Hot Creek last week

[DonCooksey]

Hot Creek Ranch last week. I'm sure this type of photo could be improved with HDR photography to avoid the washed-out sky. Fishing was great, by the way. Accessed through their end-of-season rod fee program.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v649/DonCooksey/IMGP1343a.jpg

[Amador]

Beautiful image anyway. You could have used a GND filter to balance out the sky also. Probably a two stop from the looks of it.

[RobK.]

Very nice photo !!!!!!!!!!!

[mems]

Aloha Don, nice picture. Looks cold to me, Mems.

[Adam Grace]

Don, how do you know what COLD feels like you live in Hawaii you big inconsiderate JERK!

Hahahahahahahaha :-)

Go eat your super-fresh and tasty saltwater fishes and leave us "mainlanders" alone to dream of your home warm tropical ISLAND home.

:-)

P.S. I'm totally missing Hawaii right now!

[troutbm]

Bueatiful pic. I find myself thinking of my coming trip there this summer after seeing your pic. Hopefully it won't be blowing 30 mph and bits of pumice arn't pelting me this time !

[Fochetti]

I'll be there next month for my first time, can't wait. If anyone has fished the ranch in late may I would love some info.

Thanks

[DonCooksey]

Dry flies only on the ranch, of course, and tiny is the key (except for later in the year when you can have good success with pretty big terrestrial patterns). I think it will be mostly BWOs in late May but maybe some small caddis also. They will have some of the most successful flies on sale at the ranch store, but if you want to tie some up in advance, I would suggest sparkle duns and parachute adams in #18 and smaller. I've also had good luck with various flies in the Bob Brooks "Sprout" series that I purchased at the ranch. Brook's Hot Creek Caddis is also effective. For your first time to the Ranch, I recommend springing for the "Introduction to Hot Creek" walking tour. On my first trip there, I fished the evening I arrived but was not very successful (even using flies they recommended). The next morning, I took the Intro tour (with former riverkeeper Bill Nichols) and gained an understanding of the place that would have taken me years to learn on my own. I hooked over 20 fish and landed over a dozen that day and just about every day I've fished there since. Fishing the Ranch seems very different to me than the public sections.

Just thinking about it makes me want to go back there, especially after seeing several huge browns spawning there in November (in the flats section just downstream from the boulder in my photo). They looked and behaved like king salmon on their reds and had to be in the 6-10 lb range. Catching one on a #20 dry could be fun, but I doubt that many of them stick around that far upstream all year anyway. My guess is that they were from Crowley Lake, somehow blasting up through the hot springs area for spawning in the fall. Some huge fish do show up there now and then during the regular season, however. http://www.sierradrifters.com/reports2/May_4_2006.htm

[Fochetti]

Holy *%#&, those browns are amazing. Thanks for the post.

John