I do most of my fishing on backpacking trips in the high country. That is my first love, and I picked up surf fishing and warmwater fishing afterwards. But with the elevated fire danger, these places are off-limits in some cases, or severely curtailed in others -- no ignition sources outside of "developed recreation sites", aka no stoves in the backcountry.

So I headed up to a trailhead I usually go to in the autumn for a weekend of dayhiking. First day headed up to fish a small stream, and then a lake about a thousand feet above.









As often happens in the cooler months, I let time slip away faster than I intended, returning via headlamp, hiking the last 40 minutes or so in the dark.

Second day I headed up to a larger lake which is a PG & E impoundment, one of several on the river which drains the area. I brought a packraft and planned to paddle the reservoir and fish hoppers and streamers.









Usually early October is a fine time to be tossing hoppers on this lake still, but today the fish were not having it. Instead I had better luck with some pine squirrel streamer jigs. I always prefer the excitement of a fish exploding underneath a surface fly, but sometimes ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

I managed my time a little more wisely, and got back well before dark. A good thing, because dodging deer on the drive home can be a little nerve-wracking.