Lincoln Blanco

Have you ever stopped to think about how universal fishing is?

The world may not agree upon much, but fishing isn’t one of those things.

David Cunningham, of Torrance, Calif. holds up three trout caught in the flume below the Isabella Lake Auxiliary dam.

Now I’m not saying everyone in the whole entire world fishes. But I’m sure there is at least a few people from any given region or country, that fish their local waters. After all, 70 percent of the earth is covered by water.

Inspired by this thought, I decided to take to the local waterways, and meet some of thy fellow fishermen. And share with you, the reader, their insight on what’s going on, fishing wise, around the valley.

One of the places I visited, has been a favorite place of mine to fish since I was little, the flume. Yes the flume, what I feel is one of the most overlooked waterways to catch fish, within our valley. Right as I entered the flume area, I met Aaron Deguire and David Cunningham of Torrance, Calif. Deguire was reeling in a huge two pound trout, and throwing it in their catch cage. When I asked if I could check out their catch. Cunningham, pulled their catch cage out of the water, and showed me what they had caught.

Flopping around were three of the most beautiful one, to two pound trout’s I have ever seen.

As Cunningham and I were discussing fishing techniques, Deguire reeled in another beautiful two pound trout. Deguire’s bait of choice was salmon eggs and rainbow PowerBait.

Please note, if you choose to fish the flume, you do so at your own free will, exercise extreme caution at all times around the flume.

Another fellow fisherman I met, was Oran Rankin of Bakersfield. Rankin informed me that he has been fishing the Kern River Valley for over 40 years. Rankin was taking advantage of one of the many fish cleaning stations around the valley, cleaning a couple of catfish, at French Gulch Campground. When I asked Rankin how he did? He replied, “My buddy and I caught a total of eight catfish on shad, and one trout on rainbow PowerBait, fishing from our boat in the Southlake area.” Good days haul.

The last person I spoke with, was Mike Brown of Bakersfield. I met Brown during the Whiskey Flat weekend, at Riverside Park. I asked him if he was up here for Whiskey Flats? He said, “No, I came specifically to take advantage of all the recently planted trout. I didn’t even bother purchasing a license last year, because of the whole stocking controversy.”

Even though Brown didn’t have any luck in catching some fish. He expressed how glad he was that they started stocking again. I’m glad the fish are back too!

So catch those fish, because you’ll never know when I’ll be interviewing you as a face for fishing.

Until next time remember, it’s called fishing and not catching.