Fishing trip with Jake, man its been a while since us two old farts hit the road together, and we both had a ball
It was another last minute hall pass type things. Ruth came up to me last weekend and said โ Did I mention that I'm hosting a girls wine, cheese and shopping weekend at the house next week?โ Ummm no was my reply. Well why don't you go camping then instead of having to hang out in the camper in the yard.
I knew that my work week was going to beat the tar out of me and the earliest I could hit the road was 7pm Friday night. I figured 2-3 hours was the absolute maximum I was going to be willing to drive and I did not want to be searching for a campsite fighting exhaustion. Fishing was high on my list of activities as I pictured good food, beer, lazing around on the Kayak. Its also December and most of the USFS campgrounds are shut for the winter. That left me some State Parks, NPS Campgrounds, and some County Parks. Weather forecast, nice Saturday, storm Sunday, ok skip the North Coast and the Sierras. I settled on Rancho Seco Park in the Sierra Foothills as I could hit some nice rivers for wading with a fly rod if the wind was to high on the lake and late night arrival is fine.
I had all the toys and gear packed by Thursday and when I got home Friday night at 6, my house was in full Ladies night mode so I grabbed Jake, fired up the rig and went the market for food and beer.
Next stop was Jack in the box for a burger and fries for the road. Jake completely enjoyed his share of both
and with that off into the night we went
Traffic was light and we made good time, ran into wisps of Tule fog as we neared Rancho Seco. I really appreciated the 6.7L diesel and the stability of a dually when I came up on a road boulder (car doing 35 in a 55) and went around him with ease in just a few seconds
We reached the locked entry gate at 9:45pm, they used to have a phone that you picked up and the power plant guard would buzz you in. That has changed you now have to call a phone number on your cell and the person on the other end gives you the code to the entry keypad. It took me 15 minutes of redialing to finally get a connection and get the code. A mile or so later we arrived at site number five. There were 2 class As and one Fiver already there and that was as crowded as it got all weekend. My closest neighbor was over 200 yards away. It took one set of plastic dominoes under the rear wheel to level the rig.
It was 38* when with beer in hand I took Jake out for his nightly rounds then called it a night.
When I am not working I am not a morning person. I am also not keen on freezing my rear end off in a Kayak to try and catch the morning fish rise. I slept in until 7am, took Jake out to do his thing, Surveyed the crowded campground.
enjoyed the view of the snow capped Sierras from the campsite
Then it was time for breakfast
Finally I got around to unloading the kayak from the roof and adding all the fishing gear and at around 10am I headed the 400 feet down to the lake
There were two skiffs with two fishermen in each and myself having the whole lake to ourselves
The view from the water is spectacular with the fall colors and snow capped peaks
It must have been a good omen when this Egret flew past me
Shortly afterwards the lake surface started exploding with bass driving the bait fish to the top and then leaping into the air with minnows in their mouths. The fishing got hot. I was using a paddletail minnow crank bait. By the time it died down I had landed 8 bass and hooked and lost another 4 in a three hour period
They ranged in size from this
to this
to this
I only do catch and release so all the bass were safely returned to the water
Video
https://youtu.be/TO24uzz76fY
I decided to check out the other side of the lake and got treated to some awesome birds and more fish
The Swans
A mated pair of Bald Eagles
Feeling tired and quite satisfied I headed in to shore and back to Jake who was diligently guarding the TC. After stowing my gear and putting the kayak back on the roof in anticipation of the storm forecast for Sunday ( wet roofs and hauling kayaks in the wind is not something I want to do if I can help it).
I gave Jake his dog biscuit reward it was play time.
At 10 years old he still loves to play tug o war with the leash
Shot this flock of Canada Geese just before Sunset
Jake and I shared a delightful dinner of pan seared rib eye steak and a baked potato and a beer ( yeah he likes it). Feeling beat I took him out for an 8pm walk. Not to far from the TC Jake let out a growl add tugged at the end to the leash. I saw eye shine scurrying up the nearest tree.
An Aussie Coon Hound, who knew?
Sunday saw me moving around like a stiff old man..wait that is me. Lol Coffee and Ibuprofen were the morning Rx. Took Jake out in a very light drizzle with the wind blowing the fallen leaves across the campground. At that point I was pretty much ruling out going out onto the lake solo in a pending storm so at 10:45 we headed out to the dump station. By the time I was done the drizzle was gone and the wind had stopped. Hmm maybe just maybe so we drove around to the north side of the lake and down a gravel road.
and parked on a nice finger jutting out into the lake.
I did not want to take down the kayak so I inflated my float tube and hit the water. The bite was slow, only two fish in two hours but the water and clouds were awesome.
Grebes
selfie and the radio channel is the official NCKA frequency LOL
The clouds moved back in
at 2pm I called it a day
After packing up I spotted on lone kayak Fisherman giving it a go. All I could think of were those immortal words โ You should have been here yesterdayโ
heading home via the back roads with an awesome sky
If you are interested in visiting its located about 30 miles south of Sacramento Californa off hwy 99 and there is a full on Indian Casino in Jackson 30 miles east and another hour or so east is the Kirwood Ski Resort with awesome Powder and great summertime fishing in the area to boot
Rancho Seco
It was another last minute hall pass type things. Ruth came up to me last weekend and said โ Did I mention that I'm hosting a girls wine, cheese and shopping weekend at the house next week?โ Ummm no was my reply. Well why don't you go camping then instead of having to hang out in the camper in the yard.
I knew that my work week was going to beat the tar out of me and the earliest I could hit the road was 7pm Friday night. I figured 2-3 hours was the absolute maximum I was going to be willing to drive and I did not want to be searching for a campsite fighting exhaustion. Fishing was high on my list of activities as I pictured good food, beer, lazing around on the Kayak. Its also December and most of the USFS campgrounds are shut for the winter. That left me some State Parks, NPS Campgrounds, and some County Parks. Weather forecast, nice Saturday, storm Sunday, ok skip the North Coast and the Sierras. I settled on Rancho Seco Park in the Sierra Foothills as I could hit some nice rivers for wading with a fly rod if the wind was to high on the lake and late night arrival is fine.
I had all the toys and gear packed by Thursday and when I got home Friday night at 6, my house was in full Ladies night mode so I grabbed Jake, fired up the rig and went the market for food and beer.
Next stop was Jack in the box for a burger and fries for the road. Jake completely enjoyed his share of both
and with that off into the night we went
Traffic was light and we made good time, ran into wisps of Tule fog as we neared Rancho Seco. I really appreciated the 6.7L diesel and the stability of a dually when I came up on a road boulder (car doing 35 in a 55) and went around him with ease in just a few seconds
We reached the locked entry gate at 9:45pm, they used to have a phone that you picked up and the power plant guard would buzz you in. That has changed you now have to call a phone number on your cell and the person on the other end gives you the code to the entry keypad. It took me 15 minutes of redialing to finally get a connection and get the code. A mile or so later we arrived at site number five. There were 2 class As and one Fiver already there and that was as crowded as it got all weekend. My closest neighbor was over 200 yards away. It took one set of plastic dominoes under the rear wheel to level the rig.
It was 38* when with beer in hand I took Jake out for his nightly rounds then called it a night.
When I am not working I am not a morning person. I am also not keen on freezing my rear end off in a Kayak to try and catch the morning fish rise. I slept in until 7am, took Jake out to do his thing, Surveyed the crowded campground.
enjoyed the view of the snow capped Sierras from the campsite
Then it was time for breakfast
Finally I got around to unloading the kayak from the roof and adding all the fishing gear and at around 10am I headed the 400 feet down to the lake
There were two skiffs with two fishermen in each and myself having the whole lake to ourselves
The view from the water is spectacular with the fall colors and snow capped peaks
It must have been a good omen when this Egret flew past me
Shortly afterwards the lake surface started exploding with bass driving the bait fish to the top and then leaping into the air with minnows in their mouths. The fishing got hot. I was using a paddletail minnow crank bait. By the time it died down I had landed 8 bass and hooked and lost another 4 in a three hour period
They ranged in size from this
to this
to this
I only do catch and release so all the bass were safely returned to the water
Video
https://youtu.be/TO24uzz76fY
I decided to check out the other side of the lake and got treated to some awesome birds and more fish
The Swans
A mated pair of Bald Eagles
Feeling tired and quite satisfied I headed in to shore and back to Jake who was diligently guarding the TC. After stowing my gear and putting the kayak back on the roof in anticipation of the storm forecast for Sunday ( wet roofs and hauling kayaks in the wind is not something I want to do if I can help it).
I gave Jake his dog biscuit reward it was play time.
At 10 years old he still loves to play tug o war with the leash
Shot this flock of Canada Geese just before Sunset
Jake and I shared a delightful dinner of pan seared rib eye steak and a baked potato and a beer ( yeah he likes it). Feeling beat I took him out for an 8pm walk. Not to far from the TC Jake let out a growl add tugged at the end to the leash. I saw eye shine scurrying up the nearest tree.
An Aussie Coon Hound, who knew?
Sunday saw me moving around like a stiff old man..wait that is me. Lol Coffee and Ibuprofen were the morning Rx. Took Jake out in a very light drizzle with the wind blowing the fallen leaves across the campground. At that point I was pretty much ruling out going out onto the lake solo in a pending storm so at 10:45 we headed out to the dump station. By the time I was done the drizzle was gone and the wind had stopped. Hmm maybe just maybe so we drove around to the north side of the lake and down a gravel road.
and parked on a nice finger jutting out into the lake.
I did not want to take down the kayak so I inflated my float tube and hit the water. The bite was slow, only two fish in two hours but the water and clouds were awesome.
Grebes
selfie and the radio channel is the official NCKA frequency LOL
The clouds moved back in
at 2pm I called it a day
After packing up I spotted on lone kayak Fisherman giving it a go. All I could think of were those immortal words โ You should have been here yesterdayโ
heading home via the back roads with an awesome sky
If you are interested in visiting its located about 30 miles south of Sacramento Californa off hwy 99 and there is a full on Indian Casino in Jackson 30 miles east and another hour or so east is the Kirwood Ski Resort with awesome Powder and great summertime fishing in the area to boot
Rancho Seco
