Troll Troll Troll your boat for trout!
It's been a few years since I fished Big Bear, because I lost my fishing partner who wanted to go up there. My new fishing partners didn't want to go, because the last time they were there, they had a Bad experience. Upon hearing about what they considered a Bad experience, it was all self inflicted! (they caught plenty of fish) But they didn't care for their boat rental experience! Yes their prices are very high because it's a resort town and not just a fishing lake. My friends thought it was like a fishing lake, where smelly ole fishermen can bumble their way through the whole experience. What happened to them was, "they didn't read the fine print in their boat rental agreement!" So when they went to return the boat, they were hit up with 2 additional charges. One for the Gas and the other for turning in the boat Late! The nerve of those people my friends thought. They did rent their boat from the most popular Marina. (so they don't take any guff from smelly ole fishermen) I myself have always rented a boat from one of the smaller Marinas with excellent customer service results!
So convincing them to give it another try, was not an easy task! I told them we were going to go to a different Marina that gave good customer service! They had a physolphy to hire only the best employees because they were off the beaten track a bit. They like to hire young college age girls with good customer service in mind. (many of them could also win a beauty contest to boot!) I also had to give my friends a financial guarantee in renting the boat. Once we figured out which boat we were to rent, I guaranteed them no cost over runs! (I would cover any additional fees we might incur!) I did call in advance and did get all the information we needed to rent a boat. (so I was pretty confident their wouldn't be any cost over runs) I mentioned the girl I talked too had a very sexy voice, so don't be surprised if the girl we are renting the boat from is a total Babe! My friends said, "you can't tell what a girl looks like by the sound of her voice!" I told them wait and see! People I'm mentioning all this, because it's part of the story when we get there! Lol
Once we got up to the lake, we looked at all the boats and decided the cheapest fishing boat would do and I refunded some of the money back to my friends. Once we went into the office, a young lady asked me how can I help you? We are here to rent a fishing boat for the day was my answer. I wondered if the young lady could see me biting my tongue through my mask. She was everything I told my friends she would be! (I'm already a winner in my book) lol Next she asked, did we want to rent it for Half day or a Full day? Stretch Cunnigham said, "let's do it for a half-day in case the fishing is slow!" I told him, "I wouldn't make the 2 hour drive up here, if I thought the fishing would be slow! Failure is not an option!!!! (If I didn't think we could catch 20 trout, I wouldn't come up here) She laughed and I told her our inside joke about the people who worked in this Marina! When we got outside the Dock attendant was warming up a larger boat then we rented. I told him, we just rented the standard fishing boat. He say's no worries, "these boats have been run hard all year and I want to give you a good one!" Then one of the other lady's comes out of the office and tells the Dock attendant to take good care of us! He then asks me, "Which boat do you want?" How about that one I said jokingly? He say's OK and get aboard! Are you serious I asked? He said yea, it's OK! Wow I thought! As we were leaving the Marina, I asked Stretch who had such a bad experience before. What do you think of this place now???? Lol
On to the fishing!
Yes I know trout are just a stocked fish! But I do know how to catch them in mass quantity's! Big Bear lake in a boat is a trolling proposition to me. We were going to do a rectangle box trolling pattern. Start at Metcalf Bay, troll on the North shore 200 yards off the bank towards the Dam. Once we reach the Dam area cut across to the South shore and troll back to Metcalf Bay completing the rectangle. We were going to troll needle fish and Rapalas on Leadcore and some Flicka shads flat lining. My favorite Needlefish in that lake are, copper and pink in the smallest size and the next bigger size at 2 or 3 colors deep. Stretch was using a Rapala at 3 colors, I had the one size up needlefish in pink at 2 colors and the small cooper needlefish at 2 colors. On our first complete rectangle we caught 9 trout. 5 off of the North shore and 4 on the South shore. Pretty even on what they bit on! Stretch was pretty impressed and I told him when we got our quota of 20 trout we could go home early. (he liked that idea)
Stretch was driving the boat and did a real good job on his first rectangle. Then the wind came up and started pushing the boat around a bit. (Stretch was running out of gas too) So instead of keeping us 200 yards off the North bank, we were trolling right down the middle of the lake angling for the South shore. Total dead zone and we only caught 1 trout in over an hour and half of fishing! So Stretch got fired from driving the boat and Racer X took over! I told Racer X, let's just hit the stretches where we got bit on our first pass. So we blasted up to Inspiration Point and trolled from there to Metcalf Bay and then cut across to the North shore. A funny thing started to happen, "we started getting short bites and they completely ignored the Rapala!" So my 2 Needlefish rods were the only ones getting bit. (a bunch of short bites too) So when we got back to Inspiration Point, I suggested we troll across the Lake to the North shore again. We got bit 3 times making the crossing! (we found a bunch of biters) The problem was I tried to pass the rods to Racer X who was driving the boat but they kept falling off the hook! Then Stretch switched over to a Green Dot Frog needlefish and he started getting bit! (still lots of short bites though) When we got to our 19 fish landed (1 away from the quota) I told Racer X to troll back to the Marina and surely we would pick up our last fish to meet the quota. We didn't and that surprised the heck out of me! Had we stayed in our zone, we would have got it for sure!
Driving down the Mountain road, guess what ran in front of our vehicle and we got a really good look at it??????
I'll bet most of you would have guessed a nice Deer. Nope a really Dark furred Bobcat.
When I got home I watched the last of the Dodger game against the Cardinals. After a little scary 9th inning, I knew the Dodgers would win it in the bottom of the 9th inning. How else would one of my best days of the year end? Sure enough a 2 run blast to end the game and push the Dodgers into a show down with the Giants!
