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CLOSE-TO-HOME PLACES -- matthews-ONS -- 25may05
Close-to-home fishing provides important therapy
Outdoor News Service
Fishing has become less expeditionary than expediential for me. I fish to get away from the office for a few hours, and as a consequence I mostly fish close-to-home spots. Since there really aren't any secret spots anymore, discovering places that can be counted on to provide a some action requires only two things: deciding how you want to fish and being consistent about doing that thing, and then spending enough time some place to learn where on a given lake or stream where that technique works.
You have to be smart about this. If you want to catch bluegill on small popping bugs in January, for example, you are going to be disappointed no matter where you fish. But if you pick and choose, you can almost always find something happening close to home that will satisfy the desire to get out and connect with that suppressed hunter-gatherer in you.
For me, that usually means fishing with a fly rod. Fly-fishing has always been a visual activity. It is a delight to watch a skilled fly angler fish, and -- if you are the one inside the fishing vest with the long rod -- the most exciting form of fishing is when you can watch the gamefish come up and inhale your imitation. Relying on the sense of feel to detect when a fish is taking your offering leaves a lot to the imagination, which is not bad, but it's just not the same as a seeing a bluegill kiss a small fly off the surface of the water.
So I scout out places where a small deer-hair popper or sponge ant can be tossed out next to a weed bed or flooded stick-up in clear water, and I can watch some member of the sunfish family propel its way up to the fly and suck it in. I'm really sorry for you if you don't understand the profound therapy and simple glee in that process, but it has probably kept me from divorce, teenager-beating, and excessive drinking.
I have fished Lake Silverwood since the lake first opened in the early 1970s, and there has always been a wrinkle along one stretch of shoreline that creates a tiny, protected pocket. Over the years, I have probably caught fish from just about anywhere along the shoreline where you can point, but this little spot has always held fish that will take a surface or near-surface fly. On Tuesday, I caught a bass off its spawning bed and two bluegill just smaller than my hand at this spot. I watched all three fish take the small fly in the clear water. Crappie like the spot when they are on an up population cycle, and I can count on the bluegill. The bass come and go after the spawn, and when I've fished the spot from a boat instead of from shore and used a plastic worm, I've never done much good here. But it's one of those spots that works for flies, the way I like to fish.
There are other spots at Silverwood that produce this time of year for my selected tactic, too. Another long-favorite place is now buried in sediment that washed in last year during the flooding, and I stood on dry ground where I once caught the same largemouth bass four times over the course of the summer on the same popping bug.
There is a small channel at Lake Perris where I catch carp on flies when the water level is right in the spring, and another spot there where I have consistently seen a 10-pound class bass, but she only comes near my flies when I've hooked one of the 10-inch bass that seem to hang out in the same spot. The big female swims over, as if she's considering eating her smaller brethren. I have surface bluegill spots that should be good all summer at Glen Helen Regional Park, Puddingstone, and Perris. There are places at Seccombe Park Lake in downtown San Bernardino and Evans Lake in near-downtown Riverside where I can take you right now to catch little bluegill and warmouth, but we will get funny looks from families sitting on blankets when they see the fly rod.
You can use a push-button spincast rod, a bobber, and garden worms you pluck from a shovel full of dirt turned over in the flower bed. You can use light spinning tackle and micro crank plugs or jigs. You can use whatever you like to fish.
Now, when its warm and members of the sunfish family are spawning and gorging in the warm water, its easy to find places to catch a few fish whatever tactic you use. They might be small, but we're talking about short times to get away for a while. Someplace you can go during lunch or after dinner. I keep my radar out for new places, and I'd bet money you have a spot 10 minutes from your house or office.
A friend told me about seeing some big bluegill in a water hazard at the local golf course, and I'm wondering if the manager will let me fish there after dark. It's close and I can't always get away when the sun is up.
Close-to-home fishing provides important therapy
Outdoor News Service
Fishing has become less expeditionary than expediential for me. I fish to get away from the office for a few hours, and as a consequence I mostly fish close-to-home spots. Since there really aren't any secret spots anymore, discovering places that can be counted on to provide a some action requires only two things: deciding how you want to fish and being consistent about doing that thing, and then spending enough time some place to learn where on a given lake or stream where that technique works.
You have to be smart about this. If you want to catch bluegill on small popping bugs in January, for example, you are going to be disappointed no matter where you fish. But if you pick and choose, you can almost always find something happening close to home that will satisfy the desire to get out and connect with that suppressed hunter-gatherer in you.
For me, that usually means fishing with a fly rod. Fly-fishing has always been a visual activity. It is a delight to watch a skilled fly angler fish, and -- if you are the one inside the fishing vest with the long rod -- the most exciting form of fishing is when you can watch the gamefish come up and inhale your imitation. Relying on the sense of feel to detect when a fish is taking your offering leaves a lot to the imagination, which is not bad, but it's just not the same as a seeing a bluegill kiss a small fly off the surface of the water.
So I scout out places where a small deer-hair popper or sponge ant can be tossed out next to a weed bed or flooded stick-up in clear water, and I can watch some member of the sunfish family propel its way up to the fly and suck it in. I'm really sorry for you if you don't understand the profound therapy and simple glee in that process, but it has probably kept me from divorce, teenager-beating, and excessive drinking.
I have fished Lake Silverwood since the lake first opened in the early 1970s, and there has always been a wrinkle along one stretch of shoreline that creates a tiny, protected pocket. Over the years, I have probably caught fish from just about anywhere along the shoreline where you can point, but this little spot has always held fish that will take a surface or near-surface fly. On Tuesday, I caught a bass off its spawning bed and two bluegill just smaller than my hand at this spot. I watched all three fish take the small fly in the clear water. Crappie like the spot when they are on an up population cycle, and I can count on the bluegill. The bass come and go after the spawn, and when I've fished the spot from a boat instead of from shore and used a plastic worm, I've never done much good here. But it's one of those spots that works for flies, the way I like to fish.
There are other spots at Silverwood that produce this time of year for my selected tactic, too. Another long-favorite place is now buried in sediment that washed in last year during the flooding, and I stood on dry ground where I once caught the same largemouth bass four times over the course of the summer on the same popping bug.
There is a small channel at Lake Perris where I catch carp on flies when the water level is right in the spring, and another spot there where I have consistently seen a 10-pound class bass, but she only comes near my flies when I've hooked one of the 10-inch bass that seem to hang out in the same spot. The big female swims over, as if she's considering eating her smaller brethren. I have surface bluegill spots that should be good all summer at Glen Helen Regional Park, Puddingstone, and Perris. There are places at Seccombe Park Lake in downtown San Bernardino and Evans Lake in near-downtown Riverside where I can take you right now to catch little bluegill and warmouth, but we will get funny looks from families sitting on blankets when they see the fly rod.
You can use a push-button spincast rod, a bobber, and garden worms you pluck from a shovel full of dirt turned over in the flower bed. You can use light spinning tackle and micro crank plugs or jigs. You can use whatever you like to fish.
Now, when its warm and members of the sunfish family are spawning and gorging in the warm water, its easy to find places to catch a few fish whatever tactic you use. They might be small, but we're talking about short times to get away for a while. Someplace you can go during lunch or after dinner. I keep my radar out for new places, and I'd bet money you have a spot 10 minutes from your house or office.
A friend told me about seeing some big bluegill in a water hazard at the local golf course, and I'm wondering if the manager will let me fish there after dark. It's close and I can't always get away when the sun is up.
