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Outing Reports:Emma Lake - A Joy To BeholdBy Hal Wilson
The annual Emma Lake trip happened the week of September 12-14. Kent McCammon, Ed McDonald, Mike McAlpen, George Allen and I arrived at the Sonora Bridges campground near Bridgeport in the afternoon, and Bob McCollum got in that night. (With all the above Mc's, and Prez McCampbell, we could have our own Scottish Games.) Friday we drove to the Green River, a few miles out of Bridgeport. It is a pretty, winding stream but due the meager snow pack last winter, it was pretty low. Three fish were caught. (Mine could have fit into a sardine can with room to spare.) Friday after dinner we fished the West Walker River, just a few minutes from camp, and brought in a couple more fish that were dining on early evening hatch. Saturday morning we inhaled deeply to stoke up our lings with as much oxygen as possible and made the 820', mile and a half ascent from the trailhead to Emma Lake at 9,210 feet. The lake was beautiful, and although it was Saturday, we were the only ones fishing. The fish were small, as expected, and plentiful, as expected. Estimate are 20-25 fish apiece, caught (and released) mostly on dries. These fish were very selective, taking only Patriots, Humpies (red or yellow), Serendipities, Royal Coachmen, a foam spider I tied, or anything else that got in their sight!! I was bringing one in and watched as two others tried to take the size 12 Patriot from the hooked fish's mouth! We kept a few for dinner, and left the lake about 2:00 PM. Not surprisingly, the descent to the trailhead was much faster than the climb! The weather was beautiful, the company exceptional, and my only regret was that more of you weren't there! Click on pictures to view larger versions.
Pit River/ McCloud River (Fri.10/18 to Mon.10/21)by Gary Turri Nymph fishing produced all the fish on the Pit and the Black A.P. was the fly of choice. Most of the rainbows were in the 9-13 inch range, with a few that went 14-16 inches. Sunday we fished The McCloud River. The water flow was low and clear which is perfect for fishing a Dry/Dropper rig. A size ten orange bodied Elk Hair Caddis was used to imitate the October Caddis adult. A size ten Whitlock's Red Fox Squirrel nymph was then tied twelve to sixteen inches behind the dry fly to imitate the October Caddis pupa. The majority of fish were caught on the subsurface dropper fly. The big dry worked great as a strike indicator and accounted for some nice fish. My second fish that morning measured 17-18 inches and if that had been the only fished caught that day, I would have been completely satisfied. As it turned out, I ended the day with several more smaller fish. This was the third year in a row that we did this outing and as other club members will agree it has always been a good one. Sorry that more members did not make this trip. Yuba River Trip, Nov. 1- 3By John Bjorkholm Bill McCampbell, Scot Dowler, and John Bjorkholm spent a total of two days fishing for steelhead and trout on the Lower Yuba River, which lies roughly halfway between Marysville and Grass Valley. The weather was perfect, the river was in great shape, and the comradeship was excellent. So you ask, "How was the fishing?" Well, not so good! Most of Saturday was spent fishing the heavy water for steelhead. Bill had some success in that he hooked a large adult in excess of 5 pounds, but he eventually lost it. Barbless hooks, don’t you know! We only observed two steelhead caught during the day. Guess we now know why steelhead are known as "the fish of 1000 casts"! One discouraging observation was that there were two guys who were purposely fishing for the spawning salmon; they snagged many and then fought them to exhaustion. I think that they thought that they were really something, even though other anglers were holding their noses in disgust. Late in the day we moved up river and experienced some action with dry flies and emergers; John hooked what seemed to be a large fish that broke the 4X tippet after about a minute of spirited fight. Sunday was spent fishing in the first mile below the Rt. 20 bridge and catching was better. We had about a half dozen hookups; the largest fish to hand was a brightly colored rainbow that measured a solid 17". Discussions with other anglers indicated that they too were experiencing very slow fishing. In my experience the Yuba is either on or off; we happened to be there when action was slow. Overall, while the catching was not so good, the fishing was great! Delta Striped Bass Outing (Nov. 23)By Rick Mikla The club striper outing was held on November 23rd. We launched out of Discovery Bay Marina in the delta. The club had a good turnout and beautiful weather. Stripers did not cooperate with the fly fishers. Live minnows were working for the bail fishermen, trolled very slowly but we were not able to duplicate their success with flies. The attached photo is a 7lb striper taken a week earlier and caught in the San Joaquin river in the area of Franks Tract. The tides and current are key to fishing the delta. Also the stripers move eastward as the season progresses. Striper are active in the Delta from October through March but, December thru February are prime months in the areas such as Discovery Bay and other places east of Franks Tract. You still have time to get out and get a photo.
Lower Stanislaus River Outing (Jan 18th)by Gary Turri Scott Dowler, Joe Ruth and myself fished the Lower Stan on Jan.18th. The weather was quite cold all day long due to the lack of sunshine. I am glad I wore my 3.5mm neoprene waders. Next time I'll include the expedition weight fleece bottoms as well. We hooked about 20 fish and landed approximately 75%. Biggest fish was a 19 inch Rainbow. The big bow made three spectacular surface clearing jumps, a few zero to sixty runs, and after a five minute tug of war I slipped the net under the trophy fish. A friendly fellow angler who enjoyed watching the entire battle asked if I would like a photo of the fish. How could I say no. His new digital camera captured the moment and then I released the fish to live another day. As the saying goes," A wild fish is too precious to be caught only once". The flies that took the most fish were small egg patterns, Pheasant Tails (size 16-18), Midge larva and pupa patterns (size 16-20). There was no dry fly action due to the lack of rising fish. Our next outing to this location will be Feb.22nd.
Gary Turri with a 19 inch wild Rainbow caught during the January club outing to the Stanislaus River. (click picture to enlarge)
Fuller Lake Lake Outing (June 19-22)By George Allen The Fuller Lake outing was a great success. The Lake surface was up and down like the fishing. Every body caught some even with the competition from the Granite Bay Club who had a major fish out with 34+ tubes on the water. The high rod had to have been Bill and the winner for time on the water was Keith. That guy never gives up. The variety of meals brought by all ranged from pasta, to black bean soup, to steak, to Korean chicken salad and even a weenie roast for lunch at the lake. For the members who couldn't make I hope to see you next year.
Click on pictures to enlarge. Upper Sacramento Outing (July 11-14)By Bob McCollum On June11, Gary Turri, Bill McCampbell, Hal Wilson, and I headed up to Dunsmuir for four days of fishing on the Upper Sac. Our Fishmaster Gary did a great job of showing us how to rig up and coached us on nymph fishing with an indicator. Over the course of the four days Gary and Bill selected several nice stretches of the river including the area below the City Park, near Castle Crags State Park, downtown Dunsmuir, and Castella . We also fished a stretch of Soda creek on the way home. Although the weather was warm and the fish were in a Summer mode, we managed to coax several fish to take our files. Gary took a stream sample and discovered an abundance of small black mayfly nymphs on our first foray to the river. Many fish were caught on the Black A.P. or Black Copper Johns (both size 16)- a reasonable imitation of the mayfly nymph. Bill caught the biggest fish, a very nice 18" 'bow, in the downtown area. All in all it was a very productive trip for all the anglers in the group. It was especially valuable for me, being relatively new to the sport and the area. It was very helpful to get advice and instruction from the other anglers. With Gary's guidance, I landed a beautiful 14" wild 'bow, which made the whole trip worthwhile. |
