plumbertom1
04-01-2007, 03:35 PM
Drove out to Riverside Friday afternoon about 1:30, man was that ever a mistake leaving that late in the day considering I had to detour through O.C. to pick up my friend Donna who doesn't drive.
The traffic was unbelievable. From my house to Donna's is about 60 miles and it took me just over two hours to get there.
Then from Donna's house to my friend Joe's house in Riverside, about 30 miles, it took an hour and a half on the 91 freeway.
Those of you that live elsewhere should all be glad you don't live in L.A.
After spending the night at Joe's house we got started on the road to Big Bear Lake About 5:15 AM. As we started up the mountain out of Highland we could see the first hint of the approaching dawn. The highway (330) was clear with no other traffic except those coming down the mountain so we made good time to the lake and got there about sunrise.
Seemed as if we were the only ones out at that hour, so we had our choice of fishing spots.
The water level in the lake was up so we opted to fish from the public pier by the north shore boat launch. We have had good days and not so good days from there in the past.23086
The air temp was in the mid 30's but there was no left over ice on the lake. As the sun came up on a clear sky with no appreciable wind we set up our poles and baited up with rainbow Power Bait.
Also added to the power bait was a special dip bait mixed by yours truly that contains anise oil, menhaden oil and a couple of other oils that I'm not going to disclose.
After about 15 minutes of fishing the first fish was caught by Joe and it was a real nice looking 2 pounder. We continued to catch a fish every now and then with Joe experiencing the best bite until about 11AM when we decided to take a breakfast break seeing as how the wind had started to blow at a steady 15MPH straight out of the west over the dam and right up the lake.23087
We loaded up our gear and went to the North Shore Cafe for Eggs benedict and omelets.
If you haven't been there I recommend "Joe's Special Omelet" It's made with spinach, mushrooms, sausage and eggs, sprinkled with Parmesan cheese and served with a home made salsa. They have very good coffee also.
After breakfast we drove back along North Shore Drive to find another place to fish, we figured that the guys that were fishing from the shore next to the pier would be fishing from the pier considering they started moving there as soon as we left. But it seems the wind in that exposed position was too much for them because they had moved back to where they were before we left.23088
We went back out on the pier and fished a while longer and caught three more trout before deciding to head back down the hill.
The drive home had a little more traffic than the drive up but not crowed at all so we made good time back to Joe's house.
The traffic was unbelievable. From my house to Donna's is about 60 miles and it took me just over two hours to get there.
Then from Donna's house to my friend Joe's house in Riverside, about 30 miles, it took an hour and a half on the 91 freeway.
Those of you that live elsewhere should all be glad you don't live in L.A.
After spending the night at Joe's house we got started on the road to Big Bear Lake About 5:15 AM. As we started up the mountain out of Highland we could see the first hint of the approaching dawn. The highway (330) was clear with no other traffic except those coming down the mountain so we made good time to the lake and got there about sunrise.
Seemed as if we were the only ones out at that hour, so we had our choice of fishing spots.
The water level in the lake was up so we opted to fish from the public pier by the north shore boat launch. We have had good days and not so good days from there in the past.23086
The air temp was in the mid 30's but there was no left over ice on the lake. As the sun came up on a clear sky with no appreciable wind we set up our poles and baited up with rainbow Power Bait.
Also added to the power bait was a special dip bait mixed by yours truly that contains anise oil, menhaden oil and a couple of other oils that I'm not going to disclose.
After about 15 minutes of fishing the first fish was caught by Joe and it was a real nice looking 2 pounder. We continued to catch a fish every now and then with Joe experiencing the best bite until about 11AM when we decided to take a breakfast break seeing as how the wind had started to blow at a steady 15MPH straight out of the west over the dam and right up the lake.23087
We loaded up our gear and went to the North Shore Cafe for Eggs benedict and omelets.
If you haven't been there I recommend "Joe's Special Omelet" It's made with spinach, mushrooms, sausage and eggs, sprinkled with Parmesan cheese and served with a home made salsa. They have very good coffee also.
After breakfast we drove back along North Shore Drive to find another place to fish, we figured that the guys that were fishing from the shore next to the pier would be fishing from the pier considering they started moving there as soon as we left. But it seems the wind in that exposed position was too much for them because they had moved back to where they were before we left.23088
We went back out on the pier and fished a while longer and caught three more trout before deciding to head back down the hill.
The drive home had a little more traffic than the drive up but not crowed at all so we made good time back to Joe's house.