Upper Recon
Kern River Valley
May 18, 2005
Today, I decided to get a visual of the
upper Kern River before heading back to Los Angeles. Knowing the
upper was flowing at around 4000cfs, I didn't expect to be able to catch
fish ... but I remained hopeful all the same.
Cruising past Headquarters Campground, I
could immediately see I was going to be somewhat alone in the
canyon. Driving along, in the absence of other anglers, felt a bit
strange. What people I did see had rafting gear, which only made
sense.
I arrived at a favorite spot, just north
of Salmon Creek, and got out to take a couple pictures. The beach
that I would normally climb down to was under several feet of angry
water. Taking the pictures while perched on the cliff was rather
scary. I kept thinking, 'one slip and I'm a goner'. If I did,
I knew I'd be taken under and thrashed against the submerged boulders
before being taken down river and over falls. They'd find the truck,
but would have to wait for my body to surface somewhere down river, most
likely miles away from the truck. So I quickly snapped the pictures
without any regard towards quality or composition. Here's a
comparison of today's picture with an older one. To give you some
perspective, the fall between the rocks is normally 15-20' high, into a
DEEP pool. Today, the 'Fall' is very much an insignificant part of
the deep pool.
April 2004 |
May 18, 2005 |
Given the torrents of this spot, I
wouldn't attempt it with bait and spinning gear... let alone the fly gear
I had with me. And so, I decided to drive further north to Limestone
and check some spots near there.
There's a spot just below Limestone,
where the river widens and slows., as it makes a turn through the
canyon. Well, not today. Similar to the first spot, all of the
beaches where under a few feet of water. Even a massive boulder,
that is normally high and dry on three sides, was completely surrounded
with water. Only a couple feet of the nine to ten foot boulder was
above water.
I hopped across a few semi-submerged
boulders to get a toe hold on the 'massive' boulder. And then I tied
on a size 10 nymph. Bouncing the nymph on the bottom was an
impossible task. Just too much current. So again, I decided to
take some pictures and forget about fishing., while wishing I had brought
the spinning gear. I know the pool and run are deep, perhaps as much
as 20' deep now, and that the fish are most likely sitting on the bottom
beneath the current. Even with the poor visibility of the off-color
water, they would use their sense of scent to guide them to the bait.
July 2003 |
May 18, 2005 |
Based on my observations, I'm now
wondering if the Upper will be fishable over Memorial Day weekend.
I'm already 'locked in the punt', so we'll give it a shot anyway. If
nothing else, we'll have another 'Recon' report.
One welcomed observation I made was the
DFG stock truck planting around Fairview. Judging from the fishing
conditions, we can expect this weeks stock to migrate away from where
they're planted. That means we'll have a bigger chance of finding
fish further away from the usual 'put' spots. Which suits me just
fine, as I rarely fish close to the crowds and prefer to 'hunt' into more
isolated and remote parts of the river. With the fishing pressure
reduced to near zero, the snow-melt runoff season is perhaps the most
productive time to stock., and we've had several stock weeks during this
'runoff' season. Not to mention, Memorial Day signals the start of
the summer stocking schedule ... weekly (instead of bi-weekly).
Now, the only question is 'when' will
the upper be fishable? I'm thinking Mid-Late June.
We'll be back
...
