelly on how play the soft mouthed silver bullets we
were after.
Bruce said, "the light action G Loomis
kokanee rods help prevent the loss of fish, but when the fish gets hot
and starts jumping and thrashing around the angler has to do his part in
order to keep the fish from tearing free"!
Kelley soon had the hang of it and was reeling in fish after fish for
Bruce to release. However, the kokes were small and not what we were
after.
We had one that was flopping on top of
the water behind the boat, when out of nowhere came an Osprey that
plucked the fish right off the water. It happened no more then 20 feet
away, I never saw one take a fish that close to the boat before, it sure
was pretty to watch. The Osprey soon returned overhead but all the rest
of the released fish, quickly sped back to the 40-60 foot depth they
came from.
Bruce finally found the fish he was after and Kelley boated a beauty!
The scales registered 2.2 pounds, this was one of the largest kokes I
have seen.
The wind finally began to die down and Kelley soon had a limit in the
boat. We continued fishing and looking over different area's for the
guide trip the next day. By 10:00 am the wind dropped to zero and by
10:30 we were peeling clothes to escape the heat!
Thankfully by 11 a.m. the wind had done a 180 degree turn and was coming
from the south which made a good
fishing chop on the water. The fish responded as the bite turned on
again.
Bruce reeled in a fish or two and I reeled in the last fish of the day
to finish off our 15 fish limit just before 2 pm.
On the last fish of the day we came over an island top and I got things
all messed up by not hitting the automatic up button on the downrigger
once I started fighting the fish. The ball got hung in the rocks and
Bruce had a real mess on his hands to clean up.
 Not
sure but I think I might have gotten fired as deckhand on Bruce's boat.
He said "Kelly was much more helpful, better at landing fish and a
heck of as lot prettier than I was". I couldn't argue with that,
but I told him, "she works 6 to 7 days a week, so I'm not afraid of
losing my part time deckhand job"!
Other than the last few minutes of the
day it was a great one. The only time I have seen a better stringer of
kokes was at Stampede.
To say Kelly was happy to be along would be an understatement. I enjoyed
watching her have fun catching fish and she is a real trooper who is not
afraid of blood and guts and is a pretty good angler in her own rights.
The lure of choice seemed to be Uncle Larry's Spinners with ball trolls
and flashers to intice the big ones into hitting. Bruce's specially
treated shoepeg corn is another part of the secret that helped us get
the better fish to strike the baits.
If your interested in catching trout, salmon or kokanee give Bruce a
call at (209) 599-2023 or visit Sierra Sportfishing. Bruce will soon be
heading to Shasta for salmon and rainbows in the 5 pound class.
Shasta is an awesome fishery and when you
get into them your in for some great fishing! Out of 4 trips I have only
had one trip that was just so-so. The rest I had salmon and trout from 4
to 7 plus pounds.
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