2007 Golden Trout Hunt |
Day 3: Tuesday July 31st 2007: We got up to a chilly high sierra morning at around 5:00AM and were on the
trail by 6:00AM after a quick breakfast. The first couple of miles of the
hike were pretty easy going, through pine forests and meadows, but after that
the trail started up the pass. The climb to the top of the pass which was
over 11,000 feet high was pretty strenuous, but the view front the top was great.
We took a little break at the top, and then headed downhill into the
Kern River drainage home of the California Golden Trout. After crossing
a couple of streams on the way to the one that I had planned to fish, we came to
one that was a little larger than the rest and had a good amount of goldens so
we decided to call it good and start fishing. Above: Me at the Golden Trout Wilderness Area boundary (Left); A meadow along the trail (Right). Below: The view from the top of the pass. We both rigged our rods up with my favorite attractor dry fly pattern, the Royal PMX and decided that my cousin would fish upstream and I would head downstream. The fishing at the creek was very fast paced, and my cousin caught two goldens while I was still rigging my rod, once I got my fly in the water I too started catching fish right away. The goldens were quite numerous in this stream, so it wasn't all that unusual miss a strike only to have the fly grabbed by another golden just inches downstream. I caught my fish golden of size (about 10") downstream a ways where the creek turned a corner and passed under some overhanging bushes. I continued downstream a little ways further catching golden trout after golden trout with a few 8" to 10" fish mixed in. I then fished my way back upstream and met my cousin at the trail where we had lunch before the long hike out. Above: A couple of beautiful California Golden Trout. Below: Me hooking up with a Golden Trout on the stream (Left); A marmot along the trail (Right). The hike out from the creek was brutal; we no longer had the advantage of the cool morning air that we had on the way in and with the sun out the temperatures had risen into the 80's. We reached the top of the pass again around 2:00 PM; feeling rather drained and took a little break to enjoy the alpine cooler air. By the time we reached the car we had hiked about 16.5 miles round trip, and were happy to be on the road again to the next spot. The next spot that we had chosen to fish was a tributary to the Main Fork of the Kern River that was supposed to have a good population of Kern River Rainbow Trout and we managed to make it there just before dark and set up camp. End of Day 3: Continue to Day 4 to the End of the Trip |
