Upper Otay Sunset Bass 6/28

Ahhhh, another frustrating outing at Upper Otay. I tried a completely different tack yesterday, but one way or another, I end up with the same result.

The plan of attack Saturday was to fish the post-sunset top-water bass bite. Up to yesterday, I've been geared and hunting for bluegill. But I've put together a combo I intend to use specifically for Large Mouth Bass. A 6 wt Winston Vapor, paired with a Ross Rhythm 3. I've added a Rio Lake clear intermediate line, and an SA Bass Bug floating line to cover my lake warm-water needs. In addition, I've bought, tied, or been given a good variety of bass flies.

I parked my car on Otay Lakes Road and got my gear ready to make the hike up the road to Upper Otay Lake. The rangers lock the gate around sunset, so if you want to stick around and fish the post-sunset bite, you have to park outside the gate.

It's not a long walk, it's just uphill, and making the hike with a float tube over your shoulder, fins, and a rod, in waders in the heat of the day solidifies the resolve to stick it out as long as possible. The view overlooking the lake when you crest the hill takes almost the entire lake, less the "canyon arm." From there it's down to the lot and launch points, the iron ranger, and into the water.

Since I brought two lines, and the top-water action wasn't supposed to get under way until the sun set, I started going kind of deep. I figured fish would be holding a little deeper in the hot sunny afternoon, and a quick check with a passing tuber, who had a fish finder, confirmed fish were around 8 to 12 feet. Not that this helped, I didn't get any action plumbing the depths.

I talked to another tuber, one who I'd seen pretty regularly, about his lure choices, and the evening bite. He suggested something shad shaped and floating. I went with a crease fly, which is a surface popping fly, made of foam, and resembling a bait fish.

I switched lines, tied on a crease fly, and began tossing it close to cover and twitching, and popping it, hoping for a surface strike. It actually didn't take too long before a swirl engulfed my fly and I pulled the line tight. The little bass jumped a couple of times, and even did a quick tail dance. I had it at my tube when it wriggled off the hook before I could claim my first top-water Large Mouth Bass.

The sun had only just gone behind the nearby hill, and I figured this was a good sign. I was watching the other tuber out of the corner of my eye, and he seemed to be picking up fish here and there on various bass lures. I was watching how tight to cover he was casting (real tight), and trying to emulate his technique. But while he kept picking up fish, I didn't.

The lake got glass-smooth after sunset, and there were ripple rings all over, from what I initially though were bait fish, but later considered might be an insect hatch, because I'd seen one there before, and suddenly there were bugs everywhere.

Strangely, and we talked again later as we got out of the water, instead of there being more bass hitting food on the surface after sunset, the top-water action never really materialized. The gear fisher explained it was an odd evening, on an odd year. Great, I thought, my timing had been as poor as could be.

Around 9 p.m. it was just too dark, buggy and discouraging to stay on the water any longer and I kicked in, put on my headlamp, and humped it up and over the hill back to my car.

I'm not giving up on Upper Otay's bass and Bluegill however. I'm not going to stop hiking in with my bass combo, nor am I going to stop hunting Bluegill on flies. I'm going to have a great day at Upper Otay. It's too beautiful a place, with too good a reputation to leave it alone, and miss out when the action is "normal" there again.