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Well I have some good news and some bad news...
Cindy and I, along with another AFF Member, Gary, went for a drive up Highway 88 today.
We decided that we did not want to bake to death on the East Carson during the heat of the day. So we fished our way up to the top stopping at the Silver Fork of the American, Woods Creek and two spots on Red Lake Creek. We never made the East Carson.
The Silver Fork was lowered from ~27 CFS to 11 CFS last night. We stopped at the bridge over the spillway and walked down stream a little ways and fished back up. I managed a nice 13" Brown Trout on an EC Caddis. Saved the stop because I had no luck before that.
We drove over the hill and past Caples Lake. There were a bunch of people there, even more on the return home! We decided when leaving the Silver Fork that we would head into Woods Lake to check it out as Cindy and I had never been there. Let me just tell you, if I had not seen a fish rise in the creek I probably would have left the rod in the Armada and broke out the camera instead! That lake is beautiful. If you ever drive up and over 88 headed to the Carson, or Tahoe, take the short drive in and enjoy the view. The entrance is on the right (headed East on 88) just up the hill from Caples Lake. We fished the creek for several hours and then took a lunch break at one of the picnic tables lakeside. We found lots of willing, albeit small, Brook Trout in the creek. They rose after ant patterns, EC Caddis and Elk Hair Caddis. This is a small creek so a shorter rod say, a 7.5' 3 or 4 weight is perfect. Just watch out for the trees, they take flies too. Just remember the mosquito repellent, they were pretty thick too & very hungry...
After lunch we loaded up and drove over the hill to Red Lake. The wind was blowing up white caps on the lake. Cindy stayed in the Armada and Gary and I walked across the dam to check out the water in Red Lake Creek below the dam. It turns out that she had a good idea because it soon started raining and there was some thunder booming going on as well. The lake is still spilling by the way, but not a whole lot. It had been a while since Gary had fished it, and I never had. What we found below the lake was a ton of beaver dams, and damage. The only fish we hooked were suckers. The creek bed that Gary described was no more, it was packed with silt. We worked our way downstream, but found most of it was messed up by beaver dams and silt, all the way down to where it crosses under 88. It looks like it needs a good flushing. Lets hope for a lot more water next winter. There was only one other vehicle there when Gary and I walked away, but 5 or 6 when we returned. Mostly spin fisherman sitting in chairs.
We pulled out and headed downstream. We stopped along the side of 88 and walked through a meadow down to the creek again. This was a much better looking stretch of water. There were smaller fish in the creek than Gary had spoke of, but we had some fun fishing to them with dry flies and watching them rise. I had a Lahontan Cutthroat on, and thought for a moment that I might get the first fish out of the way for the HTC but, before Gary could run over with the camera it spit the hook, gave me the middle fin, and swam away. The nerve! I had numerous fish blowing up on a Light Cahill, and also on an EC Caddis. I tried using a size 18 Humpy when I could not hook the fish on the larger EC Caddis (size 12). They didn't want any part of it. I guess it wasn't a big enough meal... Anyway Gary said that as he fished his way upstream he started finding more Brookies and landed 8 of them before he gave up and came back to the truck.
We decided that dinner was in order and that we were too tired/sore to fish anymore. We headed back over the hill and grabbed a nice dinner at the Kirkwood Inn before heading home. All in all a great day!
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