O'Neill Forebay Report

[Paddle and flies]

Adam Grace from Kiene’s fly shop in Sac  joined Monte Trinkle and myself at Oneill Forebay  yesterday for a “brief “ introduction to kayak flyfishing. After unloading the yaks I gave Adam a few quick pointers on paddle strokes after which he took to the water  to do some paddling and get comfortable with the kayak before he started casting  from it. Back on shore I was checking out my yak before launching  I notice my fish finder was on the blink again which was a bit of a bummer , because as far as striper fishing goes without a fishfinder I’m crippled, particuarly on the Forebay. Not to be discouraged I caught up with Adam on the water and we commenced to chasing linesides. Without my finder I simply fished spots that where I usually caught fish--points, the power
line islands.While Adam was working the shore line of one of the islands I headed towards the  weed beds on to find they were begining to break up due to the cold. It was like paddling in soup; I sure didn’t want to cast a fly in it. However if my finder  would hve been working , letting me know if fish were there or not, it would have been a different story. As it was, not having my finder was a big distraction and very discouraging for me.
   It ws still a good day as I got to iintroduce Adam to kayakfishing, a little bit of it anyway. I did hook a couple but that was it. The Forebay was the dead sea, waters were mirror like with only occasional winds . We saw no surface all the time we were there.