West Walker River/Rock Creek/Heart Box Lake

Hit the Eastern Sierras last week. Camped at Pleasant Valley Campground. Everything in the mountains was forecasted colder than we were willing to endure.

Lower Owens is still running strong and high.

Hit Rock Creek afternoon of arrival. My son and I caught about 11 fish. Mostly near the campgrounds Not much surprise there. Fished from Iris Campground to Big Meadows. No browns caught even away from most heavy pressure areas. Did see some small, very small wild fish swimming around so there is hope for those areas to get some bigger fish next year.

Next day went to West Walker River. West of Pickerel Meadow in the canyon. Beautiful water. Running at perfect speed. Great places for fish to set up. Should have been loaded with fish. Nothing. Saw one fish. No small fish swimming around.

Hit up the Meadows next. Nothing. Not a bite. No one else caught anything either. Did not see any fish.

Headed for Sonoma Bridge. Caught three nice rainbows.

Left there and went down 395. Stopped at the campground at Chris Flat. Fished north. Nice water. Very very little in the way of fish. After 2 miles finally found a riffle above a pool that had active fish in it. Caught about 6. Had lots of bites.

Hiked to Box Lake. Great views. Lots of people in the afternoon. Looked like a city park. Mostly hikers. Fishing at box on the north shore was slow at best. We landed one. Two got off. Very disappointed in the fishing there. I did catch one 4 inch brookie in a feed creek into Heart Lake and another in Rock Creek near the Trailhead.

All fish released.

In general, my thoughts are that the CA DFW does a good job of stocking at the obvious places. And that is important. But there used to be a fair amount of fish away from the campgrounds. Maybe not big, but more "wildish". Browns and Rainbows. The canyon at Walker should have had great wild fish in it. The CADFW needs to renew its efforts to create and maintain wild fish populations. Wild at least to the point of hold overs,if not born in the wild.

Get rid of the triploid fish now. In all species, and build up a natural population that at least has a chance of sustaining itself.

Couple of things going on here. 1.) Maybe the fish weren't interested in what you were presenting (bait, spinner, dry fly or nymph) 2.) Maybe the fish were not happy about the way you presented the offerings 3) Maybe there are just too darn many people crowding into places they used only have sporadic or low pressure.

Southern CA waters are pretty much devoid of "large" wild fish in any access short of a three mile hike. Even the backcountry areas suffer from over fishing. The years of low water didn't help.
Triploids are certainly being planted up north but latest I got was that Diploids were being put into the Owens and Hot Creek. It certainly has changed in the 50+years I've fished.

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Originally Posted by Viejo

It certainly has changed in the 50+years I've fished.

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Yep the change has been dramatic in the last 50 years but being of that age group the biggest impact has been in the last 15 years or so. So many bites have changed beyond just the wild and stocked trout, feel bad for the younger generation no wonder the amount of anglers and hunters in this state have dropped significantly.

I tried to take into consideration the variables you mentioned. Bait, skill level, and pressure.

No one was around in the canyon area. And I am pretty secure in the bait and skill of presentation. Water was clear and we approached from downsteam No bites, no hits and no visual sightings. Pickerel Meadow did have pressure that day. And probably everyday. But nobody we talked to caught anything.

California has a lot of people. A lot of fisherman. And many of us are willing to hike to remote (ish) areas. The state and DFW need to monitor and respond to changing fishing conditions and pressure.

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Originally Posted by bmachale

The state and DFW need to monitor and respond to changing fishing conditions and pressure.

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That would be nice.

I wonder how much more fishing licenses are in California compared to other states.