July/August Fishing Trip

[Fly Guy Dave]

My typical M.O. when it comes to my big fishing trip is I travel to some Rocky Mountain State, fly fish for a couple of weeks and then swing by Oregon to see family that resides there. This time I did it in a reverse order: family first, then fishing. After visiting for a few days I started out in the eastern part of the beaver state, where I didn’t see any Bundys, but plenty of mosquitoes and redband trout that rose with abandon to just about any dry fly I chose to fling on the water.

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I headed south through Nevada and into California, destination: a rather desolate mountain range that I’ve explored a bit, but this time there was a rumor of cutthroat trout that allegedly were in a stream that wasn’t supposed to contain them at all. The road in certainly needed 4WD, and the rumor turned out to be just that: a rumor. Rainbows aplenty, no cutts. The rainbows were not even hybridized one bit, so so much for fishing rumors, eh?

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I then meandered over to the range of light and got high…in elevation! I fished streams and lakes that contained the California state fish and enjoyed my own little gold rush.


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I also enjoyed some nice sunsets along the way too, including this one over Mono Lake.

https://i.imgur.com/mmO6soQ.jpg

I hit some other spots on the east side on my way home, but you get the idea…

Enjoy!

[John H]

Dave - Very nice loop through a few states. The Great Basin is a wild place. You have caught a very impressive variety of salmonids and other fish. I got interested in that for a while. It was a lot of work to track down those fish in the remote locations where they still exist but it took me to some interesting places. I once drove to the Mary’s River in northern Nevada. I drove on a 50 mile long dirt road and was worried about a vehicle breakdown. When I got out of the car I saw a huge rattlesnake under a rock which freaked me out. I saw sage grouse everywhere but I could not find a trout. After that I went through Jarbridge and did find some trout there then went up to Yellowstone where I found a whole bunch of trout.

[Langenbeck]

An absolutely wonderful post!!!

[Fly Guy Dave]

Hey John-

Yeah, I'm all about the native trout. Searching for them was required me to drive or hike into some really remote places, like you mentioned. I try and anticipate everything that might go wrong and try and have a plan of action for that. No vehicle breakdowns, but I did get one flat tire, which was easily changed, but nothing major. Some people like numbers of fish, others size, I groove on the variety of salmonid species. To each their own, I guess.

Cheers!

--F.G. Dave

[hwchubb]

A bum knee has prevented me from mining remote gold this summer, which we have done over the previous few. I’ve wanted to fish that other range for 30 years, somehow haven’t managed the time. Thanks for letting me live vicariously through your post!

And John, your recent photography post had me pulling out some tops maps. Thanks for all your fabulous posts on the photography thread, although you may have intimidated everyone else that thought about posting there!

[BobVP]

Great post. Thank you.

[SilviaDanner]

Your photos always inspire me!
http://fixthephoto.com/blog/retouch-tips/best-photoshop-tutorials-on-youtube.html

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

This is a 5 star post.......how inspiring........thanks so much.



Somehow I was not a high country guy but wish I would have done more.

Did some high country horse/mule pack trips with Red's Meadows out of Mammoth.