Natural Lefty
09-06-2012, 04:44 PM
So, after leaving Washington state, we did a little touring of Oregon, but no fishing. I wanted to fish but decided that with the trouble and expense, we might as well save it for northern Cal. My wife wanted to see the Oregon coast, so we took a side trip to a place called Florence, Oregon. It was nice there but really expensive. My wife kept asking about eating Dungeness Crab, but it was more expensive than in California. One place in Florence had all you can eat Dungeness for $65. We said forget it. I told my wife it's the same crab we have in California, anyway.
Next, we went to see a lighthouse along the coast, where we could see the ocean. While we were there, we noticed a bunch of Blackberries (yet again) and Blue Huckleberries, so we had another berry snack. I also picked some wild Fennel in Florence which we ate with dinner.
http://i1082.photobucket.com/albums/j368/NaturalLefty/Oregoncoast.jpg
There were an amazing number of natural lakes in the area near the ocean, along with the rivers. The lakes were apparently created by sand dunes, so it was a very interesting area. Along with the ocean fishing, there are a lot of fishing possibilities in the area, so we are thinking of it in terms of a future trip.
However, we continued onward to California the next day, August 21. I had my heart set on going to a lake called Castle Lake near Dunsmuir. Well, I missed the turnoff for the Castle Lake road, and wound up on a one lane road that went on for quite a ways. I thought something didn't look right, so I lowered my window and asked a man in a pickup truck as we were squeezing by each other. He told me that I had missed the turn and we were on the road to Gumboot Lake, so we turned around and eventually made it to Castle Lake. It was a very pretty lake, but nothing was biting. The outlet end of the lake where the road goes, is shallow, while the other end has a cliff and is 120 feet deep. I am guessing all the fish were in deeper water with the hot summer weather. There were a surprising number of people there (7 mile drive on a nice, 2 lane road), but we were the only people who were fishing. This lake has had its Brook Trout population studied for quite some time, so it is rather famous among ichthyologists. I suppose if I had asked the ichthyologists, they would have told me that the Brookies were in deeper water. I did find the outlet creek, which wasn't where I expected, and a pool in the little creek that had a lot of small trout. I did manage to catch one 7 incher on a worm, and missed several bites and strikes on flies, but that was it. The fish was a Rainbow, not a Brookie. I am guessing the creek was a bit warm for the Brookies.
http://i1082.photobucket.com/albums/j368/NaturalLefty/Fresno2012/Castlelake.jpg
After giving up on Castle Lake, we decided to head for Siskiyou Lake which was closer to the freeway in that area. While approaching Siskiyoui Lake, we found a little parking lot, which not surprisingly, had a bunch of Blackberries growing nearby, so we ate some. Then I found some peapods. I opened them up, tasted one cautiously, and they were just like peas, only better. I later found out that these are Sierra Peas. You are not supposed to eat too many of them, but we didn't, just a few pods which were delicious and caused no ill effects. I took a photo of Eunice with a Sierra Pea that was still blooming.
http://i1082.photobucket.com/albums/j368/NaturalLefty/Fresno2012/Wildpeassiskiyoiu.jpg
After our little nature adventure by the parking lot, we made our way to a resort at Siskiyou Lake. It turns out that they have a fishing dock, and visitors can enter the resort for only $1 each. The dock looked nifty, but the fishing there was just as disappointing as at Castle Lake. Siskiyou Lake has a lot of Smallmouth Bass and Green Sunfish, along with Rainbow and Brown Trout. However, we mostly saw baby Smallmouth and small Green Sunfish swimming around, plus one 10 inch trout that kept swimming near us but ignored our baits. We did have some bites, but the only fish was a decent size 7 inch Green Sunfish that I caught from under the dock. We kept trying casting out with Power Bait, Zekes or worms to no avail.
There I am at the lovely dock at Siskiyou Lake.
http://i1082.photobucket.com/albums/j368/NaturalLefty/Fresno2012/Siskiyoulak.jpg
After giving up there, we headed for Redding. That night, we couldn't decide whether to head for Lassen NP and then down the east side of the Sierras, or head south and maybe fish the Sierras in the Fresno area, where I have never fished before other than a couple of backpacking trips a long time ago. Mother Nature made that decision for us, as when we awoke the next morning, the air all around us was smoky, and a couple of evacuees from the Lassen area told us that all the roads to that area were closed by fires. They said that even inside the park there was a lot of fire. These were natural fires caused by dry lightning strikes that came with the same monsoonal moisture we have been experiencing around here.
Thus, we packed up and headed south the next day (August 22). I was determined to keep driving until there was no more smoke in the air. The smoke continued most of the way to Fresno, in fact. When we got to Fresno, we made a left turn and headed into the mountains. I was intrigued by the big pipe inlet that pumps a river of water into Huntington Lake, so we wound up there around 7 p.m. There were lots of fish surfacing, but they would not bite on anything we tried including flies, lures or Power Bait. Sometimes, we could see fish jump completely out of the water, and it appeared to me that most of them were Brown Trout, around 10 inches long or so mostly. We gave up around 8 p.m. and headed back to Fresno to a Motel 6. This was my first time being skunked in California since April of last year a Big Bear, by the way, although we only fished an hour, and there was obviously no lack of fish in the area. They were being really picky for some reason. If only we knew what they were feeding on...
http://i1082.photobucket.com/albums/j368/NaturalLefty/Fresno2012/Huntingtoninletpipe.jpg
http://i1082.photobucket.com/albums/j368/NaturalLefty/Fresno2012/Huntingtonpickyfishinlet.jpg
We wound up staying at the same motel in Fresno for 3 nights. The next day, we decided to try Shaver Lake. We also bought some worms at a fishing store there. The spot we found at Shaver Lake had a lot of people swimming, much like the first couple of lakes we tried in Washington state. It also had lots of baby Smallmouth swimming there. I caught one on a worm, then quickly caught 3 more on flies. These were tiny critters, like 3 inches long, which are babies even at Shaver Lake although the bass there are reportedly stunted. Eunice joined me there after a while, but after trying for something bigger by casting farther out, we quickly gave up and decided to move along.
As I was driving, Eunice informed me that she noticed a deep looking creek, so I stopped the car, and sure enough, there was a nice deep creek there. Some people can probably figure out which creek it is by the description, but anyway I will just describe it rather than naming it. My wife told me to give it a short try, then report back to her. In about 10 minutes, in one pool, I caught a couple of 6-7 inch Smallmouth that I put back, then hooked a nice size Rainbow Trout of about 12 inches, which got stuck on an underwater branch and made me break my line, all on worms attached to one of my friend Leo's (AsianGuy's) jigs that he gave me in return for giving him some fly tying equipment.
When I told Eunice of my success, we decided to fish the creek, but headed for a spot farther upstream, away from the road. In short, the place was packed with fish and the fishing was excellent, although most of the fish were stunted Smallmouth from 6-10 inches long. I think the males were 6-7 inches, and the females, the 9-10 inchers. We both caught quite a few fish in a couple of pools over the next couple of hours, probably around 30 fish in all. In addition to the Smallmouth, Eunice lost another nice size trout that came off the hook, and 2 good size, 8 inch Bluegills. I caught a third Bluegill a little while later. It was almost shocking to see Bluegills like that in a mountain stream. I caught a couple of fish on jigs, but most of them were on worms on a jig, or worms on a mosquito hook.
http://i1082.photobucket.com/albums/j368/NaturalLefty/Fresno2012/Eunicescreek3.jpg
http://i1082.photobucket.com/albums/j368/NaturalLefty/Fresno2012/SmallmouthatEunicescreek.jpg
We eventually decided to give the inlet at Huntington Lake another try, this time with worms, but the fish showed no more interest in the worms than they had in our other baits, so we called it a day.
The next day was our final day of fishing. Eunice wanted me to give my original spot on "her creek" another try. When I got there, I saw an even larger trout of 15-16 inches in the pool below me. I tried unsuccessfully to get it to bite for a few minutes, but it finally slunk away to another part of the pool. I did catch another Smallmouth, somewhat larger than the day before, then I finally landed a trout, another nice 12 incher. (I measured it.) By the time Eunice joined me, the fish had stopped biting there. though.
I decided to try Portal Forebay, a small holding reservoir which is past Huntington Lake and Kaiser Pass on a one lane road. I know I had been on that road a couple of times before, but my eldest brother was driving. Either I didn't remember how bad it was, or the road has deteriorated over the years, with rocks sticking out of the pavement, potholes, blind turns, and many stretches of 50-100 feet where I couldn't see how 2 cars could pass each other. Either one car or the other would have to back up, and the road was of course far from being on level ground. I think they need to redo that road. (The road to Shaver and Huntington lakes is quite nice, by way of contrast.) Anyway, we didn't encounter any cars while going around blind curves, and always found wide spots for car passing when we did see a car coming the other way, and we eventually made it to Portal Forebay. To my surprise, we saw a camper parked along the other side of the lake, by the dam.
The fishing in Portal Forebay was fairly good. I caught a couple of smallish Rainbows by the inlet on worms while Eunice read in the car. I was hoping for Brown Trout or Brook Trout, but these did appear to be wild fish although I know that this lake is stocked. Eventually, the fishing slowed down so by the time that Eunice joined me, she was out of luck again. Finally, I decided to try a deeper looking slope along the south side of the lake. On the way there, I was surprised to see a second inlet. On my first cast along the deeper slope, with a Prince Nymph, I recieved a hard strike, and proceeded to land a 10 inch Brown Trout, a pleasant surprise. After that, neither of us had any more bites at the Forebay, though.
There I am with my Brown Trout from Portal Forebay.
http://i1082.photobucket.com/albums/j368/NaturalLefty/Fresno2012/PortalForebayBrownTrout.jpg
We decided to head back to "my wife's creek" before it got too late. We tried a new spot that had rushier water, and to my surprise, Smallmouth were abundant there, too. Eunice hooked a nicer size one, but it came off. She said her knees were bothering her from all the clamboring over rocks that we had been doing, so she told me to make a quick, 15 minute fishing trip to a spot of my choice along the creek, and "catch fish 1-2-3." As it turns out, I cuaght five fish in that 15 minutes, 4 of those 6-10 inch Smallmouth, plus the prize of the trip, a 15 inch Brown Trout which is my personal best, beating a 13 1/2 incher. I know my bar wasn't too high, but it's still a personal best and a nice size fish. When I looked at it more closely, I noticed a lack of red spots, making it one of those reltively rare Brown Trout we always called "Loch Levens" that originated in Scotland.
We caught most of the fish from "my wife's creek" using worms on Leo's jigs, but by the end, the bass were slamming a Crawfish pattern jig every time. I missed a bunch of bites and lost several fish during that last fishing session too, so it was definitely "wide open," but this was right around dusk, just before 8 p.m so the fishing figured to be really good.
By the time we got a photo of my larger Brown Trout, we were in our motel room, and I did look a wee bit tired by then. I guess that meant we were ready to go home after that fitting ending to the trip.
http://i1082.photobucket.com/albums/j368/NaturalLefty/Fresno2012/EunicescreekBrownTrout.jpg
The next day, August 25, we headed home, with a stopover at daughter Isabella's house on the way. We were too worn out for any fishing that day and I haven't had a chance to fish since then, but we certainly do have the memories.
Next, we went to see a lighthouse along the coast, where we could see the ocean. While we were there, we noticed a bunch of Blackberries (yet again) and Blue Huckleberries, so we had another berry snack. I also picked some wild Fennel in Florence which we ate with dinner.
http://i1082.photobucket.com/albums/j368/NaturalLefty/Oregoncoast.jpg
There were an amazing number of natural lakes in the area near the ocean, along with the rivers. The lakes were apparently created by sand dunes, so it was a very interesting area. Along with the ocean fishing, there are a lot of fishing possibilities in the area, so we are thinking of it in terms of a future trip.
However, we continued onward to California the next day, August 21. I had my heart set on going to a lake called Castle Lake near Dunsmuir. Well, I missed the turnoff for the Castle Lake road, and wound up on a one lane road that went on for quite a ways. I thought something didn't look right, so I lowered my window and asked a man in a pickup truck as we were squeezing by each other. He told me that I had missed the turn and we were on the road to Gumboot Lake, so we turned around and eventually made it to Castle Lake. It was a very pretty lake, but nothing was biting. The outlet end of the lake where the road goes, is shallow, while the other end has a cliff and is 120 feet deep. I am guessing all the fish were in deeper water with the hot summer weather. There were a surprising number of people there (7 mile drive on a nice, 2 lane road), but we were the only people who were fishing. This lake has had its Brook Trout population studied for quite some time, so it is rather famous among ichthyologists. I suppose if I had asked the ichthyologists, they would have told me that the Brookies were in deeper water. I did find the outlet creek, which wasn't where I expected, and a pool in the little creek that had a lot of small trout. I did manage to catch one 7 incher on a worm, and missed several bites and strikes on flies, but that was it. The fish was a Rainbow, not a Brookie. I am guessing the creek was a bit warm for the Brookies.
http://i1082.photobucket.com/albums/j368/NaturalLefty/Fresno2012/Castlelake.jpg
After giving up on Castle Lake, we decided to head for Siskiyou Lake which was closer to the freeway in that area. While approaching Siskiyoui Lake, we found a little parking lot, which not surprisingly, had a bunch of Blackberries growing nearby, so we ate some. Then I found some peapods. I opened them up, tasted one cautiously, and they were just like peas, only better. I later found out that these are Sierra Peas. You are not supposed to eat too many of them, but we didn't, just a few pods which were delicious and caused no ill effects. I took a photo of Eunice with a Sierra Pea that was still blooming.
http://i1082.photobucket.com/albums/j368/NaturalLefty/Fresno2012/Wildpeassiskiyoiu.jpg
After our little nature adventure by the parking lot, we made our way to a resort at Siskiyou Lake. It turns out that they have a fishing dock, and visitors can enter the resort for only $1 each. The dock looked nifty, but the fishing there was just as disappointing as at Castle Lake. Siskiyou Lake has a lot of Smallmouth Bass and Green Sunfish, along with Rainbow and Brown Trout. However, we mostly saw baby Smallmouth and small Green Sunfish swimming around, plus one 10 inch trout that kept swimming near us but ignored our baits. We did have some bites, but the only fish was a decent size 7 inch Green Sunfish that I caught from under the dock. We kept trying casting out with Power Bait, Zekes or worms to no avail.
There I am at the lovely dock at Siskiyou Lake.
http://i1082.photobucket.com/albums/j368/NaturalLefty/Fresno2012/Siskiyoulak.jpg
After giving up there, we headed for Redding. That night, we couldn't decide whether to head for Lassen NP and then down the east side of the Sierras, or head south and maybe fish the Sierras in the Fresno area, where I have never fished before other than a couple of backpacking trips a long time ago. Mother Nature made that decision for us, as when we awoke the next morning, the air all around us was smoky, and a couple of evacuees from the Lassen area told us that all the roads to that area were closed by fires. They said that even inside the park there was a lot of fire. These were natural fires caused by dry lightning strikes that came with the same monsoonal moisture we have been experiencing around here.
Thus, we packed up and headed south the next day (August 22). I was determined to keep driving until there was no more smoke in the air. The smoke continued most of the way to Fresno, in fact. When we got to Fresno, we made a left turn and headed into the mountains. I was intrigued by the big pipe inlet that pumps a river of water into Huntington Lake, so we wound up there around 7 p.m. There were lots of fish surfacing, but they would not bite on anything we tried including flies, lures or Power Bait. Sometimes, we could see fish jump completely out of the water, and it appeared to me that most of them were Brown Trout, around 10 inches long or so mostly. We gave up around 8 p.m. and headed back to Fresno to a Motel 6. This was my first time being skunked in California since April of last year a Big Bear, by the way, although we only fished an hour, and there was obviously no lack of fish in the area. They were being really picky for some reason. If only we knew what they were feeding on...
http://i1082.photobucket.com/albums/j368/NaturalLefty/Fresno2012/Huntingtoninletpipe.jpg
http://i1082.photobucket.com/albums/j368/NaturalLefty/Fresno2012/Huntingtonpickyfishinlet.jpg
We wound up staying at the same motel in Fresno for 3 nights. The next day, we decided to try Shaver Lake. We also bought some worms at a fishing store there. The spot we found at Shaver Lake had a lot of people swimming, much like the first couple of lakes we tried in Washington state. It also had lots of baby Smallmouth swimming there. I caught one on a worm, then quickly caught 3 more on flies. These were tiny critters, like 3 inches long, which are babies even at Shaver Lake although the bass there are reportedly stunted. Eunice joined me there after a while, but after trying for something bigger by casting farther out, we quickly gave up and decided to move along.
As I was driving, Eunice informed me that she noticed a deep looking creek, so I stopped the car, and sure enough, there was a nice deep creek there. Some people can probably figure out which creek it is by the description, but anyway I will just describe it rather than naming it. My wife told me to give it a short try, then report back to her. In about 10 minutes, in one pool, I caught a couple of 6-7 inch Smallmouth that I put back, then hooked a nice size Rainbow Trout of about 12 inches, which got stuck on an underwater branch and made me break my line, all on worms attached to one of my friend Leo's (AsianGuy's) jigs that he gave me in return for giving him some fly tying equipment.
When I told Eunice of my success, we decided to fish the creek, but headed for a spot farther upstream, away from the road. In short, the place was packed with fish and the fishing was excellent, although most of the fish were stunted Smallmouth from 6-10 inches long. I think the males were 6-7 inches, and the females, the 9-10 inchers. We both caught quite a few fish in a couple of pools over the next couple of hours, probably around 30 fish in all. In addition to the Smallmouth, Eunice lost another nice size trout that came off the hook, and 2 good size, 8 inch Bluegills. I caught a third Bluegill a little while later. It was almost shocking to see Bluegills like that in a mountain stream. I caught a couple of fish on jigs, but most of them were on worms on a jig, or worms on a mosquito hook.
http://i1082.photobucket.com/albums/j368/NaturalLefty/Fresno2012/Eunicescreek3.jpg
http://i1082.photobucket.com/albums/j368/NaturalLefty/Fresno2012/SmallmouthatEunicescreek.jpg
We eventually decided to give the inlet at Huntington Lake another try, this time with worms, but the fish showed no more interest in the worms than they had in our other baits, so we called it a day.
The next day was our final day of fishing. Eunice wanted me to give my original spot on "her creek" another try. When I got there, I saw an even larger trout of 15-16 inches in the pool below me. I tried unsuccessfully to get it to bite for a few minutes, but it finally slunk away to another part of the pool. I did catch another Smallmouth, somewhat larger than the day before, then I finally landed a trout, another nice 12 incher. (I measured it.) By the time Eunice joined me, the fish had stopped biting there. though.
I decided to try Portal Forebay, a small holding reservoir which is past Huntington Lake and Kaiser Pass on a one lane road. I know I had been on that road a couple of times before, but my eldest brother was driving. Either I didn't remember how bad it was, or the road has deteriorated over the years, with rocks sticking out of the pavement, potholes, blind turns, and many stretches of 50-100 feet where I couldn't see how 2 cars could pass each other. Either one car or the other would have to back up, and the road was of course far from being on level ground. I think they need to redo that road. (The road to Shaver and Huntington lakes is quite nice, by way of contrast.) Anyway, we didn't encounter any cars while going around blind curves, and always found wide spots for car passing when we did see a car coming the other way, and we eventually made it to Portal Forebay. To my surprise, we saw a camper parked along the other side of the lake, by the dam.
The fishing in Portal Forebay was fairly good. I caught a couple of smallish Rainbows by the inlet on worms while Eunice read in the car. I was hoping for Brown Trout or Brook Trout, but these did appear to be wild fish although I know that this lake is stocked. Eventually, the fishing slowed down so by the time that Eunice joined me, she was out of luck again. Finally, I decided to try a deeper looking slope along the south side of the lake. On the way there, I was surprised to see a second inlet. On my first cast along the deeper slope, with a Prince Nymph, I recieved a hard strike, and proceeded to land a 10 inch Brown Trout, a pleasant surprise. After that, neither of us had any more bites at the Forebay, though.
There I am with my Brown Trout from Portal Forebay.
http://i1082.photobucket.com/albums/j368/NaturalLefty/Fresno2012/PortalForebayBrownTrout.jpg
We decided to head back to "my wife's creek" before it got too late. We tried a new spot that had rushier water, and to my surprise, Smallmouth were abundant there, too. Eunice hooked a nicer size one, but it came off. She said her knees were bothering her from all the clamboring over rocks that we had been doing, so she told me to make a quick, 15 minute fishing trip to a spot of my choice along the creek, and "catch fish 1-2-3." As it turns out, I cuaght five fish in that 15 minutes, 4 of those 6-10 inch Smallmouth, plus the prize of the trip, a 15 inch Brown Trout which is my personal best, beating a 13 1/2 incher. I know my bar wasn't too high, but it's still a personal best and a nice size fish. When I looked at it more closely, I noticed a lack of red spots, making it one of those reltively rare Brown Trout we always called "Loch Levens" that originated in Scotland.
We caught most of the fish from "my wife's creek" using worms on Leo's jigs, but by the end, the bass were slamming a Crawfish pattern jig every time. I missed a bunch of bites and lost several fish during that last fishing session too, so it was definitely "wide open," but this was right around dusk, just before 8 p.m so the fishing figured to be really good.
By the time we got a photo of my larger Brown Trout, we were in our motel room, and I did look a wee bit tired by then. I guess that meant we were ready to go home after that fitting ending to the trip.
http://i1082.photobucket.com/albums/j368/NaturalLefty/Fresno2012/EunicescreekBrownTrout.jpg
The next day, August 25, we headed home, with a stopover at daughter Isabella's house on the way. We were too worn out for any fishing that day and I haven't had a chance to fish since then, but we certainly do have the memories.