Saturday 7.31.11
It took me an hour to find the creek. It ran through a campground and I saw a family with fishing poles, so I knew it had to be somewhere close. I got out of the car and finally heard running water. I geared up and followed a trail to the creek.
The creek was guarded by willows. I almost ripped my face off trying to get through them to the stream. After two bushwacking trips through the willows I had no fish and lost several flies to the willows.
I left the creek and moved downstream to find a "fishing hole". The bank of the stream had obviously been used many times for chasing fish. The stream led into a pool the size of a bathtub and then moved into a 100 foot glide. I sat down on the bank, high enough for every fish within sight to see me as a giant bird directly above the stream (used to teach physics -- know about refraction lol).
I sat on the bank, with only the leader and a foot of line out of the tip of the rod. I flicked a size 16 cdc caddis into the pool and 'bam', a small Kern River Rainbow was caught and photographed. I spent a half hour tossing the fly into the "bathtub", 10 to 15 times a minute. Just toss, drift, toss, drift, and more than a dozen fish rose to the fly with a few hookups. I was breaking every rule about catching fish but these beautiful members of their species were at high altitude and only had a short season to fatten up.
I really didn't want to hook them. I just was amazed at how many fish were in such a small area.
By accident, one toss of the fly hit the water in the perfect spot and the big fish of the pond hit the fly. The fish seemed way too big for the water I was fishing. The picture above shows the mammoth 6 inch fish, maybe 7 inches, but gorgeous, aggressive, and the king (queen?) of the water.
I still had one more fish to hunt: the California Golden. I let the fish back into the water with gentleness and respect and decided that although I could have stayed for hours, it was time to go.
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