I decided that one last fishing trip was in order before the official close of summer, so during the week before Labor Day I headed out on a road trip across a portion of CA which I had not yet seen. Other than one well-known fishery, all of the waters I fished are relatively uncelebrated. No Blue Ribbon fisheries on this trip. Some spots I had heard of from fishing buddies or the locals that I spoke to, others just looked like a good spot to wet a line. Most importantly, I had the chance to explore some less-traveled regions of CA.
I spent Friday afternoon and evening float tubing in a beautiful setting, making offerings to some fairly particular fish. After finding a few patterns which seemed to do the trick, I was able to land a number of nice browns and rainbows. The lake is a fairly popular destination, so when it started to get a bit too crowded on Saturday morning, I packed up and headed on my way.
- Beautiful View
- Nice Brown
Over the course of the next few days, I had a chance to float tube a number of different lakes and to fish countless streams and creeks. I only ran into four other fisherman, all fly fisherman. They were relatively tight-lipped, as I sometimes am, but one of them made it known that "if you find a stream around here which doesn't have trout, you've done something impressive." After fishing every gutter stream and trickle of water I came across, I am inclined to believe him. At one point I ran across an almost unbelievably perfect heart pattern eroded into a small boulder, which was filled with water and red algae. I thought that it was picture-worthy.
- Backcountry Creek
- Beautiful Rainbow
- Twilight
- Nice Rainbow
At the end of the week I stopped off at a nice little lake on the way home to chase some sunfish and smallmouth. I wasn't disappointed, and I was even rewarded with a new species which I had never caught on my flyrod, a beautiful... bullhead.
- Smallie
- Redear
Just kidding.