Eastpark Reservoir Barely Non-Skunk

Arrived Friday at 2pm and it was 104, no wind.  Paddled all over the south end for nothing except two nibbles, tried everything in the arsenal.  Saturday was a little cooler, loaded up the yak with refreshments and trolled, plugged, frogged, all for nothing so switched over to explorer mode since the water was really shallow and skiiers made the deeper water less attractive.  Headed down southernmost creek channel into deep jungle-like areas...  portaged over a shallow spot, and ducked under some branches to get into the end and ran into a few wild pigs hanging out in the mud.  I'm kinda glad they didn't take exception to my presence since I was sitting in 1.5 feet of water with no easy escape. 

Sunday was go to town day since my 70lbs of ice had turned into about 15lbs...  Heard some folks say the fishing sucks this year so it's not just me...  Anyway I was feeling desperate so I resorted to buying nightcrawlers...  maybe I could at least catch a catfish to fry up.  Tossed one in a cove near camp from shore just before dusk and after a couple hours finally the bell jingled and I ran over to claim my prize!  Hmm...  he must have spit the hook...  line feels slack...  Finally I reel in my catch...  a 3 inch crappie.

Well maybe night time will be better.  After a scouting trip on my buddies jetski, and with most of the the boats off the water after dinner I decided to take a paddle north.  Trolled a rattle trap just more to have something in the water...  But soon I gave up on fishing because I'd never been on the water in the darkness before and I was awed by the feeling of solitude.  I couldn't see my bow, but I could lay back and see billions of stars and galaxies...  just amazing!  I paddles to the dam and then slowly made my way back followingb the shoreline into the many coves and campgrounds.  Sneaking up silently on the various camps it felt like being an explorer on the Amazon, seeing all the different "tribes" camped by their fires along shore...  all the different languages and different music and camp scenes was very cool to observe.  I wasn't trying to be sneaky or anything, but I'm pretty sure I was invisible from shore and it was a very cool experiece to check out all the different scenes on shore in silent solitude.
 
That night I went to bed feeling exhausted, but content despite the lack of fishing action...  And then it happened:  The wind came.  It blew hard all night and didn't stop. 

Anyway, just wanted to share the night paddle experience.  It was one of my coolest kayak experiences yet.

Sweet report Eric!...I can't wait for all the pics to upload!

STEALTH YAK - COOL!!!   Sounds nice and relaxing after hours . Anybody do any frogging from their kayak ?

STEALTH YAK - COOL!!!   Sounds nice and relaxing after hours . Anybody do any frogging from their kayak ?

HobieBlue Bryan and the DeltaSlayers do it with good results, they even catch other frogs on the frog!

Eric B--thanks for the report on Eastpark Resevoir.  Sounds like a pleasant trip despite the lack of fish-love.

Yeah, Dan V, as FisHunter said, the froggin' has been good this summer on the Delta and on Clear Lake (the one trip I made).  XSquid, 152 Sumo, and I have put in our dues and picked off a fair number of bass on frogs...plus a few quality fish to boot!

Eric, better luck next time.

HobieBlue

Well maybe night time will be better.  After a scouting trip on my buddies jetski, and with most of the the boats off the water after dinner I decided to take a paddle north.  Trolled a rattle trap just more to have something in the water...  But soon I gave up on fishing because I'd never been on the water in the darkness before and I was awed by the feeling of solitude.  I couldn't see my bow, but I could lay back and see billions of stars and galaxies...  just amazing!  I paddles to the dam and then slowly made my way back followingb the shoreline into the many coves and campgrounds.  Sneaking up silently on the various camps it felt like being an explorer on the Amazon, seeing all the different "tribes" camped by their fires along shore...  all the different languages and different music and camp scenes was very cool to observe.  I wasn't trying to be sneaky or anything, but I'm pretty sure I was invisible from shore and it was a very cool experiece to check out all the different scenes on shore in silent solitude.

You stopped by our camp stating you were just making sure if we had enough beer, then paddled strait out of the cove after I asked what kind of kayak you were paddling (I couldn't see because of the darkness).  Needless to say it was "kinda creepy" with the stealth mode action.  After that we decide to pull the kayaks out of the water because we were worried that someone might of been casing the joint and that the kayaks would disappear under the darkness. We were rocking the cobra, ocean kayaks, and wakeboarding boat. You should of stuck around and had a beer with us. We had plenty! Well maybe next time. 

These were our daytime activities when the water went to chop and the hope of catching a fish was nonexistent.

Excellent report, Eric - thank you.   

I was awed by the feeling of solitude......felt like being an explorer on the Amazon, seeing all the different "tribes" camped by their fires along shore...  all the different languages and different music and camp scenes was very cool to observe.....That night I went to bed feeling exhausted, but content despite the lack of fishing action......It was one of my coolest kayak experiences yet.

This, to me, is one of the aspects of NCKA that makes my life so much richer.  A journey and its story being told later are being celebrated, and, wonderfully, the story-tellers are enjoying their journies more for it, fish or not!  I love it.   

Great report, Man!   

 "I couldn't see my bow, but I could lay back and see billions of stars and galaxies...  just amazing! "

  I'll get to try this at BAM comming up