A Week In The Sierras
Submitted by John Ballotti:
The Eastern Sierras are a great place to fish in September. The weather is fantastic, the crowds are gone, the scenery is classic and the fish are biting. With this in mind, Andy MacDonald, Steve Simon and I began a week long fishing adventure based in Mammoth Lakes.
On our agenda were Gull Lake, Convict Lake, Lake George, Mammoth Creek, the Upper Owens River and the grand finale, a guided drift fishing trip down the Lower Owens River. To say the trip was successful would be an understatement. Each day began with a glorious sunrise and ended with a spectacular sunset. In-between the trout cooperated offering themselves up for our enjoyment only to be released to fight another day. The occasional bigger fish kept things interesting.
The Upper Owens river was running bank to bank but was chock full of fish. It was here that by pure luck I tossed a Phoebe into some swift water and was rewarded with a mighty stike and a large rainbow rocketed out of the water. The fight on 2 pound test Nanofil was on. After dragging me up and down stream the fish finally tired and I was rewarded with my personal best 21 inch rainbow. Gull Lake provided the most consistent and variety of fishing. In addition to the regulation trout, Sacramento Perch and crayfish were plentiful providing a little mystery to what was on the end of the line when you were bit.
Our last day was spent on the Lower Owens River. Our guide from Sierra Drifters met us at 7 AM. After introductions were made and a fly fishing 101 seminar was held we shoved off and the flow of the river carried us forth to our day’s adventure. It was a good day with each of us catching numerious trout. Andy and I even had a double going once and for Steve it was his first fish on the fly. Sierra Drifters is a terrific guide service that we highly recommend to anyone who would like to fish with a guide. However, all good things must come to an end. After 3 1/2 river miles fished in 7 hours we were driven back to our car, packed up and started home thinking of next year.
LARRC on the Highliner July 2, 2011
Submitted by Ross Lombard
Why get up at 2:30am to catch fish at 1:00pm? Because you have to pay your dues to catch the elusive white sea bass. That’s what Club members Rob Masters, Ross Lombard, and Nick Ekdahl along with a group friends found out while fishing the Highliner on July 2.
We were on the water before 5:00am fishing the grey light with dozens of private boaters in the latest WSB hot spot. Unfortunately, neither the fish or the current received the invitation so we spent hours drowning squid with no bites. Two extra large bat rays were hooked but muscling up trash can lids isn’t why we woke up early.
The “jack pot” fish was a 38 pound WSB caught by Ross. Rob caught a very impressive 8 pound calico. Everyone caught at least one legal WSB, so a memorable time was had by all. Definitely worth losing sleep over!
Capt. Gary tried a number of spots around PV with similar results. Then after lunch, we parked in the “hot afternoon WSB spot” near Pt. Vincente. Conditions were optimal…71 degree water and a good current flowing away from the stern. Add in Highliner mate TC’s special “grind and release” chum and soon we had huge group of hungry bait congregated at the stern. This commotion brought curious WSB and calicos to the surface. And the pandemonium was on! One hook up, then two, then two more! It was common to have three to four of our eight angler group hooked up a once. Gary and TC worked double time netting and measuring WSB. The bite lasted a good hour during which 14 legal WSB were landed and double that in shorts were tossed back. We also caught 20 calicos, 1 legal ling cod and a dozen various rock fish.
LARRC FIRST ANNUAL LARRC GOLF TOURNAMENT
Submitted by : Barry Cohn
LARRC SPONSORED ITS FIRST GOLF TOURNAMENT LAST MONTH. 12 EAGER PARTICIPANTS BECAME THE INAUGURAL GROUP AT THE BEAUTIFUL MALIBU COUNTRY CLUB. THE COURSE WAS IN TERRIFIC SHAPE, THE WEATHER WAS GREAT AND A GOOD TIME WAS HAD BY ALL. HONORS WENT TO THE DI GUISEPPE FAMILY. STEVE HAD BOTH A CLOSEST TO THE PIN ON #5 AND THE LONGEST DRIVE. JON HAD CLOSEST TO THE PIN ON BOTH #12 AND #15.
WHAT A PERFECT WAY TO START THE SUMMER!!
PICTURED:NORM WEINHOUSE, BARRY COHN, DAVE LEVINSON AND NICK EKDAHL
JAMIE SMITN, STEVE DI GUISEPPE, CHAS SCHOEMAKER AND JON DI GUISEPPE
BERT SERDEN, DIETMAR KRUGER, JOHN BALLOTTI AND TED WEITZ
Striper Fishing Schiffman Style
Lori and I met Scott Schiffman at Gallions Corner in Castaic at 5:30 AM on Sunday 6-26-11 to begin a day of Striped Bass fishing on Castaic Lake. We successfully bid on a trip with Scott at the awards banquet and had been looking forward to our chance to catch some Stripers ever since.
We loaded or gear into the boat, parked our car and headed off to the lake. We successfully launched Scott’s very comfortable boat and away we went. Scott headed to the buoy line at the back dam, looked around until he metered some fish and we set out two anchors to hold us in place in front of a promising looking cove. We baited up with chunk sardine and sat back with anticipation.
Lori was the first to get bit and she connected with her first striper ever! I always get a big kick out of watching her catch fish; I knew that she was having fun since stripers are strong hard fighters and because of her huge smile. It wasn’t long before she caught another nice one and Scott and I looked at each other; we knew we were getting schooled by Lori. We were getting bit but not hooking up.
I finally connected and had a nice fight with a decent sized fish. Then a lull in the action set in. We discussed tried and true things to do to get the fish to bite but it wasn’t until Lori pulled out a sandwich and had a knife full of mayo in her hand when her rod started jumping. Both Scott and I said “Put the sandwich down and swing!” She got the mayo under control and had another nice fight on her hands, this was a bigger fish that walked her around the boat a bit but she won out in the end and landed another nice one.
I followed that awhile later with my Personal Best striper; man do those fish fight hard for their size! Fishing with Scott is a great experience because he is a wonderful host and really knows his quarry, he is a student of the striped bass, knows its biology, habits and menu. Lori and I really enjoyed our day on the lake not for just the fishing but also for the scenery, wildlife and good company.
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