Friday, June 29, 2012

East Fork of the Carson River & Wolf Creek

Party Head is gone and I'mmmm Baaaack. I would have gone yesterday, but I was still a little woozy.

OK, plan for the day was to drive a lot of miles (74 to be exact) to where Wolf Creek meets the East Fork of the Carson River. Like the West Fork it's called River, but this time of year it's more creek than river. 

Left the house 0700 before the wife left for work and after the usual stop for coffee at Cooks Station, it was drive, drive, drive past Bear River, Silver, Caples, and Red Lakes A right turn at Woodfords, past Markleeville and the Carson River Resort and finally the left turn on Wolf Creek Rd.   

Scoped the creek up a mile or so and decided to stop and fish here. 

First fishing spot upstream

Same spot downstream
Tried first with my Tenkara rod and then switched to my fly rod with floating line for long distance. Nada on either. Moved downstream and tried another spot and nada there too. This is supposed to be some hot spot for mongo trout, but I sure didn't see any.

The plan for the rest of the day was to fish the East Fork on the way back so I packed up and headed for the River. Just as I hit the stop sign for the turn back to the East Fork I crossed a small creek. I think that was Wolf Creek and not where I was fishing. That didn't sink in until I was back down the road and at the Highway 4 bridge. Oh well, next time. 

Highway 4 Bridge
When the DFG plants they put a few in here just to keep things interesting.There was another gentleman fly fishing just upstream from the bridge so I politely asked if I could fish upstream from him. With his approval I moved to a spot just below a set of rapids and started with Tenkara and used the other rod for the long casts. I didn't get any interest, but in talking with that gentleman, he said to go ahead and fish by the bridge. I let my Green (reasonable facsimile) Stimulator float down a couple of times with one drive-by. I said good by to him and moved to the other side of the bridge.

A lot of casts and a lot of drive-bys, but I couldn't get a hookup to save my life. Back into the truck and off to another place. Float, drive-bys, then move to another place and so on, all morning.

Finally about 1:30 I got my first fish to hand (and the only one today) in the area below. 

First fish on Friday
It was a first on Tenkara for the East Fork of the Carson River. Remember this was the place I caught both the first and second on a fly rod way back in August 2009. Actually is was just upstream about a half mile from here. The one today was a little Rainbow about 7 inches and sent home for another day.

So the day ended up with the count Mark - 1, fish - 15 or 20 or maybe 25. All I know is I missed a lot. I wonder if the fly is too big? I'm using a size 10 and maybe I need a 12 or 14 or 16? any of you Tenkara guys out there have any ideas?  

Hey, this fly fishing is a learning process isn't it?

One other thing, it was wet wading day and the water was a blazing 61 degrees.

Till the next adventure.

Mark
Posted by at

5 comments:

  1. Bill TrussellJune 29, 2012 at 9:46 PM

    Mark
    Got a few questions--were the trout actually missing the fly or just kind of slapping at it? The reason I asking is this was the same way they were reacting the other day on the tailrace. I was using a size 12 Adams with no success. I switched to a size 16 and landed a couple within 10 casts. Yes it could have been the size and the pattern would also come into play too. How was the wet wading, too cold or just right?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mark KautzJune 30, 2012 at 7:03 AM

      Hi Bill. Could be that they were slapping it. I've got some 12's, 14's, and 16's. I'll give them a try next trip. As far as the wet wading, I wouldn't categorize it as too cold or just right, but more like chilly but doable.

      Delete
  2. Brk TrtJune 30, 2012 at 7:23 AM

    Fly fishing is a learning experience. But what a blast school is.
    I would spend some time drifting a fly under that bridge.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mark KautzJune 30, 2012 at 7:52 AM

      I would have gone to the other side except some bait dunker was hogging the spot. Next time.

      Delete
  3. PatrickJuly 2, 2012 at 2:22 PM

    Five years and still a lot of learning to be done here… Last week I was getting hits on both dries and nymphs (I do love a dry/dropper set up) but some close observation revealed that the hackles on the humpies and stimulators I was using was just too big for the mouths of many of the fish, particularly since they were slurping, not slashing. Downsized the dry to allow 'em to get a grip on the fly, and upped the number of successful takes. That said, I still tend to be a bit too trigger happy on when a fish takes the dry…

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)