Hello, 2011

80s in January? Definitely an excuse to go fishing! Unfortunately, it has been a slow season so far. Tried Fairmount, Perris, Ford, and even Diamond Valley Lake, all for nothing. Did see some nice bass at Diamond, cruising the shore and chasing the stocker trout, too bad my Megabait Charlie Trout swimbait didn't interest 'em.
I went to Seccombe Park in San Bernardino today, with some hope of finally breaking the 2011 skunk. It's one of the dingiest ponds in my area, but there is a fair amount of water and some random structure to target (shopping carts and 5-gallon buckets hahaha), but I haven't caught much of anything here before (just sunfish). I started with a simple dropshot rig, working a Berkely worm, hoping for anything to bite. The park was packed-something about the fantastic weather brings out everyone, especially the characters (if you fish city park pond regularly you know what I'm talking about). The water was a little bit cloudy, but nothing like the mud pond at Fairmont. Kept working the dropshot, hoping for something, but no takers.

Ended up on the far east side of the pond, near the bridge. It's slightly cleaner here, not as many shopping bags in the water, heh. Was on the phone, trying to dropshot at the same time when I got hit hard. Didn't pull much drag, but kep my rod bent pretty good. Quickly gathered onlookers, most of which were shocked to see a fish rise from this park pond's water. I was hoping for my first fish of 2011 to be a largemouth, but I got a healthy stocker rainbow trout instead! Fine with me, better than the skunk!

Kept fishing for another 30 minutes without any other fish, but I was pretty satisfied. Best trip to Seccombe so far, hopefully I'll pull in some bass this year from this city park too!