Fishing with Mark Franco at Diamond Valley Lake, Sunday August 3, 2008

[Sea Hag]

I made a reservation with lake guide Mark Franco, and headed up to the lake early Sunday morning with my parents and my daughter, Caroline.

Mark told me to come all the way down the ramp to the docks and find him there when we arrived. But upon finding the ramp, I was more than a little hesitant to drive down it!!! Brakes, don’t fail me now!!



Well, we were out on the water by 7:00 AM, for what turned out to be a beautiful day on the lake!! We had a steady breeze, and Captain Mark's well equipped pontoon boat has a nice sun shade on it to protect us from the mid-day sun. In spite of the fact the temperatures reached 97 degrees up there that day, the shade and the breeze kept us pretty comfortable.

Unfortunately the breeze we were enjoying was the product of a building thunderstorm over the dessert, and while we were long gone before any storm developed, the change in weather had sent the trout deep and given them lock-jaw.

On Mark's light tackle, two pound test, we had a lot of fun with a steady pick at the blue gill by the dam.





And in the 11th hour my daughter landed a nice four pound large mouth bass!! Just as we were looking at a mark on the fish finder….



And the next thing we knew....
Caroline was hooked up!!



Then he turned Caroline loose to drive the boat. I’m not sure whether the fish or the driving was more of a treat to her!!




There's a nice ramp there to launch your boat, and boats are available for rent. Plenty of parking, and I understand there's a nice museum and display in the visitor's center. The lake is really big, though, and I'd highly recommend getting guide who knows where the structures are in the lake, and where the fish like to hide!

[Mutt]

Good pics. I love them ramps like that if no one is on it i drive straight down then swing around and back in lol. I would say your daughter liked driving the boat by her smile on her face lol. Glad you had a good time.