Girl's Mini Vacation and Tenkara Fishing at Lake Gregory and Big Bear lake....):}+{:(

[The Fishing Queen]

Oh, how did you see my dad's poems, Alice?

The Crappie don't seem to have gotten any bigger there. Have you noticed any bigger ones, Alice?

My next fishing will probably be out of state as we are planning a vacation "to Arkansas" since "We have never been there." The quotes are because the whole idea is of course my wife's. I would be just as happy if not more happy to go to the sierras for a while. :)

Robert, I read your dad's poems from your Facebook. You posted some of his writing and a couple of Eunice's posts too. I think she is pretty cute, especially the poem about her new hair style.

Thanks for the additional fishing info on BBL and LG. As you described, most of the Green Sunfish were caught near the rocky areas. I've never seen any big crappie or had any luck catching one. The big bluegills, redears or crappies that I've caught were about hand sized fish....

Good luck to you and Eunice on your Arkansas trip. You two are going to love it. It will be hot down there if you are going in summer. I took my family twice to visit there (8 years ago), we rented a car and we went every where - like Eureka Springs, Hot Springs and Cherokee Village. My favorite town is Eureka Springs, it is a beautiful little town and has a long history. We went to the Wild Animal Rescue Park, visited a couple of Caves ( don't remember it's names). Hot Springs is nice too and it's about an hour drive from Little Rock. The best hotel in town was Holiday In Express back then. We stayed at Holiday Island in Eureka Springs; Hot Spring Village in Hot Springs; and Cherokee Village. These are golf country club communities and I arranged the family to stay in 2 or 3 bedroom vacation condos on both our trips. Nice to have privacy and comfortable space. People in Arkansas were very polite, respectful and friendly as I remember. Big difference than LA....lol...

[The Fishing Queen]

You have a beautiful daughter ! I have four children that grew up so fast there all out of the house and gone ! None of them picked up fishing.

The picture of the green Sunfish almost looks like a Jack Demcy !

Thank you! She's a pretty girl and we have to put "extra eyes" on her. She would rather read, do school work or be in one of her theater performances acting or dancing than fishing.....lol..

Very nice report,and really nice pictures,thanks for sharing.

Cya TunaVic

Thanks for your feedback as always!

[I*B*CATCHIN]

I'd say your one of best lady fishers I've seen always good catches & the work shop ....that's to funny

[The Fishing Queen]

I'd say your one of best lady fishers I've seen always good catches & the work shop ....that's to funny

Thanks for your support! The workshop sign reflects part of my life. I used to travel a lot with my spouse, and people (shop owners) would always ask: "Are you here for business or pleasure?", and I would answer with: "my husband is here for the business, and I'm here for the pleasure..." lol...

[Natural Lefty]

Alice, we returned from the trip on Monday. I have photos I need to load onto the computer, but I don't feel like writing up a long report since there is a lot for me to do. For one thing, Eunice wants to build a pond in which we can grow aquatic veggies such as Taro, Watercress, Lotus and whatever else will grow, so I have been digging a big giant hole in the yard. Eunice actually wanted to raise panfish to eat in the pond, from small ones we caught, but I said that they would become pets so we wouldn't be able to eat them, and I think one needs a permit to grow gamefish legally in California, anyway.

We had no problems with the people in Arkansas. They seemed nice, and we did go fishing. I had wanted to go trout fishing, but when we found out that the trout permit cost more than a 3 day nonresident permit, we decided not to. Most of the trout in Arkansas that are caught are stockers, anyway, I think, nothing to get excited about as the few trout rivers are massively stocked, although there are some huge fish too, especially Brown Trout.

We caught 5 types of sunfish in a creek in Little Rock, including Pumpkinseeds, Longears, Green Sunfish, Bluegills, and a Warmouth. Those were our first Longears and Warmouth (if I identified them correctly). I caught a Channel Catfish too. We went to the Buffalo River the next day and it was quite scenic, kind of crowded, but there were lots of amazingly colored sunfish biting. I think they were Longear Sunfish again. The third day, we went to Dardanelle Lake. They had a nice state park and visitor's center there. A bunch of average size Bluegills were biting, and I even caught a Redear on a Super Duper lure there.

We also went fishing in Colorado. It rained much of the time, though. In fact, I think we had considerable rain on 8 out of the 13 days fo the trip, but no rain in Arkansas. Nonetheless, we had really good trout fishing on the Grand Mesa. It's a special place with lots of trout fishing and incredible wildflower displays (lots of rain too). We also went to McPhee Reservoir, having little idea what to expect. Only Eunice had a fishing permit that day, and Smallmouth were biting constantly for her. She must have lost about 30 of the critters and caught 6. She lost one in the beginning that must have gone 17-18 inches. She was totally taken by surprise by that one. Oh well, that's fishing!

We tried to go to Sunrise Lake in Arizona on Sunday, but it has been raining all day everyday there so we changed plans. This monsoonal season is really something out of the ordinary. It backs up my hypothesis that summer rains are increasing in this region. I did some internet research a while ago which shows that rain records back that up. It appears to be due to global warming and evaporation from Central Valley agricultural irrigation which winds up being recycled as rain. Anyway, Eunice insisted on fishing along the Colorado River on our way back on Monday, which was about 98 degrees so I was sweating buckets. That's cool there for July, though. It was cloudy, too. All we caught were some small Bluegills and Bass. I had warned Eunice that only small fish were likely to be biting. Oh well. The veggies were so thick that it was hard to fish, actually.

Thanks for checking my posts on Facebook.

I will try to post some pictures soon. We also have a litter of 5 kittens which I took some photos of yesterday.

[FlamingTube]

Thanks for the report and nice pics of bbl and fish. I never go to far from L.A. for vacation but bbl totally seams worth it. I might just try it next summer or sooner!!!

[The Fishing Queen]

Alice, we returned from the trip on Monday. I have photos I need to load onto the computer, but I don't feel like writing up a long report since there is a lot for me to do.

Robert, just came back from our vacation and saw your post here. Sounds like you two had a great vacation/fishing trip. I like the countryside and I like Arkansas. I'll check out your Facebook to see the photo that you've posted.

Thanks for the report and nice pics of bbl and fish. I never go to far from L.A. for vacation but bbl totally seams worth it. I might just try it next summer or sooner!!!

Thanks! BBL is beautiful, and the panfish are active in summer, but the trout fishing can be tough in some days. Good luck to you if you are up there.