The past week I was reading freshwater reports out of San Diego County regarding Lake Poway.  Seems the landlords of that body of water also planted the same Nebraska trout as Lake Wohlford, and that the hot lure is the Rapala.  I emailed Chuck P. to ask which day this week would be good for him, we zeroed in on Thursday.

    We'll hit up Poway on Friday 2/6, as the next trout plant will be the day before.  That’ll give’em 24 hours to get acclimated to their new surroundings; we’ll be standing by when they’re ready to munch.  That’s the identical stocking schedule as Wohlford, meaning it must be the same truck from Omaha making the rounds.

    Meanwhile, today's plan for Wohlford is to park near the end of Oakvale Road, at the cabins just around the curve from the dirt lot.  Then we'll hike down a trail to one of the points to cast on the mud side of a rocky outcrop so that the sinkers of our PowerBait rigs won't snag.

    My angling strategy changed somewhat from last time.  Since the big one I hooked here two weeks ago broke my four pound line like it was two, I figure I might as well use a two-pound leader, which under normal circumstances gives you more bites; the fish will be less shy of biting your bait as they can't see the string as well as four and above.  And no worm hook this time to mess things up, just the standard #16 treble tied to the end for the molding on of the PowerBait, the potion of all our hook-ups that day.

    While the bait soaks, my other rod will be set up with twelve-pound line and a four-inch rainbow trout pattern X-Rap.  The reasons for the heavier line are two-fold: There will be less chance of snapping it off on the cast, and if a big fat largemouth sucks it up, you have a better chance of landing it.

    I was at the Wohlford Café this morning ten minutes before six to pick up two permits at five dollars apiece.  Last time they were four.  The attendant says next week they go up to seven.  Haven’t they heard everything is going down these days?  Perhaps not the price of imported trout.

    I pulled into the rendezvous area at six.  I tied on my boots, strapped on the backpack, grabbed my two poles and ambled down the trail.  First thing you notice is a stiff, cool Santana wind blowing head on.  It’ll be difficult to cast but I heard the news yesterday and was prepared with a ¼ ounce egg sinker to anchor down the PowerBait.  Normally I would use a 1/8.

    By the time I arrived at the casting area my two rods were so tangled with each other, I had to break off both and retie.  That cost me fifteen minutes of prime time as I heard more than a few fish splash the surface.

    Minutes later Chuck showed up asking, catch any?   I said I just cast a few minutes ago, delayed by technical difficulties.  He began the day’s festivities by flinging a Panther Martin.

    As the two of us cast with the early light of dawn at our backs, two bald eagles flew over.  I had my camera ready but the light wasn’t bright enough to pick up the white plumage.

    The pair of love birds perched themselves atop an oak tree and just kind of hung out BSing with each other for a while before taking off for the dam area.  We watched as they glided round and round, looking for big fat trout near the surface for them to get their talons around.

    We were fishing in an area that was rather flat and shallow.  With no bites by eight we moved a short distance to a slightly deeper point just under where the eagles flew back to roost.  They didn’t seem to mind much, just sort of eyeing us without fear.  Now and then gusts of wind would whip up making Rapala casting very difficult.

    Those guys were the only one having fun today.  If, like us, they didn’t catch any, at least they can fly around and do eagle stuff.  I mean, it was so dead around here the buzzards were circling.  Neither of us had a bite until noon, when we went back to the café for a bite of another kind.  I had the catfish sandwich, Chuck the BLT.  Actually I did bring home something for my time, a solid lead mushroom boat anchor I found lying on the shore.

*****

From Mike B.:

hey mike, i was going through some old pics and i found this shot of a crappie i caught at lake piru. i might have shown you this shot soon after it was taken. i got a new hp4050 photo-slide-neg scanner awhile ago as a gift, but i haven't hooked it up yet so i scanned the print. it weighed around 4 lbs. and it was a lake piru crappie record. they called the la times and a guy came down and took pics of me holding the fish and wrote a little article. the article made the paper but no photos. the lake also called the guy that previously held the record. he came over and intro'd himself, shook my hand then pushed me into the lake...just kidding. just thought i'd share it. (and brag a little i guess)    

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