Menominee Mancaving

Posted on May 21, 2012 by Joulebox

Debra and I flew to Chicago for a few days of Midwestern R&R. We setup on the Magnificent Mile at the Intercontinental. We spent a couple of days in town hitting Topolobambo, Ric’s garages, Field Museum and some protestors.

MagMile hotel shot

: Chicago boys town flat

Bad ass teener

custom Brumos wheels

Lightened key worth 5-8 MPH

Eats Miatas

Chitown scene

Friday morning we were off to Plymouth Indiana for a weekend of hardcore relaxing. Our hosts Ric and Tirtza plied us with food and drink and all of the locals paid a visit. Bonfires, fishing, banjo mangling, mancaving, shooting shit and shooting the shit, and property surveying ensued.

Occupy this

Bingo the wonder dog knows when we are close to the lake house.

Almost there

Fish right in the backyard!

Frog caught

Boathouse

Ric’s place is on a series of connected lakes that are filthy with wildlife of all kinds. We hit it hard on two occasions but fish were off the bit. You could bobber up all of the sunfish you wanted but bass were not playing along.

Capn Ricardo

Lillypad heaven

orifice

Got to stomp around Ric’s new 10 acre retreat which features hundreds of trees, a 90 year old cabin, creek, game trails, deer stands etc. Some big but long term plans in the making.

deliverance

Clan meeting

Deer guard tower

Chicken coop cabin

bottom land

Year round creek

Mistress of the Mountain

Adjourned to Brents mancave to drank sum beers, bbq some burgers, play n the ATV’s, shoot some crazy ass guns, and admire the latest Lemons IOE contendor. Meed the Gulp Racing Carerror.

Gulper

LOL 1/2 of a rubbermaid trashcan

Aerodynamique Coleman stove fuel can scoop

The testosterone was flowing

Mancave

Some rounds were dispensed from exotic automatic weapons complete with laser sites and “suppressors”. Don’t break into these guys houses.

Spent

Nino cautioning the cat to stay uprange

neenercat

This is a shot of the mancave from across the lake Brent is building.

Paradise with a lake view

This car will debut in 3 weeks on the Lemons circuit

Cowboy Ric

Brent is simply a badass shooter

Modern warfare

Look closely as Clay points to the bullsyeye hit 2X in a row from I am guessing 50 yards with a crossbow. No shit less than 2 inches from the bull.

target

Ordinance

Hood ornament

Was going to go to the local trailer races but was too pooped so took a pic of the lineup. The Gulp car will track test there next week.

Trailer races at Plymouth raceway

Thank you Ric, Tirtza, Nino, Clay, Sharon and all the Indiana clan for a great time.

Del Valle Mothers Day

Posted on May 15, 2012 by Joulebox

My mom has passed on to the great white north so I selfishly take each Mothers Day as an invitation to fish in her memory. This year I decided to tin can it at Del Valle as that is 20 mins from my house. $23 and a quagga inspection had me launching at 8:00 AM. I ran all the way to the dam in hopes of striper boils but none were evident. Halfheartedly trolled on top and was too lazy to deploy downriggers. Started pitching senkos and various plastics and the large and small ones were on it. No size and not many. A few pix.

Fwappermacro

Next report from Indiana!

Mike gets green

Posted on May 5, 2012 by Joulebox

Mike and I launched from Russos to 20+ MPH winds and full on Victory at Sea in Franks tract. We pounded out to Mandeville and found fishable water. A tournament guy tipped us off to crankbait bite and we had a steady pick of rags. Some spinnerbait fish and a couple of looks on the frog. Mike stuck a pig in Mildreds on a chrome blue rattle trap in lesss than 2 ft of water.

Bendo!

I lipped him up a 9#er despite it having 2 sets of trebles in hits maw. Mike is Dangerous Trebles after all.

pumped

sluggo

Bucket

We bounced around until 3 and boated maybe 20 fish. The ride back was brutal.

Nacimiento Lost Weekend

Posted on April 29, 2012 by Joulebox

Had the pleasure of camping with the Stellmans and Neo this weekend at Naci.

Dam fog

Perfect campsite, yaks galore, decent fishing, party barge narrows excursion, great food and copious drankin conspired to deliver a relaxing weekend.

The lovely crew

narrows

Rare Dahls porpoise sighting

Cliff diver Jerry

50 ft up and 50 years old

Balls of Steel

Jerry’s daughter Stephanie

chip off the old block

We fished a bit off the yaks.

pedallos

Albinobass

White roostertails are money at Naci.

Spotted one

Inshore tuna on the redline

Stellmans personal cove

killer kampsite

This is a vacation moment

repeat offender

Brothers from another mother

Buzzards started circling expectantly when the blender came out

Turns out Jerry is extraordinarily light on his feet. Unfortunately for surrounding campers he simply cannot sing.

Rap Fan

Tribal

Spice Girls World Tour

Squirrels need stompin

Patriot

Good times.

Blurry Brothers

Spot rocks and bed raiding

Posted on April 22, 2012 by Joulebox

My friend Turhan who was my Delta sensei turned me onto the spotted bass bite in April at Oroville 8 years ago. I have been back every year since then. I never met a lake I did not like but Oroville is special.

Bass Condos

I have had days at Oroville where I landed 70-80 bass in a day most right up tight to the bank in the top 6 ft of water. Light spinning gear is all you need here as a 3# spot will be a big fish. This year Randy and I hit it 4-19 and of course 4-20.

Weather was hot and clear and windless most of the time which slowed things down to the 30 fish a day category. We caught multiple species and colors.

morning dawn

Etouffe

We stayed mostly on the south fork. Feeder creeks were money.

Trees were money, rockwalls were quiet as I think we timed this about a week early.

Wildife was abundant. We saw osprey fights, bald eagles being strafed by crows, redtails, fox, deer, turkeys etc.

Baldy

attack crow

Grubs, small flukes and 2 inch power minnows worked. C-rig morning dawn worms worked. Too early for spinnerbaits or cranks. Wildflowers not quite kicking in. Lake level was up and not far from full.

After 2 days of whackin spots we ran to Clear Lake to meet Melon head Mike.

Launched from Red Bud Saturday at 9 and ran hotfoot to the state park. Baby killing bed fishing fools everywhere 50 yards apart.

Some sho nuff pigs on the beds but most were not quite locked on. I do not like bed fishing

but was fascinating watching the fish do the nasty. Randy and Mike picked away at them with white beavers and horny toads.

Basically you would bump em in the head for 10 minutes until they got hot and flared on the bait. I forced myself on a couple.

Sometimes they would just pick it up and move it off the nest. Primal. Speaking of which we witnessed a brutal gang rape of a female duck by 4 males in concert. This display of feathered thuggery lasted a couple of minutes with as many as 4 males AT A TIME holding the female underwater. I think Mike got video.

One of the loverly couples

easy

likes to share

We bounced around the lake but could not get anything going off the beds. Clear Lake continues to mystify me.

Off the water at 7 and a looooong ride home.

Melons Master Mike

Posted on April 8, 2012 by Joulebox

Noticed this disturbing object as I was hooking up the trailer.

Tidal influencer

Dropped off some dollars and picked up a Larry at Glory Hole. An off duty guide advised us iphone pics and all of a hot bite east of the 49er bridge. Also saw pics of a 17# largemouth caught 4-6-12. headed down to the ramp

Lady hump

Launched to very nice conditions.

Melons and Black Death

5 lines out 2 double stacked riggers and a long line on top in the middle. We were hot shit. Action was non stop not

Zen master preparing for battle

After nothing in Carson we headed to the bridge and started to get popped.

1 4 mike

2 for mike

Slob

Larry remained unimpressed

Needlefish victim

We worked all depths down to 40 ft and switched up constantly. Weather got better and better

It was all yellow

Creek Blocker

Mike continued to humiliate us

bow

Larry ran the stringer and net divisions of the company

7 in cluding a small koke

Stayed late

Let them drink red

SKied

Mike is still cleaning trout I bet

Dog

Brace o fish

Pleasure fishing with you Larry. Dangerous, your a dog.

Berryessa Solo Storm Watch

Posted on March 26, 2012 by Joulebox

After contacting 5 different people with not takers I decided to roll solo. Had not fished Berry this year so that was the destination. Weather report was rain, T-storms, hail and wind. Actual weather excellent! Hit my usual bakery stop in Winters that is open early and stocked up for the day. Stopped at the dam for a quick pic.

Glory hole not spillin, trout fishin was illin

Launched from Markley Cove and commenced to trolling.

Little misty in the AM

Assholes fished here

Pick up your trash jackass

Worked the dam for an hour for nada so headed up the narrows. Turkeys, bald eagles, deer and osprey kept me company. Pulled into a cove and threw a carolina rigged morning dawn worm and bass were easy.

hittin the spots

Trout remained elusive however. Hills were green and scenery very pleasant.

SB cove

Kick back

Had motor issues late in the day so limped it in on the troll.

Cumulus

Berry nice

Fort Camanche

Posted on March 20, 2012 by Joulebox

Mike and I popped the new tin can cherry on Camanche Sunday.

88 east

Yours truly

Headed west to Hat Island

Hats

We put em in

Trolled around a bit

water 54 degrees, air 48, wind building

Wasted an hour and fled for the narrows

Narrows

Nothing doing so headed up-river. All kinds of evidence of mining activity

Battlements

Stone werx

Some cool geology at the river mouth

Fishy locale

Rain, hail, and later wind

Moke here

More werx

So after approx 6 hrs of skunkage we head back to the narrows. For some hail and hail mary

Cop car needle fish toplined 1.0 MPH in the narrows

Mike had a hard time staying focused

The new boat ran and handled great. Going to see some hard use in the near future. Perfect 2 man sled. Needs one more rigger, a couple more pole holders and the all important gimballed drink holders.

Some scenery

Hairless

Skerch

Fledge

Loving the new addition to the fleet

Blurr Bluff

Theys injus up thar

Sweat lodge

Cool lake but I have not figured it out yet.

Bauxite Betty meet Bauxite Beverely

Posted on March 17, 2012 by Joulebox

After a year of owning a 1985 14 ft Klamath with tiller steer 25 hp Merc 2 stroke I decided I really liked the versatilty of a tin can.

Bauxite Betty

High Sierra lakes, foothill lakes, delta and rivers I got a lot of use out of it. Fuel frugal, easy to tow and launch. So as men are wont to do I began to look at newer prettier models with unabated lust. After 2 weeks of solid Craigslist pounding I had a buyer for the old boat and a seller with a 2008 Klamath 15 ft deluxe with side console (no tiller!) and 2009 20 hp Merc 4 stroke. No more oil mixing. One down rigger, a couple of pole holders, oar, life jackets new fishfinder, trolling motor for $6500. A very fair deal. Both the buyers of my old and the sellers of my new were great to deal with, a rarity on the Craigslist world.

Luxe

Very clean

Bow rail

Lead Sled

Buyers of my old boat are retired brothers and they are pumped.

Stable

Maiden voyage tomorrow, rain or no!

Mendo Auto Mondo

Posted on March 12, 2012 by Joulebox

Debra and I were packed and out of town by 1:00. Picked up 101 in Petaluma and head north to Cloverdale where we picked up 128 west. We made a couple of stops in Anderson Valley to stock up on the local portugee reds. Thus fortified we checked in to an 80 year old cottage on the bluffs above Van Damme.

Front porch view

We were out on this point here

Peterson Drive

Dinner at Stevenswood which was practically empty. Economy hitting pretty hard up there. Saturday morning we were off to Noyo harbor

Handsome Probiscus

First time I have seen an aluminum inflatable

Purposeful downeaster

Fixer upper

Monterey?

Coasties

Piece of Cake

recycling what?

I love poking around that harbor. Back on the road for an EPIC drive up hwy 1 north of Ft Bragg where there is a whole lot of nothing for miles. Debra’s car was very happy with the whole affair and we had the road largely to ourselves.

Snowhite

Lots of stops to check out pocket climb down beaches.

Mermaid

Mendo Lindo

Sea Mount with cave

Post Coital

Whales everywhere this time of year. We crossed over to 101 and ran south to Willits for local 420 friendly lunch. The whole economy up there is tied to gardening. Lot’s of shiny new trucks parked at Wheels Diner. Eel looked very fishy

Green

The last leg Hwy 20 out to Ft Bragg is one fun piece of road despite being a little slick in places. DInner Staurday night at Wild Fish in Little River. Small and highly recommended. Run by a properly droll middle aged Brit couple. Debra drove home Sunday Hwy 1 south to Jenner but we cut inland at that point and beat for home.

joulebox

Laser Cutting/Engraving, product design and manufacturing consulting.