April 4^th – Delta Fly Fishers annual outing, cold am temperatures, warming to 70+ degrees, light to no wind all day.  Some early and late top water action.  One angler caught upwards to 30 bass using sub-surface flies; dragon fly nymphs, damsel fly nymphs, olive wollybuggers worked slow along weed line. Al

April 17^th - Stephen Culp, August Abellar, Frank Rodriquez and myself hit Kelsey.  Started out with frog patterns before stepping on fish so close to shore they scared us on our entry. Once you step on a big fish, they  just look at your offering. Switched out to Dragon Fly nymphs until it slowed down and switched over to crayfish patterns. August caught the  top water action on Adult dragon flies until all of the naturals were gone- talk about matching the hatch!! Sight fishing to bass feeding on insects above the water was truly amazing. Crayfish patterns worked  great throughout the day. Maybe next time we will breakout the float  tubes- doubt it though. Fishing from the shore ruined us. Thanks for a great day, Al. We'll be back. Craig

April 18^th - started fishing about 10:30AM on the east side.  Water temp was about 69 in one of the shallow bays. While driving in and while rigging up, I didn’t notice any jumps or other surface activity so I started with a damsel nymph.  I picked up my first fish and the best of the day ~ 5 lbs or so - after about half an hour.  The day was pretty much like that—no hot activity but still somewhat consistent on underwater patterns.  Although the fish started jumping for hovering dragonflies about noon they showed no interest in any surface pattern that I had. The best patterns for me were damsels and clousers. I will say that I stopped using the damsels because the bass typically hook themselves deep-I imagine due to they way they sweep them in.  (For others reading this, if you are using damsel nymphs, be sure you pinch the barb down and have long forceps.)  I did break out the float tube later in the day to try other areas like the island, the stickups near the island, and the shoal but didn’t get any grabs at these locations.  Water temp rose to about 78(!) in the late PM.  I will say there were other anglers on the west side (the side you drive in by) that sounded like they were doing well but I didn’t get a chance to compare notes with them. Likewise, there was one boat of two flyfishers that concentrated on the stickups east of the island that were there for a long time so I imagine they were doing OK but I didn’t score there.  I stayed until dark hoping that I would see surface action but didn’t raise anything until about 7 PM but again it was very slow on top and nothing consistent.  All in all, I took about 15 fish in about 10 hours of fishing.  I was hoping to see more weed growth in the shallows for fish cover for this time of year.  I didn’t notice any spawning beds but water clarity was low.  The weather was ideal--there was very little wind during the day and air temps were in the 70’s. Dwight

April 20^th - wow,   we had a great time.  good weather, good fishing, plenty to drink, and sun block!  we had a total of over 90 fish between the three of us. again, thanks.  alan
 

April 20^th -  We were in the midst of a very unusual hot weather spell.  On Monday it was in the mid 90’s.  Little to no wind.  We left Danville about 6:00 and arrived at 7:45 with no stops.  Due to closed gates and cattle being driven on the road, we arrived on the East side past 8:00.  While inflating tubes and rigging rods bass were jumping for Dragon Flies.  I got going by just walking the bank.  Most busting fish were within casting range in 2-3 feet of water.  I used the Umpqua Swimming Frog and only cast to were fish had jumped.  They didn’t jump on the frog aggressively which surprised me based on past experience.  However it did hook a fair number during that spell.  That went on till about 11:00 then shut off.  I stayed on top with occasional fish till mid afternoon.

 I noticed fish boiling subsurface so I switched to a Damsel nymph and took fish.  (Yes they do take the nymph deep).  We then moved to the section off the small island and fished till about 7:15 with no success using a Lizard Gurgler.  No fish working.  In summary, I hooked between 15-20 fish to 5# and had another 10+ boils without a hookup.  Average fish size was very good. Bill

 

April 26^th - Returned last night from another excellent trip to Belize.  Seven permit hooked only 3 landed, a good number of tarpon landed to 25 lbs, couldn't keep track of all of the bonefish and many other species caught during the week.  We are definitely going back in 2010.  Al Smatsky

April 27^th - Cool. sunny and breezy.  Air temp 60-70  ?water temp?  No fish active on surface at any time 10AM to 7:30 PM.
Lots of action on worm-like leach patterns (weedless) dragged over the weeds from 10:30 to 12, all good sized fish 2- 5 pounds very strong.  Subsurface action then shut down but lots of fish taking same patterns or plastic worms down deeper than 5-6 feet.  With a dark plastic worm on a weedless rig I could have caught 50 fish in a day, but I chose to try some sight fishing and experiment with different flies. (not much success after 1 PM).  should b e good when the weather warms back up.
Water was in good shape and weeds about optimal.  Enjoy,  Ron

April 29^th - Hall of Fame donation from Kelsey Bass Ranch/Excellent Adventures- the winning bidders Craig, August, Frank and Dean.  Ken Hanley and I had the pleasure of being the guides for the day while John Ryzanych was in charge of preparing lunch. Weather-cold with a little wind in the morning turning stronger as the day progressed, water temp- 64 degrees (a drop of almost 10 degrees from last week).  Ken stayed around the parking lot with Frank and Dean while Craig, August and I drove over to the flat.  It didn't take long before we heard Ken and Frank laughter and screams of joy with his first landed black bass (Frank has only been fly fishing about three times).   Craig and August had never fished this area of the lake so it good exposure for the both of them.  Too bad that there were not more fish on the flats for them to receive more of a positive reinforcement of what they were learning.  The lunch that John's prepared was incredible topped off with a strawberry short cake for dessert.  Dean was only one able to move away from the table and get back to fishing (think he wanted to catch that last bass that he missed before lunch).  We all fished another location where everybody caught or missed a multitude of small bass on top, a great way to end the day.  Craig, August, Frank and Dean had an excellent time and we look forward to doing it again next year.  Al Smatsky (from my observation of the recent conditions at the lake; the flats and creek arm that we all know so well and expect to catch many, many bass are just not producing right now due to a lack of weed growth in the area (no significant population of insects).  Don't expect this area to produce until we have warmer weather with more dragonflies and damsels present.  We observed and caught bass along the westside of the lake.  One conventional angler in a boat fished the island, submerged trees, south cove and west bank and had no problem with catching lots and lots of bass.

April 29^th Hall of Fame trip with Al Smatsky, Ken Hanley, and John Ryzanych as head cook!!
What can I say? First off, we did not know what we were in for on this day. Can you say, completely clueless. Well, clueless no longer as Newby Frank Rodriquez, Dean Lewis, August Abellar (Master Fo) and I carpooled out with Ken Hanley to Kelsey Ranch to meet up with Al Smatsky. Ken just got signed off to drive after his recent spill, but we carpooled out anyway. You can't imagine what  a carafe of coffee will do for Ken at o'dark in the morning. The conversation has always been great and lively. The drive to and fro was worth the trip. Squared away we split up into two groups. Frank had been there about 10-11 days ago and he found out his polarized glasses didn't work earlier so he got a different pair in order to see through the water.  Its called adjustments in my book, so he adjusted. So how was the fishing you ask? Fantastic- I always enjoy Al's company while on the water, any water , any time, anywhere and how he imparts his knowledge. Ken and John were icing on the cake in my book. Ken also imparted his game to the group as well. But John, man, can that guy cook! I felt bad John  did not fish before he prepared us lunch. We had fished until after 1 PM before we realized to even look to see what time it was. When we got back, John was ready for us with a fine appetizer, salad, pasta, grilled white asparagus, three meats all barbecued to perfection and strawberry-banana shortcake. Did I leave anything out??? We had an option to fish a pond fifteen minutes away that never gets fished or return to the big pond. I'll let you guess what we chose. The fishing and camaraderie was well worth the day. We'll definitely be back for this next year as a committed foursome.  This is to friendships, Al, Ken and John. Thanks again for pointing out this trip to us at the Hall of Fame dinner, Al. It was the best  tip last year for us. All the best, Craig
 

May 6^th - 7:30AM to 5PM.  Wind was a factor most of the day (forget any high-floating float tube unless you’re ready for a major workout).  There was absolutely no morning top water action and it was very slow underneath all morning.  To escape the wind later in the morning, I walked over to the small pond to the west and took a nice 6-7 lb fish on a clouser but that was the only strike I had there.  I returned to the east side about noon where the dragonflies finally were out and the wind subsided a little.  I consistently picked up nice jumping fish on poppers for about two hours until the dragonflies disappeared as did the top water action.  I was still able to pick up fish occasionally on damsel nymphs.  In total, a nice day, despite the 20 MPH+ wind most of the time--I think I landed about 15-20 fish but was too tired to stay until the evening.  Water temp in the early PM was about 71 and air temp was in the high 70’s. Dwight

July 16^th - I don't know if you've been getting many reports from Kelsey these days so I thought I'd pass one on in case anyone was interested in how it's fishing right now. The AM topwater bite was fantastic but the intense action only lasted for about 30 minutes. I was able to get fish on top here and there throwing in the weeds for another hour or so. The highlight of the day was the intense dragonfly action from about 8-10am. I'm sure it would have continued but the wind really started to blow about 10 and really put the dragonflies down. The whole east side of the lake had fish coming out of the water chasing dragonflies. I've never seen so many dragons out at one time. The great thing was that the fish were chasing them right out in open water instead of coming up under the weeds so I was using dragon patterns without weedguards so I pretty much caught everything that hit. The fish are really heavy right now too. Not really pot belled but thick and most were really strong. I found that in the afternoon the sparse weedbeds out further in the lake seemed to be holding fish and everything from modest sized bunny leaches to dragonfly nymphs produced fish pretty steadily. It was really hot out so I was suprised to get fish that steady throughout the afternoon. Can't say I really hammered them all afternoon but caught more then enough to keep me from taking a break. The PM topwater bite was a wash because of the wind but I did manage to get into some pretty intense action with dark bunny leeches fished fairly slow a foot or so under the surface untill dark. All in all I'd say I had my best day ever out there. I've been playing around with tying dragonflies on worm hooks hoping to get them to float point up so I'm dying to try them out and I can't think of a better place to try them. Shawn

July 21^st - The lake fished completely different. Not much of a topwater bite in the AM and the subsurface bite was pretty slow during the day. Amazing what a few days can do. I noticed that the water is dropping pretty fast. It dropped about 10-12 inches while I was there. You could see how much by looking at the base of the dam. I think the dropping lake levels may have moved the fish around a bit I don't know. The cows had eaten most of the grass and weeds along the lake too. They even ate the tops off of the weeds in the lake. Subsurface the weeds look pretty much the same so I don't know if that made a difference or not. One interesting thing I saw was what appeared to be trout rising in the morning out near the buoys. They were between there and the smaller island to the west. My fish finder said the water temps were 77 there. That seems a little warm. Perhaps it's cooler near the bottom and they can go deeper later in the day. Shawn

August 9^th - Bass Blast Volume 1, available for purchase through the Excellent Adventures web site.  Ken and Jay spent an incredible amount of time filming this video, most of which was shot at Kelsey Bass Ranch.  A must purchase for all black bass anglers.  Al