STONEY CREEK

brian clemens · Senior Member

STONEY CREEK

WT · Senior Member

I have never even heard of it. Where is it located?

shon42073 · Senior Member

I'm diggin into the memory banks here but i beleive it is in mendoceino county and is one of the few if the only river in that area that flows east. I'm pretty sure it is one of the wild heritage trout rivers in california. Not many know about it biggrin

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mx19 · Senior Member

If you ride dirt bikes you know where it at...

�� mx19

Matt R · Senior Member

The name make me think its every creek I've ever been on.

paul · Veteran Member

pm sent

lightfoot · Senior Member

The recent rain may have helped, otherwise I would think that the water would be pretty skinny.� Nice country outside of the Summer months so it should be a nice trip regardless, enjoy.

SK60 · Senior Member

Spell it Stony and you got it. Beautiful little stream NW Maxwell. Best in late spring-early summer-gets very small in dry years. Mostly small fish under 8"-bigger fish come out at dark. Part of Snow Mtn drainage, low elevation, lots of rattlers at times, and, of course, lots of PO. Used to be watched over by Colusa FF club with trail improvement, etc.

Xnjb707X · Senior Member

�I thought that creek was near the williows area, or is that the lower end?

-- Edited by Xnjb707X at 19:52, 2008-11-05

windknots · Senior Member

The headwaters are about an hour and a half from Maxwell, maybe less but some of the roads are slow-going.� Like SK60 said, small wild fish, scenic, rattlers, PO.�� It's pretty far off of the beaten path, you won't catch the most fish or the biggest fish up there�but it's a nice place to explore for a weekend.� Gear down, 4wt is plenty up there.� From what I heard the water warms up pretty quick after it comes out of the hills, bring a thermometer if you've got one, would be interesting to know how those lower sections measure up.� I fished mostly above red bridge, a little below, biggest fish was only abou 12-14", everything else was under 10".� Some nice looking holes though.

brian clemens · Senior Member

ya i am thinking 7'6" 3wt, with drys, maybe ill give it a go, starting to hook up with more than just one steelie, so dont know. if i go ill let you all know how i did.

windknots · Senior Member

Hey Brian, if you head up by red bridge, I just camped by the bridge and slept in the back of the 4Runner as it was better than the rocky ground. That way I avoided a camp site fee. I spent the hole day in my waders up in the canyon anyway.

It's a great place to just go and hang out fishing and not think about much else up there. You'll have a blast with the 3 weight. I went about 1.5 to 2 miles up into the canyon and didn't really notice any difference in fishing other than the water got progressively smaller. The holes below red bridge looked very appealing but I didn't spend much time down there as I ran out of time. All three forks come together in that one small section, though the other forks are tiny, they may even dry up in the summer. That upper section is the only part I fished.

It was early season, I had some action on attractor dries like stimulators, but got most fish on copper johns and micro mays. When I was there flows would be high compared to what you'll find up there though. I got snagged a lot trying to get the flies deep into the rocks, but that's what I had to do that time to get some action. I got a lot of hits lifting the nymphs up, there were more than a couple small fish that I casted into the trees by accident when "flipping" the nymph rig for another cast.

Probably a great time for dries up there. Have a blast!

brian clemens · Senior Member

so are you saying now is a great time, or early season, when did you fish it last.

thanks for that info

windknots · Senior Member

It was a year ago last spring, when the rest of the rivers are still blown out that's one river that is still fishable. I think you'll have a good time up there this weekend though. It's small water, but good water.

-- Edited by windknots at 20:01, 2008-11-06

-- Edited by windknots at 20:04, 2008-11-06

brian clemens · Senior Member

thats one chunky fish, that boy on a 3wt would be a blast, ill have to put pics up of the browny from the lil truckee and the bruiser from the east carson that i caught all on the 3wt. man it was fun. hopefully i can get up there tomorrow or weds, but more than likely it will have to be sunday, the steelies are calling my name again, this time i am bringing out the one man pontoon on the AR, then weds its off to work with the 3wt on putah.

hey windknots how would you feel about hittin it up this coming sunday. let me know
brian

dtp916 · Senior Member

Windknots ~

I have watched the flows over the year and was wondering what youthink is an ideal range? It seems to blow out pretty easily with rainfall.....

SK60 · Senior Member

I recognize that stretch in the picture. I took some video of a day on the water a while back-I'll have to dig it out.

iFish · Senior Member

Here's some online info on Stony Creek from the Feds. Seems the Middle Fork of Stony Creek is designated a "Wild Trout" water.

http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/mendocino/recreation/fishing/scrk/

windknots · Senior Member

Hey Brian, I'd be stoked to hook up with you but my wife is getting pretty close to popping out our first so I have to stay pretty close to home.

That rainbow was the last one of the day, I was fishing dries and it was getting so dark I couldn't even see my line on the water, just had to go by the sound of a fish rising in the general direction of the fly. Gotta love it...

As for the ideal flows, I've only been there once so I couldn't really say, when I was up there all of the sierra creeks where still blown out and I was concerned about what I'd find there. Someone at the time mentioned that this was a creek that tended to be fishable when everything else was a bust and it seemed to be true.

I'm probably not the best person to recommend "ideal conditions" anyway because I kinda get a kick out of plowing through trail-less areas and looking for the out of the way holes that nobody fishes. For me it's ideal if I don't see anybody, the scenery is good, I catch some wild fish, I'm not bleeding too bad from all the scrapes, and I don't get poison oak.