Is There Anything Sexier Than Trout Fishing?

Last night I was treated to the finalists competing at the Conga Room's Latin Dance competition. It was full-on inspiring and throughout the night the crowd also took over the dance floor and had their fun. Everyone smiling and ... dammit ... I'm gonna cry! I fell to the floor (after a drink or two) and admitted to the world at the top of my lungs that YES there's something sexier than trout fishing!

Brad Gluckstein and Shelia E. with Jose Chavarria and Stephanie Stevenson, winners of The Conga Room Latin Dance Competition
Photo courtesy of blogdowntown.com Go to: http://congaroom.com

Volume Versus Temperature

Visited a sierra stream/river that was flowing high BUT was VERY warm. Although I follow water levels online a ton, this was a reminder that big water doesn't always relate with temps. Season and source can be a factor. Snowmelt is colder than a summer storm's water and, of course, weather plays a critical role in affecting the temps as the trickles find their way to the larger tribs. As a result the prime window for feeding fish was small despite wonderfully generous hatches. Sorry if this is too technical but it might save you a tank of gas.

Hee Haw Creek or Ships & Salsa

There's that ridiculous saying: "It's the journey not the destination" or something to that effect. Well I just had to revisit that creek from my previous "After the Walnuts" post. This time I made time to visit to Buck Owens' Crystal Palace. Between great company, west slope browns, the museum at the venue, some of the central valley's nutty radio stations, a few drinks and some city-slicker two-stepping a good time was had by all.

Buck and Roy for lunch. Let me guess. Grits, greens and hopefully some venison?

Ok Ok Ok - Before I get ahead of myself with the title of this blog entry it all starts with water!

Ever heard the song by Seals and Crofts called "Black Diamond Girl"? I found one! Rebecca scales a gnarly grade after a morning on the stream.

A reasonably good reward for a speeding ticket. Pizza with Canadian bacon and jalapeños.

A photo gallery to die for.

Country royalty in the highest order.

Mosrite; a Bakersfield specialty of yore.

Read this and swoon you guitar lovers.

Buck jams with Ray. Gawd what a picture! I wish I was there to hear the music.

Music brings people together in ways we can never imagine. Here's Buck Owens with the Geishas

It all ends in Frazier Park at Los Pinos where they have a very special dish known as Ships & Salsa

Wild Angels - Fuzz Guitar by Davie Allan

I had the good fortune of jumping into a phonebooth a couple of weekends back and finding myself onstage with the legendary Davie Allan. He gets the majority of the credit especially in North America for really setting the "tone" and laying the foundation of "fuzz" guitar. Numerous cool films including some of those great Peter Fonda biker movies utilized his music. If you look at the shaggy headed guy on stage right (to the left of the viewer), you might see someone daydreaming about big browns. Oh and YES, that is the Queen Mary in the background. The band got THE Queen Mary suite for the night. Remember, what happens on the Queen Mary, stays on the Queen Mary!

After the Walnuts

The 99 brings with it some great radio and I channel surfed between Johnny Paycheck and Keith Urban. Scary eh? It's growing on me. I was returning from Nor Cal where I helped with some family stuff and snuck in a crappie session at the old duck pond. It was nostalgia to the nth! I posted about it at The Spot's site ( http://fishermensspot.blogspot.com/ ). Anyway, WHO would take the 99 to return to LA from Walnut Creek? Well, them thar alterior motives kick-in and as the weekend partyers leave and the snowmelt continues to fade, the fish come out to frolic. Optimal is between 80cfs and the low hundreds. This gauge is located below some tribs too so one must learn to lean higher than lower when checking it out for optimal flows. It took me a good two or three years to get a grip on that math.



I was floored by the friskyness of the fish and all osrts of techniques worked. Timing was truly perfect. Had the flows been higher access would have been tough and had they been lower, the temps would have been higher. It was already swimmable warm which was scary. Large yellow stones, large black stones, caddisflies and ants a plenty.The best part of my trip was finding a yard sale as I left Walnut Creek that had some stove parts that I needed.

Ain't that America?

... with a suspicious length of PVC.

After the endorphin rush of Mothra Creek faded the jones for more adventure hit hard. A few days later and it was off to an equally remote locale with cougar prints and vestiges of a pot farming operation. Weird world we live in isn't it? Add to the mix a delightful population of very healthy salmonids of the European variety.

Ain't that America?

Mothra Creek

The wilds of So. Cal. continue to cough up all sorts of strange critters.

After a proper black diamond workout of road clearing.
A small team of fish-obsessed cats made it to shangrila. Sometimes stealthy and other times casual approaches brought us a wealth of RBTs.

Ironically, the fist spot we passed also coughed-up the best specimen upon our return.