Saw a cool bridge, but never saw an airport!
I started my vacation with a guide and we bass fished Clear Lake. I've been fishing the lake for many years and can cast out a Texas Rigged worm and use a crank bait but I wanted to spend some time with a pro on the water.
I called up Bob Myskey. He says " Over 20 years of bass fishing experience. The past ten years fishing at the professional level with and against the "Best in the West" Numerous top finishes in West Coast circuits including: B.A.S.S., West Coast Bass, Western Bass, 100% Bass, Everstart, BFL, American Bass, WON Bass,..& Still Competing. Six time Tournament Of Champions qualifier. 1996 WON Bass Champion on Lake Nacimiento."
Just the guy I wanted. I told Bob I wasn't worried about catching a big number of fish, I really wanted to know about the places on the lake that hold bass and the techniques he used. He got me on a few rocky shorelines on the south west end of the lake drop shotting with a worm followed by a light sinker. You throw the plastic worm on the rocks and let it sit. Then a wiggle or 2 with the rod tip and let it sit again. Bob said the fish would strike after the wiggle, and sure enough they did. It was a good technique, something I had never done before. I used his gear and he had a cool bass boat that flew around the lake even with the choppy water from the November wind. He showed me some more places and we caught fish at most of the stops. It was a pretty slow day for the lake. Not one of the epic 50 bass in 4 hours Clear Lake days of fishing. But I learned a lot of skills and places to go for the next day when I headed out on my own.
The next day I took my boat out on the water. My gear wasn't quite tournament bass level. I had only brought up a ultralight rod and reel with 6lb line! But hey I figured I would have a blast catching anything on that. I also brought a 5 weight fly rod and tied on some of the 6lb line and a minnow imitator, kind of a small Lefty's Deceiver with blue and white colors, looked perfect for a smaller Clear Lake bass. I headed to the rock piles Bob had showed me and started to cast the crank bait, it looked like a chubby minnow and had a lip on the front to make it dive down when you reeled in. After working a few spots I started to hook up on some 1 to 2 pound fish. Nothing big, seemed like a small school was in the area, but that was fine. I worked the crank bait, and rigged a drop shot rig, and threw out the fly rod. Hey I caught a fish on everything! The smallest fish I caught was on the fly rod, but it was the best fight. It was a blast! Bass fishing is catch and release for most, including me, so safely unhooked they all went back in the lake to be the 10 lb trophy fish of the future.
You soon see why people love bass fishing. The fish fight really hard for their size, and are fun to catch. Bob was a good guide is prices are really affordable and he loves to teach beginners. Get a buddy, give him a call. Soon you'll be part of the bass fans. Maybe like me you'll think of being on the back of a boat in a Pro-Am tournament.
That is the Sundial Bridge in Redding. It is a beautiful bridge across the Sacramento river. it is not for cars, just people, and while it is easy to find you can't see it from I-5. There is a park at both ends and below the tower is an actual sundial, you can tell time by the shadow on the ground. The deck is glass and lighted at night.
What was I doing in Redding? Well I was there to trout fish the lower Sacramento with a guide on a drift boat. I love fly fishing, but never go. I decided in 2005 I would make sure to head north and I wanted to go down the Sacramento river in a drift boat with a guide. It is called the "Lower Sac" because it is below the Shasta Dam.
I hooked up with the guide service at the Redding Fly Shop. They have a bunch of guides and go out every day so you can catch fish and learn how the habitat works. It is a little expensive, but it is a long day of fishing and well worth it. Fly fishing has a bit of a reputation as a rich man's sport, with the 500 dollar (and more) rods and rod cases with your name on the side and matching cigar holder. Well some of that is true, but Wal Mart sells a fly rod with line and flys for 20 bucks. You'll catch fish with it, you don't need to spend 1000.00 dollars to catch a fish. But no doubt the good stuff is good stuff. Anyway I have some fly gear, but decided to use the guides gear for a little extra fee.
I had a young guy from Fairfield (now Redding) named Bryan. He figured out I was a radio guy from his Bay Area days. Small world.
We launched just above the Sundial Bridge and he rowed up stream and dropped anchor to skill me up a little. He put up with my beginner talent and showed me the flop. Instead of the big loops of fly line flying in the air, drift fishing means just that, you flip your line out from the boat then you, the boat and the fly (in this case 2 flys, 1 salmon egg bead and a strike indicator) float along the drift with the current. See the strike indicator go down, set the hook, play the fish correctly, and bring it to the boat!
I missed a lot of strikes, and had a few very frustrating L.D.R.'s (long distance releases), but I had a great full day on the water. I think about 6 to 8 wild rainbow trout made it to the boat, then we released them back in the water. I really like fly fishing, gotta go more often. Unlike some other waters the Lower Sac doesn't close, so you can fish it year round. It is a very scenic float, you'll see salmon in the river, lots of birds and more.
Before I headed back down to the Bay Area I met some friends and had a great dual sport ride in the Mendocino National Forest. My buddy Mitch came up (former class record holder in VW air cooled drag racing). He spends his days at RnR Machine shop in Napa but snuck out for the ride. Also joining us was Craneboy Ed. Ed has a crane truck. He lifts stuff. Once he lifted an elephant at the Oakland Zoo.
Bordering Clear Lake on the east and north is the Mendocino National Forest It is a great place to hang out and has tons of stuff to do. Part of that includes riding motorcycles on the designated OHV trails. No we do not just ride all the hell around tearing things up. The trails are easy and hard and everything inbetween. You can quickly go from 1000 feet at the Middle Creek campground to 4000 ft at the top ridges. In the winter there are trails closed because of the snow. We all had bikes with license plates, me on a Honda XR650L, Mitch on a XR600L, and Ed on a nice KTM 520SX. They were all pretty single track capable so we ended up doing over 30 miles all on dirt trails, with a few street legal only sections to connect the trails. Wanna know where we rode? OK. Here's the maps get the Upper Lake South Trails PDF map. Here's where went.
Trail 1 Sled Ridge a tough steep winding hillclimb that gets you into some elevation fast.
Trail 8 Shortcut nice singletrack in the trees.
Trail 13 Progeny that takes you along a ridge with beautiful views to the east.
Trail 17 Mason more ridgetop views of the mountains to the east then tight singletrack and a beautiful opening in a valley.
Trail 37 Pogues Peak a long tough winding trail that starts at Pogues Peak and crosses 2 creeks and will challenge the best riders.
Road 17N16 a real dirt forest service road. Fast and fun on the bikes. A welcome change from the many miles of first gear.
Road 17N04 that takes us past the now closed to the public Crabtree Hot Springs (boo hoo)
Road 17N11 gotta look closely to see the turn then again look for 17N11A
Trail 6 now we're heading back on more single track, and having fun in the trees again. We cross a wooden bridge.
Road 16N35 we connect again for a bit, fast fun, nice views on the ridgetop, this time looking west.
Trail 7 a pretty fast trail that follows the forest service road.
Road 16N20 when 7 meets up here Mitch and I head out for paved Elk Mountain Road and have fun flying down the hill. Ed takes the dirt trails back down and we all meet up at Middle Creek campground. Over 30 miles, most of it pretty much singletrack first gear. All of it fun. Whee!
Sunday I stocked the fridge with crab and rockfish on a combo trip from the Emeryville Sportfishing Center. As I write this the commercial crab boats are on strike so you can't get fresh dungeness crab in the stores. But you can get your own. The boats from Emeryville head out for combo trips, first rock fishing at the Farallon Islands then picking up crab traps. You get 10 rockfish, and 6 crabs per person. The boat left about 6 and headed the 35 miles out to the islands for rockfishing.
We drifted for our fish, I caught my limit of blue rockcod and so did the others. We then changed to try for lingcod, a few were brought to the boat but not many, then off to the crab traps. Everybody on the boat pitches in as the pots are brought up. Man they were full! After just bringing up 5 pots we had limits for everybody onboard. Then we headed back, they had big pots of boiling water and cooked them right there while we waited. 20 minutes later I was headed home with 6 big freshly cooked crabs and rockcod fillets. Oh and a great trip on the ocean. Never been? It's easy, they'll show you how. Costs about 100.00 and you'll love it.
Hey look a bird on a rock at Clear Lake!
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