Flying Crowley 5-17 / 5-22

[Flying]

Me and my wife pulled into Crowley 5-17 around 8am. It was Deja Vu weather. Same place,same time,same heat wave as last year.

There is no fee to enter the the McGee/Green Banks area. There are no trailers allowed and you have to go through a cement maze to keep the trailers out.

http://i43.tinypic.com/fvg1ly.jpg

http://i39.tinypic.com/hv4ieh.jpg

I just have a 91 long bed Toyota and it felt tight for me.
It was too hot to do anything but off road and check out the lake. Water level is still on the low side but compared to the last 2 years it looks great. Float tube access/launching was very good all over this part of the lake. The water is currently at 6769.7 ft. http://wsoweb.ladwp.com/Aqueduct/realtime/lvrealtime.htm which makes most of the shore line packed sand and gravel. McGee has a little swam area to go through but the shore line is fine.

5-18
We masterbaited at Convict till around 11am for no luck. I then conned my wife into Crowley since we were right there:LOL:

I picked the southern part of Six Bays so she could watch and nap while I worked out out there. Don't try to get to close to the shore if you do not have 4wd as it can get soft real quick. This area has a steeper drop so you don't have to go out far.

Only picked up 2 Perch back in the cove about 10ft deep on the black/peacock/olive bugger. Got blown off at 2pm.
http://i39.tinypic.com/voli4j.jpg

All Perch were roughly this size everywhere.
http://i40.tinypic.com/o7oac7.jpg


5-19
Parked out at Stormy Flats around 8am and tubed from Sandy Point to McGee parking lot. Nice gravel shoreline here. A few more Perch on the Bugger and thats all. Did some midge/bobber fishing too but I can't sit still enough out there for midging.

http://i42.tinypic.com/2zrjjme.jpg


My wife calls me at noon to tell me to take my time. Shes wants to clean house(condo). All right! What a woman:LOL:

Headed up to Green Banks Bay for a few more hours. Launching is very good and clean here with all the gravel. Picked up 2 more Perch shallow and no trout yet. Come 2pm guess what. Blown off again.

http://i40.tinypic.com/wi50l4.jpg





5-20
My wife wanted to sleep in so I hit up McGee and got there at 6am to have it all to myself.



http://i43.tinypic.com/ndogph.jpg


Picked up a few perch again in about 10 ft stripping the bugger. Made the big kick to the other side and back by the floating bathroom for no luck. By now there are many boats with no catching.

http://i40.tinypic.com/2aamrfm.jpg

Pulled out at noon and drove to Sandy Point. This place is packed with tubes and guide boats so I just tubed around for more Perch. Breezes start to pick up around noon. By 2pm again the Big Wind shows up and its blown off again.

Note the launch and landing marks to see the current shore line. Google pics are from about from 2006.

http://i41.tinypic.com/2ld8rwi.jpg


5-21
My wife is actually liking her peaceful rest so I'm off to Leighton Springs. Parked by 7am. The gate is locked so you can not drive down to the shore(at least no from here).

http://i40.tinypic.com/abjqyw.jpg

This place had the shallowest shore to launch from with a slighty soft sandy bottom. Picked up so more Perch. This time I got them on a midge dropper from the Bugger which I had just started doing.

Made the kick around Alligator point and into Christmas Bay. This was the first time I've been in this area with the tube and it was pretty bitchen.

Finally picked up one (and only so far) trout on the midge/bobber in Christmas Bay.

http://i42.tinypic.com/29glitw.jpg

His stomach was full of black emergers just like that fly.

I headed back to Leighton around noon to find it full with Guide and rental boats. The guides are picking up fish by deep midging in about 17-22 feet.
Its wasn't wide open but they were steady while the rest of use got nothing(but Perch).

I finally decided to keep some Perch but by then the bite shut down around 2pm ( no wind yet:Dancing Banana:) . I kicked around for 2 more hours before getting one more Perch for dinner. By 4pm the Big Wind is up and my wife is worried as Verizon has no reception on that side.

http://i41.tinypic.com/oix7b6.jpg


I got one more chance tommorow on the way out. We're gonna hit up Stormy Flats for the great view until the Big Wind comes.


Weather has been very warm and should be real nice for the coming weekend. Surface water temp has been 60f. You can just about go out in shorts under breathables.

Water is real clear and theres no vegetation yet which is the total opposite from the Fall Crowley which I'm used to.

Apparently streamer fishing sucks right now because there is no bait fish out there yet. Deep water long line midging is the way top go so check into that set up.

Totals

13 miles for 16 fish and a billion beautiful views out there.

http://i43.tinypic.com/2wm060k.jpg

[aboos]

sick report bro! love the gps pics.

and dont take this in a bad way..but your F'in crazy man haha! 13 miles of float tubing kicking and all the way across mcgee! youre lucky the wind wasnt bad out there!

[greg]

Love da GPS pictures... Excellent report, dude. Those perch make da best fish tacos ever! If I brought my wife, she would be da one with the 4+ pounders and I'd have da small ones...

[pargo lsb]

flying,
great report, sick gps action...

can i ask you which gps you have and is it easy to load the route records?
i would like to get one as well
great for my fishing dairy

getting too old and can't remember spots anymore
need modern electronics

thanks
richard

[tacklejunkie]

You were meant to be a fish I think!
Or at the very least a webbed footed creature of sorts.

13 miles dude! That's awesome! Never giving up.
Cool pics, fish and report. Great read!
Thanks.

[retired96]

Los Angeles DWP has the money to put up more fences around the lake and the Upper Owens River. Its just a matter of time before the whole area is fenced off.

[Liteliner]

Awesome report. Im likin the gps action shots... Nice job...

[fishfinder]

Great report!!!!:EyePop:
i am salivating on my laptop........
i will be there the 28th:LOL: first stop Crawley for perch friday morning.
Looks like they must have started spawning. were there eggs in them?

[Flying]

Well I just got back.

Got a few hours in at Stormy Flats before it got Stormy a 1pm :LOL:

Pretty heavy thunder cloud action started to come over the lake to blow things out early today. I was pretty beat plus no fish made home sound good.


13 miles was over 4 days. No way could I do that in one day. The McGee trip was around 4 miles.


GPS is a old basic Garmin etrex H. Its very easy to use. It just has the very basics. I have a data cable to transfer to PC using the Garmin MapSource program. Once in MapSource I'll rename my marks and save. In MapSource you can select "view in Google Earth" . In Earth you can save the data just transfered. In the paid Earth version you can transfer direct and I believe you can create your own routes.

The pictures shown are just "print screen" and cropped.

GPS is a great help in the tube. No more going in circles or zig zagging back into port. When the wind comes up or you need to get in to GO its nice to have a Port mark to go straight to. Plus its just fun. I've got 109 miles logged and mapped at Perris this year so far.

The Perch are starting to spawn. Some of the ones I caught had fat bellies. I kept 2 of the skinny ones only to butcher them up with a bad knife plus I'm a total fillet noob. They ended up in the trash. I will never ever take fish again. Its so much cleaner to just let them go:LOL:

[fishfinder]

Thanks for all the helpful info. 3 more days and i am there, :LOL:
an electric fillet knife will make you an expert filleter. i can usually do about 50 fish in 45 minutes.

[Liteweight]

Wonderful report. Nice to have pics to break up the reading. :LOL:
Naw, actually very helpful information. Makes me think about getting a GPS unit for this purpose. Been playing with the idea for about a year now. Never saw any reports with this kind of very helpful information. Real practical for larger bodys of water like Crowley, Bridgeport etc. I'm kind of a noob :Confused: when it comes to electronics. I wasn't aware :Surprised: of the possibilities of overlaping info w/Google.
Appreciate the extra effort in putting together the report.
Robert. :Smile:

[Flying]

Wonderful report. Nice to have pics to break up the reading. :LOL:
Naw, actually very helpful information. Makes me think about getting a GPS unit for this purpose. Been playing with the idea for about a year now. Never saw any reports with this kind of very helpful information. Real practical for larger bodys of water like Crowley, Bridgeport etc. I'm kind of a noob :Confused: when it comes to electronics. I wasn't aware :Surprised: of the possibilities of overlaping info w/Google.
Appreciate the extra effort in putting together the report.
Robert. :Smile:


Well I'm glad everyone enjoyed it. With only one trout in 5 days on Crowley I had to come up with something to make it look good :ROFL:

[kewlwhip]

awesome report! gona try to get out there reeeeel soon!