East Fork Follies
San Gabriel River - East Fork
April,
2005
Not able to get
away for the Eastern Sierra Opener, I decided to visit the East Fork that
Saturday. I arrived early to beat the crowds, but I guess 6:30am
isn't early enough., the parking area was already a third full. I
hadn't made it to the Heaton Flats campground before I was passed by a
long line of some 30-40 people going to jump off of the 'Bridge to
nowhere'. Watching them pass, I couldn't help wondering how their
feet were going to feel after all the miles in their tennis shoes.
More alarming was the absence of water bottles of any kind. Only a few of
them wore day-packs., hardly enough to carry anything substantial for the
entire group.
I was eager to
see how the river had been transformed by the heavy storms over the past
winter. Evident by the 'clean-sweep' of the bed below, the river
must have swollen to (10) times its normal width, taking the vegetation
with it. I was amazed the amount of fallen and uprooted trees
deposited well beyond its present banks. I did a double-take at the
trailhead at Heaton Flats., just past the trailhead, erosion had taken
much of the canyon wall (where it met the riverbed). The remain soil
(in spots) was limited in width to the trail itself. Much more of
this and new trail and trailhead will need to be cut. As expected, the
rivers' transformation had made the river and trail seem unfamiliar to me.
The river was
flowing high and relatively clear. In fact, at times I thought I was
looking at parts of the Kern river. Anticipation filled my veins.
A
tree, with its branches intact, was felled to serve as the first river
crossing. While a couple attempted to make the crossing and drown
their poor dog in the process. I tied on a Mayfly Nymph and to test a run
just up river. Bear in mind that the log was well below a foot of water,
and was like walking across the top of a waterfall. Why they thought the
dog could walk across it is beyond my comprehension. Luckily, a
couple of prospectors were just ahead on them and came back to help.
It
didn't take long to get the attention of a little wild trout. One
strike and he was on the retrieve. No sooner was he released and
another one had hitched a ride on my nymph. It was then that I
realized it was going to be a great day., and that the wild population had
'in fact' survived the storms.
With the dog
rescued and its party heading back to the trailhead, I reeled it in and
went to test my luck with log crossing. It's a little tricky with a
fly rod and day-pack...
Next I set out
to put some miles behind before the sun came over the mountain. This
is always kind of hard for me, as I keep stopping to test every promising
body of water. But today I demonstrated restraint and marched on.
The
next river crossing consisted of a rope tied between trees on opposite
sides of the river., at a point where the river appeared to lay down and
was 2 to 2-1/2 feet deep. I strapped the rod to my back and made the
crossing. Another 3/4 miles and there would be another similar
crossing to make. By the time I came across the 'Sheep Mountain'
wilderness sign, I figured I had gone far enough and climbed down to the
river to start Trout chasing.
Looking down
the cliff at a massive pool, I wondered if I should do something foolish
to attempt to fish it. My better judgment told me not to., so I
back-tracked and then made my way along the riverbed to the spot.
But then got side-tracked by other promising spots.
It didn't take
long before I was having a blast catch wilds from nearly every spot I
tested. Sometimes the strikes were instantaneous, other times within
2-3 passes. My noon I had lost count of the strikes and had landed 6
wilds averaging 7-8". A total of perhaps 2hrs on the water...
and I've had strike after strike, managing to catch 6. And so,
pleased with the world, I decided to take a break and eat my lunch.
I don't
consider myself a good Fly Fisherman. So I'm inclined to suspect (once
again) that Trout go ape over flies. Fish for fish, in a given
length of time, I've caught more fish with a fly then with spinning
gear. I can't recall when I've had this much 'fish' action with
spinning gear. Naturally, as my skill improves, it can only get
better. This, to me, is truly amazing.
By the way,
some of the strikes were bigger than I expected. A couple, of which,
were on but came off. And they had some weight to them. So
there are some bigger fish in the East Fork., but 10" would be the
biggest for me today. Really need to work on the hook setting aspect
of fly fishing. I believe I probably should have increased the size
of my fly. Didn't think about that... but I didn't have any larger
nymphs if I had.
After lunch, I
caught another 5 wilds with 3 times as many strikes. At that point I
decided to play around with the fish a little. I had tied on a Royal
Coachmen pattern and they had really given it a beating. It didn't
look an RC anymore... it resembled a wad of string on a hook. So I
tied on a fresh one and floated lazily around a wide eddy until a player
located it. I soon discovered I could tease the trout and get him to chase
the fly, like a you would tease a cat with a length of string. And
then I thought, I wonder if I could do this and snap a couple pictures of
the game in play. That might be cool.
The focus is a
bit off (I only have to hands) and didn't have time to focus before taking
the snaps. This is one of pictures showing the Trout being teased
with a Royal Coachmen. He'd break the surface and I'd jerk the fly
around, causing him to spin like a cat chasing a string.
In the next
picture, he spins around and takes the fly.
There were
several blurred frames, but these two actually didn't turn out too bad.
Tired, after
fulfilling day of fly fishing, I said to myself 'One more and I'll call it
a day'. The end result was this 10" wilde pictured here.
Sadly, this fellow has seen a
few rough days. If you notice, the back of his gill had a healed V
shaped wound., and he had scrap marks on both sides. Also note the
upper lip of this fish, perhaps you can make out the TEETH. It's
either my imagination or wild trout have more pronounced teeth than
stocked trout. They're razor sharp and really put the bite on my
finger.
We'll
be back
