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Category: California Fishing Reports

Cindy and I got to Mammoth Lakes on Friday 8/24.  We made sure to stop by the Mammoth Brewing Company to pick up some suds along the way.  We unpacked, ate dinner and started trying to plan out what we would do on Saturday.  We decided to do some exploring and walking around to acclimate ourselves to the elevation change.The first place we stopped was at Mammoth Creek Park.  We found the creek inside the park to be quite overgrown and not very fishable.  We did see several trout that appeared to be planted fish just upstream from the Old Mammoth Road bridge.

There was a nice size Rainbow Trout hogging this spot.The smaller Rainbows were located just downstream from him.We decided to explore Mammoth Creek a little more to see if we could find any places that had better access for fishing.  We took Mammoth Creek Road East away from the park, stopping in several spots to assess the situation.  In all of the places we stopped we found heavy vegetation growth and downed trees that did not look to be fun places to fish.We came to a fork in the road and took the one less traveled...  Unfortunately it led to a dead end.  We then back-tracked to the fork and finally made it back to the highway near the intersections of Highways 203 and 395.  Heading south on 395 we took the turn to Convict Lake.  We drove past the creek and up to the lake.  We found the lake a little crowded, but it was a Saturday.  After seeing the scenery (and taking pictures) I could see why it was crowded.  The mountain peaks to the west of the lakes rose loomed over the lake, almost as if they were on guard to protect it.After eating lunch we headed down to check out Convict Creek.  Like Mammoth Creek earlier we found Convict to be overgrown in a lot of places as well.  We headed back to the truck and I noticed a flatter spot farther down the creek, closer to Highway 395.  We drove down there and found signs that were rather confusing.  It appeared that the creek may have beenopen West of 395, but at a certain point there was a University of California research program going on and that the creek was closed in this section.  Not wanting to get cited for fishing in the wrong spot, we moved on.  We drove east on Benton Crossing Road and then turned North onto Owens River Road.  After taking a right hand turn, we stopped near a bridge and got out to inspect.  Finding heavy weed growth and not seeing any fish activity I went back to the map book.  It appeared that we were looking at Hot Creek downstream from the springs.  No wonder there weren't any fish.  Heading further on up Owens River Road I noticed several unmarked roads that headed east looking like they were heading to the river.  Unfortunately the one that I tried to take have been closed off with a pile of lava rock.We continued up Owens River Road past all of the private property and stopped near the Big Springs Campground.  Here we were able to finally wet a line.  We walked a ways downstream and then fished back up.  In a little over 4 hours I landed 4 fish in the 4" class, one in the 6-8" class, and missed several other fish.  Of course those were the big ones, right?  The map book had this section labeled as Deadman Creek, but the DFG Angler Survey box labeled it as the Upper Owens River.

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Category: California Fishing Reports

My friends Bill Heger and Jim Heger joined me for a day of fishing on Sunday, August 5th.  I had done some homework and found that there were not very many places upcountry that had decent flows of water.  After checking in with one of the sources, I found that Blue Creek below Lower Blue Lake was flowing at ~15 CFS.  While not perfect, it was better than most of the other waters around there.They picked up great boxed lunches from the Payless IGA grocery store in Pioneer on their way to pick me up.  We got on the water just before 11:00 and fished until 2:00.  We walked down the jeep road and then split up.  Bill took the most upstream spot, then Jim downstream a little, and I proceeded all the way down almost to Clover Meadow.  I fished my way upstream, using mostly Elk Hair Caddis (RIP Al Troth) and few EC Caddis thrown in.  I found that I was missing quite a few fish on a size 12.  They were hitting the fly, just not getting hooked, so I dropped down in size to a 16 or 18 and started hooking them regularly.  The color did not seem to matter, tan, olive, black with a green butt, the fish seemed to like them all.  In about three hours I caught and released 31 fish to 9".  I started walking back upstream trying to find Jim and I ran into Bill.  Apparently Jim had leap-frogged Bill and was working his way upstream nymphing.  Bill was working a grasshopper pattern in a deeper pool when I stumbled upon him.  He said that he had landed 6 fish, and missed quite a few.  When I mentioned the hook size he agreed that he had been using larger flies, so that might be why he was not hooking more fish.After meeting up with Jim we headed back to the truck to eat lunch.  Jim told me that he had landed 24 fish, mostly on a Prince nymph.After lunch we decided to head up to Middle Creek, located between the Blue Lakes, and try our luck there.  The flows had recently been increased to 15 CFS as well, but there seemed to be far fewer fish in the area we were fishing.  Maybe it is due to the pressure from the nearby campgrounds.  We gave up after about an hour and headed back down the hill.  On the way we stopped and checked the flows in the West Carson, Red Lake Creek and then Woods Lake Creek to find that there was not much water in them at all.We headed home and enjoyed a nice dinner.  A nice day indeed!

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Category: California Fishing Reports

Ted Nahhas and I floated the Lower Mokelumne with Bill Heger on Monday February 22, 2010.  It was a cold and dreary day and the fish were not very cooperative.We tried throwing everything but the kitchen sink at them, but the bite did not turn on until after lunch.  We were below the Highway 88 before we found willing fish.  The hatchery juvenile steelhead were still present and was mostly what we caught.  We caught most of them nymphing on black Copper Johns and a few on Micro Mayflies.We were on the water about 9:00 AM and fished until 5:30PM.  A nasty wind came up in the afternoon and we raced the storm to get off the water before the rain hit.  We managed to get the boat out and secured and were in the truck when it started to sprinkle.  Not bad timing at all.Here are some pictures:Bill showing Ted a few pointers Ted taking a breakA dreary day, but at least there wasn't any rain!

Ted's Take:

Well it's been a little over two months since retirement (January vacation and Febuary 1 retirement date) and I've completed a lot of honey do's and other needed projects around the house & property. It was time for some R&R so I took up an offer of one of my co-workers, Dustin, whom had worked out a deal with a flyfishing friend of his (Bill Heger) for a guided trip down the Mokelumne river as a retirement gift. Hey, it's time to have some fun right. That's what retirement is, right?

It was forecast to be cold and possibly wet. I dressed warm, several layers of cloths as well as my neoprene waders (all my flyfishing equipment is 20years old by the way). Well, it snowed here (Mary said) and the wind whipping up the river had a bite to it like a chain saw. I of course sat in the front of the boat. We (Dustin in the back and Bill in the middle) headed down river. BRRR. We reached the first fishing spot and Bill suggested we exit the boat to fish off an island off the right side of the river. Somehow, with all the clothes on I didn't lift my following foot over the side of the boat, hooked it on the rail and fell headfirst into the river. It was so embarrassing they didn't even laugh. Dustin just asked if I was alright. "Oh yeah, I'm alright, just a little wet"

Shit, I'm not only cold now I'm going to freeze solid.  Next, I tangled my fly line so bad Bill had to take it to the side for 1/2 hour or so cutting the knots out and re-tieing leaders, tippits, & fly. Bill let me use his rod which I promptly got the tip of the rod and line tangled in a tree behind me. I got it out, but he later told me he was watching with GREAT interest as that is a $500 rod.

There were fish aplenty but every time my indicator would dip my set was so slow the fish was already gone and upstream spawning (someone was having fun). Bill kept saying "HIT, HIT, HIT" But I was late every time. Guess my reflexes have slowed over the the years. It wasn't long before the back aches started. "Don't complain Ted, you can still save face even after falling in, no complaining, oh my back hurts". "Brutal" was the word I was thinking.

Halfway through the float I had to lift my leg into the boat with my arms as I hadn't the strength or flexibility to do so without assistance. Toward the end of the float (eight hours), freezing, tired, and in horrible pain I was wishing we had a motor to get us to the takeout before I died. We did make it to the takeout. Bill backed the trailer in and I smashed my shin on the trailer hook (couldn't lift it high enough again) but by this time my whole body was in so much pain it was like being bit by an ant. I gratefully tipped Bill, and took Dustin out to dinner where I chugged a pitcher of painkilling beer, finally got home, took a half dozen naprosyn and went to bed.

I have now awakened 11 hours later and thought it would be good to write these wonderful moments down for my future retirement memoirs. I don't know what I'll title this future collection of exhilarating experiences but "Nobody promised you a Rose Garden" comes to mind.   Take care all.PS: I did catch a couple of 6 inchers which seemed to be laughing at me as they shook themselves off the hook at the side of the boat

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Category: California Fishing Reports

Craig Martini and I floated the Lower Mokelumne with Bill Heger on Monday February 22, 2010.  It was a beautiful day and the fish were vary willing.

We lost track of the number of fish that we caught, let's just say it was probably well over 50 fish landed between the two of us.  The hatchery at Camanche had turned out a lot of 8-10" juvenile steelhead, and it was all we could do to hook something larger between the little guys grabbing our flies.  We caught them swinging buggers on sink-tips, we caught them nymphing on red Copper Johns as well as blue Copper Johns.  They were spread out from the launch point to the takeout at Mackville, and probably lower.  I managed to land a few fish between 12-15" amongst the juveniles and I lost one large fish that was much bigger.  I never got a real good look at him, but he was definitely heavier than anything else I hooked.

We were on the water about 10:00 AM and fished until 5:30PM.  A very enjoyable day.

Here are a few pictures:

Craig (rear) and Bill.

Dustin with a hatchery dink.