Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3904 Feb 1-14 | Page 22

20
Jan 31 - Feb 14, 2020
VOL.38 • ISS. 25
Spotlight On Kayak Fishing...
Sponsered by
Kayak City
in Citrus Heights, CA
Kayak City.Com
916.565.1400
On The Hunt For Late
Season Sierra Trout!
By Kevin Hofer
I had so much fun on my first fall-time Sierra lakes exploration trip, that I
just had to do it again! After meeting my friend Matt Davis in the valley and
getting all of our fishing and camping gear loaded into one vehicle, we were
off to the mountains.
There were still a handful of lakes that I had never fished north of Highway
80, so we that’s where we were headed again.
After a long and bumpy drive down a dirt road, our first stop was Fauchrie
Lake. My first impression was how beautiful this lake was and the surrounding
mountains
were
breathtaking.
After
taking in the
view for a
few we got
the kayaks
unloaded
and started
to explore
the lake.
I started
off with
my normal
pattern of
trolling to
the inlet and
seeing what I can see along the way, didn’t see much.
After a couple hours of trolling around for not even a single bite I went and
found Matt to see how he was doing, no action either.
As we floated and enjoyed the view, we heard someone yelling from across
the lake “I got one”, turns out it was 4year old who had caught the fish.
At the launch, I made sure to congratulate him and let him know he caught
the first fish, the biggest fish, and the most fish, stoked for the little guy!
Our second stop of the trip, and camp for the night was Bowman lake. We
arrived in time to get the kayaks down to the water and setup camp before
dark.
After dinner, it was off to bed early so could be up before the sun and on the
water for a fun filled day of exploring another lake.
It was about 4 o’clock in the morning when I was woken by strange sounds,
at first, I thought some little critter, but it was way worse… It was the wind
already picking up and blowing.
Kayak straps were hitting on my truck. By the time, it was light enough
out to see, the lake was covered in whitecaps. Matt and I launched and tried
our best to find somewhat sheltered places to fish but the conditions were
just nasty. By 10 we were sitting in camp having breakfast
and waiting for the wind to die down, by noon it was still
howling from the east with no signs of letting up.
We hiked the kayaks back up the hill and got camp packed
up and headed off to check out French Lake. Back down the
rocky bumpy road we went for a few miles before running
into a down tree in the road.
Some quick scouting and thinking and we had an alternate
route planned around it. We suffered some minor body damage from me not
following instructions, but we were back on track. We made it to the French
Lake turnoff and found a closed and locked gate.
Maybe weren’t meant to catch any fish this trip we thought. Both being sick
of the wind, the decision was made to start hitting some of the smaller lakes
around the area and see what we could find.
Finally, the fish gods smiled upon us and we stumbled on a little lake filled
with hungry fish. I shouted so loud I probably spooked half the fish and any
deer with 5 miles when I finally got a bite.
Sure felt good to finally get hooked up on some fish, exploring is always fun,
but nice to at least catch a few!!! We had a great evening and morning fishing
on this little pond before we finally had to pack up camp one last time and start
making the long bumpy trek back out to civilization.
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