18 months. That's how long it took. 18 months to get our ponds back that were taken away for no reason, to save nothing.

18 months of calling and writing, driving to Sacramento, and sorting through bureaucracy. 18 months of waiting for our government to hit the undo button on something that should never have been done in the first place.

Today I pulled the old float tube off the shelf, grabbed a couple flippin sticks and headed back because for once we won. The fishermen won. For the first time I can remember in a long time, the fishermen got a fishing spot back that was taken away.

The weather turned yesterday - from scorching to fall in an instant. As I walked over the top of the levee there was a sharp edge to the breeze. It felt so good to be back!

The water in the back ponds looked a healthy and beautiful as always. Six foot visibility with pond weed growing out in to 12 feet of water. It felt like you should be bit on every cast :)

I paddled around the main pond, flipping and pitching to the laydown trees, bamboo, and weed beds. The bass seemed a little thrown off by the weather change, but they were there.

In 3 hours, five nice pond bass decided my brush hogs looked like food. They were lean but healthy and gave a good fight. In a way it was cool to use a barbless hook because unhooking the fish was so easy. Even better - no one can keep these bass and take them home. It's 100% catch and release now.

Along the way I saw a dad with his 3 year old son casting from the shore. The dad saw some bass chasing silverside by the weedline and pointed it out to the son. They headed off to walk around the lake so they could make some casts. So cool.

On the way out I talked with a young guy, maybe 17, who was hiking his tube over the levee to have a try. We just talked for a bit but you could tell how stoked he was to be getting back on the water in the ponds.

When my boy is old enough we'll go to these ponds and learn to float tube. It took 18 months to get them back and it was worth every minute of the wait and every effort in the fight. Glad to have you back, back ponds :)

http://www.calfishing.com/files/Images/daily_reports/2011_09_25_shadow_cliffs/2lber.jpg

http://www.calfishing.com/files/Images/daily_reports/2011_09_25_shadow_cliffs/4lber.jpg