HTC 3: Goose Lake Redband

Report for Friday 7.15.11

After packing up from the home waters of the McCloud Redband Trout, I headed to the home waters for the Goose Lake Redband Trout. My directions were hazy and I spent more than an hour finding the first turn off. Once I got to the stream, shown above, the action was fast but not furious. I easily had 50 rises, landed 3 fish, and had long line releases for about 6 more, in less than an hour. I only fished about 50 feet of stream. Also, about half the time on the water was spent putting a new fly and tippet on the line. The willows held on to the flies much more strongly than the trout! The fish were hungry and had tons of energy. Each hookup felt like a fish twice its size. These beautiful fish own their stream and I hope to someday fish an extensive section of their stream(s).

After a lot of fun on the Goose Lake Redband stream, I drove to the area that the Eagle Lake Rainbow trout inhabits. Well, the species inhabits most of the world as it is a major variety used to plant trout into streams and lakes, but I'm near it's native heritage range. I don't think this species will be nearly as easy to document as the previous two on this trip. However, if I can document this species tomorrow I will be able to head out for the Lahontan Cutthroat Trout before interrupting my trip by heading home for possible jury duty next Tuesday -- aarrgghh.

I had hoped to document the Warner Lakes Redband Trout on this trip, but will have to drive to it's native range a second time because of the snow still in the mountains. My plan is to head back to the heritage waters of the Warner Lakes Redband Trout after I backpack in the Golden Trout Wilderness in August. It will be a long out of the way trip, but should give me nine of the possible ten HTC trout available (other than the Paiute Cutthroat in closed water). Then, all I will need is a half pounder steelhead on the Klamath River in August to complete my goal of catching all of the HTC trout with the exception of the Paiute. It has been a great trip so far and I'm having a blast. The fish and their homes are beautiful.