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...