Fish Outings
June Fish Outing
Our June fish outing to Payne Ranch after Smallmouth was a great success, though the fish were pretty small this year.  A big shout out to our friend John Reynolds from the Davis club (famous for his 'Road Kill Chili' at the annual Putah Creek Cleanup Day) for his pre-trip planning assistance. The trails have markers now, which made the hike much easier to figure out.  We first hiked to Big Fish Pond, not quite an hour and a half in.  We caught fish after fish, but whereas two years ago they were all in the couple of pound size, this year they were in the ounces size.  The pond seemed to have lots of crawdads, frogs, and salamanders, so I'm sure if the pond doesn't dry up too bad and get too hot by the end of summer so these little fish can survive it'll be better fishing next year.  The amazing thing about smallmouth is they fight so hard!  Even though they were pretty darn small, sometimes when they'd get on they'd be pulling and fighting so hard we'd be whooping and hollering that this one for sure is a decent fish, and then pull it up to find it to be another little guy.  Smallmouth certainly deserve their reputation as North America's 'fightingest fish'.

After lunch four of us continued on to hike to the other two ponds.  The next one was fairly far down in a valley and it appeared only two spots allowed access to the water, so we continued on to the last pond.  At five miles from the start of the hike, this was the furthest we'd go on this trip.  This pond was more challenging to fish than the first pond because of access to the water, and the fish were wary.  I found a damsel nymph to be the ticket to fool them though, but I caught more star thistle and cattail than fish.

After an hour of of that we packed up our rods for the hike out in the heat of the afternoon.  With many rest stops and consuming much of the water that'd we'd borne the weight of all day we made it out healthy, feeling good, and lots of fish in the camera.  What impresses me so much about doing this hike is the rugged remoteness and beauty of the landscape, and to know that I actually can hike over hill, valley, heat, and dust to fish that pond five miles distant in the outback, all on my own two feet.  The truth is however, I would never do it without the camaradarie of fishing friends.  Having people along on the hike makes it so much more worthwhile, running with young Jacob up the hill 'cause we can't wait to fish, admiring a giant trap door spiderweb someone spotted, hearing about the fox others saw, which just goes to show that the fishing is fun, the landscape reminds us of our roots, but it is companionship that makes it memorable.