December 2022

All of the rivers in Southern Oregon were blown out due to the rain.  I decided to head to California earlier than expected.

This is the first state since I began my fishing adventure in Colorado where I haven’t bought a fishing license. In almost every state I’ve visited I have an annual, non-resident fishing license and look forward to the fact that I could return there to fish before that license expires.

On the way down from Oregon, the rivers I wanted to fish for salmon in Northern California were the Russian, the Eel and the Klamath Rivers.  Due to the lack of rainfall the rivers were being monitored and periodically opened and closed (mostly closed). There’s a phone number you can call to get the daily updated regulations and instructed when you could fish in certain spots. There were at least seven sections of each river each with different rules based on the water flow that day.

For perspective I was born and raised in Southern California and went to college in Northern California. Throughout my youth, I’ve been across the entire state from its beaches, mountains and deserts.

Setting aside politics and preconceptions of California, geographically, it’s incredible. You have the Sequoias, Lassen National Forest, Yosemite, the coastline, etc. It’s the only place I know of where you can surf at Trestles in the morning and in the same day end up at Snow Summit to ski under the lights at night.

Some of my fondest memories are fishing with my grandparents. To be clear, my grandma was the best fisher-person ever. My grandfather and I would fish the river below Pine Flat Dam for trout while my grandmother would fish from the shore down river with bait and wait for us.

When I was younger, they didn’t make waders small enough for a kid, so I’d stand in the river with my grandfather who had waders until I was frigidly cold and was forced to give up due to potential hypothermia. No matter how hard we tried and how hard we fished, when we walked back to my where my grandmother was sitting, she would always have larger and more trout than we caught below the dam.

On the way to pick up Meg, Trig wanted to stop at Mavericks: one of the most dangerous surf spots in the world…  After driving through an industrial area and walking almost a mile on the beach, we finally arrived at the ominous surf spot.  Trig was not impressed.

I tried to explain that you either had to paddle a long way to get the rest of the way there or take a boat.  Yeah, he still didn’t care but did enjoy his walk.

Off to pick up my wife…  Meg was working that week at their company’s headquarters and gave me a very technical map with directions and instructions of where to get lunch when I arrived.

After picking up Meg in San Jose, we both knew fishing was not going to be an option, so we changed the itinerary.

Our first stop:  Morro Bay.  We dry camped for three days on the beach with an unobstructed view of the ocean.

Next Stop:  The Monterrey Aquarium.  If you’ve never been, the Open Ocean tank is worth the price of admission alone.

After dropping Meg back off at the airport, I decided to visit my uncle before starting the long journey back home to the Florida Keys.  His house has an amazing panoramic view of an extremely large lake.  We drove down to the boat launch area so I could get a better perspective of how severe the drought has been.

This lake was easily down a couple of hundred feet.  I can only hope the rains and recent snowstorms will dramatically improve their water levels.

Starting the long drive home and I’m looking forward to the next adventure in 2023.