On the fish at Clear Lake April 2010!

So I planned to take a few days off and get in some Spring fishing. Spring can be the best time to go fishing. The water warms up a little, the fish get more active and start to eat more. Plus after a long winter of cold weather just a little time in the sun feels good.

But of course it can also be a time of wind and rain and you can have some of the toughest conditions to catch fish.

I booked a day with a guide friend of mine Bob Myskey of www.FishClearLake.com. Bob spends about 200 days a year on the lake in all kinds of conditions and I always learn something and always catch fish when I go with him. When I first called in early April he said "I'm booked for the entire month." Yikes! The big bass tournament that is shown on ESPN had once again made Clear Lake look good on national tv, and add that to Bob's "regulars" and I was outta luck. But my phone rang and he called me back saying he got a cancellation and I was able to get a day.

I easily talked my buddy Jesse into coming up from Tracy where he lives and fishes the south Delta. Jesse has been fishing a long time and competes in tournaments, and has won a few boats in his time. He can really fish and is really competitive.

My plan was to head up on a Friday after work, fish a few days, then Jesse would come up Monday and we would fish with Bob Tuesday and go out on my boat Wednesday. Well Saturday and Sunday a big storm came blowing in. It brought wind and lots of rain. Ack! I wasn't going out on the water in that, and I was only thankful that it didn't last much into Monday.

The forecast Tuesday was for a chance of showers, but partly cloudy and not much wind. As we we met Bob at Lakeport's public ramp we knew the bite would be tough the day after the storm. Bob asked if we wanted to use live bait, minnows, the best bet for these conditions, but we passed and felt that we could test our skills using artificials for some catch and release bass fishing.

Because Bob and Jesse fish at pretty high tournament levels, I've never done it, they chatted about various lakes, strategies, and tournaments. It was cool to overhear all the fish talk. It really made me want to give a competition a try. Bob slowly motored around and showed us where the winner of the ESPN tournament spent all his time. He showed us a few docks and walls where he likes to fish, and talked about how tough the bite had been with the storms. Unbelievably he had gone out in all that weather over the weekend. His boat got soaked, but using minnows a father and son were able to catch fish.

Now that is a guide working for his money!

Ok our turn. With all the rain that hit California this year Clear Lake was at the "full mark" and a little over. So the lake had spilled back into tules and trees that held 4 to 5 feet of water that hadn't had any for a long time. The bass love cover so we spent the day combat fishing in all of that. We went into cover, right next to trees, and into the mouth of creeks that have sand and gravel bars that usually wouldn't let you get back in these places.

Bob lives on Clear Lake and in low water years he has shot photos of the shoreline and the structure that is exposed at low water. That really helps now when the water is high. You can be in his boat and he will tell you about a big flat that runs from the mouth of this creek then drops off fast, or a point that extends out towards the deep water that you can fish. It is pretty amazing to hear him go on like that. It is tremendous knowledge to have and we used it as we fished creeks, flats and tules that in most years were too shallow to get at.

We ended up using Bob's "power drop shot" method deep in the cover. About half way into the day a fellow guide pulled up and said he had has 6 fish so far with minnows, we had 8 with the rigs Bob had us use. The day of combat fishing way back in the cover with his power drop shot method ended up with about 10 fish, I lost 2 and of course Jesse out fished me big time. Our best 5 ran into the upper teens, maybe 17 or 18 pounds. It was a great day on the water and even in pretty tough conditions we caught fish and got them all in places that most people would either wouldn't know about or wouldn't dare take their boats.



The weather held off until we had just hit the dock and Bob showed us some trick knots and rigs to use as Jesse was headed to a tournament the next weekend at Lake Shasta, and I was headed home to think about when I can get out on the water again.

Woo Hoo! Motorcycle Ride to LA and Back

Well this was going to be a pretty big ride with a group of friends to hang out in LA and be part of the 2008 Love Ride charity event. It turned out to be a solo ride down from Oakland with a stop in Solvang and a tour of the motorcycle museum there. It was a great California motorcycle vacation and it reminded me how nice it is out here in the Golden State.

Coming down from the Bay Area you can get to LA 3 main ways. Take I-5 and make good time at about 85 mph just to keep up with traffic. You can take the most scenic route and go down Hy 1. That takes you down the coast with some famous postcard views of places like Big Sur etc but it can take a long time. You can get a little of the coast, and make pretty good time by taking 101.

I was planning on a stop on the way down so I thought I'd take 101 south and figure out where and when to stop. I left in the early afternoon from Oakland and made my way south past San Jose where the traffic becomes much easier to deal with and the Salinas Valley opens up with fields of veggies on both sides. With the agriculture and rolling hills it reminded me of the area south of Ensenada or Mexicali in Baja.

I could ride my Honda Valkyrie about 120 miles to reserve, getting about 33 mpg. So I'd stop and get some gas, have some water to drink as it was in the 90's, and start to figure out my plan. I had some stuff with me in my saddle bags and didn't want to spend the night is some big town where somebody might mess with my bike.

I turned off and had dinner at the Madonna Inn. I thought about staying there, it is one of those nutty places tourists read about. All the rooms are themed in a different way. I think the Caveman Room is really popular. There was still some daylight left, and I wasn't ready to stop so I thought I'd run just a little more and overnight in Solvang.

There's some pretty weird stuff in Central California. Solvang is a themed town! Danish. Windmills. Wooden shoe stores. All that. I didn't think a town full of tourists on tour busses would mess with my motorcycle. I got a room at the King Frederick Inn. I rode around the corner and parked next to an older Harley chopper. Ha somebody with the same idea as me!

Solvang was a good choice. Friday morning I had a good breakfast with some good Danish danish, bought some cookies to bring to my friends place in LA and before I left town I went to the Solvang Motorcycle Museum. What a cool place and a must see for any fan of motorcycles. They have bikes from all eras, from really rare to a bike or 2 you might have or might have once owned.





While I was there the owner was showing the bikes to some head honchos from the AMA Hall of Fame Museum. They were pretty impressed too. That's really saying something.





I took some photos you can see them here.

I headed out of town and made my way along the coast to Hy. 1 and down to Malibu. That was a great run along the coast on a perfectly warm and sunny Southern California day.

I had to get to Laurel Canyon so I headed up Topanga Canyon over the hill to 101 then to my friends place. It was a good days ride into LA from Solvang and there was still some daylight as I unpacked.

Now that I made the trip the fun started!

We went to Santa Monica Friday and checked out Rick Estrin and the Nightcats, a blues band from Sacramento that used to be "Little Charlie and..." but Charlie the guitar player retired! So lead singer and awesome harp player Rick put his name on it. They had an really good new guitar player and rocked the house.

Saturday we went for a motorcycle ride. (what else?!)



We left Hollywood on Sunset to Hy. 1, up Latigo to Mulholland to lunch at the Rock Store and famous car and bike hangout. I had heard about it for years, and it was a cool place for sure. In just the time I was there for lunch I saw a bunch of new bikes, old bikes, new cars, old cars, vintage and hot rodded versions of all of that. It is so popular there is a guy that takes photos of people on the roads riding and driving nearby. You can have a look at his website RockStorePhotos.com.





The ride back was Mulholland to Stunt Road to Tuna Canyon, Hy 1 and Sunset thru Beverly Hills. Another awesome set of roads even on my big cruiser.

I had a dinner at Greenblatt's deli on Sunset and another at Cravings.

Saw some dirt track racing at Pomona thanks to the Gene Romero West Coast Flat Track series (results), and Sunday went on the big Love Ride that started at Glendale Harley Davidson.



The Love Ride had 30,000 bikers that rode from Glendale to Pomona to see
the The Tubes, The Foo Fighters, and ZZ Top and we raised over 1 million dollars for various children's charities.



What's not to like about that?!



A few hundred Love Ride photos at my Flickr set here.

Sunday I saw former Wall of Voodoo'er Stan Ridgway @ The House of Blues.

Monday was a one shot ride from LA to Oakland up I-5. There is a rumor that a Honda Valkyrie hit 120 mph just north of the Harris Ranch. I can not and will not confirm that.

That was an awesome California motorcycle vacation. I spent time hanging out with a good friend for a few days and hanging out with 30,000 new friends for one day and put over 1000 miles on my bike in some perfect California weather on great California roads.

Woo Hoo!

Va-cay Spring '06: wind, rain, wind

Eh, so much for big long days on the water for my vacation at record setting Clear Lake.

Lots of wind from Tuesday to Friday, then rain. I went out Monday and Tuesday with my friend Jessie. Had fun but the weather picked up and I took the boat out and fished from shore the rest of the week. Did ok on the drop shot rig from shore, and got this one on the south end of the lake Tuesday morning.



Took a trip to Boggs Demo Forest on Cobb Mountain. Very cool place, and GREAT mountain bike trails (video). They race there, and you can camp free, and hike or go for a ride.

Had a nice lunch after the hike at the Cobb Deli. It has a deck overlooking Kelsey Creek.



Friday was the best day. Indeed it 'twas a beauty!



The heron on the lake are always fishing. Hey you gotta keep up the reputation and be ready for the big Heron festival




Had a good meal with some nice local Steele wine at the Blue Wing Saloon in the Tallman Hotel in Upper Lake.

So big fish every day? No, not with the cold fronts and rain all week. (Wouldn't you know awesome Spring weather is headed to Nor. Cal. the week after I get back!)

But once again Lake County didn't let me down. 2007 Spring vacation goes in the books as 8 on a 10 scale. A beautiful place, and I didn't have to go to an airport! Yea!

Vacation: driving south on I-5

I spent the week before Christmas down in So. Cal. I had a blast!

I know there is an "LA" stereotype but I'm not buying into that anymore. More on the trip in another post.

Just getting there was fun. Fly from SFO to LAX and rent a car? No Way! I drove down in a nice Inifniti FX 35. Not mine, I was just the driver. Cool ride. I love the cruise control. It is really advanced. You set it just like any cruise control, but it has a sensor that monitors the distance between you and the car in front. It has three settings, kind of close, (like maybe 15 feet), farther away (maybe 20 feet), and far, (close to 25 feet) and here's the cool part; the car will slow down to maintain the distance.

Here's how I worked it on I-5. I'd set it to keep up with the flow of traffic in the left lane, like 85. I didn't often do 85 but that would keep me moving with the other vehicles. Then the FX 35 just speeds up if it can, but if a car in front of me is doing say 80 (hey if you have never driven I-5 that is normal) then the cruise control will slow down and if I follow that car I go as fast as it does keeping the distance between us the I choose. If they move over and the lane in front of me clears out the FX will accelerate to 85 or until it comes up on another vehicle, then it slows again to follow. If somebody dives in front of you and violates the safe zone the car gives a loud beeping warning. You can't not pay attention, but it sure is nice on a long drive like I-5. I'm not sure how much use it would be in the Yea Area. It's pretty crowded here.

btw It got about 20 mpg on the I-5 part of the trip.

FX35 and 45 info