The second time that we came we made certain to lock all the doors however I apparently left a backpack in the back seat that looked tempting enough to steal. Returning from a rather good fishing day with my buddy and catching a fine brown trout specimen measuring nearly 13", I approach my truck noticing that my windows are now gone. Shock set in. After assessing the stolen property, I figured that at least $500 worth of gear was gone. This included my brand new Lamson reel loaded with new Rio Gold fly line. My old leatherman wave that I owned for at least 7 years that held fond memories. And my camelback backpack that held a full fly box and other nick nacks. This all happened a few days before New Years Eve. Happy New Year!
Catching this fine brown trout was almost worth it. I have yet to find this brown trout or its equal in this creek ever since.
It as been at least 4 months before I returned to this creek. I told my buddy Charles about this place and he wanted to check it out. Having been robbed here before, I was a bit hesitant to return. This time I left nothing of value inside my truck, only a center console full of old receipts.
The fishing was decent and we caught more dink and average size fish than we could count. However, the trophy fish of this creek were not home. The few times that I have fished this creek with Tuck, we managed to catch some fine specimens all 10" and up both rainbow and brown. The largest fish that I have personally caught here was a 14-15" brown that took a size 18 Z-midge deep in a pool. Unfortunately I did not have a camera at the time. We have even seen a cannibal trout (species is undetermined) eating a dink sized trout. Charles tried fishing this small pool with a rainbow trout streamer but the fish had either moved on or it's been fished out. We left the creek around 5:15pm to hike back to the truck. When we approached the parking lot I noticed a rusted out sky blue POS Dodge Caravan parked next to me and some low life window shopping at my truck. The guy turned his head back and noticed us and tried to play it off cool. He asked how the fishing was and walked off into the trail. I suspect he was probably scouting for other hikers that were returning. I wrote down his plate numbers and took some notes to report to the Mt. Baldy Ranger station. Hopefully they can do something about the vandalism in this area.
Despite the bad reputation that this place has given me, I returned yesterday for another day of trout fishing. It was Erika and I this time and there were loads of people already jammed into the parking area.
I had to fish with my spare 5wt since my 3wt is still under repair. I am considering to buy a back up 3wt since I tend to break my mountain rods at least once a year. My leader was trashed and I'm notorious for fishing old leaders with blood knots stringing tippet and leader together. I paid the price because the first fish I connect with was pretty big and it hit hard, breaking my run down tippet on the take. Erika gets the next take and lands a nice rainbow.
Beautiful color and decent size. The trout took my size 16 ice dubbed caddis.
This was my finest trout of the day. It was a bold fish that returned to its feeding lane after moments of being spooked. It continued to swim back and forth from its hiding place and the feeding lane. I watched it carefully and cast as it swam away. When it returned it took my ice hare.
Just for fun, I tied on a size 14 stimulator. This small ambitious trout hit this fly that is the size of its head. I'm amazed that this fly even fit in its mouth.
A beautiful trout stream close to home. The graffiti is a reminder that this is no high Sierra stream.
All in all it was a good day and I did not have broken windows this time. We ended the day with a game of bowling. A game that I'm not so good at. I scored 70-something which is probably the worst Ive ever bowled. If I could only knock the pins down with a heavy streamer and an 8wt maybe I'd have some fun.
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