Lake Poway 1/26
I pulled up four cars behind the Lake Poway gate this morning at 5:30 wondering, where is everyone? My last visit at this hour I was at least ten back. Then I saw the trees swaying back and forth in a Santana-style gale. Not to say the wind will kill a bite but the locals know it can agitate your light line and slowly-sinking bubbles enough to wait until calmer periods.
At the permit shack I was in and out in five minutes. I hustled up to get to the point to the right where we saw dudes landing a lot of big ones the past two trips using nightcrawlers or yellow Power Bait. In the 6:15 darkness I was the first one there. Air blasts were head-on so I cast both my rigs so that they would drift to the left into the cove, which took about seven minutes to cover the 100 feet.
Just as I turned around for another toss, some dude decides to park his stuff three feet away from mine and cast out, his line blowing all in my face. Dang, there’s at least another thirty feet of clear shoreline to the right for other danglers to stage, not sure the motivation to be a big buttinski other than to pester first comers enough that they’ll bail out.
A few casts later Chuck P. showed up, I suggested we walk the short expanse over to the other side of the lake where at least we could have the wind at our backs, which would make our lines more manageable. Butt dude got his wish.
The air was calm at my house when I left and so said Chuck at his chalet, which is only a few miles away as the buzzard soars. It must have been a one-canyon wind.
We made a few casts; the action seemed dead until we saw Mr. Butt across the lake order a bystander to net a fish for him. Figures, doesn’t it? And then he caught another! The netter inadvertently went into the drink up to his gonads for that one.
By 8:30 the wind died and we hiked back to our old spot from last month, over near Buttinski Point. By 11:15 I finally had a bite, let the fish take the worm a little way then sent the hook on nothing. I reeled in a small chunk of nightcrawler stuck to the barbed shaft of my #10 baitholder.
About then Chuck took off but I stayed another hour with a feeling that a bite might soon start. Wrong.
After noon as I moseyed back to the parking lot I saw Buttinski had one in his collection of four that was close to ten pounds, which is likely the reason the netter went willy-nilly out of balance into the water in the attempt to scoop it out.
More depressing scenes on the way out were several other fishermen with catches of one or two three to four pounders on their stringers as if catching stocker trout was nothing to it.
*****
Dufush,
Here are a couple of pics for your wall of fame. Both caught by Dougfish.
These will make Breakwall Dan jealous The yellowtail is from San Clemente on
the Freedom caught on live squid and the catfish is from Lake Skinner caught
on a nightcrawler and 6lb line
DougFish
*****
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