Almanor and Eagle Lake

This last weekend Mike, Derek and I headed up to Eagle Lake. The trip was to be four days and Mike felt we would get burned out if we fished Eagle Lake the whole time. We decided Lake Almanor would be a good place to start our trip. It was on the way and it was one of Andy's favorite lakes, so he decided to meet us up there. It took a little longer than normal, because we were towing a boat and there was lots of snow on highway fifty. When we arrived, I called Andy on the cell phone to see how the bite was. I think I woke him up from a nice nap he was having in his float tube. He explained to us the bite was dead and the hot spots we fished last month were void of fish. We put our tubes in and fished real hard for hours with no one even getting a bite. I trolled over to Andy to tell him I was going to head out, when he hooked up. This was a big fish!!! Andy fought the fish for quite some time. I knew it was big so I paddled over to grab a quick photo before he released it. Several moments later he finally muscled the fish in. It was the biggest brown I had ever scene, caught on a fly rod. We had no way of measuring or weighing it so we are just guessing its weight.

 That night we headed up to Eagle Lake. We had a house waiting for us with three more friends. We also had boats we would fish out of. We even had a gourmet chef to cook for us. This was way too rich for my blood. The only thing we did not have was a good bite. We averaged about 1 fish a day except for Jeff, who caught 3 to 5 per day. It was still a great time and the  camaraderie was top notch.

 Notice Mike in the background saying hi!

New Adventure

Now that Andy and I have finished the California Heritage Trout challenge we are ready for something else. I was strolling through DFG's website and I noticed they have another challenge called the California Fishing Passport. There are several challenges to choose from. The two that interest us are the Inland Warm water and the cold water challenge. They have lots of fish to go after and you can decide how many, because there are different levels of achievement. The first one we will go after will be the warm water challenge. There are a total of 25 fish, including catfish and sturgeon. I do not see us catching these fish with a fly rod, so we are going to attempt the level below that, which requires 12 of the 25 fish be caught. When you are done you receive a pin and a certificate. We don't really care about the awards; we are just looking for an excuse for another road trip.

Here is a list of the fish:

American shad Black bullhead Black crappie Blue catfish Bluegill Brown bullhead Channel catfish Common carp Flathead catfish

Green sunfish Largemouth bass Pumpkinseed Redear sunfish Redeye bass Sacramento perch Smallmouth bass Spotted bass Striped bass landlocked or freshwater-caught only

Tilapia Tule perch White bass White catfish White crappie White sturgeon freshwater-caught only Warmouth Yellow bullhead Yellow perch

For more info go to: http://www.dfg.ca.gov/fishingpassport/awards.asp

Heritage Trout # 6

Andy and I were one fish from finishing the California Heritage Trout Challenge. We decided we would head west again and try for the Coastal Cutthroat. We had some great advice, once again from our good friend Mike. We knew it would be a super tough bite but we were still very excited. Mike had suggested a side road directly off highway 1 that would enable us to drive right down to the water. Mike had caught his coastal cutthroat here and we felt it would be a good start. We pumped up our float tubes and put in. I noticed some duck hunters on the shore and started heading to deeper water, to stay out of there way. I hooked up instantly. I looked behind me to give Andy a little heads up that I had a fish already. He was too busy to notice because he was releasing one. We had both just caught a couple of small steelhead. Fun fish but we were after cutthroat.

We started heading towards the main creek inlet. We were getting bit the whole way, but not able to land anything. Andy headed towards the mouth of the creek. He was catching a few small steelhead. I stayed out on the main body. I was getting bites, but just could not close the deal. I was starting to get a little frustrated. Then Andy called me on the walky talky, “I got a cutthroat” he was yelling. I was very excited for him, but now the pressure was on me. Andy said there were more in the creek mouth and I needed to get over there.

Andy decided to stop fishing and move off the spot so I would have a chance. By this time I was almost back at where we started and it would take me an hour to get over to the inlet. I started trolling really fast trying to make up some time, while the same time hoping a fish would be willing to eat my wiggle tail. I hooked one pretty quick. This fish looked a little different so I checked under his gills and sure enough he had the red slashes that indicated a cutthroat. I took a few pictures and headed towards Andy. I was relieved and now I felt I could just relax and fish. I opened up my camera to look at the picture I just took. I was not happy with the photo and figured I would get over to the inlet and get a better photo of a cutthroat. When I arrived at the inlet fish were rising like crazy. I caught small steelie after steelie. Man I need a cutthroat. I fished for an hour or so, but just kept catching steelies. By now it was starting to get late and we had a six hour drive to get home. Andy called me on the radio, his waders were leaking it was starting to rain and we had to split. The picture I had, would have to do. All the way home I kept looking at the picture, hoping it would look better on the computer screen than on the small camera screen.

When I got home the first thing I did was open my computer and load the picture. It looked much better than I expected and we were good to go.

The California Heritage Trout challenge is complete.

We took three months, drove over five thousand miles and fished lakes, ponds, swamps and lagoons.

It was an amazing adventure. Andy and I fished places we would of never seen or even thought of going. It also brought us back together as fishing buds. I will remember this adventure for the rest of my life.

Heritage trout numbers 4 and 5

October 12-13 2009
   We were ready for the Eagle Lake Rainbow. Every person that turned in an Eagle Lake Rainbow for the Heritage Challenge turned there fish in from Eagle Lake, except for one gentlemen who turned his in from Pine Creek. We wanted to be different, we wanted to qualify with one from a lake that wasn’t Eagle Lake. Could this even be possible? Well with a little research we found a hike to lake that was in the drainage and  would qualify. We knew it would be a tough bite and we put two days aside to do it. The plan was to fish this lake first and if we caught our fish on the first day, we would stop at a lake for coastal rainbows on the way home.   

    Andy got off work around 2:00 am and we were off and running. We arrived at the trail head at around 7:00 am. We did the two mile hike fairly quick. When we arrived at the lake we did not see any fish rising and our enthusiasm was low. We pumped up our float tubes and started fishing. I hooked up within fifteen or twenty minutes. The fish was much bigger than I expected and I got worked. I lost the fish and I kept wondering if that was my only chance. Andy and I both lost a few more fish and we were starting to stress. It was now around noon and neither one of us has landed a fish. I went to shore to take a little break. I heard Andy scream and he had put a 20” fish in the net. I was jazzed. A few seconds later I heard Andy scream again. He had just dropped his fish in the water before we could get a photo.  He was devastated. I knew He was thinking, that fish could haunt him. Andy came to shore to take a quick break, on his way back out he hooked up again real shallow, but that fish came unbuttoned. Man we were having a tough bite. I saw that last fish was shallow so I moved in and started stripping an orange wiggle tail nymph. Bam I hooked up. This fish was mine I played him so cautious , I was not going to lose this fish. I got him to the net and was so relieved . This had been one of the most difficult bites we had ever faced and I did not want to come back. I had my Eagle Lake rainbow, and it was like I felt a blanket of relief cover me. Now it was Andy’s turn. He started fishing shallow but the fish would not cooperate. It was getting late. I knew the fact that Andy had already caught a fish, but dropped it was eating him alive. Five hours have now passed since our last bite. I thought for sure we would have to hike out, sleep in the car and hike back in the morning. Just when I was about to call out to Andy that we only had about thirty minutes of light left, I had noticed him fighting a fish. He did not say a word. I could feel the tension and stress he was going through from across the lake.  When I saw the fish get swept into the net I screamed for joy.  I just wanted to go home. The fish was about nineteen inches and was a perfect example of an Eagle Lake rainbow. A few photos and we were out of there.

Click to enlarge all photos below (!)

The next morning we were after a coastal rainbow. I believe that for a coastal rainbow to count, it has to be in a drainage on the west side of the Sierras. It also has to be in a body of water that coastal rainbows could of reached historically from the ocean. With that being said, dams would not be an issue because we are talking historically. Planter rainbows would count, but we wanted to qualify with a wild and beautiful specimen.  There are only a few lakes in California that have wild rainbows, but we knew of one that was on our way home. We arrived at the lake about 7:30 am.  Andy hooked up with a smallmouth right away, but it broke him off. No big deal we were after rainbows anyways. Within a few minutes we were both into rainbows and had our qualifying fish. Andy had caught the most beautiful rainbow I had ever seen come from a lake. We knew that would be the photo he would turn in. Well that’s what we thought. About thirty minutes later Andy caught one about twenty inches long. This fish was perfect. The previous fish was a real beauty, but at only twelve inches long Andy had to turn in the big one. It was a great day and the great fishing made up for the stress of the previous day. We were on our way home with two more qualifying fish.  
 

Attempting two more Redbands

Sept 28-29

We decided we would head back to Modoc County and try again for a Warner and Goose Lake Redband. Andy got off work on Sunday night around 8:00 p.m and the plan was to swing by my house and pick me up around 9:30. Mr distracto got distracted and showed up around 11:00. That was ok, the plan was to drive all night and sleep on the side of the road. If we did it this way we would be closer to the spot and start fishing at first light.

We arrived in Alturas at around 4:00 a.m. We were both feeling pretty good so we decided to try and find the trailhead and try to get a couple of hours of sleep and be ready to rock and roll. We found the trailhead and grabbed an hour or so of sleep. The next morning we had a beautiful two mile hike into a small lake that was fed by a creek that we knew had Goose Lake redbands. We arrived at the lake and noticed fish rising and cruising the shore. Andy caught a fish on his first cast. I paddled over to take a picture and to my disgust, it was what appeared to be a beautiful wild rainbow. A few minutes later I caught a nice little fish that looked like it may be a redband except it was more silver and its parr marks and red band were extremely faded. We decided to take a few pictures of these fish. I was told by a biologist that when fish spend time in a lake they loose there natural colors. This made us believe that these fish may indeed be redbands. I was getting hungry and figured it was time to head into Alturas and grab a bite to eat and discuss our next plan.

      A friend had told us about a beaver pond that was located in a creek that contained redbands. The beaver pond would be large enough to float tube and I was excited to get started. As we were driving towards Goose Lake we noticed a grayish brown cloud coming towards us.  I could not make out what it was until it hit us. It was the biggest dust storm I had ever seen. It looked like something out of the movie Hildago. It was so massive we had to slow down to 10 miles per hour on highway 395 just so we could see.

The rest of the day had an over cast look to it and we were filthy from all of the dust in the air. When we arrived at the creek Andy just shook his head and gave me a funny look. The creek was only two feet wide. If anyone saw us carrying our float tubes we would look pretty funny. We found the beaver pond and it was much larger than we expected. We pumped up our tubes and put in. We were into fish right away. Could it be we caught two redbands in one day???

No ………When we got back I received an email from somebody I knew in the DFG office in that area. He had confirmed that the first pond we fished had been stocked with rainbows. We would come back from this trip with only one Heritage trout.

      Oh well until the next adventure.