Oneill Forebay will always have water in it as long as all of California’s powerful politicians live in Southern California and support the rape of Northern California Delta water supplies to water their lawns. Oneill Forebay is filled by delta pumps and by San Luis Reservoir which acts like a buffer to hold water at an elevation that flows downhill to Southern California. Water is pumped from the delta into the forebay and depending on the water need and seasonal “excess” rainy weather surplus, water goes into the reservoir in the winter and out of the reservoir in the summer through the forebay while all year long feeding the California Aquaduct to Southern California. This is all important to the fishing in the Lake and Forebay because of the currents created in each of the waterways which effects the movement of the fish.
San Luis reservoir is reaching an all time record low as water is pumped out in the middle of the most critical drought in history. The Forebay is also being maintained at a very low level which has created a big weed problem in the warm shallow water. At the dock you can see the minnows are now about 2-3 inches long and the weeds have choked off lots of areas that use to be ten feet deep and full of fish. When the current is flowing, the fish move in schools looking for bait which line the edges of the weeds. I found fish all day long if I constantly moved to find them. It was a hunt and I didn’t catch more than 4 fish in one area. At times when I was anchored, I could see fish under the boat in waves. Steve Horninge met up for a part of the day and I noticed when I spotted fish under my boat, it wasn’t long before his boat hooked up which gave me a hint about the direction the schools were moving.
It was a great day with more than 25 fish landed, but it was a bit tougher than in weeks past. The fish were not as aggressive when the wind was low. Many fish were hitting on the “long pause” right on the bottom or when I was screwing around with the line in the water. I spent the day playing around with different lines on the new Sage Salt 5wgt. I ended up using a Rio ST7s6 (6-7) ips on the new running line made by Pure Skagit called the SP LAZAR LINE which floats, has no memory and feels and shoots like Mono. It casts fantastic but stripping it “striper style” was tough. Lately I’ve been using Flexx-Rap Finger Protection Wrap on my fingers to avoid striper thumb and line cuts. I like it better than the lycra finger cots I have been using and the tape is stronger and stays in place even if you don’t wrap them too tight. Initially , I wrapped them too tight and it wasn’t till I missed a couple fish that I noticed my fingers were numb and turning colors after a couple hours. . The tape does improve my ability to grab and strip the mono but there is still a bit of slip on the hit. After stripping that line for a day, my left arm hurt more than usual since I found myself gripping the line harder, but it sure sinks nice, with no slack and casts miles. Maybe a larger diameter is the ticket. Its available in 50lb test.
Yesterday when I was prepping the boat I noticed my Ipilot Link Remote wasn’t charging. That really ticked me off since I couldn’t fish without a charged remote. I checked the contacts on the cable and noticed the both contacts on the the proprietary plug were dead. I took a razor blade to the end and found both soder joints to the pins inside the tip were broken. It probably occurred on flexing. I ordered a new one but repaired the old one Mickey Mouse style by soldering the wires back.so I could fish.
Yesterday , I talked to Fermentation Solutions in Los Gatos about picking the grapes this weekend. I looks like three to four more weeks.
