If you've been searching for the best source of information and stimulating discussion related to Spring/Summer/Fall backpacking, hiking and camping in the Sierra Nevada...look no further!
Harlen wrote: ↑Wed Aug 17, 2022 6:49 am
If you didn't take a net along, would you have been able to "slide" the giant fish up onto the bank? For all of the fish I've lost, I can't remember ever having the line (usu. 6 lb.) break in the "slide" up and out.
Because I fished off of steep slabs/cliffs, there were no places to beach the fish or slide them, so the choices were an outright hoist versus netting. Whereas I use 6lb test and this fish is not 6lbs, the actual breaking strength is less than 6lbs (ie weak point is the terminal knot) and inconveniently oriented shakes by a heavy fish could bring the effective weight to exceed the breaking strength of said terminal knot. I did the hoist for the other four fish (14, 14, 15.5, and 16") but I wanted to play it a bit safer with the big one. If I didn't have a net I would have just had to take the chance on hoisting it.
Fish have in fact broken my line on several occasions---and it has been in the water every time. In only one case was the fish clearly heavier than the breaking strength of my line (it was a mack at the usual place probably around 28" or so--2nd biggest mack I've seen there). All my other break offs were by fish that clearly weighed less than 6lbs. I can recall three brookies that broke me and they were about the same size as the one I caught or slightly smaller. Those fish broke my line on head slaps or rolls. One fish (golden in 20" class) broke my line on a blazing run. I try to minimize the risk of being broken by loosening my drag a bit when I'm battling an exceptional fish (did that with the giantbrookie, which is the only time I've done it this season). Should one start with a "conservative" (fairly loose) drag (only for fish that hit and run super hard---goldens and rainbows)? There is a balance to being conservative about one's drag setting too because if you start with your drag too loose, you may not get as much hook penetration. This may be why the next fish to hit on that storied golden trip of 2015 was able to eject my lure on a jump. When I have a nice beach to slide the fish out I prefer doing that to netting because it minimizes the chance of slackline situations or adverse head shake issues (last brookie to break me did it with head slap when I had it within a foot of my net). The May 31-June 1 trip had nice "landing beaches" so netting wasn't necessary there. At that mackinaw lake back in July, I hoisted the 14-15" range fish (fishing from talus pile, so no place to slide), and netted the 18-incher.
Thanks for the report on an overlooked area, at least for me! That TH is only a few minutes further than my usual 'last minute' jaunts into Grouse Ridge, and the fishing looks to be demonstrably better!
If you fished the 'summer slump', I wonder what late September/early October might hold...
neil d wrote: ↑Wed Aug 17, 2022 2:37 pm
That TH is only a few minutes further than my usual 'last minute' jaunts into Grouse Ridge, and the fishing looks to be demonstrably better! .
Is it actually a few minutes further when you factor in the time to rumble up the various dirt roads to the Grouse Ridge trailheads? Certainly the GR exit from 80 is closer (coming from W) then Boreal but it takes awhile to drive off of 80 to the GR trailheads versus this one being right off of the Boreal exit. Of course the ease-of-access of the trailhead is offset by the much longer hike to get in (which is turn balanced by resulting in much fewer people than GR.
I'm not sure the fishing is demonstrably better than the Grouse Ridge area in terms of "combined" criteria of action rate and top end fish size, given that the action rate was really slow even if it was (to me) offset by the great top end size. I haven't visited the Grouse Ridge area much since the changes in fisheries management--just two up-and-back (from Bay Area) dayhikes on consecutive weekends in early June 2020. I have heard of one small Grouse Ridge lake that produced 10" rainbows when air dropped in the past era but was said by a "regular" I met on the trail in 2020 to now have fat 15-16" brookies (was part of Plan C on the past trip). Such a change (bigger fish since termination of air drops) is likely for other lakes in that area. I was checking the CDFW online fishing guide and it looks like they've resumed air dropping in many of the lakes of the area (but not the one mentioned above). A key, however, is that many of the lakes received their last air drop in 2018. Four (two Lindsays, Carr, Feeley) were dropped this year. The ones last dropped in 2018 offer the potential for a win-win scenario. 2018 rainbows should be pretty big fish because the growing rate should be fast for those lakes. If, on the other hand, the 2018's didn't do too well, there should be some big brookies. Much information on these lakes is found in the CDFW's 2014 South Yuba River Management Plan. I'd like to be able to test this hypothesis of course, but I have so many options for my end-of-summer to fall trips that I probably won't get to GR in 2022.
I hiked to the lower lake in late July of 2015 and was totally skunked. However, I managed to impale a Lahontan Redside on my lure so I knew there was some sort of fish in the lake. These redside may be what is making the brookies so healthy.
Ikan Mas wrote: ↑Sun Aug 21, 2022 8:12 pm
I hiked to the lower lake in late July of 2015 and was totally skunked. However, I managed to impale a Lahontan Redside on my lure so I knew there was some sort of fish in the lake. These redside may be what is making the brookies so healthy.
Happened to me, too. My lure was about the same size as the redside. The lake simply swarms with Lahontan Redsides so there is little doubt you're right--plenty of forage fish for big brookies.
What may have started out as "Just for the Hike of It" certainly ended much more with your personal best catch. There is always something that makes a trip memorable and glad you did it.
Hopefully your ego was the worst bruise from the fall. Some falls take you by surprise and with others there is the slow motion "this going to hurt" out of body experience that ends abruptly. Whichever type it was, it didn't seem to slow you much, but I've found as I age it sometimes takes a few days for the hurt to set in.
