So today's expedition found us entering Devils Postpile National Monument bright and early to beat the shuttle buses. We drove down to the Rainbow Falls trailhead and walked down the trail to the falls. A beautiful sight indeed.
We made our way upstream a little ways from the falls until we could find an access point to get to the river. The fishing was a little slow first thing in the morning, understandable when the thermommeter in the truck was reading in the low 30's. We fished our way upstream without a nibble until after 11:00.
After the sun got on the water things started looking up. We ended up fishing from just above Rainbow Falls up to the Stock Bridge and hooking a mixed bag of Brown and Rainbow Trout up to about 13". In total there were somewhere near a dozen fish landed, with at least as many lost somewhere in the process.
Aparrently the heavy winds that hit Northern California last November/December did some major damage to the trees in and around the Postpile as well. There were downed trees all over the place. In some places it looked like a war zone. In talking with the ranger at the gate he mentioned that the winds were estimated at 150-160 MPH. The wind gage broke at ~125 MPH.
Some of the downed trees made for some interesting wading:
Some of the fish came on caddis dry flies, some on maylfly nymphs. Here are some of the beautiful fish that were not camera shy:
