Today I went back to the lake to explore and learn more about the creek and how it relates to the back ponds. I started at the photo board where I found the No Fishing sign was still up.

These signs are ILLEGAL. I have it direct from the DFG Commission that fishing is allowed until March 1, 2010. So on Monday my first call will be to DFG enforcement to file a complaint that the East Bay Regional Parks District is violating my rights as an angler by posting no fishing in areas that are legal to fish.

http://www.calfishing.com/files/Images/conservation/shadow_cliffs/no_fishing.JPG

From there I walked around the back ponds, photographing and looking around. There is some water flowing through the system right now due to all of the recent rain.

Here is a view of the front lake
http://www.calfishing.com/files/Images/conservation/shadow_cliffs/front_lake.JPG

Here is a view of the Island Pond
http://www.calfishing.com/files/Images/conservation/shadow_cliffs/island_pond.JPG

Here is a photo of some dog people in the Arroyo Pond.
http://www.calfishing.com/files/Images/conservation/shadow_cliffs/dogs.JPG

There were dozens of dogs jumping in the lake today. I am looking at the dog angle as an interesting side issue related to closing the back ponds. There was at one of the EBPARKS meetings a while back on shadow cliffs where the anti-fishing views of the dog people were evident. Here are some quotes:

"Dog owners are concerned about injuries from fish hooks"

"EBRPD should provide separate areas for dogs and fishermen"

While many dog owners are probably fishermen, or have no problem with fisherman, there are undoubtedly some very happy dog owners right now because of the imminent closure.

As I walked along the levee I saw a lot of birds. There were several people bird watching today with binoculars. Here is a photo of the island on the island pond. No fishing is allowed near this island so that the birds are not disturbed. I wonder if the bird watchers realize that the reason these trees are filled with cormorants is because of the stocked trout in the front pond? Just a classic example where the goals of recreation and biodiversity meet with confounding outcomes.
http://www.calfishing.com/files/Images/conservation/shadow_cliffs/cormorants.JPG

Here are some white pelicans that are living at Shadow Cliffs only because of the man made front lake and the stocked trout.
http://www.calfishing.com/files/Images/conservation/shadow_cliffs/white_pelicans.JPG

After a while I grabbed my tube and fished the island pond. Here is a classic shot showing the kind of great flippin cover available at these ponds.
http://www.calfishing.com/files/Images/conservation/shadow_cliffs/cover.JPG

Fishing was pretty slow. But that was OK because my main goal was to find the point where the creek flows in to the Island Pond. It took a while but I finally found it. There was a solid wall of tullies with some current pushing through. Now ask yourself if this looks like suitable steelhead habitat, and consider the fact that we just had our big rain for the year and it rained the night before. This is IT, there is no channel here, just this wall of tullies. Fish can't swim through this!

http://www.calfishing.com/files/Images/conservation/shadow_cliffs/creek.JPG

A bit later I saw this big fat turtle sitting on some tullies. It was fast asleep. I could have grabbed it with my hand. Took a few photos and headed on. I don't know if this is a native turtle or some pet that escaped. Herpetology isn't my thing.

http://www.calfishing.com/files/Images/conservation/shadow_cliffs/turtle.JPG

Oh yeah, this is a fishing report too. I went to the front pond and launched my tube amongst the dog melee. Clint sprained his wrist trying to launch at one of the steeper launches the other day and I was over that. The only good launch is the big middle launch so off I went.

A bit later I had a bite, set the hook 3 times and lost the fish. It swam at me the whole way and I watched it fall off the hook. Maybe 3lber. I was using an EWG with a senko which I never do. Just forgot my regular hooks. 10 minutes later I went back to that tree and flipped in again. Similar bite and caught a 3lber. What was cool was that you could see the mark where I had missed the fish on the first go-round. Just a classic example of why EWG hooks aren't good on most baits.

http://www.calfishing.com/files/Images/conservation/shadow_cliffs/3.1lbs.JPG

On the way out I was packing up my truck and saw a park worker open up the photo board. I thought she might be taking down the No Fishing signs so I hurried to go talk to her. We wound up chatting for about 15 minutes. She said there are 4 signs around the back ponds now that say no fishing as well. I didn't see them, so not sure on that? She said she couldn't understand why they were closing the back ponds to fishing.

So I went back to my truck, loaded up and backed out. Then I heard a sick crunching sound. That was my tire running over my rods, which had been propped on the side of the truck x( Ugggg. Most bonehead move ever. I just got thrown off my routine from talking to the lady. The damages were two curado 200's, my favorite Castaway flippin stick and a custom Performance Tackle swimbait rod :(

Clearly these reels are defective...
http://www.calfishing.com/files/Images/conservation/shadow_cliffs/reels.JPG