Trip Report: We drove from the Bay Area on Thursday (7/16) morning to the Thousand Lakes wilderness. It's about 5 hours drive time. We picked up a campfire permit in Red Bluff at the CDF office. We arrived at the trail head at about 5:30 and headed into Eiler Lake. The hike is about 3 miles to the camping areas at the west end of the lake and I had my GPS that said there was about a 500 ft. elevation gain, so not a real difficult hike but a reasonably serious effort for our 50+ crowd. We got to the site at 7PM and set up camp. The mosquitoes were horrendous (so if you go, take lots of repellent). We dined on standard freeze dried backpacking fare, beef jerky, trail mix and breakfast bars. A tent is a must this time of year as is a good water filtration system. Pack light < 45lbs unless you are young and strong
I fished Eiler Friday and Saturday from my float tube (Fish Cat 4) I caught at a good number of feisty 12-15" rainbows released most of them but kept a few to eat. These fish were a blast on a 3 wt with 6x leader. The hot fly was a #10 yellow humpy fished in the east end of the lake in deeper water. I cleaned a fish on Friday and found bee like creatures in its stomach. I noticed similar bee like insects landing on the water and being devoured by the trout within 60 seconds. So I looked in the box for something with a yellow body and about a #10 sized and the yellow humpy was the ticket. If I had wanted to stay out longer, I could have caught 40+ fish but was content after I lost count after about 10. I guess I caught and released 20+ fish. Pound for pound, these fish were great fighters. I was very surprised given they are hatchery fish and dropped in the lake as fingerlings from a tanker. Other flies that worked were a number 16 parachute adams, #12 elk hair caddis and a woolly bugger kick trolled on a #2 sinking line. I'm sure these fish are pretty opportunistic and eat just about anything but the spin/bait fishermen we ran into did not do well.
My compadres hiked up to Barret Lake and did well in the morning but he fishing turned off at around noon and didn't restart until evening. There are a number of other lakes that hold nice fish. Hufford and Everett lake have the largest fish in the area some getting up to 18" and are also good fighters. I am saving those lakes for another trip as they are more remote and higher up. All in all a great trip. We ran into a Wilderness Patrolman and he suggested that if you go, go after the first week of August when the bugs are more manageable. If you would like to go and want more information, please feel free to email me at
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