So... After a long, wet (snowy) California winter, followed by lots of family-not-fishing activities this spring, I FINALLY got out to play on the river a bit. I had part of a day today, so I headed up to Caples Creek, a medium altitude (for the Sierra Nevada) creek that is a quick drive for me. Caples and the Silver Fork of the American River combine, then head down to the South Fork of the American river. There are a couple of campgrounds on the Silver Fork that receive planters every year, but I like wild trout (even if they're little), so I drove to where the Silver Fork leaves the road and hiked about a mile up.

The water was much higher than I have seen it for the last five years, and stretches were reconfigured by heavy runoff from this year's near-record snowfall. Caples Creek gets more "fishy" with more water, so it was fun to scope out new holes. The weather was warm, but the water was cold. I forgot my stream thermometer, but my aching feet told me that the water might be a little too cold for the fish to be very active.

I had my favorite blue-line rig, a Scott F754, Orvis (Hardy) CFO, and an English fishing bag over my shoulder. Every year I when the season starts for me I marvel at the tiny hook eyes of smaller patterns, and I wonder how in the heck I'm going to get my tippet through that tiny hole. Later, I had to ask myself several times: were my eyes playing tricks on me, or was that a shadow that came up and then went down? It's all part of getting started again after a hiatus...

It took a while, but I found a couple of spots where the fish were looking up. Once I settled in, I was rewarded with solid grabs and a landed rainbow. Toward the end of my time, in a slow section, a fish came up to eye my fly only about 8' from me. It drifted along with the fly for a count of 1... 2... 3..., then..., "nope", and headed back down to the bottom. I'll bet if I had twitched my fly that fish would have hit it.

Next time...



Bridge over Caples Creek


Fishy spot yielded grabs and a trout


Happy fisherman


Snow Plants tucked into the wood

Beautiful!

Nice pics and report, thanks for posting. I love those creeks, although it's been a couple of years since my last trip. Great to see that the Sierra streams are approaching manageable levels; one pic shows how the banks got scrubbed. I fished higher up about three weeks ago (West Carson and feeder creeks) and it was completely blown out. Stripping streamers against the banks on a Teeny line was about the only way to present. The peaks around Hope Valley were still under a good blanket of snow, and a couple guys were ice fishing Red Lake!

Beautiful What a great spot to fish. Thanks for the pics and the post

Don't you just love those Sierra streams???? I checked one out yesterday in the Sierra National Forest southeast of Yosemite around 7,000 feet. Here's Granite Creek.



no fishing for me. water still a bit high, and it wasn't a fishing trip.

eric
fresno, ca.

Caples Creek....that's a little fishery that I have not heard mentioned since the early nineties. Glad to see she has good water coursing through her veins once again.

I always thought she was one of the prettiest creeks to fish on the west side.

Thanks for your TR,

Regards from Idaho,

Jeff

How did you find the fishing in the south fork to be? I've been working on the landslide/highway repair job at Bridalveil Falls for a couple of months and been watching the river below. Totally blown out and up in the trees until about 2 weeks ago, now starting to show some signs of promise. Where it was raging whitewater there are now nice pools forming and some safe looking places where a guy could fish some nice looking seams, but things are still moving pretty good and looks like you'd have to cautiously pick your way along. Haven't been up higher than Icehouse road though.