2007 Westslope Cutthroat Hunt |
Day 4: Wednesday August 1st 2007: We woke up in the morning to the sound of coyotes on the other side of the
meadow that the creek ran through. After getting a little breakfast, we
set out across the meadow for a little fishing, but found the creek to be very
low so we headed downstream just below the meadows. There was a little more
water down in this area and we spooked a small trout right away. I found
a small pool a little bit downstream, where I could see a nice fish holding
and as soon as my Royal PMX hit the water, the fish hit it and I caught my first
Kern River Rainbow Trout. However as it turned out this would also be my
only Kern River Rainbow, because I was unable to find anymore that were willing
to bite. Above: The stream below the meadows. Below: A Kern River Rainbow Trout (Left); Me fishing for Kern River Rainbows (Right). We now decided to head downstream to see if the fishing was a bit better, but we found no such luck. The fish in the lower section were very spooky and all that I could catch was an out of place brown trout. Below: A little Brown Trout (Left); The lower section of the creek during a brief rainstorm (Right). After giving up on the Kern River Rainbow Trout stream we decided to head over to our last stream of the trip, which was in the Little Kern River drainage. After some very rough roads, we arrived at the stream and started our fishing. This was the smallest stream that we fished on the trip, and it traveled from one small pool to the next through a series of meadows at about 7,700 feet in elevation. We could easily see Little Kern Golden Trout swimming in pools, so we rigged up with a dry and dropper system (Royal PMX and size 18 black Copper John). The action here was almost as fast as the California Golden Trout stream and with every first cast into a pool resulting in a hit or a fish. At one time I had fish on both of my flies at the same time, but ended up losing the one on the dry fly. I caught one Little Kern Golden of at least 10" out of one of the pools although most were much smaller and after a few hours of fishing we hit the road again. Above: A Little Kern Golden Trout (Left); The Little Kern Golden Trout Creek (Right). After finishing with our fishing, we headed over to Sequoia National Park to check out some big trees. This was an amazing spot, and I would highly suggest it. I am used to seeing some big trees in the Washington's old growth forests, but the Sequoias completely dwarfed those trees. After leaving Sequoia, we made the long haul back to Reno and spent the night. Day 5: Thursday August 2nd 2007: We decided to start on our way home, but figured that in might be fun to go to San Francisco on the way. We arrive at San Francisco in the after noon, and spent a bit of time at fisherman's wharf than hit the road again for home. We ended up arriving back home around 5:30AM after another successful trout hunting excursion. Above: A couple of shots of San Francisco. End of Trip: Return to Trips Page |
