My contribution to neglecting responsibilities on a monday....
Recent Observations…aka fishing reports
So, Northern California has seen two “storms” or significant rains this season so far and a few observations about future fishing conditions has come to light. Neither of these were huge storms but more like a good day or evening of rain…This rain has colored up the Lower Sac for a few days and added substantial color to the water lower in the river. Both Cow Creek and Battle Creek pumped some pretty serious color and now the river has color from Keswick down stream. The Feather colored up this weekend as well from Oroville down. What is happening is sense both Shasta and Oroville are so low due to the drought as it has rained the rain has run down mud banks and has in essence blown out the lakes therefore pumping off color water down river. Now this has by no means “Blown out” these rivers and there is no rain forecasted over the next week so if you have a fishing trip planned you are fine. What it has shown though is that a big storm when it does come will add some serious color to the rivers even if it doesn’t had flow AND color up the reservoirs for a LONG time. The amount of exposed mud on the banks of Nor Cals major reservoirs I have a feeling if we get the winter we need is going to play serious havoc with water clarity this winter.
Feather River – Every time I go here I swear I am never going back…same deal. I went I swear I will not be back….Here is the skinny though, with some great returns the last few years the crowds and out of town guides have shown up so the river is pretty damn crowded in the low flow. Usually by November the high flow starts fishing, spreading out guides and wade fishermen. With the low flows and warmer water temps in the High Flow the salmon have piled up into the low flow in search of cooler water so the steelhead are not holding like they usually do in the high flow….So the high flows is not a great option though you can run into fish moving up river. Couple that with the fact we need fresh fish to give the ones in the rivers mandables a break….I won’t be back for 2 weeks minimum.
Lower Sac – Trout and steelhead fishing has been good to great. Clarity on the lower river has been an issue but should be fine by early this week on all stretches as I heard by the end of yesterday pretty much everything was fishable. Get after it on the Sac ASAP this year as I have a good feeling that the first big rain is going to blow the lake out and the river will done for a while.
Lower Yuba – heard nothing but good things…haven’t been there in a bit. Should get some days over there this month.
Rock and Roll music – Been listening to the Menzingers from Scranton PA on Epitaph Records…good rock/punk/emo band. The newest CD is Ok…I prefer “On the Impossible Past”…
Booze News…I am trying not to drink to loose weight…I made a deal with myself. If I get down to 195 I get a new tattoo. It was a close call but I decided I like eating better then drinking calorie rich IPA’s so I have cut beer out for a while…yes I know they make light beer but they also make water and I like water better I think. We’ll see how this all goes…first trip where a client drops a steelhead of a life time look for me in a gutter with an empty 12 pack of Torpedo.
Sports Report
I have been a giants fan sense I can remember. May dad use to take me to giants games at candle stick and would always buy a 6 pack of tickets most years. I remember watching Kevin Mitchel, Will Clark, Robby Thompson…I had the Pacific Sock Exchange and Bash Brothers posters next to each other on my wall with Bo Knows on the other wall and I think the Jordan “Wings” Poster on the ceiling. I remember the 1989 world series and being crushed when the Giants were swept…
Then there was 2002 where I watched on what I remember as about a 12-14” black and white TV in my first apartment in chico while my future wife did her homework in the living room…I had sworn off all homework for the duration of the world series, hence my future wife graduated a full 3 semesters before. I had a tendency to “swear off homework” for things like sporting events and steelhead season…I watch what I thought would be an easy 5-0 win in the bottom of the 7th inning turn to a 5-6 loss and an eventual 7 game defeat by the Angels. That o
ne hurt. It was brutal.
The 2002 world series was followed by a 10-3 Notre Dame season but then was quickly followed by a 5-7 and 6-6 season and a 100 win season by the giants but a 3game to 1 exit to the Marlins in the Wild Card game…At this point I made a deal with the sports gods that all I wanted to was a world series and a National Championship in my life time, I figured that was a fair request and many people never get either. When the Giants first one in 2010 it was an amazing feeling…I have never had that feeling before…I have won Section Titles, League Titles, All Star Games, and many many “Big Games” as a high school baseball coach but it was something completely different to watch “My Team” Take down the world and win the World Series.
2012 I was just happy to have made it past the Reds, after loosing the first 2 games of the division series at home and then taking 3 games ON THE ROAD to win the series I thought the season was a HUGE success! I figured there was no way we were getting past St. Louis as they were STACKED THAT YEAR! Well ounce again we are down 3 games to 1 AT busch stadium and Zito pitched one of his greatest games of his Giants Carrear to get the team home to win in 7…At that point I though Detroit was going to take us down…They had Cabrera who won the Triple Crown and Verlander who was UNTOUCHABLE at that point…then Pablo hit 3 jacks in the first game off Verlander and I believed…We went on to sweep, I couldn’t believe. Everyone was now a giants fan and jumping on the band wagon. I was a little bitter as many hadn’t paid there dues, sat through a wind fest at Candle Stick, watched Matt Williams do his babe ruth impersonation, lived through ’89 and ’02, or still have your Pacific Sock exchange poster rolled up in the closet, I threw the bash brothers one away.
This year…what can I say. I had written the giants off man. So, many injuries, missed opportunities, UGLY games, inconsistency, you name it…The back bone of the teams success was pitching and timely hitting for the most part and if you watched any of the 2014 regular season neither of those things were in large supply. I watched most of the starting line up for the world series play for the Fresno Grizzlies up until July and August. I regained some hope when they were rallying in Late August/ September…They sweep the Brewers in Milwaukee, take 2 out of 3 from Detroit, win series against the D-Backs, Rockies, but then win only 2-6 games with the Dodgers and get swept by the Padres…We crept into the wild card and seemed to creep our way through the playoffs to an unexpected WS win…If you breat air you know the story.