I managed to get out for one last half-day trip before Fall starts next weekend to mark the end of Summer. I headed a bit further south than I usually do to (mostly) escape the smoke of the Mosquito fire, which has been hammering the American River watershed and Tahoe areas. The river I selected is one I've wanted to fish for a while, but it isn't really an undiscovered blue line. I headed out well before dawn to get some time before sun gets on the water. Sure enough, when I pulled into the day use parking area by the river, I saw one fisher already on the water and a couple of cars. Turns out all I had to do to get solitude was make a 30 minute hike up a (seriously steep) jeep trail that parallels the river. The only other mammal I saw was one skittish cow sporting a classic clanking cowbell.

This river, like many in the Sierra, is fed by the outflow of a high-altitude reservoir. The reservoir operators have been keeping the flow pretty steady at a good level, and the water was cold. The section where I fished has a fair bit of gradient, so the terrain was a mix of steep drops, small and large pockets, and a few big pools with deep runs. I often fish bigger rivers with two rods - one rigged with a indicator and nymphs for deep dredging, and one set up with a dry dropper. This was a minimalist trip, so I just brought my 4/5 wt Hardy Sirrus Glass rod and set it up with a Chernobyl Ant and a nymph. I'm really enjoying the Sirrus rod. I may actually be getting better at roll casting (old dog, new tricks?) but it's probably the rod - I had no trouble shooting a couple of 40' dry-dropper roll casts with more precision than I am used to getting. I picked out seven fish in a couple of hours, which is moderately good for me. I got fish on both the nymph and the dry, which is cool. The fish weren't big, but no tiny ones, either. I got all of the fish at the tail ends of moderately fast-moving, short runs. That may be because the nymph wasn't getting down to the fish earlier, but no worries - I had a ton of fun.

I'm looking forward to rain this weekend that will quench the Mosquito fire and maybe one last backpack trip next weekend. Pics follow.

Smoke-tinted sunrise - taken from a moving car on the way up the hill...


Typical water in this section of river - still shaded midmorning.


Pretty rainbow.


Great speckling on this one.


This has been my rig for most of the summer.

Looks like a lot of fun nice rainbows!

Beautiful...Well done!
Carl

Nice outing! Enjoyed your write-up and pictures. Great looking water and beautiful fish. Looks like you were out of cell service there . Hope your area gets the rain for flow and fire suppression.

Very nice!

Good stuff ! Got a bunch of rain here earlier in the week, hopefully it helped with fire containment.

I went into Hoover / Yosemite for a three day trip in midsummer and there was lot of smoke from one of the fires there. Not enough to rain ash, just enough to obscure the scenery somewhat in the afternoons and evenings.

Looks like a fantastic outing! Beautiful fish and, yeah, dig the hat.
Thanks for sharing