TWO DAYS IN THE MOTHER LODE

by Luke Harris

My brother and I left Reno on Saturday afternoon to meet Gramps for two days fishing in the Mother Lode. With unstable weather patterns and snow over I-80 we had no idea what to expect. We fished Don Pedro reservoir on Sunday. Though the morning started out promising the lake level began dropping rapidly and consequently so did the fishing. Gramps and Adam managed the only Largemouth of the trip using conventional gear and the fly fishing was incredibly tough that day yielding me very few fish at all. The show stealer on Sunday was of all things a nice Crappie caught by Gramps. The real action however, would happen the next day.

We launched at Tulloch Reservoir the following morning before sunup and Adam quickly had a smallmouth to the boat. The fishing only improved throughout the day. Gramps and Adam had constant luck on plastic worms as did I with a good old black woolly bugger on type 3 sinking line. At some points we were getting at least a bite every cast. I also managed to hook Crappie, Panfish and even a trout.

Though we failed to boat anything big, all and all it was good to be fishing from Gramps' boat again. As always, we had a killer time and can't wait for the next outing.



The Fee Area



The only Largemouth of the Trip were minuscule though we spotted some big cruisers up to 7lbs



The transportation



A solid Crappie brought to you by Gramps




The Dock



Constant Smallmouth action made the day



What they puked up



Gramps the Bass Wizard planning our next move




Plenty of these guys



Even a trout



Early morning cruising



The Crappie colors were stunning



They chewed through more than a few black buggers



The burbs



The Panfish had some cool colors too.