Mid-Fork Stan Report

Was visiting a friend in Sonora on Saturday and decided to check out the high country on Sunday and see what was cooking.

I went up to Kennedy Meadows. The horseback riding season is in full swing. There was a horsemans association having a big outing at the horse camp in the meadow and lots day rides and pack trips were coming in and out the stables.

I walked up to the footbridge above the horse camp. The water (Middle Fork Stanislaus River) is still raging big and fast and was un-fishable for a fly rod - at least un-fishable for me. The pocket water downstream of the footbridge is usually very good for a tenkara rod but it looked treacherous just getting near the waters edge so I didn't even bother extending the rod.

Down in the meadow the water is as high as I've ever seen it. One bend I particularly like to fish was now waaay out in the distance and the bank that I usually stand on was an island surrounded by surprisingly deep water. I never wear waders here, just wet-wading if I need to wade at all, but it probably wouldn't have been worth the effort wadering up this day.

I fished along the edges, seams and through the likely tail-outs as best I could but I was unable bring anything up to a dry. I think some of the folks throwing spinners managed a fish or two.

On the positive side the water clarity was excellent. Also, PG&E is managing a big stream bank rehabilitation and riparian restoration project in the meadow.

https://www.billkiene.com/forums/ass...2&d=1564696656

https://www.billkiene.com/forums/ass...2&d=1564695934

https://www.billkiene.com/forums/ass...2&d=1564696036
(It's deeper than it looks...)

I'll come back here in October and hopefully the water levels will be a bit more fishable.

The water in the Clark Fork was huge and frothy as well.

On the negative side was the trip back down Hwy. 108. I guess it's been a while since I've driven west on 108 on a summer Sunday afternoon but this was an entirely new level of pain. The traffic was f'ing horrible. I was crawling from midtown Sonora all the way to the Lake Tulloch/Copperopolis turn, west of the Hwy. 120 split. I turned at Copperopolis and took the Delta roads home. I just couldn't face dealing with the rest of 108 through Oakdale and then over the Altamont pass and everything else that comes with it.

California is way too crowded nowadays. Bleh.

Driving home from anywhere on Sunday can be very bad.....

Being retired we go to the mountains or coast on Mondays and come home on Thursdays in the summer.




Kiene's Fly Shop has group pack trips out of Frontier Pack Train:

https://www.kienesflyfishingtravel.c...ier-pack-train


Great father/mother - son/daughter trips.

Thanks for the report. I am wondering why PGE is doing stream restoration. Any info on that?

I got killed in traffic on Labor Day once coming back on 108 and 120. I got stuck behind a guy towing something called the Party Barge. That was a rough day.

John H,

I believe PGE agreed to do the stream restoration as part of the FERC relicensing of the Spring Gap-Stanislaus Hydro Project.

Also I believe it was agreed upon as part of PGE's "Land Conservation Commitment" to Tuolumne County by the Stewardship Council created in 2004 due to promises made during that bankruptcy. Attached is a site explaining the Stewardship Council and identifying other previous owned PGE lands now under the Land Conservation Commitment.

http://www.stewardshipcouncil.org/la...vation/faq.htm