SanJoaquin Lost Lake-99

[prodigal]

 We paddled and fished from FWbeach to 99.
12 hours of sun and a few "new" hydrolics that can be challenging in the big boats.
(I really miss the colverts on that stretch.)
On day 2 we paddled from Lost Lake to FWbeach.
8 hours and our familiar but equally challenging drift.
enjoy the visuals.






































Day 1 belonged to TheKraken and he was able to check off a few boxes on his SJR hit list. I struggled.
Day 2 proved to be one of my best days ever fishing moving water.
more visuals

































The day ended with a pike minnow cameo and our thanks to the river that TheKraken and I have paddled for so many fantastic adventures.



If you find that you are inspired, take care, this place is far more dangerous than it looks.
 
 









 

[LoletaEric]

Good stuff.  That's a beauty of a trout, and your look-away reminds me of a guy who used to post here alot.   

[bigred23]

what type of SUP  is that , it looks real fun

[yakhopper]

Nice report
Wish I lived in that neck of the woods ... would have loved to join ya
Thanks for the story and pics

See Ya Soon,
Eric / Yakhopper

Sent from my HTC Aria

[POLARCAT]

Scotty, man that looks like the biggest bluegill I've ever seen ( http://www.landbigfish.com/fish/fish.cfm?ID=14 ).

How'd you get it?

An absolute beast - congrats

Terry, that SUP looks like a kick, but all I can see is me falling in the water and you guys pee-ing yourselves laughing at me.

J might be fun to watch on it too.

Damn, I wish I could have made that trip. 

Next time.

Shirk (The Polarcat)

[CGN-38]

 


  Yes definetly a couple of "Hawgs" landed!  Beautiful trout!  Thanks for the pictures!

[prodigal]

your look-away reminds me of a guy who used to post here alot.   

I remember that guy. He used to really enjoy posting here.

Dergib,
That SUP is from Imagine surf and is called the speeder. Im working on a review for it but Im still gathering info and getting some solid time on the water so I can report accurately and objectively.

YH,
One of these days it will happen my friend. The stars just havent lined up for us to do this run with you.
We had initially had a team of 6 but life and responsibilities stepped in.
Im glad that Scott and I scouted the FW to 99 run before we had a full crew. Its probably a better 2 day trip and we learned that the river has changed alot since our last trip on this stretch we will now call strainerville.

PC,
The SUP WAS A BLAST! and YES I took a fall in front of a crowd, BUT I didnt  have to portage any of the riffles.
It doesnt have quite enough volumn for guys like you, J Tubbs, and theKraken but Imagine has another board that can support the XXL man.
Still Im looking forward to putting JT on this board with cameras at the ready.

[The Kraken]

It's been about 16 years since we last took the route to highway 99 and it was worth the wait.  And even though I almost ate it (a few times) on the first day and was almost skunked on the second day, I rate it as one of my favorite trips. I did have a good first day, but Terry had a killer second day. I actually started to get pissed having to take so many pics for him. Anyway, I found a few more pics from our adventure that help tell the story.

Eric we will definitely have to get Terry here on the weekend so we can all fish the river together.

Shirk I tried a lot of different lures, but surprisingly, I was killing it with the Rapalas. Terry of course worked his Tommy B. My chubby bluegill hammered the Rapala. Since I haven't caught a panfish in years I think I yelled to Terry, "what the hell is it!" We definitely need to get you guys up here, you never know what you can catch on that river. I've now caught 5 different fish in this area and I should easily be able to catch another 5 different fish.

The PB was interesting, but not stable enough for this big boy. After trying it I was amazed that Terry road it with no problem through all the rapids and turns. He even fought a fish going backwards through a rapid and still landed the fish. He did have a great day until "the incident." We get ready to pull into our takeout beach and it's like the Wild West there. There's a PB with way too may drunks in it that buzzed us, people clamming out in the river (seriously), lots of kids and some real sweeties packed on the beach area. We pull in, Terry goes to step off with the left foot and his PB shoots out from under his right foot. He does the full on face plant in the water, arms out to the sides and there was a SMACK sound! He gets up, there's a second of quite, then we both bust up laughing.     No one else really gave him a hard time about it, but we laughed for 10 minutes. He had such a great day, I think it really didn't matter to him. Just part of river running.

[prodigal]

Thanks Scott. Reading "the inccident" brought on a flashback and I started laughing again.
But the last picture brought back the nightmare of red protec helmets,swinging yellow carlisles, and the herd of Jackson rec boats. I was in the zone until they showed up.  We tried to blast down stream but the SUP couldnt match their speed. We let them pass us up and they would stop for a break, only to pass us later shouting "are we scaring off the fish?!?".

Nice enough folks and Im all about sharing the river, but the moment of zen was lost.
Just one of the reasons that Im typically a mid week paddler.
Anyway, Im hoping to get back down to the SJR for another run before winter sets in.

[Dale L]

Thanks for the beautiful report, I'd have to rate my own skill level at about a 0, so it'll be a trip I'll probably never make, but still fun to read about yours.....

[beenfishin]

Nice post, looks like a great trip and quite the diversity of fish!

[yakuza]

quite the diversity of fish!

What if we applied that as a metaphor for society?  All the catfish, trout, and bluegills of the world living in ecological harmony LOL.  Very inspiring two day post.  Thx so much for sharing your incred advnture.

[Sailfish]

Thanks for sharing the trip with us and what a great report and pictures!

[Slough Crew]

There are some monster bass in there too! 

[HobieBlue]

Great report of a great trip.  Thanks for posting.  Was that a Huddleston trout lure?  Not use to seeing you with trout in your pics.

Take care.

HB