New Motor, high water, and slow fishing.

I got my boat back this week from getting my new 60hp Evinrude E-Tec put on the back. I guided the L. Sac back waters on sunday and this thing flies!!! Amazing how 10 more horses, modern technology, and electric trim can improve the performance of a boat. And that was with 3 guys and a full cooler weighing down the boat. I am scared how fast this thing is gonna go with just me and the dog in it.

High water is everywhere. Guided the Lower Yuba on Saturday and the flows were up to 3600 which on paper sounded fine to me but since the river hasn't been that high for any matter of time in the last few years the bank cover and river channel has grown in and shaped around a much lower flow. So...3600 was HIGH. The river was up behind many of the willows and I couldn't for the life of me find fish. We caught a few on stones but I think the majority of the fish were hankered down deep hugging rocks. Guided the Lower Sac Back waters on Sunday. The Sac outside of chico is high as well and off color. River is up around 14000 where it usually is up around 7-8000cfs this time of year. Pair this with a very cold spring (more importantly cold nights even on warm days) and you have tough fishing. Bottom line is the fish in the back waters haven't really woken up and got moving around. Usually the first week of May I find the bass on beds but we only found one bass on a bed in all the spots we fished. One nice thing about higher water is we can get back into some water that at lower flows we can't. I am thinking with the warmer weather this week things might start to snap into shape over the next few weeks.

In other water news I talked to my buddy who said that Shasta Lake is up to the tree line and 5' from the top of the dam and we still haven't even seen the snow start to melt. Mt. Shasta looks like a big pile of powdered sugar so it looks like it is gonna be a high water year.

In other news the new Hold Steady CD comes out today. If you like American Rock and Role with a tinge of punk, and lots of New Jersey check it out.

Let the Adventure Continue...Over and Out.