Starting the New Year right
Upper Kern River
January, 2003
The Kern River
seemed like a good place to be this New Years. We arrived at
Headquarters campground around 6pm on a Friday. After a brief chat
with Willy, the campground manager, we got to work setting up camp and
getting started with the dinner preparations. The after dinner
campfire festivities were cut short by rapid drop in temperature, but he
expected that.
Saturday
morning we appeared to be the only campers in the frost covered
campground. The water near the campground seemed to be the lowest I
had ever seen. For a January, that might not be that surprising. We
had had a few years of drought like conditions and this was a scary
sight. My heart sank at the thought of the mighty Kern becoming a
dry riverbed.
After
breakfast we drove up river to the Salmon Creek trailhead. Being the
only faithful one in the crew, I grabbed my pole and headed for the
river. I wasn't sure if I were looking for
trout or pools. I guess; when you find one, you'll find the
other. After hoofing it up river from Salmon Creek, and not finding
fish, I turned and continue to hunt down river from Salmon Creek.
Before long, I
came across a boulder wall that looked somewhat familiar. Or how it
might look when the water is this low. A nice deep flow of water
gently flowed against and along the rock wall. I began drifting
Salmon Eggs along the wall.
It took several
drifts before I got my first strike. Nothing to write home about,
but a pretty little 6" rainbow. I played the drift a little
longer and then headed down river some more. I recall there being
big boulders and big pools a little further down.
After
hopping rocks and climbing boulders, I managed to position myself at the
head a deep pool. I've fished these boulders before., and during the
snowmelt run-off season (Apr-Jul) getting to them requires a swim.
Actually, there's normally three pools from this boulder. Today,
only one had sufficient depth to hold a few of our finned friends.
Using Salmon
Eggs, I cast into whitewater at the base of the fall entering the
pool. Ideally, your bait is taken deep into the pool, swirls around
near the bottom and eventually is pushed to shallower outflow of the
pool. This technique has all worked for me.
A strike was
had within seconds of the first cast. A beautiful rainbow running to
12". Unfortunately, he came off during the elevator ride from
the water to my perch atop of the boulder. Not to fret, we're just getting
started. And, I'm nearly certain there's more than one stocker in
the pool. I played the pool for nearly two hours, until the trout
tired of the game. The final count; three rainbows over 10" and
two under 10". Keeping two of the larger ones for dinner, the
remainder were C&R'd.
The
next morning we loaded up and hit the road for journey home. Leaving
early in hopes of getting some quality photography time on the drive past
Lake Isabella and onward to Hwy 395. As luck would have it, we were
somewhat overcast all the way to Hwy 395. Oh well, it goes like that
sometimes. A couple parting shots of the Lake and we bid farewell
once more.
We'll
be back
