NoCal Vacation - McCloud River 7/1/08 w/pix
Well, it is that time a year again. A lil trip to Mt Shasta for family time and some fishing
Since my computer time is being monitored by G-Spot, I will keep this short and sweet….suuuure I will :p
We rolled into Dunsmuir last night around dusk with just enough time to hit the city park for 20-30 minutes of light fishing. I threw a dry fly for the entire time with no love. I saw a few small rainbows but they weren’t playing.
Today the plan was to check out the McCloud Reservoir for some great fishing that my wife remembers with her pop…..she forgot to mention there is really no GOOD shore access for family fishing. What a sweet body of water if you have a boat for trolling. A couple of locals said the bite was good from 8-10’ deep with a spoon or night crawler trailing a flasher or dodger. Both also mentioned how crowded the lake was with 4th of July right around the corner. There may have been 13 to 15 boats on the water….looks crowded to me –lol
We then decided to run the McCloud river today…and somehow the focus of our trip seemed to be sight seeing as opposed to letting the fish know G$ was in town. We stopped by the lower falls first. There was a guy dropping crawlers off the cliff into the pool and he hooked a few small bows. Above the falls I saw an area with a couple of sweet browns and a few small bows but there was already a few fly guys there not having any luck.
We relocated to the upper falls where I decided to immediately run away from the mini van with my rod and gear…wahooo….game on!
I fished for about 3 or 4 hours with a consistent bite throughout the entire time. I got no love on my small spinners and roosters so I switched to fly lining crawlers. A few guys around us were also doing well but we were going 2:1 to them easily. I had a red glass bead sliding above the hook. All hooks were crimped. After catching about 15 fish with the largest being about 10” I switched to a fly lined power mouse. Much tougher fishing but the game was still on. We left the first spot after about 20 fish consisting of rainbows, a few sweet browns and Maggie got 1 small red band trout (this is the first one I have ever seen…what a pretty fish native to the McCloud area) – WAHOO. All but 2 of today’s fish were successfully released. The two were hooked deep and bleeding pretty hard by the time they got to shore.
My family had already moved to a little area up river for some relaxation and swimming so I moved in by them but continued to work the fishies. I got a few more small bows and a few more browns. The brown shown in the photos below had the brightest colors I have ever seen in a brown. Tami was quick with the camera but the shadows and sun didn’t do it justice.
That’s all for tonight….Im off to Lake Siskiyou in the morning. The lake is as full as I have ever seen it. Amazing that just late October the lake was the lowest I had ever seen. I will report back tomorrow
Hope everyone has a great week
Laters
G$
McCloud Reservoir looks crowded to me - heh
McCloud River - Lower Falls
McCloud River - Upper Falls
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