I took a trip to the East slope earlier this week and had a fantastic time! The trout were on the bite, the weather was sunny and comfortable, but I do have one item I wish to rant about. I am usually pretty cagey about the places I fish, since I am not a fan of crowds, but I AM going to name one river (it’s not like it’s any secret).
As you might recall from last year, three yahoos from So Cal had their camp stove fall over and start the fire that raged through the Wild Trout Section of the Lower Owens River. Well, the ever-popular folks at LA Dept. Water and Power’s solution is to have a big ol’ barbed wire fence up all along Chalk Bluffs road, which severely restricts access to the river. There are places to pull out and park your rig, but you can no longer drive right up to the river and park.
“What, are you that damn lazy?” (You might ask) NO! I don’t mind that aspect at all, in fact, I kind of like it. However, LADWP has these signs all over the place saying that they are restricting access “to aid in fire restoration efforts.” BULL! And I mean that word in every sense. What still has free reign to the river and all of the recovering flora all around it? THE HERDS OF CATTLE! The cows were still there, eating the new growth, trampling the banks of the river and defecating all over the place. How is that “restoration?” Not only that, the rancher who owns the heifers is allowed to drive his full size pick-up anywhere he pleased, apparently, so I’m not buying the manure that is being dished out by LADWP about “restoration efforts.” Grrrr…
Enough of that.
Here’s some fish porn:
Yeah, baby…
Hubba, hubba!
Lookin’ good!
Yowza!
Lots of browns in the river, in fact that’s the only specie of trout that I caught in the Owens. A recent report on the Sierra Drifters site said that a lot of people were catching mostly dinks, but I saw little evidence of that. Sure, I caught my share of dinks, mostly on dries during the afternoon baetis hatch, but the average size of the fish I caught were 12” to 14”. Those pictured above are evidence of that.
Here’s the aforementioned fence.
More of the infamous fence. Note the cow that was OUTSIDE of the wire, too.
LADWP’s BS signs
A cool looking snake I saw in the road while driving back to my campsite one day. I’m not sure what kind, but I think it was a gopher snake. I did shoo it off the road with a trekking pole, so it didn’t get squished. It did rear up and get pissy with me, which was kind of cool.
Wednesday, as I started to head home, I stopped at another East Slope stream and wet a line. It was awfully pretty from a dusting of snow that it received from the night before. GREAT fishing down there, but COLD with blowing snow and a nasty wind chill factor. Brrrr…
My first rainbow of the trip, one of several others, but my digi camera got too cold and wouldn’t work, and said that the batteries were dead, which I knew wasn’t the case. The real drag is that I caught a PIG, but I have no witnesses or photographic proof, so you’ll just have to take my word for it.
A really great trip, but it only makes me want to eat more beef…or perhaps less…
Cheers!
--FlyGuy (Dave)
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