What A Difference A Year Makes...

A newt found on the trail

  Chul and I decided to hit the upper section of a local creek that we fished last week with disappointing results.  Last year this section was fantastic and we even saw an 18 incher in one of the pools  and I had landed several fish around 12 inches.  Those fish are now likely  dead or is in some idiot's intestinal tract.  It's a shame, a wild fish like that in the LA basin is next to impossible.  Fishing here is now officially dead.  I believe its a combination of a low water year and some moronic blogger who posted a picture of one of those glorious trout and mentioned the actual name of the water even going insofar as to giving direction to the exact pool where that the fish lived. 

Mugwort.  A remedy for poison oak.

The burger I was craving last week.

Chul only managed a dink and I had two fish to hand, only slightly bigger than a dink, more like a doink.  Disappointing.  The "larger" fish of the two hit the fly hard and fought for a moment only to feign death and play possum giving up as I dragged him to my hand.  The smaller one flew through the air toward me as I set the hook.  All the "good" spots were dead.  The pool where the 18 incher lived didn't even have a dink in it.  What a bust.  I fell on my ass and nearly cracked my head open trying climb some boulders.  Luckily my contour camera cushioned some of the blow to my head.  My Sage SLT 1 weight managed only a few scratched and surprisingly did not snap. 

The only pluses of the day were finding mugwort, a sage-like smelling plant that can be used as a remedy for poison oak.  We joked that we should have bagged it and gave it to Tuck so he could rub it on his dong. On last week's outing I had a serious craving for a good burger.  Not knowing the area very well we search for a burger joint eventually settling for a not-so-great hamburger stand that did not hit the spot.  I spent the next day searching the Internet to see if there were any better places that we could have gone and I did find one.  Today we decided to hit it up and I can tell you this burger was the type of burger I was craving last week, made with homemade buns and dressing, and a juicy fresh hand grounded patty served with handcut fries.  At least I had a good meal despite the disappointing lousy fishing and nearly paralyzing myself in the process.  Chul and I enjoyed our meal and was made even more pleasurable as I teased Chul for his friendship with a SoCal fly fishing personality with questionable sexuality that Chul is trying to get the insider's scoop from him on one of our local bass lakes.  I told Chul to take one for the team and let this guy have his way with him so we could get the tips to hook up one of those bass pigs.