Bad Roads and Sore Feet = Good Fishing

A robust wild socal rainbow

I trekked deep into my local mountains in search for "big" socal wild trout.  One of my favorite things to do besides fly fishing and fly tying, is studying topographic maps.  I've always had a fascination with maps and would find myself getting lost in time following trails and watersheds.  Sometimes I find some untapped fisheries in our local mountains that hold some fine fish for our small creek standards. There is nothing more satisfying to me than to wander the trout streams in my local mountains and cast dry flies.

Erika and I explored what has become one of my favorite local trout streams.  The trout are surprisingly large for the size of this creek and willing to take dry flies.  We both fished 3'wt's and I started with a size 12 foam hopper  and Erika proudly used her "ugly ant" fly.  I approached a large pool and with the first cast, a fat rainbow leaped for the hopper and missed.  On the second cast, it was more wary however it eventually took the fly.  The trout nose dived and the fly came unbuttoned when I tried setting the hook.  I consistently missed hook sets with this fly and I eventually changed to a size 12 PMX.  Erika was having a hard time hook setting with her foam bug as well, and maybe the trout were just biting the foam and letting go.

My new toy

I picked up a few new toys at the REI sale and one of them is the Steripen Adventurer.  Since I was getting tired of carrying multiple bottles, I thought this would be a efficient way of hydrating myself.  I have a sweetwater mechanical filter that I use for backpacking, however it is far too bulky for day hiking.  The Steripen kills bacteria, viruses and protozoa with UV light, and it only takes a mere 30sec to treat .5L.  Since it has been three days since I drank the treated water without suffering from Montezuma's revenge, I'm going to say it works...

One of the many beautiful spots along this creek

It is surprising where trout can be holding in this shallow pocket water.  While there are some pool's that may be 6' deep, most of the larger fish that were caught were in shallow runs.  I caught and lost a rainbow at least in the 13" class and it bullied me into a tree branch where it went free.  Erika was fishing a pool just upstream from me and had a large trout take a black caddis.  She was stunned by the size of the fish and failed to set the hook.  We fished upstream and I sighted another trout at least 13".  On the second cast, the fish slowly sipped the black caddis  and dove.  I told her to set the hook and the fight was on! This fish pulled like no other socal trout she has fought, without much room to let the fish run she had to hold the line tight.  The trout eventually broke the line at the knot and I could see the look of disappointment in her as the trout disappeared into the pool.

This rainbow has a strange forked tail and quasi motto humpback

We had a great day exploring the socal back country.  The weather was perfect and it would have been nice to camp for the night.  Were going to return with Charles this weekend and find the big ones that got away.  There is still at least 5 miles to explore upstream and it gets me amped thinking of what may be lurking ahead of us.

Some native flora along the trail:

Calochortus spp. One of my local favorites in the lily family.  There was a significant population in the area.

Manzanita on steroids.  I wish there was someone in the photo for scale.  Among the largest specimens I have ever seen.

Leptodactylon californicum.  A plant the polemonium family.

The forest is dominated with Alder, Big Leaf Maple, Califonia Live Oak, Sycamore, and Incense Cedar