* Late October - Going for the Gold
With Elaine Cook's guidance I was able to satisfy one of the items on my Fly Fishing Bucket List. While in Mammoth for one of the club's premier fishouts, Elaine agreed to guide me into the wilderness west of the Mammoth Ski area in search of the rare California Golden Trout.
We dropped straight down from Agnew's Meadow to the Middle Fork of the San Joaquin. The photos reveal our location as you can see the Mammoth Mountain Ski top in the background. Imagine my amazement when my cell phone started ringing just as we arrived in this small canyon. Firstly, I wasn't aware that I even had my phone with me, let alone that it was still on and ringing. I thought we were in the wilderness! Turns out that Mammoth Mountain has a cell tower atop its ski lift building and we were in direct line of sight of it. Oh well, so much for the sanctity of the wilderness.
I had just caught my first small Golden when the phone rang. It was my 'ol buddy Harry Petrakis calling to see how the
fishing was going. In my eagerness to get back to the task at hand I rather abruptly gave a brief detail of where I was and what I was doing and hung up!
Elaine and I leap-frogged up the San Joaquin catching as many as the gems as we could in our allotted time. I was using a size 18 Royal Wulff on a 5x leader and tippet all coming out of a 6' 1/2", 2/3 weight bamboo rod.
That was the only pattern I used down there and it did the job. Elaine had on another similar fly that she has used all over the west. The problem was that even with winter fast approaching the small Goldens were not feeding as voracious as I expected them to be.
Nevertheless, we caught enough of the state's official trout to satisfy my needs. The further up river we went, the more golden the trout became. The belly of the Goldens grew a deeper orange and seemed to stretch longer down from the throat area toward the tail.
On the last riffle that we fished Elaine had hooked one of the larger of the species, close to 10"-11" but it threw the fly on a spectacular leap.
Another benefit of the hike was that I stumbled across an old native American camp side alongside of the river. Elaine had just blown her emergency whistle so I didn't have time to investigate it for projectile points. Next year I will make time to really pore over the site and maybe cross off another of my bucket list items - finding an arrowhead. For this year I am more than grateful to Elaine for guiding me into the back country to see and land my first ever Golden Trout. - Tim Loomis
* October 5-6 - Salmon River at Riggins, Idaho
I fished with old friends and met some new friends. My old friends all fished together in one boat using plugs and I fished alone with a guide, swinging a sinking fly on floating and sinktip lines and skating a dry fly tied to one side on a floating line so it skates across the surface. We worked our way down the gravel bars 2-3 steps at a time, casting across and letting the fly come around on a tight line until it was directly below, then pausing for several seconds. Most of my grabs came on full floating lines with 8' of 12 lb. Maxima leader and at the bottom of the swing. The fly was one my guide developed. It was a sparse tie using blue flash material with green thread on the hook shank. Very effective.
It's really quite easy. Not a lot of line control needed, just put a cast out there, make a quick mend and hold on following the fly down with the rod tip. Bring a wading staff and good gripping boots. Morning temps were in the 30's warming up to the 60's by afternoon. We met at 6:30 AM, which in that latitude was about an hour before first light. The drive to the launch ramp took about a half hour. We were in a Mackenzie River boat with no motor. This particular guide can transport to the gravel bars or fish up to four persons in his boat.
A big part of the equation is the right water temperature and good numbers of fish. My guide said in the Salmon River, when the water temp drops to 48 degrees that was optimum and the fish would be stimulated enough to move several feet to get the fly. In this river, the window is a short one, according to my guide, maybe two weeks. I hit it just at the beginning of that window and water temps were right on.
Steelhead numbers are at a 30 year high on the Salmon and this year about October 22, the fish should start showing up in Riggins in great numbers. There are a lot of places to fish from the bank and there were a lot of fly fishermen doing just that, mostly with spey rods. I read that these fish travel 450 miles from the ocean to get to Riggins. The fish I landed were in excellent shape; bright and heavy-bodied.
Riggins is about 3 1/2 hours from the Boise airport. The Owyhee River is about 60 miles off the route to airport and the South Fork Boise is on the way to Riggins. Both offer additional fishing opportunities for trout around this time of the year. Food and accommodations in Riggins are adequate. A room costs about $40 pp per night and meals are reasonable. The motel we stayed at had a nice large, but unlit back deck we utilized after fishing to commiserate with friends and cook meals on our own hibachi.
Call me if you want more info at 419-4245. - Harry Petrakis
* October 6th - Merced River
Finding the Merced, on the catch and release section, at its typical low water level for the fall, on a picture-perfect, warm, sunny day, we were in for a real treat. Using large dry flies, especially a Henryville, we fooled and landed many lovely trout up to 17". Just goes to show you that with special regulations and difficult water to access (large boulders), a fishery can be very good. - Elaine and John Cook