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.