Fishin' at Shasta

Wow!! Nice week last week, not only for the weather, which was picture perfect, but for the fishing which was really good. Two of my old friends and I rented a houseboat and did a little fishing. The houseboat was the cheapest one we could find but it worked perfectly for us. You can rent some really plush houseboats at Shasta but for our needs this was the one. We never spent much time on it anyway except to sleep at night and get ready to go fishing in the mornings. The fish I'm holding weighed 2lbs 2oz. Dennis caught one the same size on the first day and Bob caught one that might have been bigger but we didn't weigh or take a picture of it since it was bleeding and we wanted to get it back in as soon as possible.


You can see how clear the water was although some areas were a little murkier. We found water temps to be running in the low to mid 60's. I caught quite a few on a spinnerbait, which I dearly love to catch them on. They hit those things really hard.

Our little bay where we had the boat staked out was sheltered and private even though there was very little wind the whole time we were there. Between all of us we caught 217 fish in 3½ days of fishing. Ya can't beat that!!

Blooming spring...

Had a nice bike ride today up the Bizz and down the Susanville Ranch Park trial system. Weather was nice, cool but not cold and great bike riding weather if you ask me. Yesterday I went fishing up at Antelope Lake and caught a couple of pretty nice bass. The biggest was around 2 lb.

The green of spring has started around here and this willow was starting to get it together. I'm leaving for a fishing trip down to Lake Shasta on Monday so I need to get packed tomorrow and buy some groceries. Ya gotta love the spring, I certainly do.

Saline Valley!

Summer? Looks like it, doesn't it? It was in the mid 90's when we got down there and the day after, when this picture was taken. We were using the best shade we had available, the blooming creosote bushes. I just love that place, but the best thing for me is the outdoor shower. There is something special about taking a shower with the sun shining on me. It was kind of windy there a couple of days and that made the shower a little chilly as the water was almost blowing sideways, but it was still good.


It rained while we were there and that was the first time I had been down there when it rained. I really liked the way the desert smelled after the showers. The desert plants and animals must have been happy about it too since that is such a rare occasion down there. This sunset picture could have been better if I would have had a wide angle or fisheye lense, but I didn't. Still it was pretty.


The wind was blowing pretty good a couple of times, especially one evening. We had a fire going but it was hard to stay warm. We would have gotten into the hot springs but it was full of people also trying to stay out of the wind and neither one of us wanted to join the crowd. I took this picture on a warmer night, the shorts tell the story. You didn't need the fire for warmth especially, just entertainment. Ah, the primal instinct to watch fire!


I took my UV light with me and we went out a couple of nights and looked for fluorescent minerals. We found some but then I spotted this little critter. In fact, we found many of them this way. I guess that's better than finding them in your shoe. The scorpions were quite numerous but we never found any too close to camp, and let me tell you, we checked! It was a perfect week in many ways, we did lots of hiking and bike riding and had a great time. I met lots of great people and with the exception of some asshole playing his music too loud one night, there were no bad times. You know, I just don't understand why some people think everyone wants to hear their music. Nobody wants to hear your music! Turn it down or wear headphones and shut the fuck up!

Frolicking Squirrels!

Frolicking squirrels have been spotted, frogs have been heard croaking, sun has been seen almost daily, if I didn't know better, I'd say spring is coming soon. Well, I guess it is, next Wednesday to be exact. I'll be celebrating the occasion down in Saline Valley. I'll be down there for the next week and my timing couldn't have been better I don't think, we are supposed to have a storm come through here in the middle of the week so I guess I will just have to miss it. Oh well, it's a good thing.

When I get back I'll post some pictures from my trip. Last Monday I put my new computer together and I'm having a few little issues mostly with incompatable software but I'll get everything sorted out before long. I love the way my 22" monitor looks and the new Vista aero interface is pretty cool. I'm still not sold on Vista yet since I have already had more problems with it than I had with my first Windows XP installation.

Wonderful Day!

I went up to Antelope Lake today and did a little fishing from shore. Driving up there was a little exciting, the snow was pretty deep in places and it's melting fast which made it a slushy, sloppy mess. It was a wonderfully warm day so I took my bike and rode it to some of the places I fished. I didn't catch any, but had 2 bites on a plastic worm, and one a rapala. If I could get my boat in there I'd certainly be able to catch some nice fish. Pretty optimistic, huh?


I heard alot of logging noises from over beyond the boat ramp, which is still closed, so I'm hoping they will get done with their operation so I can use the ramp to launch my boat. I'll be in Saline Valley next week so I don't think I will have a chance to get back up there until near the end of the month.

Feels like Spring!

Had a nice bike ride/walk in the snow with tennis shoes today. I was planning one thing route-wise and ended up doing something a little different due to the amount of snow that is still on the trail I was planning on taking. Before reaching the first tunnel up on the Bizz, this slide has totally blocked the trail. I had to climb over those boulders.

My original plan was to do one of my favorite loop rides and go around to the Piute Creek drainage and back into town via Susanville Ranch Park. Considering the snow situation I modified that and came down the Highway 36 grade. The weather was wonderful with light warm breezes and plenty of sunshine. I would have taken longer to do this ride but cutting it off like I did shortened it up considerably. Oh well, had a grand time no matter what.

Oh, Man!

I was thinking as I sat in the sun today that it just doesn't get any better than this. But, it does. In fact, it's supposed to be nicer this weekend. Ya gotta love it.

Just before I left to go out for my walk, my new 22" monitor showed up. I'm going to be using that monitor with the new computer I'm building. I should have everything here by the middle of next week at the latest. My RAM will be the last to arrive at the party so by the time it gets here I'll have everything else assembled. Can't wait to get that sucker fired up. I'm putting a dual core processor in this one and 2 gigs of RAM, just trying to keep up with the state of the art... but I'm really more in the middle of the road with my choice of components.
Anyway, in contrast to the tech side of my life, the nature side was happening big time today. Still a little snow up there but the trail is really much better than it was a couple of days ago. After the nice weather we are supposed to get this coming weekend, I'm sure bike riding will be possible without damaging the tread on the trail. I'll be finding out first hand, I'm sure.