SoCal Locals - We Need the Rain

[darkshadow]

The day trips across three counties to fool a slippery adversary into eating a hook covered in chicken feathers are pretty much over. And while waking up at 3:00 am so you can drive all throughout the dark, and then hike for another 2 hours just so you can be making your first cast 300 miles from home at 10 am is fun, so is sleeping in on a Saturday, and still making it to the local stream before 9. Plus, the money spent on gas (not to mention the wear and tear on my vehicle) has been drastically reduced, which is fiscally intelligent, considering the need to save up for my upcoming trip to God's country in 2 months.

A few weeks ago, the last of my 5x tippet material was used up. I had forgotten about it until the night before this trip, and I ended up tossing a spool of 3# FC that I had from my days of a finesse bass fisherman. I figure that this Sunline had got me plenty of big fish from within the shrubbiest of terrains, so I took my first steps into uncharted territory, and fished all day today with a FC tippet.

And I'll never look back.

Because the grade was a lot steeper from the usual areas that I hike into, there were few areas to actually get a good cast in, and lots of ground needed to be covered in order to get fish to go, unless waterfalls and 2 ton boulders is what you consider fun. The residents of this steram are opportunistic feeders, and the lack of consistent insect activity enables you to make mistakes in fly selection, and still gain the fish's interest in what you've tied on. Caddis? We'll eat it. Mayfly pattern? Sure!

But, you get one shot at the fish. You make a bad cast and it's curtains, which means another grueling uphill hike through boulders, patches of stinging nettles, and the possibility of snakes and bears at every corner. But, make a precise cast that doesn't end up in the trees in front or behind you and you'll have browns and rainbows slashing at your dries, or inhaling your trailing nymph in no time.

Cover a lot of territory, and you'll have success. Hunker down and try to dissect the water, and you may go home disappointed. Sometimes it pays to keep walking, especially here.

Considering it was a new stretch of water I was fishing, I left the canyon exhausted hours later, but extremely satisfied in what I saw. This seems to be the only watershed that isn't suffering from the drought conditions, and at this point, this area becomes like an oasis in the desert.

And there are always hungry 12" browns and rainbows willing to take your barbless fly.

 

[acorad]

The colors on those 'bows are stunning!

Great TR!

Andy

 

[jpbfly]

Those trout are true beauties:thmbup:We do need rain here too

 

[dunk91007]

Need to find out where this is - have an idea - but any hints?

 

[shellback]

it's right outside pacoima

 

[mcnerney]

Thanks for sharing, that was an awesome trip report and the photos were outstanding. I can see why you love to fish those waters, the colors on those Browns and Rainbows are just gorgeous and certainly worth all the hiking, congrats!
Every time I look at the USGS water flow site I cringe when I see what the west coast looks like with all those red dots (indicating less than 10% of normal flow).

 

[darkshadow]

Need to find out where this is - have an idea - but any hints?

I'll PM you..actual waterways here are tough to come by, especially with the water situation.

Thanks for sharing, that was an awesome trip report and the photos were outstanding. I can see why you love to fish those waters, the colors on those Browns and Rainbows are just gorgeous and certainly worth all the hiking, congrats!
Every time I look at the USGS water flow site I cringe when I see what the west coast looks like with all those red dots (indicating less than 10% of normal flow).

The concern is the snow pack (or lack thereof) that we got this year, since most of SoCal's water is uhh, appropriated from the Sierra Nevadas. Lots of the water i fished up there was already fishing like late fall, even though it was Spring, during the run off period. Climatologists are predicting an El Niño type event, but I won't hold my breath.

Meanwhile, even though we were in drought situations last year (and in others years past), agencies are finally pushing towards conservation. Conservation,regardless of a drought situation, is the motto they should be pushing, but one year of a good rain fall and we'll be all back watering our driveways, taking care of our golf courses that are in the desert, and taking hour long showers. Doesn't make sense.

 

[yikes]

Meanwhile, even though we were in drought situations last year (and in others years past), agencies are finally pushing towards conservation. Conservation,regardless of a drought situation, is the motto they should be pushing, but one year of a good rain fall and we'll be all back watering our driveways, taking care of our golf courses that are in the desert, and taking hour long showers. Doesn't make sense.

Wednesday just before 6 am, I was commuting and the news radio announced statewide mandatory conservation measures, including "no more washing down driveways or sidewalks".
- Just as they said this, I drove past a woman on my right, hosing down down her driveway and sidewalk.
- At that same time and location, to my left, the street's center landscape median had a gutter totally ponded with standing water that had overflowed from its sprinkler system. The morning joggers were gingerly trying to avoid the soggy green grass.
- One minute later, the news headline was how the UCLA campus had dramatically flooded due to a broken water main. People described a geyser and a river of water running through the campus, and 700 cars were stranded / underwater.

A very auspicious start to our first day of conservation!

 

[emtrout]

We sure need the rain. I could be mistaken but those fish look more like golden trout than rainbow trout or brown trout to me.

 

[fredaevans]

"Rain' we're getting in small batches here in Southern Oregon ..... problem is its all coming out of Thunder clouds. And boy 'o boy are they putting out the lightning. At least 5 Forrest fires going on in my immediate area. Add the total for the State and we're over 25, many of which are considered 'large.'

More of same predicted through this coming Monday.

 

[darkshadow]

Wednesday just before 6 am, I was commuting and the news radio announced statewide mandatory conservation measures, including "no more washing down driveways or sidewalks".
- Just as they said this, I drove past a woman on my right, hosing down down her driveway and sidewalk.
- At that same time and location, to my left, the street's center landscape median had a gutter totally ponded with standing water that had overflowed from its sprinkler system. The morning joggers were gingerly trying to avoid the soggy green grass.
- One minute later, the news headline was how the UCLA campus had dramatically flooded due to a broken water main. People described a geyser and a river of water running through the campus, and 700 cars were stranded / underwater.

A very auspicious start to our first day of conservation!

Yeah, i work near southside campus and luckily I got outta Dodge before the lookie loos started snarling traffic.

We sure need the rain. I could be mistaken but those fish look more like golden trout than rainbow trout or brown trout to me.

This particular watershed doesn't have any goldens, unfortunately. Those are just your plain ole rainbow and brown variety, albeit with stunning coloration.

Check out the Goldens in my previous report:

www.theflyfishingforum.com/forums/pacific-southwest/352272-golden-ticket-pt-2-a.html

"Rain' we're getting in small batches here in Southern Oregon ..... problem is its all coming out of Thunder clouds. And boy 'o boy are they putting out the lightning. At least 5 Forrest fires going on in my immediate area. Add the total for the State and we're over 25, many of which are considered 'large.'

More of same predicted through this coming Monday.

Fred,

Everytime I hear Oregon mentioned, all I can think about is huge rivers teaming with Steelhead.

I'm assuming that your watersheds also have smaller tributaries where one can drag a 4 weight and catch wild trout as well? You never hear about these smaller streams...the focus is on 2 handed rods and silver beasts in big rivers.

 

[fredaevans]

Fred,

Everytime I hear Oregon mentioned, all I can think about is huge rivers teaming with Steelhead.

I'm assuming that your watersheds also have smaller tributaries where one can drag a 4 weight and catch wild trout as well? You never hear about these smaller streams...the focus is on 2 handed rods and silver beasts in big rivers.

Part that's a bit odd is there isn't all that much of pure trout fishing west of the Cascade mountains. The upper Rogue (above Wm. Jess Dam) does get regular plants, most of which I suspect end up in lost creek lake. Main rivers? Almost none that I know of.

Eastern Oregon is a whole different ball game. Most of those rivers/streams have very healthy trout populations. A few even have Brown's (all plants originally).

 

[mikel]

Dark shadow wrote:

"Meanwhile, even though we were in drought situations last year (and in others years past), agencies are finally pushing towards conservation. Conservation,regardless of a drought situation, is the motto they should be pushing, but one year of a good rain fall and we'll be all back watering our driveways, taking care of our golf courses that are in the desert, and taking hour long showers. Doesn't make sense."

I hope you're wrong and assume in SoCal you're dead right. With the ground water situation worsening in this state, the agencies are going to be forced to operate at least rationally in future. My family waters outside with recovered bath water and we've let significant portions of our little 1/3 acre plot go to dirt...changing to desert landscaping even though we live in a spot that averages near 50" of rain per year....because it ALL falls between Oct and May.

If the hordes don't smarten up more small muni water districts are simply going to run out. Yesterday, I believe the water temps in Monterey Bay were the highest on record. Bad things are coming and people need to wise up.

Over 80% of Ca water is used in ag, in places God never meant to be tilled...and a huge amount of that water leaves the country and heads to China as pistachios and such. We're not talking family farms feeding Americans...it's corporations getting huge allotments of water at sub market prices and shipping it offshore for huge profits. See Paramount Farms and Westlands Water District.

...end rant...

Added....from Ed Duggan's report dated 7/27

"Is the Trinity dying? Will the Trinity River suffer the same fate as the Eel River? Water temperatures on the Lower Klamath and the Lower Trinity Rivers have been running 70 to 75 degrees almost every day now for the last four weeks. The moss on the bottom of the river, in some places, covers the bottom of the river. In my 22 years as a professional fishing guide on the Trinity River I can’t ever remember seeing the river in this poor of condition. I remember watching the Eel River go this way many many years ago and look what has happened to it! If the Trinity River continues down this road I can for see the same things happening to it. For the month of July BOR has averaged shipping 2,800cfs to the Sacramento and south while at the same time only allowing 450cfs to go down the Trinity and out the Klamath. At 37% of capacity the “cold water pool” in Trinity Lake is going to go away and there will be NO COLD WATER left to be used to try and save this year’s salmon run. Farmers need water to grow crops and people need those crops for food. How are we going to divide the water in order to save both? At the present time I have NO solution but if the Bureau of Reclamation doesn’t start trying to save some water from the Trinity there will soon NOT be enough water for either the fish or the farmers. Then what? We are in a drought! With no measurable rain in the near future and BOR is using up the water in Trinity Lake at the rate of 0.25% per day."

The Klamath/Trinity drainage is the last really productive steely fly water in the state and it's being drained to grow nuts for people who hate America....my comment

 

[milt spawn]

Looks like SoCal may get some relief today and through the weekend... just hope we can avoid the dry lightning that accompanies t-storms. milt

 

[runningfish]

Dudes, it was 106 when I left my office at 4pm. Crazy hot and there is no signs of rain coming down soon.

 

[yikes]

So, because I wasn't hot enough yesterday, a friend and I decided to hike to where we suspected darkshadow's photos were taken.
We guessed wrong, but had a lot of fun anyway.

The water is definitely lower, but still flowing.

There were lots of plunges and pockets. The water was slightly cloudy, due to some prospectors upstream.

My friend (new member dunk91007) was nymphing with copper Johns, and I used an indicator EHC with a zebra midge about 10" behind.
Most of the fish we caught were in the 4-7" range, but I got a rainbow that was at least 9". He dove for some twigs and got the midge snagged on his dorsal fin. It came off easily, but I didn't manage to get a photo of it.

There was a bit of novelty at one pool where the fish were looking for a dry fly - - so dry that it was still in the air! I danced the EHC about 2-4" above the surface, and they would come shooting out of the water to try and grab it:
[ame=http://youtu.be/nF77HAQ2pwc]Fish flying - YouTube[/ame]

On the way back to the trailhead we heard some rocks falling, and the hiker in front of us said "hey guys, it's a bighorn sheep". I looked and only saw this:

Some rocks fell again, and my eyes finally focused here:

All in all, it was a great day, super muggy, but glad to be wet-wading!

 

[Jimmie]

Wow; ironic. While I was reading this the NWS issued a flash flood warning for the San Gabriel Mtns east of Los Angeles. Need more than a few thunderstorms can drop, but will take any and all H2O.

 

[darkshadow]

I think the problem with these last round of tstorms we received in 2 watersheds is two fold:

1. The vast majority of the water consumed in SoCal comes from the Sierra snowpack. Because of the arid environment in SoCal, not much infrastructure has been made to catch any rain water, since it may not be fiscally intelligent to build such a system in what is essentially a desert. That's why some 90% of the rain that falls in LA ends up in the ocean, and not any type of catch basins.

2. The tstorms we got were isolated to two watersheds, none of which have any significant reservoirs to store the water. While it may help with the aquifer being refilled a tiny bit, the moisture we experienced in the past couple of days is a drop in a bucket, literally speaking.

A few buddies out of state mentioned to me today how this "helps with the drought, right?!" and had to sadly explain that it doesn't, at all.

I keep my eye out for storms where it counts, which is up north. They did receive some rain, which definitely helps, but the snow fall this winter determines pretty much everything.

BTW, I had a pretty gnarly experience in one of those watersheds yesterday.

:faint:

Respect mother nature, and most of all, respect Flash Flood Warnings.

 

[yikes]

BTW, I had a pretty gnarly experience in one of those watersheds yesterday.

:faint:

Respect mother nature, and most of all, respect Flash Flood Warnings.

I've been up near Forest Falls when a flash flood hit. Air raid - type sirens go off, then there's the sound of rolling thunder. But it's not thunder, and it doesn't stop. Boulders the size of trucks are tumbling down the river as if they are little pebbles. Awesome and frightening at the same time.
REGION: Storms slam some Inland areas hard - Press Enterprise

 

[runningfish]

I turned off my sprinkle system since Friday afternoon in anticipation of the up coming weekend rain. And finally, we received some nice rain in the weekend and a good one from late Sunday afternoon until about midnight.
Let's hope for a bit more to come.