Okay, as promised, a brief report on Opening Day.
Fri - drove to Strawberry. Got to the Beardsley Afterbay about 1730. No obvious surface action. Put on a Klinkhamer and fished it for awhile, then switched to a GFT with a #18 Griffith’s Gnat, because there were a load of tiny little midge kinda guys working around the surface. Did not appear to be hatching, probably laying. No action at all. After a while of that, I tied on a BHPT as a dropper, and fished that for awhile. No action. About 1845, I decided to go give the running water above the afterbay a whack, so I tied on a #8 biot Golden Stone, and slung it out about fifteen feet to be sure the GFT would float it. It did, so I stripped it in, to leave for the running water. A nice brown followed it in to about six feet off shore, then turned off. I stayed and fished it every way I could think of for another twenty minutes, before giving up and heading up for the running water. I did that, and fished that rig for about fifteen or twenty minutes with no action at all, so I headed back for the cabin to open up for Michael and the grandsons.
They arrived about 2000, and the boys were in bed by 2100. We had a jar or two and some music, and went to bed sometime after 0100.
The boys (of course) got up about 0700, and we were all close behind them. We got back to the Afterbay around eleven or so, rigged up a bunch of rods for the beginners, and worked the shore for awhile. It was pretty slow, but I did get one nice rainbow on that same Golden Stone, fished about twenty feet of shore in a nice chop. That was the only fish noted in a couple of hours.
About 1300 we went back to the cars, ate lunch and then headed downstream, failing to note that the Toyota Land Cruiser parked next to my truck belonged to our genial host at Strawberry, Dave Salzer. We headed down to the river at the lower dam, and fished downstream for a couple of hours. Again there were a bunch of tiny midges on the surface, and nothing eating them. Michael got one small trout on a Golden Stone dropper, so I guess there must be some Golden Stones in there. Along about 1530, the boys started getting tired and thirsty and wet from falling in, so we headed back up stream towards the cars. Nothing very interesting happened, but as we were cooling off, Dave and his wife Chris, and their 'almost two' daughter, Izzy walked up the road from downstream.
We did all the usual 'How ya doins', get any? And so on. They had not touched a fish, although Dave said there were a lot of big Golden Stones on the surface further downstream but nothing was eating them. After a brief swim, and Dave tossing his hundred pound Doberman into the lake twice to wash off the poison oak, we all headed back to the cabin for an evening libation.
Honorary Grand Daughter - Izzy Salzer
That went well, and we got all the kids down for the first time by about 2000, and for the final time about 2130. They were supposed to be exhausted, but the younger grandson, Jon, kept talking to Hank about why they got skunked, and it was getting on Hank’s nerves. This from a seven year old… The adults sat up late with music, Jamesons, Scapa 14 (recommended!! Thanks SD), Guinness, and Murphy’s, after we finished the three bottles of wine. Again it was 0100 before I crawled into my sleeping bag. I do wish the youngsters would not insist on getting up at 0700.
We ate breakfast, cleaned up, and by 1300 we were closed up. I headed for Kings Canyon NP up the hill from Fresno, but I got there too late to fish on Sunday, and Monday morning I accompanied my daughter and daughter in law looking at real estate just outside the park.
I did get on the Kings in Cedar Grove by late afternoon on Monday, but it was running hard. I have seen it roaring more, but it was cruising right along. Ned said that it had come up a foot and a half in the last twenty four hours, and was still rising. A little off color, but not too bad. I fished a dry and dropper off Muir Rock, just because there was no one there, and that NEVER happens. I did manage to bring a small one up to the dry in the eddy above the rock, but one of us missed the strike. Nothing on the nymph. I had also brought a 6 wt with an intermediate line on it, and I swung a small pink and white Clouser in the eddy and in the run down stream for a bit, but no one was interested. I think the Kings is done until run off is over. Had a nice dinner at Ned's Cedar Grove digs that night, slept in on Tues AM, and headed back to the coast and some cooler weather!!
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here and after reading your report I couldn't help but feel that is what fishing is all about...friends, family, the great outdoors and the occasional fish. That honorary grand daughter of yours is sure a cutie and what a great shot of the two of you - that's a wall hanger.
