* Markleeville - Early July - The Ellusive "Cantaloupe" Trout"
"Wow I hope I have another "Ricky Martin" Cinnamon Flash Bugger?" (Denny Rickard Stillwater Nymph actually, but whatever the heck its proper name, it was catching fish like a machine) Michael had just released his 10th (10th!!!) 18-22" fish of the day and realized he had finally succumbed to the fact that it's a good idea to check and re-tie one's fly prior to dragging around a fly-less 5X tippet. He re-tied an Olive Flash Bugger, and got two more for a total of 12 over 18" for the day!
Float tubing had been incredibly effective, especially with the portable depth/fishfinder that Michael had strapped to his tube and was locating the structure, depth, water temperature, and especially the LARGE Rainbow, Brown, and Kamloops strain of trout that had been attacking our stripped wooly buggers with tremendous abandonment and ferocity. This was truly some of the best, consistent fishing either one of us had ever experienced. We were staying for three days at Indian Creek Reservoir just outside of Markleevile, off Hwy 89 near Tahoe. I had gotten a HUGE brown the day before, (football-size), after driving up from Santa Cruz with Michael, for a four-day trip, so it was all icing on the cake after that for me. But the next day, Michael got into a rhythm that seemed like he was at Frontier Village in the cement trout pond. Like clockwork, my Olympus waterproof camera was capturing and recording the times of all his hookups. Pretty cool high tech tools we have available for our enjoyment these days! (Get one, it will silence the critics.) Now if I could only learn how to use it as well as Michael, we could have some pretty nice movies to watch. When all else fails, read the manual, eh?
Could it get any better than this? We stopped at the West Fork of the Carson, where it crosses Hwy 88 on the way back to our accommodations at Michaels' place at Kirkwood. (If he invites you, stop whatever you're doing and go with him! He is a congenial host and very fun to fish with. He fishes smart and it was a really great trip).
Yes, they were planters under the bridge and down through the holes and riffles below, out into the meadow. And yes, they were all pretty small; 8-10", but it was literally a fish on almost every cast in a beautiful setting, after an already unbelievable day of float tubing. I recommend this as the best method to take the kinks and cramps out after kicking your float tube around for a few hours.
We did almost as well tubing the next day, (We quit counting anything under 14"!!!) and then hiked down to the East Carson where someone who still had the hot hand got a beautiful 20" native rainbow, nymphing, on the same flash fly as the Indian Creek fellows liked on their menu. Fishing Nirvana!!!
Oh, and one more thing for the record: they're Kamloops Trout, not cantaloupes, Michael. But whatever you call them it's all right with me. Let's not get picky about this nomenclature. It's just fish and bugs and it was fun!
Thanks for a great time in the tube, on the stream, and on the drive up and back.
P.S.: Make sure to stop in at the Bass Pro Shop in Manteca on the way back, but it's probably best to leave your wallet and credit cards in the car. I think these guys have finally figured out a way to shopping as much a sport for men as they have for women. Beware, there's some pretty tempting stuff in there! Fish On! - Dennis McVey
* Lake Almanor - June 24-29
Spent five days at Lake Almanor (June 24-June 29) Fished four nights and did well three out of the four. Used two rods, one rigged for deep water nymphing and the other for dry fly fishing. Relied on old nymph patterns from Hal Jensen and some new nymph patterns from Tom Maumoynier, owner of Lake Almanor Fly Fishing Company in Chester. Tom's shop is the only game in town for Lake Almanor as he offers guided trips and has all your answers for fly fishing in the area. The best dry fly patterns I found at Eagle Creek Fly Shop in Red Bluff. I used a Cortland Clear Camo intermediate sinking line for the nymphs and various floating lines for the dry fly patterns. Employed straight 2x tippet for the leader on my sinking rig and a tapered 3x leader for the dry fly rod as I needed to turn the line over while casting to rising fish. The Hex (Hexagenia Limbata) hatch on the lake, or anywhere for that matter, is a dream come true experience for fly fisherman. The Hexes start to rise as early as 6:30 PM with the intensity level rising to a hatch frenzy by 8:55 PM.
There are so many flies on the surface around 9pm that one wonders about the legality of scooping up cruising trout with a net! It's very intimidating and stressful as you ponder the activity...do I use my dry fly rod or stay with the sink tip? I need to have a preordained plan (and stick with it) as I enter the fray. Too often I have tried to use both rods at the same time and met with a tragedy of tangled lines and missed fish. This year I stuck with my nymphing rod and it worked 75 percent of the nights that I fished. There was the second-to-last night that the rig failed me. Yes, I got hits, but was unable to get a hook set.
My last night I met up with fellow members Jim Livingston and his son, Tim, who were renting a lakeside cabin with Harry and Chris Petrakis along with Duwayne Norton and Duwayne's son-in-law. Every Father's Day, those three members get together with their sons for a week long outing. This year's destination was Lake Almanor. The night I was skunked, Jim Livingston landed the biggest brown of his life, somewhere around 28" and close to 8lbs. I tried to match Jim's fish on my last night but came up a tad short. Using John Steele's "forearm" measurement system (elbow to finger tips is close to 18") we were able to tell that my brown was close to 24" and weighed in around 6-7 pounds. As I picked my brown out of the net, it regurgitated a maw of hex nymphs.
Every guide from Hal Jensen to Tom Maumoynier and Lincoln Grey have their own method of fishing using the hex patterns. Try all of them and then develop your own plan of attack. The Monday following the July 4th weekend a number of club members were headed up to Almanor to claim their trophy trout.- Tim Loomis
* Fall River - June 18-20
The Hex hatch is in full swing on the Fall River. I fished it Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night (June 18, 19, 20). The first night I had a guide and the weather was just perfect. We started out around 7:30 PM, with caddis, where I rolled a few fish then went to the hex emerger around 8:00 PM. Nothing on that, but about an hour later, the duns started appearing and the fish were going berserk. The first one I stuck broke off the 4x. That was a big fish. I had another hit/miss and then finally one take which we released. At about 9:45 PM the hatch quit. According to the guide (yes, guide talk now), 3-4 fish a night on the hex is a good night. Catching one on the first time out is pretty good too. There must be some truth to that because the two other anglers didn't hook any.
On Friday night, I was on my own. I was somewhat leery of going too far from the launch because I was using an electric motor and I wanted to stay upstream just in case I had a problem. I started out around 7:30 PM, again fishing a nymph with no luck.
Finally, around 9:00 PM, a few fish started working. Around 9:15 PM, the hatch was in full swing. It was maddening casting to rising fish and not getting a hook up. There's so much food around and I kept casting. I decided to change flies and that took a lot of time, seemed like forever, in the dark. About 9:30 PM I hooked a really nice fish but again busted this one off on 4x. That was the only take I had that evening.
On Saturday, I got there around 4:00 PM and a very strong wind was blowing. I got all my tackle together - two rods so I didn't have to try and change flies in the dark, flies already tied onto leaders ready to go, etc. The weather turned windy, cold, and it started to rain pretty good. I put out around 8:30 PM, when the wind quit somewhat, but it was still raining a little. I didn't figure the bugs would be out in that type of weather but as soon as I got out, I saw an adult. I fished the nymph with no luck until I heard and saw some splashes, then I went to the emerger. I fished that for about 5-10 minutes and didn't hook up so I went to the big adult. No fly to tie on this time - only had to reach for the other rod. It was so dark with the cloud cover I couldn't see, so I decided to I'd set on splashes. I hooked into a really nice fish around 9:15 PM that got off near the boat. I cast to another and had another great fish on. It fought pretty good, but when I got it into the net, it looked pretty odd. With the dark and my poor light, I could barely tell what it was. Looked like pike, but with no teeth. After research today, I found out it was a Sacramento Pikeminnow (PC term for squawfish). I went back to fishing and hooked into what I thought was the monster fish that I saw come up a few times. Again, I could not see past the end of my rod tip and set when I heard a splash. Got a good solid hookup and this fish just took off running. It took me a while to land it. It was a nice size rainbow but smaller than I expected. Its good fight was due to the fact that I hooked him in the tail. Guess I was a little slow on the set. Sound is a little slower than sight which probably resulted in the tail vs the mouth set.
I can say for sure that this type of fishing is very exciting and I'm hooked. It's somewhat akin to fishing to fish feeding on salmon flies. The fact that it is so dark means you need to be prepared. The time on spent Saturday rigging extra rods paid off because its almost impossible to tie on a fly with fish rising all around and with the darkness. Also, I abandoned the 4x stuff and went to 3x. These fish aren't leader shy when they're trying to eat a 2-3 inch bug. - Larry Schork
* Early June - Davis Lake - Good float tubing and one great day from the shore using cork and migrating damsel nymphs.
* Mid June - Oregon- Blitson, high poor fishing with mosquitos, Krumbo Lake, poor, Lake Delitment, cork damsels and dries, great, Malhuer River, so fun in both forks.
* Late June - Owyhee River - hot, too many people, poor fishing, bad mosquitoes.
* Early July - Locsa River, Idaho - over the Fourth, water high, rugged fishing for the occasional large Cutthroat. Will go back when the water lowers for a chance to get more. Weather cooled down with thunder showers. Blackfoot River high, poor fishing. Clearwater River, wow, a 21" Brown for Elaine. Monchure, 45 degrees, thunder showers, no point in fishing, Lower Rock Creek, another wow, so many fish with dry flies, up to 17" (Elaine's again). Now off to West Yellowstone. More Later, - Elaine and John Cook
*Kinzli Travels Update-
It has been 8 months since we closed the shop and we have been asked be so many of our customers to keep our travels posted. Thank you for your interest.
Ernie's Casting Pond closed November 29th and we were on the road by Dec 10, 2008 heading to Colorado to spend Christmas with our kids and maybe fish the Roaring Fork or the Frying Pan. We arrived just ahead of a big snow storm. The month continued to be cold, snowy and windy and as a result...no fishing! However, we had our mind set on steelhead as we headed home and once things were stowed away and the steelhead gear loaded, we took off for Central Oregon. The steellhead season there was slow as here, but Ernie managed to hook and land 3 nice steelies. Must say the fishing in Oregon was an improvement over the season here though, as their streams were running well even though the percentage of fish coming through was slightly down. Weather was cloudy, rainy and just good fishing weather. Returning to Santa Cruz, Ernie fished the remaining days of the season here catching two steelhead in the San Lorenzo.
In April, we headed to the Grand Canyon, Sedona and Lee's Ferry to fish for rainbows with Terry Gunn owner of Lee's Ferry Anglers. This is a spot we have wanted to fish for many years, as we have not only read about it, but several of our customers have fished it. The Colorado is a mighty river and the gorgeous red rock canyon that it flows through is spectacular!! We had arranged to stay a the Cliff Dwellers Lodge, adjacent to the fly shop and were to meet Terry at 8:00 the next morning. Morning was bright and sunny, but a little windy. Terry met us at the boat launch and we were dismayed to learn that high wind warnings had been posted for the canyon for that day! However, we decided to go ahead and see if we could get some fishing in before the wind got too bad. We headed straight up the canyon to Glen Canyon Dam, about 19 miles and then back down and anchored about 2 miles below the dam. The winds were picking up, but Terry set my 5 wt. rod up for me with a zebra midge at the bottom, San Juan Worm, split shot and a 'thingamabobber' at the top. While he worked on Ern's rod, I hooked a beautiful rainbow, but did not land it. Wind was getting stronger and by this time Ernie was fishing and hooking, but not landing either. We both hooked two fish, before Terry and Ernie made an EXECUTIVE DECISION to pull anchor and head downstream hoping to find another spot to try. Unfortunately, the wind prevented up from any further fishing and we headed back to the launch ramp with another trip already in the making for a future date.
We would urge anyone interested in catching beautiful rainbows in a beautiful setting to contact Terry at Lee's Ferry Anglers www.leesferry.com...Terry is a super guy and has been in the flyfishing business guiding on the river since 1983. We had a great time just visiting with him. He is a pioneer on the river, knowledgeable, professional and just good people!
June lst found us at Mike Michalak's Antelope Creek Ranch in No CA near Mt Shasta. With two trophy trout lakes and over 2 miles of spring creek on the ranch, it is truly a beautiful spot. The spring fed creeks carry trophy size trout as well as the two lakes which can be fished from float tube or from shore. We found the fishing to be slow while we were there and we blamed it on the weather which was unsettled with lots of thunder showers. Lodge is impressive, the food delicious and with Mike and his wife Bertha and lodge owners from Argentina in attendance, the conversation was lively. Call the Fly Shop and ask for Duane...fishing at Antelope Creek runs from May to October. We stopped in Dunmuir on the way home and spent an evening with friend and guide, Rick Cox on the upper Sac. Ernie landed a beautiful, wild rainbow. Rick can be reached at McCloud Fly Fishing Adventures or ricmcfly@frontier.net.
At this writing, we are packing for Alaska. We leave July 25th for Rainbow River Lodge, on the Copper River in the Iliamna-Bristol Bay region of Alaska. The Copper River is world famous for its trophy size rainbows. A fly-out lodge, we will have the chance to also fish for Grayling, Silver Salmon and Sockeye. We will join good friends from Colorado and will, hopefully, have lots of good stories and pictures when we return. Rainbow River Lodge can be viewed at www.RainbowRiverLodge.com. - Ernie and Diane