Deep Purple was right! Christian Bass League pre fish

Fast Eddie · Post by **Fast Eddie** » Sat Sep 06, 2025 2:41 pm

Last Thursday after twiddling my thumbs on Wednesday night, I got the wifey up @ 3:45 am to head to Don Pedro. I knew there was a large lightning fire up there and needed to check on road closures to determine which way I'd go next week. Prefishing if the Lake was open. As we turned onto La Grange road, the mill was operating and there were no fire trucks in the vicinity. However as we passed Old Don Pedro Rd. there were 2 sheriff's vehicles there blocking that road and a little past that turn the pasture was blackened. The Cal Fire map had indicated that Chinese Camp along 49 was in the middle of the fire. Red Hill Road was blocked too. Another mile or so up the road a larger pasture area was blackened., however the 7 Feathers Ranch appeared fine. We past a few fire trucks heading in the direction of 108, but as all these areas fires were out we proceeded to Bonds Flat Road. There was a lot of traffic on La Grange road though. Arriving at Fleming Meadows we were surprised to see no warnings posted about the fires. We filled out the necessary forms, paid our fees (Veterans Bonus here

) and off to prep and launch the boat.
So loading the boat must have added 60 more pounds than Wednesday nights, You know, Jigs, dropshots, top water, crankbaits, finesse FFS stuff, spoons etc plus 20 rods and reels. (the wifey does fish sometimes

) We launch and motor over to the Marina store to see if the entire lake is open. No one has heard of any closures except 120 might be closed. The Lake is wide open. So off we go headed to Woods creek. Soon as the lake begins to narrow we see the blackened hills. From the waters edge and up. Smoke lingers over the water like an old rock concert. The smell is just like camping, but all looks calm.
Up in woods, fish are jumping chasing bait, water temp in the 70's. So far we've only see a half dozen trout/salmon boats and a few pontoon boats down towards Rogers and in the main Lake. There were 3 bass boat trailers in the lot and we made 4. First fish the wifey caught was about 2 on a d/s. Then I caught a clone. As the breeze increased the smoke was clearing and the devastation was even more evident. Every once in a while the scrub jay would screech and the ravens squawk would break the silence, except for the Cal Fire observer plane which kept circling overhead every few minutes.
The susurrus was usually the only noise heard outside of the occasional splash of feeding fish. Next up to Moccasin Creek then back to Poor mans and six bit. The bait was everywhere and the Active Target was working exceptionally well. (Thanks to Ken Mah and Greg Woodruff) As a matter of fact all my electronics worked like a charm. Not so afraid to play around anymore. As the breeze picked up plumes of smoke began to rise from hot spots still smoldering . Checking here and there we located some fish. Biggest was 3 1/2 larry. Water temps went from 80 to 72. Hope this pattern stays for John and I. All in all we had somewher3e between 13 -14 1/2 lbs. The weight was calcu8lated for 6 hr tournament, but with ski and pontoon boats on Sat, it could change in a heartbeat. Will report the final.
TL
FE
Here's a shot of Six bit gulch