We're Not Turning Back Now!

I was supposed to go fishing with Pops and Rigo but pops was called into work. I decided to go anyway and told Rigo I would be there within the hour. On the way there I could see some dark clouds looming in the east, as if they were covering Butte Pond, our original fishing location.  In fact there were even a few sprinkles landing on my windshield for a while so I really feared a storm raining us out while fishing but I didn’t drive all that distance to turn back so I went forward! 

When I arrived in Williams and picked up Rigo, we stared at the clouds for a while and switched plans. We decided we would make our way to East park Reservoir aka Lodoga. On the way there we could see another dark cloud heading in our direction, this time with lightning. We had been talking for a while about fishing Stony gorge Reservoir for largemouth bass but had yet to do it so last minute we decided to go for it.

While driving there we saw darker clouds and more lightning but we figured we didn’t drive all this way to turn back so we went forward! We arrived at Stony Gorge reservoir at around 5:30pm and were very surprised by the lack of water in the lake. We figured we would fish 2 hours and get out of there unless the rain chased us away first. The wind blew strong and almost seemed to be bringing the storm in our direction and I waited for the rain drops but instead the wind and lack of bites chased us away.  

When we exited the park, the road comes to a “T.” If we turned right, the road would take us straight home but if we turned left, it would take us to Stony creek as it exits the Stony Gorge Dam. Even though the wind was strong and we were sure were were going to get rained on, but we didn’t leave the lake early to quit fishing so we went for it and I was glad we did! 

The town is called Elk Creek, CA and right below the bridge when you get into town there is a delightful little fishing spot that wasn’t littered or destroyed. Sure there was some graffiti on the bridge but no garbage all over the place. I found the place beautiful with its water cascading down the rock formations. I observed that there was a spot where the cascading water entered the pond water so I decided immediately where I would be fishing.  I did not have my fly rod on me since it was such a windy day but the funniest thing, the wind slowed down when we got to stony creek. I could hear Marks buddy Charlie saying the quote that becomes more true every time I fish, “ A fly rod is like your American Express Card; don’t leave home without it! “ And this fishing hole simply begged for the fly rod but all I had on me was my spinning rod.

I tied on a white twin tail worm on a weedless hook and tossed it directly into the riffle. Seconds later … BOOM! I reeled in and I had a nice healthy little smallmouth bass on the line!  After that I had a few more bumps but that was it for the smallies. We moved a bit further downstream because there seemed to be more action. I tied on a fat nightcrawler using a slip bobber rig.  Right away there was a bite and I set the hook but there was nothing. On my next cast my bobber went down, I took the slack out of my line, set the hook and reeled in only to find a Pikeminnow on the hook. Soon after we decided to call it a day.  I’m glad we stuck out the “certain rain” and overbearing wind because the wind slowed and we managed to dodge the rain. Two fish on a short fishing trip makes for a great Monday! 

Total Fish: 1 Smallmouth Bass + 1 Sac Pikeminnow = 2 fish