QED

If that refers to shelled, whole almonds, that works out to a little more than 5 gallons PER ALMOND.

The CA DWR is a state agency, so the lake is effectively owned by the state.

The percolation ponds in Campbell/Los Gatos near HW17? If so, which one of them tends to yield best results?

Lew's Custom Lite is an excellent reel that is insanely light at just 4.9 oz. Not sure what the current street prices are but it used to be near your price constraint. To get something lighter, you would need to go with something like a Shimano Aldebaran which is even more expensive.

@IneedAnewScreenName-546846848 you should delete your prior post. Unauthorized copies (including .PDFs) are legally problematic violations of copyright laws.

This is with 4 lb test at grant lake. But I don't recommend it. Heavier gear or be prepared to possibly go wading.

You can get good cork compound bike bar tape in a bunch of interesting colors. Personally, I just use the slip rings. They loosen at first because the cork under the reel foot compresses. But if you continue to tighten the slip rings each time they start loosening, eventually you'll reach an equilibrium where they stay put. All my fenwick UL spinning rods have tennessee handles. Note the JDM Soare 500 reel.

Rituals such as checking equipment/gear ahead of each trip probably help with catching fish. Superstitious rituals such as waving a dead chicken over your equipment/gear probably don't help with anything at all.

I usually palm the reel while retrieving, so thumbing the spool on hookset is not even an option.

1 hr, 40 minutes fishing time - 20 minutes round trip travel time. I usually go in the morning before work.

I'm going to dissent a bit. I think for a rank beginner a 1/4 oz spinnerbait in black and another in chartreuse would be easier than a texas rigged worm. Worm fishing has a steep initial learning curve to detect the subtle bites and to develop a solid hook set reaction. Plus spinnerbaits are fairly weedless so you can toss them next to or into bassy looking structure. The next step would be texas rigged and wacky rigged senkos in 4" green pumpkin. Walk before you run.

I believe minimalist is best when hiking/bank fishing. Pick ~5 known productive lures that are collectively capable of covering the entire water column and also bring the minimal amount of ancillary gear (knife, nail clipper, snaps). I used to bring a backpack, with a couple of utility trays, but now I just use a zip lock bag for the lures/tackle (BTW, that will easily fit in a pocket). Also, iPhone + earbuds for taking pictures and playing music or foreign language lessons. I learned functional French and Italian while fishing. Came in handy when I traveled to the corresponding places.

In my experience, centrifugal brakes require more frequent maintenance than magnetic brakes, so there's that...

If you encounter lots of "riff raff," you must be fishing in San Francisco or LA! ? I used to fish the riprap in the San Joaquin delta system and did fine with spinnerbaits and lipless crankbaits. I like to cast parallel to and somewhat tight to the riprap.

River2sea S-waver 168s.

I have a small lake within a few minutes of my home that I started fishing this year. The fishing is really tough right now due to the drought and summer heat. Places that produced earlier in the year are above water now. Water was clear but now full of algae. Stick to fundamentals and fish the structure, shade, weed lines, etc., with stuff you know works, like senkos. Then if that fails, cover a lot of water using a spinnerbait or your favorite fast mover. Just applied statistics.

Non sequitur. I have only ever used low profile casting reels. My current favorites are these:

The pistol grip is normally just used for casting. Palming is not really affected by whether or not one uses a pistol grip vs a "short" modern handle. Pistol grips have a compactness that helps casting in tight quarters so they still have a proper use case even if they are no longer popular.

Pistol grips work fine for ultralight and bfs casting. Full length grips are awkward for these use cases.

At this point, I can fill a tackle box full of found lures. These are all salvageable by hook sharpening or treble hook replacement. I've found many times more worms and jigs but they were beyond help.

I fish light/ultralight gear almost exclusively. For 2 - 4 lb test line, I prefer spinning. For 6 lb test, I'm somewhat indifferent as between spinning vs casting gear. For 8 lb test and up, casting gear for sure. But catch one of these on ultralight casting gear and you'll be a convert for life!

Pistol grip casting rods have become something of an anachronism and are extremely hard to find. Custom or ebay. I still enjoy using the Shimano colfor (cold forged) aluminum handle graphite and boron pistol grip casting rods.

This rod works well for bfs/bass. Shimano JDM PA.

These stock (except the PX TR has a steez handle) reels work fine for ultralight or BFS casting. Only one purports to be directed to BFS use.

Tough fishing during the heat of summer but am able to catch the occasional 2 lb fish. Ran into some other experienced fishermen, one of whom caught a 5 pounder here. Unfortunately, all their top spots are above water so no help there. Strategy now is to slow fish senkos in likely spots and if that doesn't work, then carpet bomb as much water as possible with spinnerbaits and lipless crankbaits. If it were easy, then what would be the point?