20 Miles of the Kern Day 1

Cold and crisp air.  Upper Kern River.

Day 1
Roadside fly fishing.  While it's not my favorite way to fish the Kern, it was the best we could do for early season trout fishing.  The whole group got together on this one.  If only Bill were there, I would have been in the company of all my fly fishing buddies.  Five angler's and 20 miles of the upper Kern River.

The weather had been unstable the week leading up to our proposed fishing weekend.  Snow storm's hit hard along our transverse mountain range and most of the Sierra.  The grapevine was momentarily closed due to iced roads and the trip was constantly in question.  And our main concern was how the storm affected the river.  It would have been devastating to discover milk chocolate flowing through the Kern Valley.  Fortunately, the river looked healthy and flows were low.

First wild trout of the year.  A wild Kern River Rainbow.

We spent what seemed like hours just scouting and looking for a good stretch of water to fish.  We drove up and down town like a gang of gypsies in a crazy caravan.  Let down by the fly shop's advice, we followed the river upstream to look for some better structure.  Tuck led the way in his jeep, and I in my truck. 

Once we found the promised land, we all dispersed like we were on some easter egg hunt.  Erika and I stayed together and headed downstream.  Most of the roadside section of the upper Kern is pocket water.  I love pocket water and my favorite technique to fish pocket water is high stick nymphing.  I feel that it is my deadliest arrow in my quiver when used during the right conditions.  For me, the strike detection is more responsive and the drift has less drag through short rapids and runs.    It wasn't long before I got into my first fish of the trip.  While not a trophy by any means, it was wild and colored beautifully.  Upstream, Erika was adamantly working the water. Of all the beautiful trout I have caught over the years, I have to say she is still my finest catch.

We re-grouped and without much success upstream, we moved on to a different stretch several miles upstream.  This was a wise choice as it led us to the discovery of a honey hole.  It is unbelievable how many quality fish we pulled out of that one hole.  Simply unbelievable.

Getting bigger

By 1:00pm a blue wing olive hatch began. The mayflies ranged from a size 16 down to 20ish.  They were bigger than I thought and while the hatch was prolific, the strong gusts of wind blew the bugs off the water.  Determined to get one on a dry, I rigged my Sage Vantage 7' 3wt with a size 18 parachute bwo.  Tuck and Joseph headed down to the river while Charles and I rigged a second rod with a dry fly.  Erika proceeded with my dry fly rod and I continued nymphing with my Sage One 5wt.

Erika and I hiked through a thicket of willow until we stumbled upon a great looking run.  It was deep with a pile of structure.  I just knew we were in for a treat.  I began nymphing the deep run and immediately I felt a hard take and the feisty trout was on.  It was full finned and beautiful rainbow with a fat belly.  After a few more drifts I connected with a straight up brute that broke off my 6x tippet in a matter of moments.  Next time I better be paying attention.  Erika was having no success on the dry fly and we traded rigs.  I told her to take my run and I headed downstream with the dry.

Caught on 3wt on a dry

 After a few casts along a seam a silver flash materialized.  I wasn't ready for the take, but the trout took it hard and I set the hook and held on.  The trout took me for a ride and bent my 3wt down to the cork.  I tried my best to manage the trout away from the rock ledges that it was trying to escape under.  Surprisingly my 3wt vantage has some fish lifting guts and I was able to pry it away from a complex labyrinth of rocks.  3wt fishing at it's finest! Man I love that rod!


 The sun was setting quick and temp's were dropping just as fast.  Erika was fish-less and I felt pretty bad.  I was determined to get her into some quality fish the next day.  The rest of the evening was spent eating burritos the size of footballs at El Jacalito and beer drinking and pool at the Pine Cone Inn.  It was a strange and random night to say the least. 

Re-loaded

I've been busy reloading my supply of various warm water and saltwater fly patters since losing my bugger beast earlier in the winter season.  The bugger beast is a great home-base fly box, however it was a bit large to store in a boat bag.  I spoke with Matt Cassel, owner of Cliff Outdoors about some upcoming products.  After telling him how I lost my bugger beast box, and all its flies, he offered me a good deal on a replacement.  This time, I decided to try out the bugger beast jr box.  It's the perfect size to store in a boat bag and holds enough flies for a long day on the water.

Some of my new flies had a chance to swim at LMV last week.  It wasn't hard to convince Charles to join me on the lake at the spur of a moment. Even though the fishing was slow, we both managed to get some pulls from big flies.  I was using my Sage XP 8wt with a 7" articulated trout fly for most of the afternoon.  The 400gr RIO Outbound short pulled the fly down to the depths reasonably fast, however my impatience is still craving faster sink time.  While slowly stripping one of the deep drop-off''s, my line stopped and pulled hard momentarily.  As soon as I set the hook, the fly was let go.  Most of the bass takes were subtle and difficult to detect.  Next time I will have to count down a few moments before hook setting.

After switching to my 6wt with the time tested purple bugger, I almost immediately connected in our favorite cove.  It was a good sized bass with a slim belly, larger than the usual dink bass.  I suspect that the bass pre-spawn is just beginning and hopefully more bass begin to move around to forage.

Charles was facing the possibility of smelling skunk.  With only mere minutes left before lake closing, Charles connects with a feisty tail walker trout.  These are the famed hard fighting stocker's that he had laughed about since last trout season.  These full finned, football shaped trout fight like gladiators. It eventually came unbuttoned near boat-side.  While not technically a total skunk, I think he walked away with a half smile.  Hopefully the lake is shaping up for a good season!

First Large Mouth Bass of the year.

Frog Gurgler

I am anticipating more warm-water and salt-water fly fishing this year.  It seems that my trout traveling funds will be limited more than I would like.  On the bright side, I enjoy tying big ugly bass flies.  This one was introduced to me last spring while fishing with Charles.  The gurgler I tied last year was pretty simple and a little uglier.  At least this one will sort of resemble something natural.  This should be deadly when thrown off cattail infested banks around my local bass ponds. 

Hook: Gamakatsu SP11-3L3H  size 6 
Body:Chartreuse crystal chenille. Rubber legs.  2mm green foam tied and folded over the top.  I may double it over next time for higher floating.  I added spots with a sharpie on top of the foam.  The bass probably wont see it, but I can.
Tail:  Chartreuse marabou and black crystal flash.

Fish-Skull Sculpin Helmet

Without much luck with the articulated rainbow trout pattern, I decided to try out the sculpin helmets from Fish-Skull to offer something different.  They are weighted heads that provide a somewhat realistic profile.  These flies are much heavier than the trout patterns I tied earlier this season. They should sink deeper into the water column where I think the large bass may be holding.  Since Shad is not present in LMV, I can only assume that the bass are preying on blue gill, small catfish and trout. I suppose these would most resemble a catfish.

Hook: Gamakatsu SP11-3L3H  size 1/0 
Head: Fish-Skull Sculpin Helmet - Olive large
Body:  Olive barred rabbit strips (I tied one with rubber legs, choose whatever color)

I used 30lb mono for a weed guard and tied the fly hook point up.

Poor Man's Stripping Basket

My experience fly fishing the surf has always been somewhat disappointing.  I probably wasn't fishing with the right fly, and I seemed to always miss a high tide.  Most importantly, I never invested in a stripping basket.  With less than five bucks and a few tools, I created a poor man's stripping basket.

The items and steps are simple.  There are probably other similar patterns out there, and there are most definitely better baskets than mine.  I haven't even taken this out on the surf yet, however it fits me comfortably and holds line stripped off my reel.

Materials I used:

•  14Lx10Wx7D Plastic Container (I got this one at Lowe's for less than $4)
• Compression Strap (whatever length your waist may be)
• Dry Wall Anchors (I used 5- 2" anchors staggered)
• Cordless Drill (1" & 1/2" spade drill bit)
•  1/2" spade drill bit for draining holes on the bottom of the basket and along the side for wind penetration.
• 1" spade bit for the compression strap holes.
• 3/16" bit for dry wall anchors.
• Gorilla Tape to cover the compression strap holes on both sides (I cut a slit into the tape and pulled the strap through). I did this so the strap doesn't slip and slide through the holes.  
• Slap stickers on it for a little flare.  

The lid can still be attached to the top and works good for holding fly boxes and other odds and ends until you get to the water.

I'm looking forward to searching for Corbina and catching them on a fly.  Tuck sent me a great link that got me fired up for Corbina on the fly!

http://www.danblanton.com/blog/corbina-on-the-fly-by-richard-jacobsen/

Baitfish

At approx. $15 for a dozen colored sharpies, it is a bargain compared to other premium pens.  The prismacolor markers used to be my favorite when I used to illustrate, however the price of each pen at nearly $5 is outrageous for flies.  I am thoroughly impressed with the range of color and vividness of the sharpie pens.  The color pigment also dries incredibly fast which makes less color smearing and finger printing.

 As springs approaches, my opportunity to use fish fry patterns comes closer.  I tied a few different fish species for opportunities I may have on various lakes and streams.

The California Golden Trout
It has been a few years since I have been on the south fork of the Kern river. I had found monster brown trout the last time I explored one of the high elevation meadows (a section where the south fork snakes through).  It is no secret that these brown brutes are indulging on the snack sized golden trout.  Hopefully I can catch a kypezilla before they are electro-shocked and eliminated from the watershed.

Bluegill
Typically MVL comes alive with bluegill and bass fry around April.  This fishery really picks up and remnants of educated steelhead sized trout, trophy bluegill and largemouth bass can be caught all in one day.  Woolly buggers have proven there effectiveness last year, now I will try some new offerings.

Threadfin Shad
The lower Kern river is sometimes overshadowed by its bigger brother, the upper Kern river.  I am personally guilty for overlooking this fishery due to bait-fishing pressure and unstable flow rates.  Access is also difficult in many areas and car theft is notorious.  Aside from all that, this fishery is known to produce some fat rainbow trout due to the shad population released from Lake Isabella.  Smallmouth bass are also a possible catch if flow rates permit.  Unfortunately, it seems that the best time of year to catch smallmouth bass (spring-summer) is also during the kayak and diaper hatch.

There is a handfull of bass lakes scattered throughout southern California where fish can be taken on a shad fly.

Hook: Gamakatsu SL11-3H (I tied these on size 4)
Head: 3D eyes (silver 3/8")  I formed the head with Loon UV Knot Sense and sealed with Loon Hard Head (clear). 
Body: Craft fur (white) Taper and color the bodies depending on fish species. I also wrap non-toxic weighted wire around the hook shank if I wish to sink the fly faster.

Ghost Shrimp

I was experimenting with some saltwater shrimp patterns today and I came up with this creature.  The fly is made up of random material floating around my tying table and I was fairly pleased with the result. Although, it seems like I tied the fly upside down now that I'm looking at the photo of my fly.  It will probably evolve as I tinker with it more.

Hook:  Gamakatsu SL11-3H (I tied this on a size 6)
Head:  Dazl-Eyes 5/32" Black
Mouthparts:
  Bottom; White Craft Fur (fuzzy end)
  Middle: Strands of ghost flash
  Top: White Z-lon
Body:   Pearl Blue Angel Hair (dubbed and tapered toward tail); Pink or orange glo-bug yard pulled over length of shank; Ribbed edge of sandwich bag cut to size and pulled over body like a wing casing.  Silver wire ribbed to re-enforce the body.
Tail:  Tag end of the sandwich bag (tapered at the eye of the hook so it doesn't fold the tail when tied off).  I just simply rounded the tail.