A Warning Sign

Crossing paths with a fat rattler.  Is this a warning sign?

After getting worked fishing for Carp, Charles and I made an impulse decision to stalk trout in our local mountain creek.  I admit, that I have over-indulged my fly fishing cravings lately. Despite a mere four hours of sleep and eight hours of working third shift, I pushed myself to my utter limits.  It was a long day to say the least.  . 

We arrived at the creek around 2am, and the first thing we cross is a fat southern pacific rattlesnake. It's been years since I have seen a rattlesnake while fishing or hiking, and every time it's been a close encounter.  It appears that they are out and about, so be careful when hiking through grasses and other vegetative ground cover.  They may even be stretched out across a trail.  It is difficult to notice these things when fly fisherman are so focused on the hatch and rising trout.

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I wanted to check out a small tributary where I had sighted some large rainbows from just a few weeks ago.  We fished a few small pools and pocket water and immediately I realized that this fishery has changed..  The water level was the lowest that I have ever seen it, and the abundant trout population that this creek once had is  now somewhere else. 

Another rainbow falls for my beetle pattern.

Charles and I shared a large pool and we both got healthy 8-9" rainbows right off the bat, although there was a champion in the 12" class reluctant to rise.  We moved on to where I last sighted the 14"+ trout from my last visit.  I approached the shallow pocket of water with ninja like stealth, and it was going to be a challenging cast just like the last time.  Fallen tree debris choked out this pocket, leaving a mere slot to lay down a cast with a short drift before the fly snags a twig.  My first cast was perfect, it layed down soft and clean and I lifted the line just in time before it snagged.  No take... try it again... the second cast was a little more sloppy and I got snagged.  We approached the pocket and noticed they were no longer home.  I lifted and removed the branches and did not observe a single fish spook.  We worked the entire run until it reached an impassible waterfall and not a single take was to be made of the work.  Since we were pretty much at the end of this trib, we decided to hike back to the main fork of the creek.

Hatched stonefly nymph

The water was still pretty low on the main fork, so we concentrated on the larger bodies of water.  Time was dissolving and hours felt like mere minutes.  I can tell when I get weary when my casts lay down like puddles and I begin missing every hook set.  On the other hand, Charles was on fire.  He caught two browns and one being a straight up champion trophy fish for this small socal creek.

What a beauty! Even a respectable brown on the lower O.

Seeing that beautiful brown got us amped.  I suspect there is a fat hook jawed carnivore male cruising the depths of this particular pool. I have seen an ominous form with a fat brownish yellow tail slowly cruising the depths, with no particular care for dry flies.  Maybe a 4" rainbow trout streamer will wet his appetite?  I'll have to come back to find out.  Our adrenaline pushed us to fish until twilight, nearly six hours have passed and we didn't even know it.  Little did we know, the LA county sheriff's lock up this road at 8pm and we were lucky enough to be rolling up just as they were locking up.  An hour later and we would have been either hiking home or fly fishing in the midnight light.