What a game…the ball went back and forth between the teams too many times! And I would say (and Sean would probably agree) that the Panther defense stepped up quite a few times. Sean also had a good game again…a big open-field tackle against the Lodi Tigers during the first quarter that I would dare say set up Benicia for a score. Then just before the end of the first half, he forced a fumble that was recovered by a teammate.  Throw in a handful of tackles and assists, and it was a very good effort and a lot of hustle. It was a squeaker during the last eight minutes and the balls switched hands three times and Lodi could have scored a touchdown and PAT to win the game. But during those last minutes and in the end, the Benicia Panthers won 27-34.

Levi Alexander joined the Konoske clan today (Tuesday, Sept. 12) at 11:56 a.m., weighing in at 7 pounds, 14 ounces and stretching to 19¾ inches.  Congrats to Mark and Kenna!

Spent much of the first half of Saturday fruitlessly searching for wade-in access along Putah Creek, one of the few local waters that offer trout fishing and probably the only one that can be attacked with flies. Chris and I drove up to the Winters area, where the creek feeds into Lake Solano, a bend that is quite wide, and since the water gets warm, the trout are pushed to the deeper sections. We spend a bit of time there, but nothing. Since we were in the area, we continued on to Lake Berryessa, which feeds Putah Creek. At Berryessa, we fished a bit from shore even through it is a large reservoir better approached with a boat and best trolled. We hit a few points, but only a few small fish followed our lures, with a few strikes, but our lure were bit too big for their mouths. We probably spend more time cleaning water weed off our lures than anything else. I was in the process of retrieving an obnoxious fluorescent orange Rooster Tail lure with the expectation of pulling water weed off it, when I found a smallmouth bass — maybe eight inches long — at the end of my line. Guess that was to be my only “catch of the day,” even if it didn’t give even an inkling of a fight!

Sean had a pretty good game Friday (yesterday) against American City High School. His biggest plays were an open-field grab of a punt returner and blocking a point after attempt. He made about five tackles for the night, with the Benicia High School Panthers winning the game 15-6. Not a bad start to the season.

The Benicia Herald article is here.

For those of you keeping up with my antics via this blog, you know that last weekend was an incredible fishing experience. Much of the discussion between Chris and I over the weekend was about catch some wild trout. But while we had targeted a specific stretch of the Little Walker River where wild trout were reputed to reside, and hoped that maybe we’d pull on out of other waters, I wasn’t certain that I could tell the difference between a wild and hatchery rainbow. Sure, I knew the brookies were wild because while they aren’t native, they are no longer stocked.

But with the help of a friend fellow fisherman who has some knowledge of the trout of the eastern Sierras, and a fortuitous photo, I can confirm that I caught at least one wild rainbow trout last Labor Day weekend. I had pointed out to Chris that some of the rainbow we were pulling in — roughly 5 of the 30 I caught — looked a tad different and noted a marked difference in the fish I caught in a small pool on the Little Walker. According to my source, wild trout normally have thin white tips or edges on their fins with extra par markings, with all fins intact, especially tails. Stocked rainbows usually have one of the back fins cut off and tails that are not be full. Sure enough, this rainbow had the extra parr marking, the thin white edge on the pelvic fins and the full tail (and all the requisite fins). Pretty neat!