Left Pacific Grove midday Wed 16 July, heading for the Merced River. Had hoped to fish with a friend, but he had to work. On the 13th, the river had been flowing at a bit over 200 cfs, and reportedly fishing well. Looking back at the records, it spiked to 893 cfs about 10 AM on the 15th, and was dropping back on the 16th, 17th and 18th, when I fished it. It (and I) fished poorly. I managed four fish in the three days, all small, all on a nymph. The temperature was ridiculous, hitting near 100 F in the afternoons. I stayed in a small hostel just up the hill from Briceburg, called The Yosemite Bug. Cheap, clean, nice folks.
Friday afternoon, I drove over to Kings Canyon National Park for the rural portion of a Bachelor Party for the fiddler in my son’s band, Culann’s Hounds. The Hounds arrived at 0600 on Saturday, straight from North Beach, and we did a short drive and hike to get to a section of the Kings we are partial to. Sad to say, there had been a major thunderstorm incident about Tuesday, and the river was still very large, and chunky below Lewis Creek. We tried anyway, but it was futile. I got skunked. The intended groom got one small rainbow (he reports). That night we hiked back out, hit the local market for Guinness and ice cream, and camped in the Moraine Campground. We were up late.
Sunday, we fished the Kings in and around Cedar Grove. Everyone caught fish, but the river was still way high, and in places simply unfishable. I did manage three fish on dries, refusing to fish a nymph (after I failed to get a strike on a nymph in two hours). Sunday night, the Hounds headed back to San Francisco and her fleshpots. I crashed at my older son’s house for the night, and drove back to the coast on Monday.
I had a few pictures, but they are in the camera at the bottom of a small trib of the Kings, as noted elsewhere.
Favoured: 0
