02.06.10 Lake Merced....turtles and plane crash

Met Shicken at noon. Trolled the entire lake to no avail. Marv marked most of the fish grouped in middle of the lake. We trolled over the spot still to no avail. Went for bass and tried slow rolling a spinner bait with a colorado blade (for more vibration) since the lake is basically green (zero vis) year round. No love from the bass either but I did encounter a very shy turtle (saw a couple of 'em) and also came across the scene of a plane crash.....

Weather was cool and on the breezy side. But the wind died down later in the afternoon. It was nice paddling this lake...brought back pleasant memories of basic bank fishing with the lawn chair, rod holder, strike indicator while talking story with the old timers

more random pics....

Did you keep the plane? The one pic with the kayaks looks like true love.

Who needs fish? Not me, with a cool little report like this.

Nice plane, could she be salvaged?

Who needs fish? Not me, with a cool little report like this.

Yup, brings back memories of me as a kid taking the bus or riding my bike to fish the lake from one of the piers. 

Did you wash your hand after handling the turtle?    Thanks for the report and pictures Mooch.

Love the picture you shared with the golf course in the back ground. Two of my
favorite hobies. Of course right now kayakfishing weighs heavier in my heart at
the moment. How goes it Marv?

Jedmo

Did you wash your hands before you handled the turtle? That Dragon boat must be able to cross the lake in 30 seconds, how boring!

Did not keep the plane...ended up in the trash can.

Nate, Lake Merced holds a special place in my heart (besides learning about trout fishing from the retired WW2 veterans who used to frequent this lake) cause this is the lake that got me my first trout limit When you hear about the locals saying "hey, you missed the power bait hatch yesterday" it only meant that the fishing was red hot 

Did you wash your hands before you handled the turtle? That Dragon boat must be able to cross the lake in 30 seconds, how boring!

I hear ya Ben. They should be doing all that stuff on the South lake (waaaaaay longer than the North Lake)But they did circle the lake about a dozen times.

* It's also unfortunate that there's no one running the concession stand (for fishing) in this lake anymore. It was a sad day for a lot of the Veterans, retired folks and kids when they shut the place down  . This was the only lake close enough for all the city folks to spend some quality time fishin n' chillin...

Cool Western Pond turtle! Our only native western turtle. Looks pretty old too by the bulbus shell scutes, like everything else not too many of them around anymore, sound like an old timer! 

Is Lake Merced open to public boating, or are you guys connected somehow?  For some reason I thought it was closed.  I live really close to there and after seeing all the kayaks at the derby my kid keeps asking when I will take him on the Kayak again.

lucky an old plane was the only dead decaying thing you found floating there!

Is Lake Merced open to public boating, or are you guys connected somehow?  For some reason I thought it was closed.  I live really close to there and after seeing all the kayaks at the derby my kid keeps asking when I will take him on the Kayak again.

It's open - no entrance fees, no parking fees, no inspections, no launch fees, no fish permit fees....it's basically the opposite of Lake Del Valle....there are fish in there but you need to work hard for 'em

lucky an old plane was the only dead decaying thing you found floating there!

...yeah, Marv told be about a dead body that was found there last year