All the talk about the Santa Ynez River gave me the urge to skip my morning class at Cal Poly and head up for some Smallie fishing. I stopped of at Wal-Mart on the way over and picked up 1 rebel wee-crayfish, 1 rebel wee-grasshopper, and a small rebel minnow. When I got to Paradise road the construction wait was 30 minutes, this put a temporary damper on my excitement. But my excitement was quickly heightened when I arrived at the Live Oak area and on my first cast watched my grasshopper get slammed on impact with the water by a nice 12" SYR Smallie. After this I knew I was in for some nice fishing. I left my car at live oak and hiked up river for 5 hours fishing various holes being careful not to spook fish as I approached them. By the end of the day I caught 23 smallies, 7 sunfish and 2 trout. It was great fun. Thanks to all who replied to my post on Best SYR bait and also my post on the “raping of the river”. It is good to see so many people who care about preserving such nice areas.
Charlie
P.S. I took a trash bag with me and me and my girlfriend filled it up with everything from beer cans to diapers in only 15 minutes. That was about the only sad part of the day.