Advise on Shaver Lake and Dinkey Creek area

[tcorfey]

I have to take some Boy Scouts out to Shaver Lake/Dinkey Creek area near Fresno and I thought while I was there I would do some fishing. I saw lot's of blue lines out there but, not much about particular watersheds/Blue lines. Any recommendations? Any places that dried up during the drought that I should avoid while the stream rebuilds? Should I plan on doing a hike or is there not much pressure in that area? Are the streams mostly high gradient pocket water or ?

Please feel free to PM me if you prefer that.

Regards,

Tim C.

 

[darkshadow]

If you have a float tube, you can fish Shaver's coves with a sink tip, since it has largemouth and smallmouth population. Stevenson Creek may still have water and you may give that a shot.

The San Joaquin between Reddington and Mammoth Pool in the Kaiser Widlerness s also a nice location to actually get some non-stillwater fly fishing in, but access can be tricky and reading a forest service map is ideal and Rock Creek Campground would probably be your best point of access.

Once inside Dinkey, check out Dinkey, Tamarack or perhap even Helms creek, where you can wield a 3 weight. Water conditions depends on the time of the year that you're going.

 

[satyr]

The creeks feeding into Huntington can be fun. The farther upstream you walk the better they get. Dinky Creek itself is pretty good. If you drive on up to Courtwright you can fish Helms Creek which is a bit rugged but has lots of fish in it. And the Kings below Wishon has some big trout. Above Wishon isn't worth the effort as there aren't enough nutrients and all the trout and stunted.

 

[tcorfey]

Thanks for the intel. I am going in about two weeks. I will use your recommendations and see what I get.

 

[tcorfey]

So I got down to that area and armed with a map and the intel above I had one day to check things out. Day one I drove around and surveyed the streams in that area from Big Creek to Dinkey and found that the water this time of year was really low and pressured by fisherman and swimmers alike. Originally I planned to survey in the morning and into the early afternoon and then fish the late afternoon and evening. Due to low water and crowds I attended the evening festivities at Boy Scout camp instead. However, during the surveying I did find a large long and fairly deep pool on Dinkey that I fished at about 5am the next day and was able to get a few trout on a dry fly before the crowds started showing up. Even at that time in the morning I had four other fisherman join me before 6am (luckily it was a long pool). I had planned to get further from the crowds but with limited time I had to settle for being close to access points. I left by 7am to go get my scouts. That area does have a lot of stillwater that may be a better bet than the streams.

When I got to scout camp on Shaver lake the boys had caught some smallmouth bass in the lake and I was greeted with a request to show them how to clean a fish and cook it. Which I gladly participated in. The meat bees were in great attendance so the first thing I did was to remove the entrails an place them on a rock about 20' away so the boys and I could concentrate on cleaning the fish rather than fighting off the bees. After the lesson was over we disposed of the entrails in the garbage. Then cooked the fish wrapped in foil on an open fire grill provided by the camp.

Regards,
Tim C.