It's finally May. I headed up to the national park intent on checking out some of my small creek spots at the mid elevations.
The first day I stopped at a spot a ranger told me about a few years ago. The snow had melted, and I tossed tungsten beadhead nymphs with a stiffer tenkara rod to the numerous brookies.
I descended the creek a ways, past several falls and caught a few more.
A bit lower I started seeing rainbows in the mix.
The creek tumbles down a few more falls, and I looked down the drainage.
I decided to scramble down and take a look at what lay below, before the brush closed up.
I threaded up my Fenglass 6'6" 3wt and tossed out a purple haze. Almost immediately a nice rainbow took it. There were also a few smaller hungry brookies in the pool.
By afternoon it felt warm in the sun, though the high temperature was probably only the low 70's. I worked my way downstream a bit.
Around 4:30pm I decided to make my way back up. It was slow going; lots of downed trees and so on. Not a high-mileage day.
The next day I got an early start -- the hike in would be a bit longer, and the approach has gotten brushier since the last time a trail crew had been through here. I looked at the fork's headwaters first.
Nope -- blown out. Come back in June
So made my way up to the next spot. Snowcapped peaks off in the distance.
I'd brought my Orvis Superfine 7'6" 3wt today.
For the most part the fish were keying in on little dark things, maybe winter snowflies, or possibly the big black ants I saw running around. There were also lots of ants on the wing. Black puterbaugh caddis and small foam ants did the trick.
This stream has brook, rainbow, and brown trout. For whatever reason, this year I caught mostly browns, some rainbows and a few small brookies. I think the brookies don't do as well when the stream is lower -- this is the second drought year in a row here in California.
This is another area where once off the trail there is lots of downed wood and occasional brush to work around, and going is slow. I took a few falls, and dented the cork in my Superfine, but the rod was unscathed.
Orvis Superfine 3wt and Red Truck Diesel 3/4 with 406 DT3F
Around 5:30pm I decided I wanted to get back to the car before dark, and started hoofing it back during the cool of the evening.