Natural Lefty
04-22-2011, 05:27 PM
I am pretty sure a lot of you remember when you could drive down Miller Canyon all the way to the parking lot near the inlet to the lake. The road was washed out a few years ago in the heavy rains that year, and the road has never been repaired. There is a locked gate near the beginning of the road. It also tells people to have an "Adventure Pass" if they park there.
My history of fishing Miller Canyon goes all the way back to almost the time Silverwood was opened. Actually, there was no road down there in the beginning, so my father and I found a trail which went down there. It was actually an old fire road, and it wound up near the inlet to the lake. We used to catch good size "pinky trout" there this time of year when we hiked down, mostly my dad since I tended to fiddle around trying to catch panfish the way I do. :Rolls Eyes: I remember the hike was pretty steep although it wasn't all that far. After the road was opened, it was much easier to get there, but the fishing pressure was far greater so the fishing wasn't really as good. Most of the holdover "pinky trout" were caught very quickly, with not much but stockers left to fish for, and maybe a few Bass and panfish.
I had the bright idea yesterday to head down to the Miller Canyon inlet the way my dad and I used to, figuring there would be some good holdover trout fishing if any of them survived all the predators in the lake. After lunch, first, I headed toward Silverwood, but stopped to pick up an Adventure Pass at the gas station by the Silverwood turnoff intersection (the gas station on the northwest side). Next, I headed for the Miller Canyon road to make sure that the road was still closed, which it was. While I was there, I checked out the creek, which supposedly is being stocked but it looked fishless. There is really good water flow in the creek and it looks beautiful -- not sure why there aren't more fish in it unless it dried up last summer and they haven't stocked it.
Anyway, my next task was to locate the trail down to the lake. Since it had been so long, I wasn't sure where it was. After driving back and forth a bit, going to several diffrerent turnouts, I located it (I think). I parked near the start of the old road, and started walking down it. I saw 2 cars which had gone a little ways down the road, before it got too bad to drive down. (I don't think either of them had an Adventure Pass although I am pretty sure you are supposed to there.) The road had a small creek flowing down it and got quickly worse and worse. I started to wonder if it was the actual way my dad and I used to go. There was an intersection a ways up the road and I had gone left which looked like it headed down to the lake, but I decided to check out the road to the right after getting a bad feeling about the one I was on. The road to the right only went uphill though, so back downhill I went. After crossing a creek, the now trail turned really sketchy, steep, slippery and overgrown. After slipping on the steep sandy slope and falling on my backside, I decided to find a different way down to the lake. I went back up the trail a ways, and noticed a fisherman's trail which headed straight down the mountain. Oh well, it looked a lot better than the washed out, and now unused old fire road, so down it I went, taking lots of sissy-like baby steps down the steep, slippery slope which goes at something like a 30-45 degree angle all the way down, even steeper in some spots.
After all that rigamarole, I soon made it down to an old picnic area in the Miller Canyon inlet area. I saw a place where you could fish the lake between the trees to the left, but decided to head for the inlet to the right. The creek was really high, flowing over the road at quite a clip, and the lake was at full pool, as high as I have ever seen it. I made my way down south side of the creek to the lake, and found a fishable spot amongst all the rocks and vegetation (the only fishable spot I could see in the area). There, I quickly saw what I had wanted to see -- lots of good size Trout. A couple of them must have been 2-3 pounds, in fact, with most around a pound, and a few smaller ones.
The bad news is that they didn't want to bite on anything. I tried redworms, salmon eggs, my Adams fly from last week, a Kastmaster, and nightcrawlers all to no avail. I thought about using power bait but didn't think they would bite that either. It didn't matter what size line I was using either. They even spurned my bait when it was on 2 pound line. Sometimes, a fish would clearly swim up to a worm and look it over, but not bite. That was the closest I was able to get to drawing a bite there. The fish might have been more willing to bite, and less visible, farther down the lake -- this was very close to where the creek goes in -- but I could not see any other openings in the jungle of trees, brush, poison oak, and steep jumble of smooth rocks in the area, so I stayed in the same area. It was kind of entertaining just to see the beautiful Trout swimming around, anyway. I think they were doing Trout-style dating and preparing to spawn, or perhaps have just finished spawning. There should be a good crop of baby Rainbows there, if they can survive the gauntlet of predators at Silverwood. I saw evidence of other people having fished there recently, so I think they had spooked the fish before I got there.
Eventually, I decided to go up the creek a bit and try any possible holding areas for Trout with worms. The first spot I tried, I felt something bite-like, but wasn't sure with all the vegetation and rocks in the water. My worm disappeared, so I put on another, and this time, after dipping it in the pool, there was a Trout on the hook, a nice holdover looking one about 14 inches long, finally! After landing it, I went back to the same spot, and caught another one, but this one looked stockerish and was only about 10 inches long. I kept trying the creek for awhile with no more bites, and finally gave up. I went to the spot I had seen by the lake where the trail first comes down for awhile. By this time, it was about 6 p.m. I saw a couple of large splashes in the area while I was there, but nothing bit on worms or the Kastmaster. Maybe the splashes were Stripers or large Bass going after Trout.
By that time, it had gotten to be about 6:20, and although the fishing might have gotten better around sunset, there was no way I wanted to climb back up the mountain in the dark, so I left. The trail back up was one of the steepest I have ever been on, and I was pretty much panting all the way up. I would stop every couple of minutes, but only for a few seconds. By 6:35, I made it back to my car, very grateful to be back and to have at least managed the 2 trout I caught from the stream, both of which I kept and carried back in my net. (By the way, both of them were bleeding when I caught them.) I drank my Powerade and left. I thought about fishing the creek going into Cleghorn, but there were no parking signs all around there, and I thought about fishing Cleghorn cove, but it was getting late and I was still feeling tired from my hike even though the weather was cool, so I headed home.
We already ate them for lunch, and it turned out the smaller one was apparently a recent stocker, which is pretty disappointing considering the location. The other one was apparently a stream resident, a holdover with a nice natural flavor from eating insects etc. but white meat, not the great-tasting pink-meated trout I was hoping for. Still, it was an interesting adventure, even if not quite the one I was hoping for.
My history of fishing Miller Canyon goes all the way back to almost the time Silverwood was opened. Actually, there was no road down there in the beginning, so my father and I found a trail which went down there. It was actually an old fire road, and it wound up near the inlet to the lake. We used to catch good size "pinky trout" there this time of year when we hiked down, mostly my dad since I tended to fiddle around trying to catch panfish the way I do. :Rolls Eyes: I remember the hike was pretty steep although it wasn't all that far. After the road was opened, it was much easier to get there, but the fishing pressure was far greater so the fishing wasn't really as good. Most of the holdover "pinky trout" were caught very quickly, with not much but stockers left to fish for, and maybe a few Bass and panfish.
I had the bright idea yesterday to head down to the Miller Canyon inlet the way my dad and I used to, figuring there would be some good holdover trout fishing if any of them survived all the predators in the lake. After lunch, first, I headed toward Silverwood, but stopped to pick up an Adventure Pass at the gas station by the Silverwood turnoff intersection (the gas station on the northwest side). Next, I headed for the Miller Canyon road to make sure that the road was still closed, which it was. While I was there, I checked out the creek, which supposedly is being stocked but it looked fishless. There is really good water flow in the creek and it looks beautiful -- not sure why there aren't more fish in it unless it dried up last summer and they haven't stocked it.
Anyway, my next task was to locate the trail down to the lake. Since it had been so long, I wasn't sure where it was. After driving back and forth a bit, going to several diffrerent turnouts, I located it (I think). I parked near the start of the old road, and started walking down it. I saw 2 cars which had gone a little ways down the road, before it got too bad to drive down. (I don't think either of them had an Adventure Pass although I am pretty sure you are supposed to there.) The road had a small creek flowing down it and got quickly worse and worse. I started to wonder if it was the actual way my dad and I used to go. There was an intersection a ways up the road and I had gone left which looked like it headed down to the lake, but I decided to check out the road to the right after getting a bad feeling about the one I was on. The road to the right only went uphill though, so back downhill I went. After crossing a creek, the now trail turned really sketchy, steep, slippery and overgrown. After slipping on the steep sandy slope and falling on my backside, I decided to find a different way down to the lake. I went back up the trail a ways, and noticed a fisherman's trail which headed straight down the mountain. Oh well, it looked a lot better than the washed out, and now unused old fire road, so down it I went, taking lots of sissy-like baby steps down the steep, slippery slope which goes at something like a 30-45 degree angle all the way down, even steeper in some spots.
After all that rigamarole, I soon made it down to an old picnic area in the Miller Canyon inlet area. I saw a place where you could fish the lake between the trees to the left, but decided to head for the inlet to the right. The creek was really high, flowing over the road at quite a clip, and the lake was at full pool, as high as I have ever seen it. I made my way down south side of the creek to the lake, and found a fishable spot amongst all the rocks and vegetation (the only fishable spot I could see in the area). There, I quickly saw what I had wanted to see -- lots of good size Trout. A couple of them must have been 2-3 pounds, in fact, with most around a pound, and a few smaller ones.
The bad news is that they didn't want to bite on anything. I tried redworms, salmon eggs, my Adams fly from last week, a Kastmaster, and nightcrawlers all to no avail. I thought about using power bait but didn't think they would bite that either. It didn't matter what size line I was using either. They even spurned my bait when it was on 2 pound line. Sometimes, a fish would clearly swim up to a worm and look it over, but not bite. That was the closest I was able to get to drawing a bite there. The fish might have been more willing to bite, and less visible, farther down the lake -- this was very close to where the creek goes in -- but I could not see any other openings in the jungle of trees, brush, poison oak, and steep jumble of smooth rocks in the area, so I stayed in the same area. It was kind of entertaining just to see the beautiful Trout swimming around, anyway. I think they were doing Trout-style dating and preparing to spawn, or perhaps have just finished spawning. There should be a good crop of baby Rainbows there, if they can survive the gauntlet of predators at Silverwood. I saw evidence of other people having fished there recently, so I think they had spooked the fish before I got there.
Eventually, I decided to go up the creek a bit and try any possible holding areas for Trout with worms. The first spot I tried, I felt something bite-like, but wasn't sure with all the vegetation and rocks in the water. My worm disappeared, so I put on another, and this time, after dipping it in the pool, there was a Trout on the hook, a nice holdover looking one about 14 inches long, finally! After landing it, I went back to the same spot, and caught another one, but this one looked stockerish and was only about 10 inches long. I kept trying the creek for awhile with no more bites, and finally gave up. I went to the spot I had seen by the lake where the trail first comes down for awhile. By this time, it was about 6 p.m. I saw a couple of large splashes in the area while I was there, but nothing bit on worms or the Kastmaster. Maybe the splashes were Stripers or large Bass going after Trout.
By that time, it had gotten to be about 6:20, and although the fishing might have gotten better around sunset, there was no way I wanted to climb back up the mountain in the dark, so I left. The trail back up was one of the steepest I have ever been on, and I was pretty much panting all the way up. I would stop every couple of minutes, but only for a few seconds. By 6:35, I made it back to my car, very grateful to be back and to have at least managed the 2 trout I caught from the stream, both of which I kept and carried back in my net. (By the way, both of them were bleeding when I caught them.) I drank my Powerade and left. I thought about fishing the creek going into Cleghorn, but there were no parking signs all around there, and I thought about fishing Cleghorn cove, but it was getting late and I was still feeling tired from my hike even though the weather was cool, so I headed home.
We already ate them for lunch, and it turned out the smaller one was apparently a recent stocker, which is pretty disappointing considering the location. The other one was apparently a stream resident, a holdover with a nice natural flavor from eating insects etc. but white meat, not the great-tasting pink-meated trout I was hoping for. Still, it was an interesting adventure, even if not quite the one I was hoping for.