In search of adventure and escape from the same old, we arrived 6:10am to see about renting a boat. It was windy. The day before they had gusts to 40. The rental boat people said hang out we'll see how the day goes.

We fished from shore for 2 hours and caught nothing. It was freezing cold and windy. No one near us caught anything. Around 8 it got calmer so they let us rent a boat, neat. Got the full day boat rental. Nice boats, with nice elec motors. Off we went.

First spot a striper chases my big hammer, maybe 4 or 5lber. A few casts later I caught a 2 and a half pound largemouth on the 6.5" big hammer. Well ok then :) Then the wind died off and it got sunny. Felt like we missed the fishy part of the day there standing on shore for 2 hours.

But onward to rental boat adventure! I got so gung ho I brought my portable fish finder. Took me forever to find it last night in the garage and see if still worked after 3 years of sitting around. Water was 65-71 degress, with 4 foot clarity. There's a fair amount of bait, looked like very small shad. And pretty good striper sign all around the lake.

Thing is, most of the striper sign was 10 to 15 inch long baby striper. Tons of those everywhere. Saw a few nicer boils but always in open water and they refused to eat. Our lures were too big for the micro stripers though we did get a lot of hits. I caught another 2lb bass on a jerbait and missed some bass.

Along the way we sawed each other off casting a few times, broke braided line for no reason, cast off lures, got our fishing licenses checked by some park police guy and generally did the rental boat proud. We fished for 11 hours. All over the lake. Which I enjoyed, having never been on a boat there.

The conditions were truly weird for August. Freezing wind and fog in the morning, hot and bright sun by mid day, then clouds that looked like rain clouds with the wind in the complete opposite direction by afternoon. All those factors combine to make a good excuse as to why we didn't catch any big striper, the intended target.

Nico and I may go back this year. But then again we might not. Only so much time in this world to fish. Los Vaqueros is a nice lake. There seems to be a lot of striper in there. The marina people are nice but it really is a pain in the butt to get on the water with the wind issue. No matter, adventure was had.

Should have told me... I would have marked up a map of some striper spots. Especially since they are going to lower the water level in a few months to raise the dam.

I've had some good luck there in late september/early october on stripers. Punkers, Slammers, Triple Trouts...

In case you didn't know there is a webpage that has the conditions near the lake updated hourly.

http://ccwater.com/losvaqueros/conditions.asp

It felt like we were around striper all day, but the bigger variety just weren't on the chew. Especially not on surface oriented baits. Hopefully they'll come up closer to the top in September. Rob was smarter than me and brought gear for the small stripers :-)

Will post some pics from slayage tonight.

I was skunked there last Friday, but I left early as I was getting sick. Next time I go there I am going to fish one pole frozen anchovies and my other pole swimbaits and spoons. I still want to rent a boat there, but the wind is a definite challenge.

Still waiting for those lunker pics (they were huge I swear). Priorities...

The best part is the look of hatred on your face with this lunker striper.


http://www.calfishing.com/dc/user_files/8281-str_1.jpg


http://www.calfishing.com/dc/user_files/8282-lm_2.jpg


http://www.calfishing.com/dc/user_files/8283-lm_1.jpg

Those rental boats look heavy duty. Too bad the big stripers didn't cooperate. How big of stripers does that lake kick out?

Big. The lake record is 45lbs.

Hmm, makes me reconsider trying that place out again. So close to me but then again, the delta is closer!!!

Thanks for the report.

Todd
Team Boca Bearings - www.bocabearings.com
http://www.bigbearfishingrods.com
http://www.bassanglerprofiles.com/toddiwamoto.htm