|
FIGHT THE CROWDS ONE DAY,
ENJOY THE SOLITUDE THE NEXT
By: Ron Wilson
July 3, 2006.... Dr. Quen Young and his
friend Martin Chen drove over from the bay area for a day of fishing.
The
duo would meet me at the Camanche North Shore boat ramp, a place both of
them were familiar with.
I arrived at 5 a.m. and was behind a hole
armada of bass boats that were there for a tournament. They said
they were from Santa Clara and I overheard them tell another member that
the weigh in was at 3 p.m. I couldn't help but think this club had a
different set of rules to go by than other bass tournaments. They were
going to fish a 9 hour plus event even though DFG has set a 6 hour
event time limit for summertime events so that the fish mortality is not
as high. I think I've seen this club fish an event at Don Pedro and the
time limits and death rate didn't bother them there either.
I launched and went out to an underwater
island to try my luck. A nice bass ate a 6 inch Keeper 1001B worm right
away. Hum, a pattern on a new worm I wondered.
I fished for another 20 minutes and then
my cell phone rang. It was Dr. Quen calling, they had just past the mini
mart and would soon be there. A short time later another call, we missed
a turn but are heading toward the entrance gate now. Thirty minutes
later they showed up, It was well before the 7 a.m. predicted arrival
time but a little later than then the "we will be right there" earlier
phone call. Quen and Martin got in the boat and we headed upriver to try
our luck.
Martin dropshotted while Quen and I threw
Keeper 6 inch worms. I used an 082 red and green flake bait. Fishing was
tough and I had a hard time catching any size fish. I figured I could
catch spotted bass on the rock piles at the buoy line but no luck there.
I headed back into the gravel rock piles
and the buoys that are on them but I couldn't find them. I used my depth
finder to locate an Island that I knew was there and by using the depth
finder I could stay on top of it and when I finally found a buoy marker
it was 4 feet under water, the lake is as high as I have ever seen it.
We fished points, rock piles and everything I knew in the river section
with no luck. I just couldn't get the spots to go.
I then headed back out to the main lake
and all the boat traffic, it was rock and roll time. I went to a rock
wall and started down it and every so often I would catch a fish. In no
time at all we had several fish in the boat. I rounded a point and there
was a tree shading a cove and Quen said, "hey lets eat lunch in the
shade". Here Martin and I were out with Quen who worships the sun and he
wanted to get in the shade! Martin and I got a kick out of that.
I positioned the nose of the boat so that
it was pointing out and I could see down in the water several feet. I
pinched off a section of my turkey sandwich and tossed it out in the
water. In no time at all I could see perch and carp swimming around it
and then black bass cruising by. Then I saw some cheese that was on the
bottom disappear, when I concentrated I could see a catfish finishing up
the tidbits. I took a piece of cheese from my sandwich and put it on my
darthead and tossed it out. I watched as a channel cat grabbed the bait
and swim off and then I set the hook. The fish pulled drag for about 10
yards and then the line snapped. I tied on another hook and by that time
Quen had polished off his sandwich so I had Martin give me a piece of
turkey to try. I tossed it out and set the hook on a nice channel
catfish and put it in the boat. Lunch time was over and we still had a
few fish to catch for a limit for the guys to take back to the bay area.
By 1 p.m. we had our limits in the boat
and I was tired of the rock and roll. I told the boys that by the time
we got the fish cleaned and they got home it would be 5 p.m. It sounded
like a good idea to them so we called it a day. For more information
about Lake Comanche visit
Welcome to
Lake Camanche
On fathers day I picked up my oldest son
Ronald and we headed to my private fishing club. Small lake fishing can
be tough until you figure out what they want and then it can be
fantastic.
I tried a few different types of senko's
with very little success until I put on a 3 inch smoke with large black
flake. The bigger fish wanted it and I soon had 15 fish in the boat.
Ronald was complaining about not being his day and I agreed. I said "its
FATHERS DAY son", and I soon had fish number 20 to his one crappie. Now
number 20 was the one I had came to the pond for. It was in the 10 pound
class and was a real thick scrappy health fish. The other 3 to 6
pounder's I caught were ok but nothing like this big boy!
Ronald caught a couple small ones and
then he had his shot at mister big but tried to horse him and broke
his line. The big boys do about what they want and when you try to horse
them you usually pay the price.
What a great fathers day we caught 38
bass and I spent the better part of the day with one of my sons. The
only way it could of been better is if I had Donald along with us. |
