Odd day on the East Carson River

iamamultitasker · Senior Member

Odd day on the East Carson River

DrDan · Administrator

Clay,

With the way you disparage 21" fish, I think you may be getting a bit spoiled! If I had the day you described, I would be floating on the clouds! No one could deny that wild fish are better but GOSH! If I were so lucky or talented or something!!!

DJ Cal · Member

Multi,

I have spent a lot of time on the EC and this year is definitely different. More fisherman, fewer wild fish, and fewer bugs than I remember in the past. Despite that, and for my travel dollar (and let's face it - sheer convenience), I think the EC is worth the effort for the scenery. I come over Ebbets Pass to get to the EC, and I really enjoy cresting the pass and driving the east slope toward the river. The geology of the area never gets old.

Lately, I have come to enjoy some of the smaller nearby waters, as well as the meadow portion of the EC that is accessible via Wolf Creek road. There's more to the area than just main stem of the river.

DJ

Cole Davis · Senior Member

Sparse wild trout down there? You've never fished there before? Im a little confused about how those two statements work together. But your right aint no fish worth driving all the way over there for. Stick to the East walker. disbelief Thing about the EC is the fishing gets tough when the flows drop. Just noticed the water is below 200 at Markleeville. That's pretty bony for that river. Just sayin...

-- Edited by Cole Davis on Sunday 16th of October 2011 10:28:48 AM

Otter · Senior Member

Alpine County actually pays money to plant most of the fish on the Upper East Carson, above Hangman's. They stock the river with big Donaldson( up to 15lbs)rainbows and some pretty big brown trout. If you hit it after a plant the fishing is pretty silly... The planting is to attract people from all over Calif and from Nevada to go fishing there, and spend money there. I think it is great for bait fisherpeople and families. It is also a great place to teach people how to fly fish. The river is one of the few places in California where you can easily catch fish.

As for wild fish you will have to do quite a bit of hiking to get to them. Some people even use various watercraft and float from Hangman's to takeouts in Nevada.

There is some discussion that DFG still wants to poison a stretch of the river to reintroduce the native cutthroat trout in the headwaters area below the falls. The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) has so far stopped any action. They are opposed to the use of Rotenone as it kills all invertebrates when wiping out the non natives.

This is the same group that has stopped most of the planting of fish by the DFG.

iamamultitasker · Senior Member

Dan,

I'm sorry if I sounded like a troll. I was disappointed that I drove so far and that I didn't do enough research beforehand. I expected that there would be hatchery fish and wild fish mixed in together and so was feeling put off by the barren quality of that part of the river. I could have driven to the upper Sac in the same amount of time and fished for big wild fish.

DJ,

Thanks for the info. Next time I'm there I'll definitely check out the feeder creeks and maybe the West Fork. It is beautiful country up there.

Cole,

Not seeing the contradiction between those statements. I've never fished the EC before and I expected to see a population of wild fish. There appeared to be no wild fish and so I used the term "sparse." Also, the flows seemed pretty high to me and someone remarked that the recent rains had bumped the flows up.

Otter,

A couple of people I met out there explained the hatchery situation to me. It is a good place to learn how to fly fish, but the fish are so easy to catch, it might give a newbie the wrong idea of what skills you need. It is a good venue for spin fisherman who just want to stock their refrig and hang in a beautiful environment. Nothing wrong with that. With other really great rivers and creeks available that are actually closer (including PC), however, I don't think I'll ever be hiking for miles below Hangman's bridge just to fish a sparse population of wild fish.

-- Edited by iamamultitasker on Sunday 16th of October 2011 11:14:52 AM

Cole Davis · Senior Member

My bad, I was grouchy first thing this morning. You were there, I wasn't. My flow website obviously was off a little. Heard there was even flurries of snow around that area a week or so ago.

georgek · Veteran Member

I spent three straight weekends on the Carson from mid september through the first weekend of october. Twice from hangmans to just below markleeville creek and once I walked in from the airport. Between those three days I caught 20 fish and probably missed/lost at least that many more. Nothing huge (18 was the biggest) but the fish were consistently 16 inches. Just my two cents.

iamamultitasker · Senior Member

Thanks for the tip George. My friend was intimidated by the fly fishing only section and didn't want to go there due to past skunking issues. It makes sense that there would be wild trout there, but hard to catch for beginners. Next time....

shon42073 · Senior Member

I spent a total of 8 days on 3 occasions fishing the east carson in september fishing downriver from hangmans and for whatever reason this year has been very disapointing. I did ok but ussually do great there. Much more planters this year, Even many of the browns I caught were planters. Don't get me wrong, Its a great river, One of the best around but maybe this is just an off year. I did have a first there this year, I caught a lahonton cutt about 17 inches.

georgek · Veteran Member

shon, if you dont mind what part of the river did you get the cutt on?

shon42073 · Senior Member

A few hundred yards downriver from the confluence with Markleeville creek.

georgek · Veteran Member

Thats where I was guessing. I was down there and missed a fish three or four times that im pretty sure was a cut

SK60 · Senior Member

Back in the day, DFG used to take spawned Pyramid Cuts and drop them in Pleasant Valley Creek and Wolf Creek. It was a bit disconcerting to find these large fish holding in little holes along the stream. But that was 17 years ago when PVC was free and not pay for play as it is now. It's a meadow stream that was (is) a great place to learn how to cast-no heavy bankside vegetation to grab your flies.

shenglu · Newbie

You're there, I did not. My website traffic is obviously a little bit. Heard around this area or even a week or so before the snow.

Bob Loblaw · Senior Member

I'm headed to Markleeville for a few days next weekend. I think I'll hone my skills on the planeters the first day and then get down to the lower section Saturday and Sunday away from the crowds. USGS says its running about 220 cfs right now, low but fishable.

Hopefully I'll run into a couple of these guys.

http://www.orvisnews.com/FlyFishing/Video-Huge-Rainbows-on-the-East-Carson.aspx

-- Edited by Bob Loblaw on Tuesday 17th of July 2012 09:33:27 AM

Otter · Senior Member

Good luck out there Bob. Fish the riffles as they enter the pools. You can't see the fish, but they are there. Also look for big rock formations by pools and fish as close as possible to the rock formations. Most of them are undercut and hold more and bigger fish.
Cheers!

DrDan · Administrator

I'm heading that way in less than 2 weeks as well. We will be renting alsace across from Sorenson's. Any tips regarding places on the West Carson, East Carson and fly selections from those in the know?

Thanks!

lightfoot · Senior Member

drdan wrote:
I'm heading that way in less than 2 weeks as well. We will be renting alsace across from Sorenson's. Any tips regarding places on the West Carson, East Carson and fly selections from those in the know?

Thanks!

I was on the West Walker with my family last weekend. We rented horses at the Levitt Meadows pack station and rode to the falls about 30 minutes past Rosevelt and Lane lake. I have never seen the water that low, granted I havn't been there since the 80's. Aside from the flows, it looks pretty much the same as always.

The fishing was decent but it was a family trip with fishing as a side venture so we didn't spend a lot of time at it or fish that much water. We stayed at the Leavitt Meadows campground and only fished downstream to about the middle of the zig zag canyon.

A few hatchery fish and what appeared to be some wild fish (adipose and all other fins attached and nice coloring, dinks with par marks etc). Certainly no shortage of fish and I'd suspect a hiking adventure from Leavitt to Pickle would net you plenty of fish and sore legs biggrin

The lower stretches along 395 had a few fishermen but was certainly NOT crowded. An oddity is the perception of the river as you come out of the canyon heading south from 89. It looks like it is flowing uphill. I had the entire family convinced

iamamultitasker · Senior Member

Hey Dan,

As you can see from my posts on this thread, I only have limited experience on this river and then only with planted fish - which according to Chris are in abundance right now.

If you want to catch planters, I would start at the Hwy 4 bridge (I think that's the right bridge) and work my way down from there. The time I was there, every pool close to the bridge and some of the riffles had visible fish milling around and it was easy to hook them. I suggest a #14 bead-head prince with a foam indicator on the pools and in riffles just swing the prince through without an indicator. Most importantly, look for large visible fish with your polarized glasses. You might also check some of the campgrounds further down which had large numbers of smaller trout (12-14") all over the place.

Just for the record, I don't hate planted fish. I just don't like driving any distance to catch them. I live fairly close to a lake where in the fall and winter you can hook almost any number of them easily and sometimes 20"+ in size. When the planters survive the cormorants, they are fun to catch as they selectively key in on chironomids. My wife likes me to stock the freezer with them - the trout I mean, not the chironomids.

drifter · Senior Member

if you fish close to a public higway your going to catch planters---period. The entire stretch above hangman is all along the road, so of course your going to catch planters.

Fish downstream from hangmans, preferably start at the airport. You will still get a few planters that have washed down river but far less than normal.

As for bugs this time of year, I would be packing some cream colored caddis, tricos, and stimulators/hoppers.

I havent fished the EC this year, but consistent with the previous posts, Ive heard the bug life thus far has been less than spectacular. If you fish the EC, watch out for rattlers.

As for the west carson, stick to dry flies upstream from the meadow the last hour and a half of light, you will get into mostly wild fish up on top. Bring some green drakes.

DrDan · Administrator

Thanks for the tips. Regarding the West Carson recommendation, you recommend fishing upstream from the bridge at the 88/89 intersection? If I recall, there is a lot of pocket water through there?

drifter · Senior Member

It can be good, but the closer you are to the 88/89 bridge the more planters you will run into. If you want to get into wild fish, fish well downstream of the meadow section.

shon42073 · Senior Member

why are cattle still allowed to destroy the streambed and banks of the east carson? I can't believe this is still allowed in this day and age. It's the same on the upper owens, just spent a week fishing the owens and sorrounding area, makes me sick to see what the cattle are doing to these rivers. On another note has anyone seen the family of beavers on the Carson at the confluence of markleeville creek confluence? There pretty cool to watch.

georgek · Veteran Member

I was up there about a month ago and saw the beavers a little upstream of where markleeville creek comes in.

Bob Loblaw · Senior Member

I was at the Creek Monkey Ale House in Martinez last weekend and saw the beavers from the beer garden...no monkeys though.

Headed to Grover Hot Springs late Thursday night to get on the Carson first light Friday.

Cole Davis · Senior Member

Sometimes I confuse beavers with cougars. It's easy to do with a few IPA's in the system. You can't tell me there's nothing but planters down there anymore. That's a bunch of bullroar. Have fun and pack some water......

Otter · Senior Member

Yeah you see that Mikey landed a pretty big Donaldson in the video. Lots of spots all over the fish. The East Carson like the Truckee was once full of Lahontons. If you look at the big fish on Putah you can see they definitely look like redbands and steelhead. The east carson is fun though, you just need to do some hiking to get into some of the wild fish and holdovers.