The High Country: a short report

[Fly Guy Dave]

When I say “High Country” I’m not talking about Humboldt County, I’m talking about the High Sierra. Since August temperatures in California are typically hot, the trout fishing can get unhealthy for our finned friends, with all of the water in the lower elevation streams heating up too much, I decided to go higher up into the Range of Light to get into some fish.

My first stop is a creek which sits at around 8400 feet in elevation, that has a genetically pure strain of Lahontan Cutthroat trout in its waters. The perfect stream for a tenkara rod.



The fishing was really solid, even better than the last time I was fished here, so it appears that the fishery is healthy and doing well. Nothing huge, given the size of the stream, but the numbers more than made up for it. Here are a couple of examples:



I like the spotting pattern on the outer rim of his eye.



I headed to even higher elevations in my rig, spent the night and awoke the next day to this glorious sunrise.



I hiked into a lake that I have fished before and I’ve caught plenty of golden trout. Unfortunately, this time was a different story.



The fish were gently sipping what appeared to be midges on the surface, but they weren’t having anything that I threw at them. I tried every fly pattern I could think of: midges (practically every pattern I had), callibaetis, attractors, terrestrials, wet flies, dry flies, smaller flies, larger flies, smaller tippet, no tippet ring, with a tippet ring, etc. I eventually went with a big splashy grasshopper pattern (as there were several flying around once it warmed up a bit) and finally a big streamer on a sink tip line. Nothing. The water was clear and usually still and I could usually see my offerings looked at and rejected by the trout, they’d swim up to it and turn away, or perhaps poke it with their nose, but no strikes. I endured this for four hours until I finally gave up and bailed. Mystery not solved this time.



I retreated back to my camp to wallow in my skunk and reflect on what I could have done differently. Bottom line: it was a good to get up into the high country and cast to rising fish and enjoy the serenity and solitude before having to descend back to the heat of the lower elevations and the civilization that dwells there.

[Sheepdog8404]

Awesome report, Dave! Those cutties sure are pretty!

[mems]

Good fun, I would have tried an ant on those lake trout. Mems

[Fly Guy Dave]

I would have tried an ant on those lake trout.

That was one of the terrestrial patterns I tried, along with beetle and ladybug patterns. They were having none of it!

[cdevine]

Nice report and fish. I love going into the "High" country as well this time of the year. I'm fairly certain my brother and I fished that same lake last week for goldens. We made a 12.5 mile round trip hike from the road but we are hikers and there is an easier route. That is my only hint because I've fished this place a few times the last couple of years and have never seen a soul. One thing I did notice was water level was higher which was great and there are still good patches of snow at 10k.

Very finicky fish. We ended up getting all of them subsurface under a small indo. (brassies, midges, small PT). We tried ants, hoppers, etc and got lots of looks. We were fishing 6x tippet.

[John Sv]

Likin' this thread! Yeayaahh!!

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Old Charlie Fullerton, retired CA DF&W, said his favorite time in the high country was in early September.

He said that it usually cools off then and the fish start coming to the shores to feed.

[cdevine]

Yeah the water temps on the surface definitely a big difference from even 2-3ft below. Also you are talking about lakes typically with very little coverage and crystal clear water. You have to be pretty stealthy. Once my brother and i went down subsurface it was game one for the most part. I got to try out the 3wt superfine Orvis I just picked up. Never fished Orvis before but I really like the slower action on this rod. I've always thought of going to a 2wt for some of these places but the wind factor at 9-10k feet seems to always pop up.

Theres a couple smaller lakes in the eastern sierra that I know about with some abundant brookies that will smash anything on top.

But overall its a great time to explore up high. A lot of tahoe/eastern sierra rivers in the state are running in the mid 60's and even 70 around noon so August is usually the month i explore. September you get those sub 32 nights back and its game on in the rivers again for me. Just take a thermometer. Truckee has been getting cool again this week so I'm sure its game on but last week it was in the 90's+ up there and the water was really warming up.

[RaffiB]

Great report and pictures. Thanks for sharing!!!

Rafdawg_34

[Scott V]

Next time you want to go in with float tubes, let me know. I have a float tube and set of fins that weight about 2 pounds combined. And yes I have two of them!

Plus I'll bring my Tenkara rod.

PM me if you want.