Saturday 7.30.11
After catching the Kern River Rainbow I took a road trip to find the California Golden Trout. It was a long drive on a poorly marked road that seemed to go on forever, but I made it. I headed down to the stream to find another exposed bank in front of another bathtub sized pool, with water flowing into it and then leaving over a bed of pushed over grasses. I had seen this type of flow before during this challenge. Evidently, the creeks get low sometime during the year, the grasses grow to 2 or 3 feet tall within the stream bed, and then the stream returns and knocks them down.
As with the pool that held the Kern River Rainbows, it was only a foot or two deep, and looked like it might hold one small fish. I threw my fly into the water just as I had at the home of the Kern River Rainbows, and after a few casts had my first Golden Trout, hooked, photographed, and released. Catching a Golden Trout was on my Bucket List, and I had accomplished my goal. I spent another hour at the pool, sucking air because of the altitude, and had a dozen or so rises.
Once again, I dropped the fly into the correct area by mistake. It must have been the hundredth or so time the fly dropped into this pool and I figured any fish over 3 inches would have been put down. However, again, the largest fish in the pool attacked the fly and ended up in my net. Again, I could have spent the entire day in the pool, and a week fishing the creek. The fish were packed into the pool and I'm sure they are found in large densities throughout the creek.
I've heard that the Golden Trout was beautiful and in person it appears to look like a fish not found in nature, but painted by an artist on an acid trip during the 60's. I had a wonderful time searching out this fish and it was an honor to have met them.
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