The Northern California Fly Fishing Board

...I can’t get enough...of FLY FISHING that is!

I went up to a favorite east slope river for a few days.

Day 1 was great, lots of rainbow trout, the bite was good and many to hand. There was a thunderstorm that afternoon, but the river stayed clear.







Day 2 started out well, some fish caught, but not as good as the day before. Suddenly, it seemed to change. The bite stopped and the river turned to this brown goo in less than a half an hour.



I was in the sun, but these clouds menaced from upstream.



Believing that the river would take a long time to clear, I took off and fished a local lake that night for a few Lahontan Cutts. None to speak of. Phooey!

Day 3 I hiked into another lake, with some nice views on the trail in.



Here’s the lake, with some nice golden trout cruising the shallows, but they weren’t having anything that I threw at them. I fished in deep water, shallow water, with streamers, nymphs, dries, dry/dropper combos…nothing. Four hours and not a bump. I left with a nice skunk smell and another five miles to hike out. SIGH!



At least this Clark’s Nuthatch was getting a nice lunch out of the trees.



Complaints? None! That’s how it goes sometimes. For the record: ALL of the flies in my boxes are barbless, so Sarge, ya got nothin’ on me!

Cheers!

--FlyGuy (Dave)

Nice Dave!

Yeah, that's what it's all about.

Dave,

How long did the walk to that lake take you, 1-2 hours?

Dustin

Right around an hour and a half, but I stopped several times to take photos. It's a real pretty hike, very scenic.

--FlyGuy (Dave)

That was an hour and a half from the end of the road correct? I will probably be stopping to take pictures and possibly video. Maybe I should take longer to take in the scenery since the fishing (read catching) may be questionable...

Did you pack in a tube, or fish it from shore/wading?

Thanks for the help,

Dustin

Thanks for the great report Dave.

I belive I know what lake that you fished there. The secret that I have found for this lake is using very fine 15'-20' leaders, and a size 18 or so Black AP. Stay low and back from the shore, cast, let it sit for a bit, then twitch it back. This usually entices hits. But otherwise, the water is so gin-clear that the fish are onto you as soon as you appear on the low horizon around the lake. The fishing is usually best at the outlet.

Thanks again,
Buzz

The time was from the very end of the road (from the trailhead that will not be named). I started early in the AM, so it was still cool, since there's not a ton of shade on the trail and it was kind of warm the day I was there.

I didn't pack in a tube, but there is a nice large and flat rock on the north end of the lake that I fished from, which was great for casting from, but after reading Buzz's post on how to best fish this lake, that might've been a major part of my problem.

The stream down in the valley is "pay to play" private water, so I'm not to sure how well they'd take it if someone accessed "their" water via the hard way. I'd either pay the fee and access it the easy way from the east, or skip it entirely (my personal preference) and avoid the bushwacking hike. Lots of other good streams and lakes in that area with NO fees at all.

--FlyGuy (Dave)

Well, I certainly could've done things differently in retrospect. I'll avoid the big rock on the north end of the lake and use a lot more stealth in the future. Thanks for the tips, I'll be back sooner than later, and I'll follow your advice next time.

Cheers!

--FlyGuy (Dave)

Dave,

I was not referring to walking into THAT valley. I was referring to heading SW from Meadow Lake down to the Mokelumne. I may not make it down there that week. I heard that DFG will be doing the electro-shocking on Caples Creek that week and I volunteered to help 9/8-9/10.

Maybe I will bring my rod along to go fish Caples Creek after that... HMMM, the possibilities...

Dustin