It's been another dry year here, and I had in mind a trip I last took during a wet year in August, so moving it up a month made sense. The mosquitoes this time of year are typically ferocious, so I pre-treated my hiking shirt / pants / hat with permethrin and brought a healthy supply of 20% picaridin.
I started hiking from a popular western Sierra trailhead Friday around a quarter to ten. It was going to be a long day. The trail is well-traveled, but mostly the first three miles or so to the first set of lakes.
Then some ups and downs, into and out of drainages.
Several creek crossings. The creek fishing in this area is usually hit or miss. I brought a tenkara rod on this trip, but never actually used it.
I saw a few remaining snow patches above 8000'-ish. This area is north of Yosemite, and melts out a bit more slowly than areas further south. I got to the first lake in late afternoon, after about 13 miles of walking. Nobody around yet. Good.
I expected the fish to be hitting the prolific damsel and dragonflies in this area, and brought along a box of various foam patterns I tied. I strung up my ********* Western Glass 8'3" 5wt (3-piece) and tossed out some. There were some strikes, but nothing stuck, so I continued on and camped for the night. I was pretty beat, and slept like the dead.
The mosquitoes came out to play in droves, but I was ready with my headnet. Big clouds gathered off in the distance and I heard thunder rolling, but I didn't expect any rain here, so I just slept out, cowboy-style, under some trees.
Next morning before breakfast I headed back to the lake with the ********* and figured out where the fish were, and caught a few on a purple GFA hopper with an underbody of peacock midge braid.
Another fell for a homebrew foam blue darner pattern.
I didn't get moving again until almost ten, but it was going to be a shorter day. I headed out, and dropped down to another lake.
The fish here always seem to be big fans of the carnivorous flying bugs.
The brookies were well-muscled and put some nice bends in the *********. Towards late morning the clouds started to thicken in the distance and I heard the roar of distant thunder. Time to get moving again.
I headed up and over another ridge, down to the last lake for the day. The wind was picking up. I got my shelter pitched and soon felt droplets of rain.
Time to take a short nap. It's hard to beat the soothing sound of raindrops on your tarp, but it didn't last long. After a half hour the sun was out, replaced by winds blowing out the monsoon moisture.
I groggily arose, strung up the *********, and went in search of fish. During the windy episodes I tossed out some crazy euro-nymph pattern I saw on a feed recently.
The fish in this lake do not seem to skip many meals, and the ********* again got a workout. Towards evening the bugs came out again, but by now I was used to the drill.
In the morning there was a bit of condensation, so while letting things dry out a bit I went fishing. The flying squirrel nymph ala tightlinevideo was popular.
This lake is fairly large by Sierra standards, and after starting out again I took the two mile trail around it.
About halfway I noticed some nice spots to camp (note to self for next time), and stopped to fish.
It was getting towards lunchtime and I continued on. There was a stretch of trail where you could see trout in the shallows, just cruising and waiting. No wonder; there were veritable clouds of damselflies and other bugs in the vegetation nearby. I was tempted to deploy my tenkara rod, but I did kind of want to keep moving.
Around 1pm I had lunch and started back up over the ridge. It was warming up, and I was not expecting any rain for the next couple of days. There were some nice views of the lake as I ascended, huffing and puffing.
Up to another lake, fishless to make way for native amphibian restoration.
Down, cross another creek, then back up.
After about 11 miles of walking I reached the final lake of the day, beat.
This is a more popular lake, and it gets periodic aerial plants of rainbow fingerlings. I expected the fish to be smaller, but they were eager.
It was a calm night, and again I slept out. Next day was going to be a long one, so I was on the trail by quarter of eight.
About two miles later I stopped at another lake, also popular but deserted on Monday morning. The fish here are big fans of the flying predator bugs, too.
It was almost noon, and I had a bunch of miles to cover to get back to the car still. There were several other lakes on the way, and all supposedly hold fish, but I had never fished them because they always seemed too popular. But in early season with the fish cruising the shallows hunting damselflies and so on, this was probably the time, before the summertime hordes and horse-packers and guided groups arrived.
I kept going about a mile or so to the next lake, and as I was almost to the end of it, I looked down and saw a large shape cruising the shallows. Ah, temptation. I spent the next hour or so tossing out various damsel / dragon imitations. There were lots of the little blue damselflies out, but the pattern that got the attention of fish was actually a tan damselfly, with a flashy tan UV ice dubbing underside. Maybe the fish thought it was something else, like a hex ? Who knows.
Whoa, definitely the biggest fish of the trip. The ********* was now officially christened.
Around 1pm I headed out again. The next couple of lakes were tempting, but now I really did have to make some time.
I got back to the car around 5:30, completely toast, after a 14 mile day. Time for the long drive home.
Posted: 30 Jun 2022, 11:47 • 
