South Fork of the American River

First, a quick note on the weather. Lake Tahoe got it's first snow of the season. Stateline (that's where California meets Nevada and all the casino's start) got 4" overnight. That means that lakes like Red, Caples, Silver, and Bear River Reservoir on the Highway 88 corridor should have gotten snow as well. Just depends where the rain cell went. We, on the other hand, only got a little rain.

OK, went on a drive to the South Fork of the American River to do a little fly fishing practice. Hit the river at Crystal Basin Rd and found the area where I normally park, fenced off. No parking. Hmmm. Drove further up the road and every pull off had a sign that said emergency parking only or no parking. Makes it difficult to access the river. Finally stopped at a place called Indian Springs River Access. Walked down to the river and found a couple of nice pools to fish. Noticed two ropes tied to trees across the river. You know what this place would be like in the summer. Good place to practice though. Lots of trees and bushes to get hung up in, but I did manage to get some casts in. The other thing about this place is that there are huge boulders that you have to crawl across to move up and down the river. Tends to wear you out after a while.

Since I didn't see anything that looked like a fish, got back into the truck and drove further upstream. Discovered I was just around the corner from a little place called Silver Fork and just past that is a little place called Kyburz. Remember years ago when Andy Williams wife (Claudine Longet) was accused of killing a guy called Spider Sabich (Olympic Skier). Claimed it was an accident. He was from Kyburz. It's claim to fame.

Decided to drive up Silver Fork Rd and take a look at the creek. See if I could fish it. Again, every where I went, the river access or camp grounds were closed or too far to hike down. Long, steep hikes are tough on an old guy. What's going on up here??? I might mention that this was the route I was going to take to go home any way. Finally got to the bridge where it crossed the creek and the area where I used to park was closed too. At this point, since the American River (Silver Fork, Coloma, and Riverton which is at Crystal Basin Rd) is on the DFG no stock list, I threw in the towel and called it a day. Probably no fish left anyway. Too bad, the bridge was always a good place for a limit. Nice deep pool under the bridge. Yesterday, it was a nice shallow pool with the water barely moving.

Off to Oregon on Thursday. Taking a small laptop, so I'll try to do some posts during the trip. We'll see what happens. If not, I'll be back late on the 15th and will fill every one in.

Till next time, remember: "A bad day fishing is still better than any day at work".

Shoreman