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THE WEATHER MAY HAVE BEEN
BAD BUT THE FISHING AND FOOD WAS AWESOME!
By: Ron Wilson
May 26, 2005.... Doctor Quen Young and I
spent a fishing vacation at Lake Camanche last week. As we made our way on
the road heading to north shore Quen said, "well it looks better than I
thought it would, there are no whitecaps."
We checked in at the office and met Quen's
friend Martin Chin from San Mateo, who had been waiting for us.
We dropped our stuff off at the spacious
rooms we had arranged. There would be friends arriving to fish with us off
and on during the week so we made sure we had plenty of room if they
needed to stay overnight.
Quen's room had a fully furnished kitchen
and living room while my rental, that connected to his, had 2 bedrooms
with 2 sets of twin beds. More than what we needed, heck it was like a 3
bedroom home counting fold out couches. We could have slept 10 people
comfortably.
I couldn't get over my accommodations,
while a little pricey for a single person 4 guys or two couples could rent
it for around $100 a night, that's just $25 a head, considering the price
of gas that s really pretty cheap.
We unpacked and by 11 a.m. we were on the
water. The lack of whitecaps Quen had mentioned on the way in were now
capping.
I headed past Hat Island. Since the water
is so high it doesn't even look like a hat right now, its just another
island out there.
I rigged up the downrigger rods with some
of the new trout pattern lures Ex-Cel has out, 163, 164 and 165 The only
place you can get them, is in Fresno or Sacramento at Fishermen's
Warehouse. I also rigged a firetiger pattern.
 They
were biting, Martin had his limit of trout in the boat in the first half
hour with one over 5 pounds.
I headed out in front of the dam looking
for bigger fish. Spoiled I guess, I like taking pictures of fish in the 5
pound plus class for the web page. However, I didn't find them and headed
back to the first area to catch more fish.
The wind picked up even more and Martin
said, "well at least its not raining." He shouldn't have said that because
5 minutes later it started rainy pretty hard and then Mother Nature threw
in some sleet for good measure. I told them both to knock off the talk
about weather before a twister showed up and gave us a ride to who knows
where!
After boating a few more trout I headed
upriver for bass as the waves were just to big to continue trying to troll
for trout.
Up river I rigged our rods with a variety
of Keeper Worms. 082, brown and chartreuse, red flake, black flake. The
idea was that the water was high and the bass were feeding on crawdads and
other critters that were moving up from the flooded islands.
We had a good evening bass bite with
several spots before the wind finally drove us up past the bridge looking
for shelter. Up by the mines I found more bass and even a nice channel
catfish that bit my plastic worm.
Martin seemed to have had a great day while
Quen and I were just having a so-so day. Doc is really getting spoiled and
while he is happy just catching fish he likes the excitement of the big
boys as they pull drag and do a little aerial action before coming to the
net.
Day two started off with a oops. Our first
fish was a good one but we lost him. I have no idea why he came
unbuttoned, but after a good fight we at least got to see him. We nailed a
limit of trout and then headed in for lunch.
After a little siesta we awoke to a strong
wind. But that wasn't going to stop us as we headed upstream to do
some bass fishing. The bass were on the rock piles so all we did was stop
the boat and let the wind push us along the top of the rock pile in 6 - 10
feet of water. We caught bass after bass as we drifted down the rock pile.
After a couple hours we called it a day and
headed in for a delicious steak dinner cooked by Doc. I had brought along
an ice chest full of steaks for doc to prepare for us and our guests.
Wednesday it was back after that elusive
big trout. The first strike signaled it was on as Quen fought the fish
right to the boat. I was looking at our first really quality trout in the
8 to 10 pound class and was just getting reading to scoop it up when the
lure went flying past my head and the huge trout dove back to the depth
where he had just came from. we caught a few more trout before the wind
blew us off the main lake.
Bass Pro Norval Pimentel was supposed to
meet us with a couple of friends around mid morning to do some bass
fishing. However he still hadn't arrived by 9 am. Quen and I fished for
bass until 1 p.m. and then headed in for lunch.
Norval was waiting as we came off the lake
and followed us to our rooms for a poached bass in butter sauce, steak
sandwich and salad!
After lunch we were going bass fishing in
Norval's new Stratos Bass Boat. I couldn't t believe it when he said it
was a little to rough out there. Heck I had been out in it all day in my
little bass tracker and it handled it fine until a wave came up and sat me
on the railings when I tried to put it on the trailer.
Norval finally decided that he would launch
the boat, so he and Quen loaded up. I launched them and then made a jump
into the Stratos bass boat, my weight pushed the boat far enough away from
the dock so there was no problem and Norval soon had it on the pad heading
upriver.
We started at the bridge and worked our way
back toward the main lake catching fish. We worked all the pockets and
coves catching fish here and there, it seemed that when we found them we
would catch 3 or 4 in a hurry and then we would have to go find some more.
 The
best baits were Keeper 6 inch crawdad patterns, 082 red flake, black
flake, etc. or Zoom watermelon brushogs. Keepers 1001B was also working. I
am not so sure you couldn't t catch them on almost anything.
Thursday Quen and I headed back out looking
for that elusive big trout that was haunting us. The first fish was
another good one and we lost it. Rats and double rats, boy Quen and I were
having awful luck to go along with the awful weather! Quen said, "hey we
can't complain, were catching lots of fish!" We caught a few trout and
then the wind picked up again. I went upriver to fish for bass again and
then called it an early day for lunch and then a trip to the Feed Lot near
Clements to meet the Mrs. For dinner.
Friday morning I had 4 rods rigged up with
different lures but the only action was on 163 so I rigged 4 rods with
Ex-Cel 163's and Quen caught trout, kokanee, bass and crappie. On one pass
heading from Hat Island toward the dam in 60 to 70 feet of water Quen
landed a trout and when he was finished he had all 4 rods out of the water
as fast as I could net the fish.
That big one got away again and it was the
first fish of the morning also, no monster this time but one in the 4
pound class. That acted like a wannabe steelhead as he jumped 4 times high
into the air before throwing the lure!
For a fishing vacation I strongly recommend Camanche Lake as it has one of
the best all around fisheries of any lake in the valley! For more
information about Camanche Lake go to
www.camancherecreation.com |
