A River Fit For a King

It's been too long since I've felt the pull of a large brown trout and with the feeling that I have fished my local water to death; It was time to get on bigger water.  With my last experience in the eastern Sierra ending bitter sweet, I decided to search for solitude among the giant trees of the west slope.  My love for the sierra Nevada all began on the west side and it was calling me back, and for good reason.  The fishing gods smiled upon me this past weekend and blessed me with some fine trout, breathtaking scenery, and complete solitude.  And all trout were taken on dry flies. Life couldn't be better.


The Fish
 

Nice paint job.

The River
  

Simply breathtaking.

Erika working a section of the river.  She connected with a strong willed rainbow.

Golden Stonefly

 In the end, I returned to civilization in complete bliss.  However, good memories on the river were haunted me and calling me back.  The 486 Sage Z-Axis came alive on this river, everything about it seemed like it was at home.  It cut through the wind like a katana blade and gently placed dry flies sixty feet away with laser precision.  The fight of the trout transferred through the blank beautifully and had enough brawn to muscle a 18" brown trout away from log jams.  It is simply a great rod and it is now my favorite fly rod for general trout fishing on medium sized rivers.

Hope

Lilium pardalinum aka  California Tiger Lily

Sometimes hope can come in many forms.  There are also times when hope can get shattered into oblivion, like a supernova sending celestial fragments into the unknown.  For me, I find hope when I see a brown trout at least 18" in size waiting to rise for a well placed dry fly.  I will never give up hope for this moment to connect with such a fine beast in my local water.   Lately, I've been fascinated with stalking large socal trout.  My typical approach is to fish every pocket, seam, shallow run, pool, etc... I've learned to walk away from this tactic and began to stand back and observe.  One would be amazed when time is taken to just slow down and watch. 

I scouted one of my local socal streams last week and found several trout, most likely browns in the 16-18" class.  Maybe even pushing 20... I was blown away.  I barely even wet my line that day as stalking the fish had become more fun than blind casting and catching average fish on the whim.  I explored some tributaries, however since I was alone this became a bit sketchy the deeper I explored.  

Once I told Charles of the news of my findings, he was all over it.  Its good to have a friend just as crazy as I am to find these fish.  We decided to head to the creek after I got off work.  Our approach was to skip all the pocket water and dissect the pool with the big browns.  We coded each sector of the pool with letters and I remained as the scout, while Charles went down to cast.  It proved difficult to shout through the cascade and the plan crumbled.  Within the first few casts, Charles over lined the giant and it bolted into the unknown.  These fish are old, wise and have the supernatural ability to evade anglers.  We hiked into a new section of water, in hope to find some nice big pools.

 The first fairly deep run revealed a nice trout in the 11-12 range gently sipping the surface film.  With no consistent hatch, these fish were probably slurping emergers.  The cast was long and awkward since I was up on a steep narrow ridge with no way down without spooking the fish.  The remainder of the creek was mediocre at best.  Water level was low and fish were small.  Charles managed a nice 11-12" rainbow in an overlooked pool on our way out. 

Despite the mediocre fishing, it was rewarding to cast my new 486 Z-Axis.  The rod felt like sports car in a small parking lot, it was just begging to shoot line into the next county.  It's too much rod for small socal creeks but its main purpose will be reserved for bigger waters of the sierra and beyond. Hopefully I will have the time and funding to break it in on the Kings River sometime soon. 

Day 2 weekend backpacking - socal high country

One of many beautiful pools and waterfalls in the area

Day 2
The sound of song birds filled the cool morning air.  It must have been about 5:30am when the sunlight began to penetrate the forest canopy and our restless slumber came to an end.  I got up and began boiling water on my snowpeak gigapower stove.  I surprised Erika with her new snowpeak 450ml mug in titanium green.  We drank some Japanese earl gray tea that came in powder form.  We ate some more random odds and ends and began cleaning camp to begin our trek upstream.  Erika was fishing with my beloved 7'6" RDP custom 3wt.  This is the fly rod that I used to complete the California Heritage Trout Challenge (I will someday post my report).  I tied on my favorite warm weather fly for her, a size 14 yellow ice dubbed Stimulator.  This is a common fly, however it was been a hot fly for me on most western freestone rivers.  And especially our creeks.  I tied my trusty standby fly for myself, a size 16 black caddis.  We rigged up and headed upstream.

We reached a fork and followed a tributary for about a 1/4 mile.  There was no evidence that a trout lived in this small stream and the stream side looked as though a hurricane hit.  Downed trees and loose debris were everywhere.  It looked dangerous and we headed back to the main fork.

Erika and Charles working some pocket water on the tributary.  Look at all the debris!

Once we got back on track, things began looking much better.  We found a nice pool that held more fish than it could probably support.  Most of the fish were small.  By this time, I switched my fly to the radiated Chernobyl ant.  It's bright orange legs and foam body seemed to attract the big boys in the creek.

A granite water slide

Erika connects her first fish of the trip!

 All three of us fished a giant pool and immediately Erika hooks up with a feisty trout.  The fish was a fighter and put a nice bend in the rod. It was a respectable fish and it always makes me happy to see Erika's big ole smile when she lands her fish.  We scouted up to the next pool and I sighted the real deal.  This trout looked to be at least 13" in length with a well formed body.  I told Erika to take the pool, that fish had her name all over it.  Charles and I guided her and reminded her to time her cast properly.  After a few casts, she managed to get the big boy to rise for the fly.  It was only on momentarily until the fly came unbuttoned.  The disappointment on her face was unbearable but we re-assured her that she would get it next time.  It was all the pressure she says... I believe you.

Just upstream was even a larger pool.  Charles got first cast on it and connected with some nice fish.  I was casting to the right side of the pool, which gave me an awkward casting angle.  I aimed for the waterfall and let the current drift my Chernobyl ant.  In a flash I saw a enormous rainbow rise for one ultra aggressive take.  The take was so big it created a wake in the pool.  This trout must have been in the 15-16" range at least.  The nervous energy jolted me and I missed the take.. second cast and the take was much weaker.  The fish had become tight lipped and that was a Que for lunch.

It looks like the foot of a tree ent from Lord of the Rings.

We allowed the pool to reset and Charles fished a mouse pattern with no result.  I switched to a small streamer pattern which also produced zero takes.  Hmmm... We will have to return another day.  It was slightly passed noon and we all decided to hike out and fish some pocket water along the way.  Some nice fish were caught along the way, however nothing compared to the rainbow that I caught the day before and the trout I had missed earlier.  Our quest to find the champion trout of the socal trout streams will not end.  We shall be back.  It is an honor to have such beautiful and healthy trout fisheries so close to home.  Sometimes I feel that we are spoiled, as many of these fine streams are over looked for the more famed sierra Nevada blue ribbons.

Day 1 weekend backpacking - socal high country

A fine wild socal rainbow trout. 

Day 1
The search for wild southern California trophy trout continues.  I decided to head into the high country with Charles and Erika for the weekend.   I left my house around 1:00pm and stopped at the ranger station along the way to get my back country permit.  Permits in southern California are free and they are typically used for tracking people in the back-country.  By the time we reached the trail head it was approx. 2:30pm and it was hot and windy.  The approx. hiking distance to the campground was 3 miles, however our plans slightly changed...

Anticipating the hot weekend, I decided to pack light.  I used my Osprey exos 58liter pack with what felt like 15lbs of gear.  I brought all my essential backpacking gear besides my down sleeping bag.  Thinking that the night was going to be in the 50's, I brought a silk sack instead.  As for fishing gear, I brought my Sage 3wt and Simms headwaters vest with all the essential fly tackle.  Since I knew that the trout could be large here (socal standards large) I wanted to bring the vest so I could comfortably hang my net.  I've lost many trophy worthy pictures due to the fish slipping out of my hand during mid focus.  I also like to use this net as much as possible since Erika was sweet enough to install the ghost netting for me.  Thank you!  It makes tangles much less common.

About half way to camp, Charles begins to feel a blister forming on the bottom of his foot.  Since he was wearing wading boots, his foot may have been rubbing on a hot spot since wading boots are typically sized larger than hiking boots.  Luckily I had a first aid kit in my pack. We were able to patch up the blister with some moleskin, gauze for extra padding, and tape to hold it all together.  We hiked for about another 1/2 mile and found a beautiful pool from the trail.  The pool was fairly large with crystal clear water.  I took the lower pool and Charles took the upper pool.  I tied on a size 12 foam hopper and on the second cast I connected with a good sized trout.  As the trout came unbuttoned from my hook, I hear Charles yell from upstream.  I run up to see what happened and he told me that a 14inch trout just slipped from his hands before the photo opp.  I know how that feels and that is why I now carry my net...  Bummer.

We fish a few more pools and I spooked off a nice rainbow in the 12-13" range.  Since our packs were still on the trail, we decided to head back up to find camp.  Along the trail we found a decent established campsite and decided to setup camp.  Since daylight was getting dim we wanted to make sure Erika would find her way since she was to meet with us later.  She is a competent hiker and we have been here many times before, so I trusted she would find her way.

Camp for the night.  Yellow tent is me.

Once we had camp established, we headed down to the creek (was only a few minutes from camp) to fish.  I created a few clues for Erika to find us.  One was a giant arrow formed from branches pointing to our camp, the other was a note to tell her we were down on the creek to return soon.

Right off the bat we were catching some fine fish.  The rainbow's were taking some big bugs and I do not typically fish anything larger than a 14 on our water.  Some large orange hoppers were noticed nearby and possibly the trout were keying in on the large bugs on the buffet menu.  Regardless, these fish are not picky.  About any dry fly pattern would work.

Charles and I split up, and I headed upstream and hiked for about 10-15min before finding a small waterfall with a nice pool formed at the base.  On the first cast I watched this socal beast rise for the hopper.  The take was slow and the hookset was easy. The trout pulled my 3wt like it was a raging bull.   Upon netting the trout, I noticed how beautiful the red markings were... most likely spawning color, nevertheless stunning and beautiful.  The forked tail was curious and I have seen one other with a forked tail in this watershed.  I would like to get some feedback from a fish biologist as I am curious to know what the cause is from.  My hypothesis would be genetic mutation as other rainbows typically have a squared tail fin. 

One of the finest socal rainbows that I have caught.  The tail fin has a mysterious fork.

Nearly a net full!

Charles had caught up with me just after releasing the magnificent fish.  Pictures can never do justice to these beautiful fish.  We were both tired and decided to return to camp.  Upon returning, It was evident that Erika had not found the camp yet.  I was getting worried so I hiked down the trail to intercept her.  After 15 minutes of hiking, I am relieved to find her hiking up the trail wearing her bug netting (mosquitoes were eating us alive!).  I escorted her back to camp and we all sat down for a back-country meal which consisted of instant noodles and other random odds and ends.  It didn't matter, anything taste better in the wild! even cup o noodles!  After dinner and some camp stories, we all hit the sack.  It was going to be a long restless night... The silk sack barely kept me warm enough for comfort and a bear or some other large creature (big foot?) was making a ruckus at night.  I didn't want to know what was out there...

Terrestrial Time!

I tied up some foam bugs last night for my weekend backpack trip in my local mountains. It's been hot and I've been seeing large ants, hoppers and beetles lately. It will be interesting to see if I can get takes with the radiated Chernobyl ant. All of these flies are tied on a size 12 TMC 2312.