Made my first trip to the mccloud last weekend with 2 friends. Thanks to those with the campspot recommendations but we decided to fish just one river and this turned out to the place.
First off! wow it's completely beautiful! So much lusher than what I'm used to with ferns, elephant ears, vines, moss. Saw the october caddis for the first time and even managed to get a couple pics of a rough skinned newt! (thanks to the nature conservancy reptile & amphibian guide for the identification) Colors were great, water was clear, and a few of the fish were obliging.
Arrived pretty early friday with light rain and grabbed #2 at Ah-di-nah. Overcast and moist with a lot of different bugs around. Took us a while to get around the "how the heck am I going to make a cast with all these plants and not being able to wade easily" problem, but eventually got some water covered. Spotted several along with a few sporatic rises. Managed just a couple that day between us (dry/dropper fishing). Hatches only seemed to last 10 minutes before the bugs would switch, so we changed around a lot (probably not the best idea). That evening we hibachi'd up some kabobs and tortillas (my new favorite camp food!). Several people rolled into camp that evening.
Saturday the weather cleared and there were less obvious bugs. Without a direct and hard plan of action, we were late to get a preserve ticket so moved to the other stretches. 2nd choice really put us into some congestion and with the difficulty in getting around, we pretty quickly decided to move rather than try and play a leapfrog game with 3 groups when you can barely get through the bushes to the next pool. 3rd choice managed to get away a bit somehow and had a great afternoon fishing with all of us getting a couple (helping each other out and sharing the pools). Kabobs again and Jason bust out a great bottle of wine. The fire was great, but we hit the sack well tuckered out.
Sunday the morning temps dropped a bit. We got up very dark and got the first walk-on passes in the preserve and chatted with the host as he had his morning coffee. I can see why it's a favorite with the much easier paths and access, but I think I prefered the creeping through the bushes and around a bend to discover a pool feeling. I managed 2 that morning but the other fellas didn't have any luck unfortunately. We pulled out when most of the passes were taken, 10 rods seemed like a lot there. I'm not sure many had luck that morning, folk were really moving around. By the time we got to camp, most everyone was gone and we rolled home as well catching shots of a snowy shasta and lassen.
We had a great time and I think pretty successful for rookies to the water. I remember some quote that sort of goes "trout live in all the beautiful places" or something along that line and it's never more true than on the mccloud.
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