Recovering Trout Stream in Southern California

I'm still here!

Fall trout fishing in the local Inland Empire mountains of California can be amazing - provided it was a relatively wet year. This last winter/spring kept snow up on the mountains up until late July (thought I saw some on San G in beginning of August?) and the creeks are all running nicely.

I spent an afternoon on an old, reliable favorite creek. It's never produced any monsters for me, even in the pre-drought days, but at times could be a consistently-fun blueline stream to explore. It's become even more enjoyable as I've switched to fly fishing for these small wild rainbow denizens.

However, it really suffered in the drought and the last time I fished it, I caught only a few tiny rainbows. I was eager to see today how things might have changed, and I wasn't dissapointed.

The stream was running along, water flowing at a steady pace with plenty of pools to explore. The amount of water seemed great for this dry period of the year.

Even though it's fairly late in the season, I still came across patches of not-yet ripened blackberries, and a few patches of good ripe ones.

Did I mention there was blackberries? Some stretches had basically walls of blackberry growth, not easily bushwacked through. I've not noticed this very often in other local creeks, felt a bit like a trip to Washington in some ways.

My first cast was rewarded with solid strike, but a missed fish. Not a bad way to start out the day. Shortly thereafter, I landed a chunky little rainbow. Great colors!

I continued walking upstream, pausing to explore interesting pools along the trail. Someone had cleared much of the brush near the start of the trail, and I found a heavy lead sinker on the ground, but fortunately the fishing was still excellent. I proceeded to get strikes in most pools, split evenly between my dry stimulator pattern and wet nymph/dropper.

This overhanging tree root had enormous rocks wedged into it. Looked like years of past erosion had really worn away at it.

Came across this pool nearby. Great place to practice bow-and-arrow casting underneath the overhanging logs. In fact, I ended up using this casting strategy for a majority of the spots. Worked here, with a nice rainbow as my reward.

The fish were consistent, most around 6-8". Nothing wild but a welcome change from last year's micros. They are growing up and appeared well fed. Plenty of forage in the creek too.

Fall leaves were all starting to come out. Crisp day, perfect for fishing.

In one pool, I had enough room to get a backcast in. First attempt was perfect, dropped it right at the far side of the pool. Water was deeper than it looks in the photo, but not so deep that I couldn't see anything in the shade. As my flys drifted back, a large shadow came out and slurped up the dry. I set the hook, was rewarded with a very strong pull, big splash, and then...slack line. Sigh. Better luck next time. 14" my guess, very big fish for this little creek.

Fishing slowed down a bit as I hiked further upstream. Funny seeing these little cacti amidst the more coldwater riparian habitat within this canyon.

Still a few flowers blooming along the stream. Very tranquil, very peaceful.

This pool marked the furthest I've hiked back before. Fortunately, I still had a couple of hours, so I pushed on. But not before one more cast...

...and the result.

The next 45 minutes or so were spent fishing a number of pools. One stretch of creek was rather limited on fish, but beyond it lay mutliple pools with hungry trout. Lots of missed strikes, but I still landed fish. Same fly setup all day. Simple and rewarding.

The remains of old cabins dot the canyon. Also came across these. Somewhat interesting, paint still on this cooking range.

And..alas...my last pool of the day, twin mini waterfalls and all. Missed the first few fish and almost wrote it off, but waited a while and made a last cast. Hookup!