Man, oh, man, what a weekend. Gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous - definitively not your typical Opening Weekend which is usually cold, windy, cold, snowy, cold, windy - just down-right miserable - but this weekend the temps in the mid 50s, now I know that sounds a bit on the cool side, but sitting on the ice (yes, it was 3 feet thick) with that sun beating down on you and you were out-and-out HOT.

And the fishing, you wonder, AWESOME! Fishing was GREAT with lots of limits coming out - nothing big - but plenty of fish to fill your skillet. Father and son, Don and John McLaughlin, spent their 37th year out on the ice for opener. Dragging a power auger, out at 6:00am to the back natural lake, they drilled over 30 holes and caught and released 68 fish - Father Don besting son John - 35 to 33. On what you ask - lures were their hot ticket. Others were using jigs with a meal worm or just a NightCrawler. Fishing the pond by the dam was like fishing in a barrel - and you could use just about any bait.

One group of 8 came out from the back all sporting limits: Tony Garcia and brother Mark Garcia from Lake Forest, Brian Seitz also of Lake Forest, Tom Chambers of Mission Viejo and Jay Boston of Tustin, Matt Cahn and Eric Hoffman both of Aliso Viejo and Tyler Hanson of Trabuco Canyon. Forty fish what a feast for dinner. Another group of friends also had a GREAT day on LakeSabrina: Neil Richey, Matt Keller, Matt Bushman, David O'Rafferty, Shawn O'Rafferty and Brian DaHaan and their story - "We kept about 15 fish out of the over 200 we caught. No exaggeration, we fished the back inlet to the lake on the ice from 5:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. and each caught about 4 dozen fish, give or take a few... It was our most productive day fishing ever! Great opening day at Sabrina!!" Thanks for sending the report and picture.

Forestry and the campground hosts worked hard to get more campgrounds available for the Opening Weekend. BitterBrush, Big Trees, Four Jeffery and the Forks were all open. Sure is great to see some of the same hosts back for another year - and we sure will be missing those that aren't with us this year - hope they'll stop by for a visit and pie.

Didn't hear of anyone this year going thru the ice, but as the weather warms, please be careful - also, remember your polarized dark glasses and sunscreen - we saw a few anglers that looked a bit like cooked lobster. You've got that sun coming at you in ALL directions and the rays from the snow are deadly!

Looks like winter is still with us - a chance of snow on Tuesday and Wednesday and then again next weekend with temps in the 30s, but I know Spring isn't too far away - we had a taste this weekend. You can check www.weather.gov and enter ASPENDELL, CA on the site and it will give you a fairly good hint at the weather or check in with Howard at www.MammothWeather.com

LakeSabrina Boat Landing will open on Saturday, April 24th, at 7:00am and will serve Breakfast until 11:00am and Lunch until 4:00pm on Saturday and Sunday. The Cafe will close during the week and re-open on Friday at 8:00am. The store hours are as follows:

Sunday 7:00 to 6:00pm
Monday 8:00 to 6:00pm
Tuesday 8:00 to 6:00pm
Wednesday CLOSED
Thursday 8:00 to 6:00pm
Friday 8:00 to 6:00pm
Saturday 7:00 to 6:00pm

And, of course, we'll have HOMEMADE pie, sodas, beer, wine, coffee, tea and hot cocoa!
We're looking forward to seeing you all this year!