I managed to get up to the Sierra again yesterday to fish two creeks. I used the same rig as last week - LLBean 4wt glass rod and Hardy LRH Lightweight reel. This is a pretty good prospecting rod.
For Creek I, I decided to explore a promising blue line. This creek isn’t a tail water, and it’s been a dry year, so I wasn’t sure how fishable it would be. Turns out it had pretty decent flows. I rock-hopped for about 90 minutes and came away blank, however. Lots of pretty water, but no pools or runs that were big/deep enough to provide that combination of cover and casting access I need to catch fish. I bet there are fish in the creek, but I sure didn’t see any with just one exception. I got a single grab in the one spot that looked promising - right below the bridge and shown in the pic.
So - Creek II. The drive back along the access road passes a creek that I know holds fish, so I decided to give it a go. Good call. 90 minutes and 6 fish later, I was happy with the outcome. Even in deep holding spots, the fish were eager to come up for the Chubby Chernobyl I had on offer. Winter is coming, so I think they’re trying to fatten up before they get locked out of surface food by the snows. It’s really fun to watch a fish materialize out of the shadows and rise to whack your floating fly. I also caught my first brown trout in the Sierra in quite a while, which was cool. This stream runs through a section of forest that burned a couple of years ago. It looks pretty desolate, but the underbrush is coming back and the fish appear to be doing just fine.
Pics follow…
First creek - pretty water, but not a lot of fish on this creek…
Second creek - this holding spot yielded a nice rainbow.
Classic wild rainbow colors.
Brown trout!
Burned area. I got grabs in this run.