Friday the 13th

I decided to take a drive up the hill this morning. Since Sunday the 15th is the final day of stream fishing in California this year, I wanted to return to the place where fly fishing really began for me. Back on August 31st, I made my first trip to attempt to catch trout on a fly rod and did so on the East Fork of the Carson River. As you recall from that post, I caught 2 about 18" each.

We had a small storm go through yesterday and it snowed in the mountains. I wasn't sure what the conditions were going to be, but I took a chance. I started seeing snow at 5500 ft elevation. At about 7000' I stopped on the side of the road and took this shot.

Now, I've lived in Northern California since 1975 and found that when you live in the mountains any length of time, you lose some of the appreciation of the beauty and majesty that is the Sierra Nevada Mountain range. So, since I was up there I thought I'd share some of this beauty with you.

Any way, getting back to the purpose of my trip, I got to the West Fork, stopped where Highway 88 & Highway 89 meet, and walked down to the river. More a creek now and mostly frozen over. Getting mighty chilly up there at night. Drove on to Markleville and stopped at the bridge 4 miles past the Carson River Resort (closed for the winter) and took a look at the, well, it's a creek too. Not much water this time of the year, but I would have gone down and done some fishing, but since I have this slight balance problem, I decided not to risk tripping or falling and hurting myself. I was the only one up there. I hadn't seen another person in the last 6 or 8 miles and I would guess it was less than 32 degrees temp. I decided to stay on the safe side.

Back in the truck and thought I'd stop and take a look at Red Lake since it's on the way back. Managed 6 casts before the water in the eyes froze and the line wouldn't go through anymore. Plus the lake was frozen more than half of the area and all of where I normally fish. All that area on the right side that's shinny, that's the ice.

On the way past Silver Lake, I noticed that the lake is starting to get little frozen patches of ice around the edges too. Bear River Reservoir (I went by all the lakes just to check them out) had snow on the ground, the gate is still open, but will close on December 1, and the lake is still ice free, but I suspect not for long.

So I guess that winds it up for the upcountry lakes. Besides the American for Steelhead, if I want to do a little trout fishing I'll have to zero in on Amador, Pardee, Camanche, or one of the ponds down Sacramento way.

Till next time, remember: "If you're going to fish where it's colder than hell, remember your thermals". I forgot them today. That was a Bigggggg mistake.

Mark (Shoreman)