Smallies, and Morels and Dads...

Took a run up to Lake Almanor just over a week ago for some smallies and morel hunting. Those last rains we had really set off the morels, so I wanted to make a double haul out of the deal. First I hit the morels, and ended up getting about 800 in two days! A personal best by far!  I'm just really getting into them and (then it goes like this)a ranger comes along and asks me if I have my permit? Permit?! Crap, you gotta get a permit to pick some shrooms? Yep. So, can you issue one to me? Nope. You gotta go into Chester to the office and get one... (Chester's about 30 miles away from where we are.) So I'm walking out and see a couple more on the way out bend down to pick em, and the ranger calls up to me and says, Sir I'm going to have to ask you not to pick any more till you get the permit, or I'll sight you. Fine, I'll go right now to get one. Drive all the way into town and the gal at the office says, we aren't giving out permits... I say, what do you mean. One of your field rangers just sent me in here to get one. She asks, who? I say I don't know, someone wearing the same uniform you are. Starting to sound like the left hand doesn't know what the right's doing... All I want to do is get back out there before it gets plowed by the crowds and market hunters. She says we need to hear back from the field ranger doing a field survey on the impact of people walking near the stream after the rain before they are going to start issuing permits again... You can wait or come back if you like. When are they going to return? I ask. Don't know, she says... Bureaucracy at it's finest! I leave her my cell number, and she calls me a couple hours later, and say you can come get your permit now. Killed my first day up there for the most part. The good news, I made up for it the next day picking way more than I've ever picked in a season. Hit my first "Morel mother lode" So now it's off for some smallie fishin'. Some of the fish were on their beds, and I saw some real nice ones cruising in the deeper water near by. The bite was surprizingly tough until the evening, and then they started grabbing more. Started getting some nice fish on Rapala minnows. My best fish was an 18"er, with a nice mix of several 15-17" range fish. No doubt about it, Ill take a smallie over a LMB any day. These scrappy guys never give up! Fun fishing and the weather was perfect. I also managed one trout doing a little evening trolling, and a few nice dads as well. I ended up keeping two SMB and the trout for a couple great fish n morel dinners  This all happened last week. When I got home I had to go straight to work for a few then I've been layed out sick since...
Here's a few pics.

Here's a few more of the haul!  I sun dried a bunch of the shrooms while I was up there. I got a nice little lobster lunch out of the deal.

Excellent work on those morels!

What a great trip ... excluding the left hand, right hand, "I need a permit?" thing. Doesn't get much better than that!

Nice Jonesz, real nice. I was wondering where you got off to. Missed you at Paradise. I found a real nice flat to fish. PM me. That is a beautiful smallie. AOTY for sure. Pardee res. for smallies next weekend.

WTG on the SMB jonesz. I need some of those fish so bad.

Jedmo

Very cool.  Way to take advantage of all the available resources at hand!

Send those morels this way and i will trade you some Velosas which are thick here.

Nice smallie, i used to fish almanor way back, but then i moved to Ukiah and the fishing is really good here. I would throw a nightcrawler around the east shore private jetties and hook browns and smallies in the spring.

It was one of those trips you just hate to come home....   Everything was all coming together at once. The morels were the highlight for me. I've been chasing those illusive little buggers for a few years now. I finally got my revenge on em. I accidently posted the same pic twice of the smallie. Ment to post a different one. The one with the morels has about a dozen morels in it. See if you can find em. 

Great haul!  Who would have thought you need a permit to pick wild shrooms?  I grew up in the mid-west and have been picking morels since I was about 5 years old and this is the first time I've heard of a permit being required.  They are one of the finest eating mushrooms you'll ever find.  You don't find very may morels on the central coast, but I have picked them from new landscaping projects that were mulched with northern forest mulch.

Nice report.  those crawdads look mighty tasty.

WTG Jonesz... those are fat looking smallies. I've heard that Almanor can kick out some brutes.

Freddie

Nice job on the morels!  I've been searching for them for a while now, still am terrible at finding them. Boletes now thats a different story!   

Mmmmmm, morels .....   

Ahhww Jonesz!!
I knew you were up to no good!
Good to hear that you're up to your old tricks!
Let's go fishing...