A Rush To Catch Fish

Juan from Breaking the Bank Blog came up to La Casa Kautz for a day of fishing.

Some time ago I got an email from a couple of guys in the fly club about a place with beaver dams, Brook Trout, and lots of catching. What a place to take "3", Tenkara, and Juan.

After a stop at Cooks for coffee and to drop off a couple of my books, we headed up the hill. Over the top of Carson Pass and down into Hope Valley. Juan has never been farther than Silver Lake so all this was new and eye opening territory for him. I had a constant monologue going explaining every place we passed.   

We got to the place of beaver dams, Brook Trout, and lots of catching, we got the rods out and headed down to the creek. Maybe because we were on the other side of the highway from where the guys were fishing, we saw beaver dams, but no Brook Trout and no catching at all.

We walked back to the truck and headed toward Upper Blue Lake which was our second destination of the day. More places Juan hasn't been so the monologue continued. 

Got to Upper Blue at 10:30 and set out his one rod, my two with 4#, and my little Okuma (2#) all with slip sinker rigs and rainbow Power Bait. Our intention was to catch fish and catch fish we did.

Juan's first of the day

I know that hook is in there somewhere

By 11:30 we had six on the stringer with one released. It was about 9", but too small to keep. By Noon the clouds started building. If you've watched any national news then you know about the high pressure sitting over the "4 corners" and sucking all that monsoonal moisture up California way. 

What you see in the picture below is that monsoonal moisture building. That particular cloud in the center just above the trees was the one that started with the thunder.

Monsoonal moisture

More monsoonal moisture

Once the thunder started (we only had six on the stringer remember) that is where the rush to catch fish began. We wanted to get Juan a limit as well as me a limit (10 total) and the catching started in earnest.

Now, you ask, how do you make fish bite so you can go home with two limits? Magic? Voodoo? Maybe positive thinking, who knows, all I do know is that they started biting and by 12:30 we had 10 on the stringer. While we were bringing in the last rod, there was still one more on the line which got to go back for another day.

Juan with two limits

All were at least 10 inches and a couple going close to 13 inches. A fine limit for Juan and a good fish feast because he took all 10 home.

On the way back to La Casa Kautz, we hit rain just on the other side of Carson pass and rained almost all the way home. Not enough water to do anything about the drought, but enough for the windshield wipers.