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!!!