A Tale of Tenacity: A Fish Report

[Fly Guy Dave]

After a bit of recon of the area the year before, AG and I decided to take a short backpacking and fishing trip in order to catch a special species of trout. It was only about five miles in to our destination, and what we thought would be a pretty straightforward trip turned out to be a test of our endurance and tenacity. The trail starts out simply enough, an old mining road, but it has degraded to a loose rock strewn path, which makes for many ankle-turning and balance issues. On top of that, a stream decided that the old road was a better course to follow than its traditional path, so it was quite muddy and slippery as well. That is the first mile or so. The second issue is finding the path off of the old mining road. That took some searching and much GPS consulting, but we eventually found it. After that, it was a constant search for the path and the scattered cairns that people have left along the very primitive trail. Some were easy to see, others, not so much. That was what we had to contend with for the next three miles. After you reach the top of the ridge, it is flat, but now we were at an altitude of over 10,000 feet, so pounding hearts and shortness of breath were the latest test. Then it was about a mile to the stream. So far, so good, right? Oh! Did I mention that from where we started hiking to the top of the ridge is a gain in elevation of almost 2,700 feet? Well, in spite of all of that, we set up our camp and relaxed a bit.



The light at sunset that night, along with the foxtail and white bark pines, almost had a quality that looked like a painting from Van Gogh.



The sunrise the next morning was almost as spectacular.



So after putting up with all of that hardship the day before, we made our way to the stream, which was clear, but unfortunately, was still running rather high.



We searched around and found a few pockets of calm(er) water and made some casts. We quickly caught what we had endured so much for: the Pauite trout.





AG fished the evening before and caught some even nicer ones that these, and ultimately out-fished me, but I was happy for him and very thankful for the few that I caught myself. So ultimately, our persistence paid off and we caught what we had endured so much for.

As to any who might inquire as to where we went, here is my standard reply: …

[John Sv]

deleted...... pm sent

[Morgan]

Gorgeous fish and thank you so much for sharing your adventure with us.

[steveg137]

Beautiful thanks for sharing

[yubaman]

Victory! Great story line, pictures an accomplishment. A real accomplishment and lifetime memory.

[RaffiB]

Great report...thanks for sharing~!!!!

[Peddler7116]

Beautiful! Thanks for your tenacity and for sharing!

[Sheepdog8404]

Super stoked for you! I've been wanting to get up there for a few years now but haven't found someone who is willing to deal with the suck for a couple small fish. Keep those detail on the location hush hush if you can.

[Lew Riffle]

With any luck we will see the pauite cuts moved to Silver King Creek in the Carson Drainage latter this summer from their over half a century recluse from their native waters.

[Fly Guy Dave]

Super stoked for you! I've been wanting to get up there for a few years now but haven't found someone who is willing to deal with the suck for a couple small fish. Keep those detail on the location hush hush if you can.

Yeah, the Suck-O-Meter was peaking on the way up, as well as on the way down. Not a hike I'm anxious to do again soon. No worries about secrecy, the details are in the vault.