Frying Pan adventure.

So sitting around the house being sick is pretty miserable, so after work, we packed up the car and drove into the mountains. Everyone knows about the Fryingpan River and it's monster trout. So we headed that direction. We pulled a "pirate camping" maneuver and slept in the car on the side of the road. It is a 3 1/2 hour drive from Boulder, so being able to fish at first light with nobody around is rare and pretty awesome. Unfortunately, first light was freezing cold! We put on every layer of clothing that we had and waited for the sun to hit the water before venturing into the river.

I pulled a 12" and a 14" Rainbow Trout out of some slow moving water behind a cluster of rocks. The fish seemed to be sticking together, so where you saw one fish there were a few more hiding nearby. We walked up stream and found hundreds of fish, but they didn't want to eat what we had. It wasn't until later that we realized how close the dam at Reudi reservoir we were. This has a major effect on our fishing as we didn't have any shrimp patterns. The fishing shops were closed when we arrived and we were already fishing when they opened the next day. Here is why we needed shrimp patterns:

Mojdeh's fish of the day. It rose for a BWO.

Mysis relicta is the sole freshwater relative of a saltwater shrimp which became stranded inland after the last Ice Age. They were stocked in the 1950's in Colorado reservoirs in the belief that they would support populations of Kokanee salmon and lake trout. Unfortunately the researchers didn't realize that the evidence they relied upon for this theory was misplaced and that in the Colorado lakes the mysis was not visible to the salmon during day time. Nopt liking sunlight, they moved to the bottom of deep lakes during the daytime when the salmon feed on the surface.

Worse still, at night the mysis moved back to the surface to feed on the Daphnia zooplankton which was a food source for the kokanees and trout denying them a food source. The only trout which benefited from the introduction of the mysis was the lake trout, a deep water feeder which reached the depths where the mysis were located in the daytime. However, in bottom release dams with deep cold waters such as Reudi, the mysis are sucked out into the tailwaters where they become visible in the daylight permitting the trout to gorge themselves.

There are a number of mysis patterns noted below which work well. The healthy mysis are translucent. As they die they turn white, so when fishing near the outlet of the dam, fish the more translucent patterns as the mysis which have just been expelled from the dam will not immediately turn white. The whiter patterns work better a little away from the outlet. The mysis shrimp has an exceedingly high nutrient value accounting for the massive growth in the trout that are able to feed on them in large quantities.

So now we know where to fish on the Frying Pan river. I saw two trout as long as my arm that must have been 8 to 10 pounds. I didn't understand. I didn't think that they existed. Those pigs just gorge themselves on shrimp. One day I will get back and go after them.

After fishing the Frying Pan, we headed home. But not without a stop at the outlet mall in Silverthorne. Most people shop here for hours ignoring the great fish that live beneath their feet. I have fished here 4 times and the closest I got was missing a hit that I didn't think that I deserved. There weren't as many fish as there usually are, and the biggest ones were eerily absent. I still fished a parachute adams in the places where I thought the fish should be and WHAMMY I hooked one. I landed him, showed him to the admirers on the bridge above, called it quits and went shopping.

Here are the hydroponically grown tomato and basil plants that we are starting.

Bakersfield. Don't ever go.

Leaving Kona, our first flight was delayed just long enough for us to miss our flight to LA. We would have made it if we weren’t checking three bikes! That being said, we didn’t get charged for bikes. The Aerus bike bags are amazing. 30 pounds with a bike, box, wheels, everything. They once asked if it was luggage and I said, “Yes”. That isn’t lying. I wasn’t going to offer information that it was a bike and I should be charged! Nguyen came and picked us up and let us sleep on his floor. What karma, just a few days ago, he came to Kona and slept on my floor. The following day, he took us to the North Shore for a surf. It reminded me that I haven’t surfed in a while. In fact, the last time that I surfed was with Nguyen on our way back from New Zealand. Eventually, I remembered what to do and had a lot of fun. From there, we overnighted to LA. Exhausted we had Denny’s and I shipped Moj off to Colorado. Don’t feel bad though she is in our awesome apartment while I am still slumming in the van. I can’t complain I have been “camping” (sleeping in the van without a shower) for the last few days. I rode bikes with Nguyen and I was feeling pretty bad about how out of shape I am in. He is a great cyclist, so it should have been no surprise that I couldn’t keep up with him.

 My view on the bike.

Back on my Triad, I have been having a great time riding in the mornings and fishing my brains out all afternoon. I am east of Bakersfield (a place that no one should ever go) north of the tiny town of Kernville. North of Kernville is the trailer park area called Johnsondale. I stayed near here in one of the many campgrounds. Every day I saw hunters walking down the road carrying rifles. I wore my red and white cycling outfit and tried not to look like a deer.

 At least they have a sense of humor!

I rode my bike to the Trail of 100 Giants. It was amazing. Giant Sequoias grow only on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada in California. I can't describe how big these trees are.

This is one tree.

Kernville might be the meth capital of California. I have been without phone, shower, internet, power, etc. for the last week. Who cares though because I have been fishing!

My favorite of the day.

Not the biggest fish, but I am getting good enough that I catch fish every time I go out. I saw a couple of monsters, but they weren’t eating what I had. The river is high (800 cfs) but down from what it has been (2800 cfs!) and not wuite where it should be (200 cfs), This place would be amazing with half of the water in it. I couldn’t quite get to all of the fish that I wanted to. It was frustrating seeing piles of fish hiding behind rocks on the other side of the river with no way to walk or cast to them. Now, I am on my way to Tempe to work and compete in the SOMA half iron distance triathlon. Hopefully I can shower and do some laundry as well!

Monterey.

We are in the strange town of Santa Cruz. It is nice camping in the mountains nearby. There are lots of redwoods and small streams. It would be peaceful if the 7 kids in the site next to us weren't constantly playing "war". All I hear is "Private, the Koreans are bad!" Or, "How many Vietnamese have you captured?" Someone is teaching these 10 year old kids their history. Interestingly enough, some of the kids were speaking German with their parents.

My morning view.

I thought that there would be one fancy area somewhere, but they have managed to suppress that here. We did get to see Katchafire which made us happy.

Before the show, we got to hang out and talk with the band for a minute. We hit the Monterey Bay Aquarium today with my Dad.

The jellyfish exhibit is awesome.

He is driving up the California coast by himself and happened to be here at the same time we are. This weekend, we both get to race. I have planned on looking good, no matter how the race goes!

Stranded.

We left Sunset Beach yesterday. We drove 9 hours up to San Jose. We stayed with Mojdeh's aunt again. It was a quick overnight stop. This morning, we ran to Costco, the post office, Trader Joe's, the gas station, and Safeway, then we were on our way. We packed most of the bikes into the trailer and hit the road. We were excited to get away and start a small vacation. A couple of hours drive into our trip the car died. We pulled over and called AAA. They picked us up and took us to the nearby Chevy dealer. The manager there is a cyclist that moved to Sonora (where we are) California. He was very friendly. He had their mechanic take a look at it, but they couldn't figure out what was wrong. So now they are going to look at it in more detail tomorrow. Turns out Sonora is a cool little town. Some of the people wear overalls and have long beards and some own wineries. We had a great dinner at the Diamondback Grill. I hope that we get to go to Yosemite tomorrow, but if we don't we have a new favorite place to eat. All organic greens, free range beef, and pesto and gorgonzola burgers. The table next to us found a grasshopper on their salad. That is organic!