Palm Trees and Trout

[Scudly]

This week I was on a business trip Monday - Wednesday in San Diego visiting key pharma and biotech customers. San Diego is always such a wonderful place to visit. Weather is almost always predictably in the mid-70s. Some even complain it could be toastier for those poolside days. Customer visits were a success. Three action packed days.

My trip was topped off by a personal day on Thursday trout fishing. Yes, you heard me correctly, trout fishing in San Diego. Well, actually Laguna Niguel, just one hour north of San Diego. My wife's second cousin Cal is an avid trout angler by float tube and has always wanted me to join him. I admit, I have had the trout fishing itch for a while. Our season in MN and WI had closed end of September, so I was going through a month and a half of withdrawal.

The excitement really hit me when I woke up Thursday morning in Cal and his wife Bobbie's guest bedroom. My alarm was for 6 AM.

A quick knock on the door. "Mark, are you awake?"

"Yep Cal, sort of, I'm working on it." I replied followed by a big yawn.

Cal was reading the paper and greeted me with a big paper cup of coffee and a plastic lid for on the go. We had planned our attack the night before and had a handle on the pertinent details. Today was opening day! We were both very excited to get going. Neither of us a fan of breakfast, I followed behind Cal closely in my PT Cruiser rental.

Laguna Niguel was not terribly crowded at our 7 AM arrival. Cal thought there would be folks lining up at 3am for opening day. The tackle shop guys, who obviously know Cal quite well, happily greeted Cal and me. I was impressed with the many beautiful mounts of gigantic rainbows caught at Laguna Niguel. Some of these mounted rainbows were pushing 15 pounds with incredible kyped jaws. This got me more excited. We were paid for and ready to roll.

Approaching the boat and tube landing, lines crisscrossed from both sides.

"Excuse me gentlemen," Cal announced to the shore fishermen. Just then a fish was on the line and the fight was on. A momentary pause before the fish was landed.

"Thank you for waiting," the fisherman replied.

"No problem, congratulations on the nice fish!"

It was a sign of the morning. Fishing was red hot. I was suited up, snorkel flippers on, and grabbed my two poles. Cal had taken care of all of the details. Both poles were locked and loaded. I had a plastic worm on one and a live crawler on the other.

Following Cal's instructions, I kicked backwards towards the island straight out from the landing. I cast my worm and placed my pole in the pole rest. Not less than 30 seconds later, my pole was twitching and I'm hauling in my first nice sized Rainbow of the day.

It is 7am . Lots of fog rising. This is when the trout really start biting.

Fish number two before Cal has even stepped foot in his own float tube.

This was my very first time on the float tube and I had a blast. It was fun getting to learn how to maneuver with my flippers and learn how to slowly troll around backwards, ever so often looking over my shoulder watching not to bounce into another float tube angler or boat. It was not too crowded. Everyone was incredibly friendly. Right away out at the island where I caught the two right off the bat, others were hooking up.

"I've caught six trout here in the past twenty minutes trolling back and forth aside this island" a fisherman next to me mentioned. He had a grin on his face and was quite happy with opening day.

Cal finally made his way out to join me and instantly hooked into one.

Fish number three, caught on a crawler. This one was lip hooked and released.

Fish number four, thrown in my mesh fish bag "stringer" neatly clipped to the left side of my float tube. Cal had me set up with two rods rigged on ultralights on four-pound line and these fish screamed. It was quite the battle. I did not realize how wet I'd gotten landing these fish.

Fish number five.

Fish number 12. Likely my largest of the day. This was a beauty. I asked another float tuber to take a photo of me.

At that point I watched other seasoned trout fishermen in the lake and realized there they were catching more than me. This is to be expected. It was my first time at this.

Floating up to the guy with all the constant hook ups, including double hook ups, I asked "Hey what are you using?"

"Plastic worms. One pure white, and one bright red," the gentlemen replied.

I had white, white/orange, green, and green orange. One pole rigged with a worm, the other I had set up with white/orange. Instantly I caught this guy, fish number 17.

Cal was beside me. Another hook up. Right after this he had a double. Hard problem to deal with, I know. Fishing was red hot. People were hooking left and right.

Second to the last beauty of the day, fish number 22 caught on sparkly orange Power Bait embedded in a tiny treble hook. This was another fish for the frying pan.

Final fish of the day, I let her go. Another beautiful typical ~18" Rainbow caught today.

"Cal, it is that time, I best be going and head in and pack up," I shouted out.

"Thanks for coming Mark. I'm glad it we caught so many nice sized trout as we did and had a great day on the water," Cal replied.

"I am too, Cal," I shouted. "Less crowded than I imagined and the trout fishing was phenomenal!" I shouted. "We will have to do this again next time I am out."

"Hey, tell your friends back in Minnesota how great the trout fishing is in southern California, OK?" said the local with constant hookups.

"Will do!" I shouted.

Float tubing amongst the palm trees for two to four pound trout, what a great way to unwind from a successful business trip. I look forward to fishing with Cal many times in the future.