The Rube: Chicken Soup for the Soul

So far this week has been a total drag for me. I had a crappy game on Sunday for my new Soccer team. It was my first game as goalkeeper and I totally didn’t play to my best level. Then the next day, I lost my job. I won’t go into any specifics on that, because I am trying to stay positive about that situation. So on Tuesday I needed an uplift. I had this list of places that I wanted to fish before the year’s end and I always wanted to fish the Rubicon. I hear all of these fantastic stories of the Rube (as it is called here by us Fly guys in Sacramento). Ok, there are some horror stories too, because the area is rugged. People get hurt all of the time trying to access this major tributary of the Middle Fork of the American River.

So I leave the house around 1 and get to the spot at around 3:30pm. I had to wait around for a minute or two for the people working on the road. When I get there though, I am the only soul around. One bad thing though, I thought I brought my wading shoes. I didn’t think I could go with the Tevas. Since the weather is in the triple digits, I figure I could go wet wading. Like a knucklehead, I left the wading shoes at the house and I had to traverse the canyon with my river shoes. I made it to the Rube in one piece, but I had to be very careful.




The main purpose for me fishing this time of year was to find some Brown Trout. I thought they might be running from Ralston Lake. I was not able to find any browns, but I saw plenty of fish. Most of them were in deep pools. I wasn’t able to get my fly down to them. The ones that came up from below just hit my flies. I saw there were a lot of caddis shucks all over the place. The flies didn’t really come out, until the sun went further below the horizon. I did manage to catch one lil’ bow (Yes Mr. Backman, off a dry fly), but that was it. I needed to head back & find a better trail, because I figured that I would be moving in the dark. Of course there was only one trail back out. It was the trail that I came in with. The only problem was the fact that it was about a 20 foot climb to get back to the trail. Then I was in the dark. Luckily, I did bring my headlamp, which the button doesn’t work correctly. I was able to crawl and squirm up the face of that cliff, but there were times that I was chanting some prayers, cause I did slip and slide down the face of the rock cliff. I made it out in one piece of course, but was it worth for one ‘bow? Well I thought so and I plan on going back to get some more. Tight Lines my friends & hopefully you will be hooking it up in the end!!!

Excitement on the Silver Fork

Tuesday afternoon and the temperature is starting to rise in Sacramento. It’s going to be another 90+ degree day. Thinking of ways to cool off. Oh I know, I take the dogs with me and we will go chill in the Silver Fork of the American River. Actually, I haven’t been there since June of 2008. I was just discovering it and found a couple of good holes. I guess it was a good time to check those holes out. Hell, it’s only about an hour and a half away from the house. Load the Rover with my gear and my dogs and we head out.


When I got there, the shadows were just starting to form. Still a bit warm. So I hike a bit to this place were a creek runs into the Silver Fork. There are a couple of waterfalls and I was thinking that in the pools where the two streams meet, there are fat trout at the bottom of those pools. My Chow Chow, Zhita, thinks that the place looks cool too and jumps in. I freak out. I carefully, but with extra zest place my pole down on a boulder and look for a place to grab my Chow out of the falls. The waterfall has two steps. Unfortunately, Zhita already went down on the first step. I can’t see her. I find a way to grab her from going down the third step when and if she comes up from the bottom of the pool. Luckily, she surfaces. I wade around carefully from the drop of the second step. It was only about a 5 to 8 foot drop, but I could not tell how deep the pool is. Also, that water is heck of cold. I was able to wade carefully & Zhita is a good enough swimmer to come closer to me. I was able to get her out in one piece. I take a breath of relief. One good thing about the situation was the fact the excitement the dogs get a bit tired out after the drama.
I head back down stream and finally I am able to start catching fish. First I find a flat where I get some fingerlings. I am happy now that I won’t get skunked and my dogs will be alive, so my wife won’t scream at me ;) I keep moving down stream and the fish are getting bigger and bigger. I was only using my 4 weight, so the fish hit a bit harder. Well in my mind anyway. I find this bend and bang!! I get this jolt and my reel begins to sing a bit. At first I was startled, but after about 10 seconds I was able to gain control of the situation. The fish on the Silver Fork are not that big, so I knew I wasn’t dealing with a monster. After about 5 minutes, I was able to get bring the fish to me. Of course like a knucklehead, I forgot my net. I did not feel comfortable trying to take a picture of the fish. So I apologize for the lack of fish porn with this entry. I will work on this in the future. Promise. Getting back to the story, the fish was only about 10 – 12 inches long. It did have some girth to it. I quickly unhooked it and let the fish swim out of my hand.


My dogs were tripping a bit, but they seemed to enjoy the whole scene. These guys love the nature and cooling off in the higher altitude climate. We begin to make it downstream to this pool that I am really familiar about. The Pool is deep enough to where I feel that the fish can survive over the winter. I caught a nice ‘bow from that same pool last summer. There I was able to catch four more ‘bows, but I want to catch a Brown Trout. I know that they are there, because I have caught one there before. I go further downstream, where I know the Browns are. Unfortunately the sun was going down and my dogs were getting a bit ancy. However, I took the gains of the afternoon and the fact that my Chow is still alive as a plus. There are always streams to explore and fortunately for me, I am centrally located to them. Now the summer is leaving land, I need to figure out some other objects to focus on. Tight lines my friends!!!

Dog Day Sierra Adventures

Well, I have not been too busy to post on this blog. It’s more that I am lazy in this intense heat of a Sacramento summer. True, that the heat is a welcome sign. It means that the Alpine streams are available to check for trout. However, the heat does make me want to act like a lizard and just lay around on the ground. I do have some epic excursions to rap about.

Like my return to the North Fork of the Middle Fork of the American in July. I was inspired by a speech that I heard from Bill Carnazzo at a Granite Bay Fly caster meeting. He was speaking about the wonders of the American River drainage system and I felt drawn to visit it again. The last time I made it to the North Fork; I almost killed myself, due to the high flows. I felt the flows should be in order now. When I got there, they were. My main goals for this trip, was to checkout how far the North Fork trail follows the river. Secondly, how long would it take me to get to the convergence of the North Fork and El Dorado Creek. Of course, to catch some fish would be in line as a goal too. I was able to complete both goals. The trip to the convergence took me only 45 minutes. I was extremely happy about that. I didn’t net any fish, but I did get several hits & takes on my flies. I know what I did wrong not to net these fish, but again, this was mainly an expedition. I now know I can go back here and find many wild fish to catch. I know that I need to use flies that are size #14 or smaller. I think I will head back here in the fall & see how this fishery is doing.

On August 12th, I played hooky with a couple of my work buddies and we headed over to the Carson drainage system. We got to the junction of CA Highways 88 and 89 around 7am and started casting into the West Fork of the Carson. There was a slight frost on the ground when we got there. I know in the middle of August…brr
Anyway, we all got into fish. My buddy Van’s nephew pulled out a fat 28 inch Brown Trout. It had to be a planter, but hey who would complain about that score. I was able to get some bites and pulled out some nice planters. Ok, they were only about 8 to 10 inches, but I didn’t smell like a skunk. After a couple of hours, we headed over to upper section of Hope Valley. I like it over there. It’s a bit more rural…like I wasn’t in the boonies anyway. It took me a bit longer to find the fish, but I did find one feisty trout that was eating caddis from up top. It took my size 16 mosquito imitation down hard. I had to fight it & drag it out of an undercut. I love fights like that.

After a couple hours there, we headed over to the East fork of the Carson. The weather warmed up. The water level was low and there a lot more people fishing on the East Fork. I did what I like to do best. Hike out of the way. It paid me dividends. I reluctantly started to use my nymphing technique using an indicator. I was able to get a lot of hits & catch a few fish this way. After a couple of hours, it was lunch time. Everyone ate, except me. I had dreams of going into the wild trout area of the East Fork of the Carson. I heard some many good things about this place. I really wanted to go. The problem was my buddies were not the type to go for this. They were gear guys that wanted the quick hit and catch their limits ASAP. Also, I wasn’t the one driving. After my constant whining, I convinced my buddies to go for it. Once in a lifetime trip. Something we would tell our grand kids about. The Trophy Section of the East Fork of the Carson. So we headed there. We got past the Indian Creek Reservoir and headed down a dirt road. I guess the location of the Wild Trout section of the Carson is why it’s considered a trophy section. People have a hard time getting to it. We found out first hand. We got stuck in a soft section of the road. Unlucky for us, we didn’t have a 4X4 car. I had to hike up to the main road and was able to flag a fire crew down for help. They contacted the Sheriff and we had wait for a couple hours for him to help bail us out. When the Sheriff arrived, I explained the situation. Then he made me get in the back of his truck and we headed back to my buddies. I didn’t like that fact, but the advice that he gave us did work and we were able to get out of our rut.

On the last week of August, I succeed in one of my goals that I had set for the summer, to make the hike to Kirman Lake in the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest. I heard rumors of a short cut, but I did not see one when I got into the vicinity of the lake. This lake is renowned for the Trophy size brookies that get fat from the scuds that inhabit the lake. I brought my float tube, so I could get out to the fish. The hike wasn’t as bad as I first thought it would be. It took me only one hour to make the 3 mile hike. That was the first thing that brought a smile to my face. The Second thing was the fact that I was all alone at this place. Now, the hard part, to find the fish. Stillwater fishing isn’t one of the things that I am that good at. I have been constantly learning techniques and trying to figure out which flies to use. I knew going in that my midge patterns would gain me some success. Also leech patterns might help me achieve my goal. The first hour, there was a little breeze and I was able to make it to the northern part of the lake. However that breeze picked up velocity and it made it a bit colder for me. Waves would start to break over my tube and I began to get wet. It was a bit cooler at 7200 feet up. I soon noticed that I had blue fingers. Uggh!!! A two plus something hour drive. Then an hour hike and I get cold hands. Not good. Also, my camera took water as well. I was thinking ok, I know how to get here and I can figure out how to fish this place better the next time I come up here, but now it’s time to go. Then I got my first bite!!! It wasn’t that big, about 10 inches, but it had girth. It was a brookie!!! I quickly warmed up. I fought that fish for about 10 minutes, before that brookie shook off my hook. Hmm, I can hang out a bit long to see if I can get one of these monster brook trout that I heard about. It took me a bit long and I had to put on a damsel nymph imitation. Bingo, I was able to hook into a big fattie!@! This time, I took my time & netted this fish. It was the biggest Brook trout I had ever caught. 20 inches long. However, that record was quickly broken as I brought in an even bigger brookie. It was only one or two inches bigger that previous one I caught, but I was able to net it. I felt awesome. I looked at my watch. It was 6:30 pm. I was thinking maybe I could hurry up and get some cast in on the East Fork of the Carson. Not true. I was just able to get to my car by nightfall. Then I experienced problems with my VW Bug as I descended over the Monitor Pass. The engine light showed that my car was overheating. I had to take a bit slower down the Pass. Then all of the deer that were in the highway. I was lucky that I didn’t hit any of them. Now it is the end of the summer. I am hoping that I can get a couple of more epic trips in. Also I hope to take some pictures, so I can litter my blog. So far, 2009 has been a totally epic year in my fly fishing career. No, I won’t be producing any flies that go down in history and everyone will be using, but I am starting to figure out how to get to the fish and how catch them. I know how to tie those flies as well. Tight lines my friends and I am sure there are more epic tells for the future.