I have skied Mt. Lassen multiple times over the last 20 or so years, usually in the spring. Lassen is the summit of a volcano complex at the southern end of the Cascades in California, Oregon, and Washington. To get to Lassen, my usual drive heads North up I-5, then turns east on Highway 36 to the south entrance of the park. Over the last decade, I’ve noted that the drive parallels a deep canyon for about 30 miles. “That has to be good trout habitat.” Turns out I was right and it's not really a secret. A little research revealed that the canyon holds Battle Creek, a spring creek that starts just south of the park and flows 50+ miles west to the Sacramento River. Battle Creek is one of just a few tributaries on the Sacramento River system that can support winter-run Steelhead and Salmon – its spring-fed structure preserves cold water flows when other Sacramento tributaries are too warm to support the runs. Much of the creek is also on private land and is protected by supremely rugged terrain as it drops through a volcanic canyon down to the Sacramento River.
Turns out a fishing buddy of mine has connections to an outfit that offers day access for fly fishers to the river. I expressed interest in an adventure trip to check it out. He called them up and arranged access for us for a couple of days. It was game on (and fish on, we hoped). We got access for a day and a half mid-week with a rustic spot to sleep as part of the deal.
The drive to the river turns out to be gorgeous. I-5 north of Sacramento is a mostly featureless sunbaked trek that gets interesting when Mt. Shasta appears off in the distance straight ahead and Mt. Lassen to the right. The drive to the river heads partway up the slope to the mountains, then turns north to access the creek. The Lassen peak complex was still snow-covered this week. Our final approach to the creek area crossed a volcanic plain with escarpments and lava fields and ended near the creek canyon with hundred foot high walls carved through the lava.
Hiking into the creek was definitely an adventure. Parking was “only” 3/4 mile from the creek, with most of that walking on scrub-covered lava plain tilting gently downhill. Then – wham! We were at the top of a cliff trying to find a way down through poison oak, scrub bushes, and sharp rocks. The reward was a couple hundred CFS of cold water that looked a lot more like a freestone river than a spring creek. The section we were on abounded with corners, deep channels, riffle runs, pour-overs, and cascades. The edges of the creek were all but impassable due to a mixture of cliffs and some of the most brutal vegetation I have seen on a fish-able river. Given the fact that the daytime temps went into the low 90’s, it was definitely wet-wading weather – sometimes up to our chests to get past deep sections!
The fishing was pretty, pretty good. I hit the creek for a couple of hours solo the afternoon I arrived, and then returned to the river with the rest of the crew for the whole next day. I had a number of grabs and landed a couple my first afternoon. My first fish was my biggest catch of the trip (14-15”). Our day consisted of working our way down about one mile of river and leapfrogging each other hitting every likely spot. Given the intense nature of the access and wading, this was plenty of river for one day. There were some bugs on the water, but practically no rises, so we ended up in prospecting mode. We found fish pretty much everywhere we expected them to be. We got a few on attractor dries (big chubby chernobyls), but most were feeding subsurface and hit our nymphs. I got lots of grabs and landed another handful.
I carried two rods – my ********* 8’9” 5wt Western Glass rigged with a dry/dropper, and my Orvis SFG 8’6” 6wt set up with a two-fly indicator nymph rig. Both were outstanding. I really like the SFG as an indicator tool – it turns the flies over, roll casts well, and makes short (but fun!) work of fish of all sizes. My ********* rod proved itself as a go-to dry and dry/dropper rod for rivers like these. I did get a couple fish on the dropper, but indicator nymphing was probably the most productive for me. I’m not a huge fan of the technique, but there’s no denying that it catches fish. And walk-wading with an indicator setup is much less tedious than staring at an indicator from a drift boat.
Just for grins, I handed the SFG to one of my buddies for a few casts. He is is a superb caster with both single and double-handed rods but is not a “glass-head” like me. I reckoned he would humor me and find a way not to criticize the rod too much. He surprised me with his positive feedback. He really liked its roll casting action and the way it mended and handled a heavy wad of terminal tackle.
At the end of the trip we asked ourselves, “Was it worth it?” To do once, definitely. The fishing was good. But the access? Not so much. At this point, I think the jury’s out for me. I have to be honest, though, and admit that if/when the opportunity presents itself I’ll probably block out the hiking/scrambling/poison oak pain and be raring to go.
One note – as we were walking down a shallow stretch I ran across the carcass of a winter-run Chinook salmon. Winter-run Chinook were just reintroduced into Battle Creek in 2019 after being absent for more than 25 years and after 20 years of effort to remove barriers to spawning salmon and steelhead in the creek. Seeing a big bad boy that made it up to the little section of creek that we were fishing was pretty, pretty cool.
Pics follow...
Shasta
Lassen
Looking down the river canyon
Rainbow and Western Glass
Caught with an Orvis SFG
Winter run Chinook carcass in the shallows
Posted: 19 May 2022, 23:15 • 
