Carson River, of the Eastern Variety

[lcpl.allan]

The day started out as a crisp, mild, kind of late morning, through a dirty windshield.
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After a short twenty minute drive I arrived at the rally point for what would be the trip of the year for me.
After waiting about ten minutes, and getting one last little girls room break in, our ride arrived.
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We would be heading to the East Carson in a Cessna 182 Skyhawk built in roughly 1979. We quickly loaded our gear into the bird and got situated in our seats and moments after starting up and talking with Mather tower we were cleared for take-off.
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After a flight that took about the same amount of time for me to drive to the flight line we were passing by horse tail falls and getting an absolutely beautiful view.
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Then, after about another ten minutes we saw it, our destination, Alpine County Airport just north of Markleville, CA and just a short walk from a nice stretch of water.
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After circling our way down to lose altitude we landed smoothly and quickly were off the runway to clear our bladders and start the twenty minute walk down to the river where we ran into a couple friendly fly fisherman getting ready to head to the river as well.

[lcpl.allan]

Upon getting to the river we began giving our pilot a crash course on fly casting and reading the river and bug identification.
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After a couple hours of missed hits and snagged bushes it happened. In the shadow of a tree there was a quick splash of water and suddenly a run of line off the spool almost all the way to the backing. After radioing to my buddy to bring a net I returned my focus to the task at hand, not snapping my 5x tippet that was holding what I was assuming was a pig on the other end.
After walking about 40 yards down stream and making my way down to the river side and about a seven minute fight we finally had her in the net!
She turned out to be an 18" almost four pound beautiful rainbow.
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After taking my trophy pictures I spent the next five minutes reviving her and waiting for her to shake herself lose from my hands and swim off in the clear crisp water.
After a quick lunch of sandwiches and chips we were back on the water and after multiple missed strikes and looking at these little guys
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we decided to call it a day and dry out our feet and pack things up and start the fairly arduous climb back up the hill to the plane.
Our view out of the valley was absolutely beautiful and got a wonderful view of the Carson river and Markleville.
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We left the river beat tired, bewildered as to why it didn't fish as well as expected, out of water, and happy to have passed on the love of fly fishing to a friend in exchange for a ride to and from the river.
Possibly being my last fishing trip of the season due to family and work obligations I am over joyed that I could spend it with two friends, one whom was celebrating his 41st birthday, and having an experience that most save a life time to be able to experience, flying in to their fishing grounds.



Happy birthday Billy B. I look forward to years of wonderful fishing trips, stories of women past, family, and beer drinking to come.

[Jaybinder]

Very cool trip. E. Carson must be the perfect fly in river. You can park a plane closer than a car.

[Fly Guy Dave]

I've fished the EC for years, but I've never flown in. Looks like a great way to do it. Perhaps you might talk your pilot friend into taking a longer jaunt to Idaho. There are some rural airstrips WAY out in the Selway and Frank Church wildernesses which put you right next to the river and some fantastic fishing for WS Cutts. Again, I'VE never done it, but I've seen some of the runways, and I know a guy that has made the trip several times.

Nice fish, BTW.

Cheers!

--Fly Guy Dave

[ted1]

Nice pic of horsetail, i'm on my way to lake aloha (the farthest up in that pic) right now, glad to see horsetail is still flowing well. Hope to catch some little guys on the way up.

[BillyB]

Great day. My birthday present was to net your fish and take those photos of you with the pig? Josh also got to fly home. Although he is a helicopter pilot it was his first time flying a C172. I'm off to fish the McCloud on Thurs. Wish you could come.

[lcpl.allan]

You mean to tell me you didn't enjoy doing that Bill?? You could have fooled me.
Two of the trips that I wanted to take the most this year I couldn't make. Although nothing will make up for missing the McCloud Thursday was a close second.

[EricO]

Cool report Lcpl Allan!

What a treat to see that entire valley from your vantage point.

Nice fish to boot.

Oh and I agree wholeheartedly with FlyGuy.....you could fly to Idaho
and fish some sweet water....and be there in a reasonable timeframe.

Let me know if you need an extra body ;) ;)

EO

[boomer4]

Great report. Great seeing the photos and story from the persepective of the "rest of the story", for I was one of those friendly fly fisherman you ran into on the river. Your right, great looking fish.

[lcpl.allan]

Boomer, I'm glad to have met a fellow board member from here out on the rivers. How did the rest of your day end up? You're heading up to The Fly Shop this Saturday correct? If that's right give my cousin Cory a hello for me.

I emailed him a picture of the fish asking if it was a hatchery or native and here was his response.
“Hatchery!! The dorsal fin. it's round not perfectly triangle and that pectoral fin is a contact break that didn't get to heal properly due to the close quarters they keep the fish in during the early stages of life.”

Kind of a bummer but was still a great fight.

[boomer4]

We didn't quite make it to the fly shot that day, as we put in at Anderson. We caught a few that day on the Lower Sac, but I do make it the shop from time to time, so next time I will say hi to Cory. Regarding the Carson, we fished it pretty hard that day right up to dusk before heading back to Sac. We caught quite a few, but you gotta earn them there. Fun river.

[lcpl.allan]

By the time I ran into you guys again further down river it seemed you were beating us in the numbers game.
It's definitely a really fun river to fish. Getting around is a bit of a pain, even for a young whipper snapper like me, I think you earn every fish you catch when you hike out of that place.

Where did you guys head to in the evening? We walked out around 4:00 and saw you had moved on.

[mark]

I've fished the EC for years, but I've never flown in. Looks like a great way to do it. Perhaps you might talk your pilot friend into taking a longer jaunt to Idaho. There are some rural airstrips WAY out in the Selway and Frank Church wildernesses which put you right next to the river and some fantastic fishing for WS Cutts. Again, I'VE never done it, but I've seen some of the runways, and I know a guy that has made the trip several times.

Nice fish, BTW.

Cheers!

--Fly Guy Dave

done it several times and it is WAY worth it. There is a whole book on the airstrips in that area. If you can talk your buddy into doing it, its a fantastic trip. PM me for info if you have questions....... there are many different strips and I have fished at about 10 of them, can tell you which to avoid and which to go give a try.