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Bob Loblaw


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4 day highway 89 trip
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Just got back from a 4 day trip up Highway 89.  We left the Bay Area on Thursday morning in my buddies new RV, Jeep and Hobie fishing kayaks in tow.  First stop was Mountain Hardware in Truckee for some 'ammunition" and inside intel on where was fishing well.   An hour up the road we pulled over at one of the campsites along the Little Truckee and broke out the 3 weights.  It was pretty skinny water but we both landed a decent fish a piece on hoppers.  Mine was about 14 inches, a very pretty fish indeed and my first on that river. 

We drove on up to Davis Lake and set up camp at Grasshopper campground and launched the kayaks about 3:30pm.  We sailed over to the west side and fished the weedbeds until disk.  Neither of us even saw a fish. 

Next morning we launched again at first light and fished east side, west side and up against the dam and again, saw nothing but pelicans and clouds of midges.  I threw all sorts of wolly buggers at them, I threw blood midges, brassies, zebras, and I even tried a mouse fly for giggles.  Nothing.

On the upside those Hobie kayaks with the Mirage Drives are awesome casting platforms and they haul ass! much faster than paddling.

We met a couple camped next to us and the husband had fished for 5 days straight and landed one fish.  That was enough for us so we packed up and headed north, up past Almanor and over Lassen to Burney State Park.  We fished Burney Creek that evening and again were skunked to end a very frustrating day.  To cap it, the skies opened just as we got our fire going and forced us into the RV to drink our beer and eat our steaks.  The weather front moving in combined with the full moon was what we decided to blame the skunking on.  We were over half way through our 4 day trip and had precisely one fish each and caught those in the first hour!

Next morning we drove down to Pit 3.  It was cold and cloudy but the fishing was great.  I hooked up first cast and lost a beautiful fish.  By mid morning the skies had opened again and it pretty much rained constantly the rest of the day.  Thank god for Gore Tex.  By 2:30 we were both borderline hypothermic and we called it quits.  My buddy Kevin had about a dozen fish in hand, whereas I just got 3 but lost at least a dozen.  Only when we were finished fishing I realized I had missed not one but two eyes when I set up mid morning after being broken off.  Hard to set a hook with a rig like that! 

We then drove into Burney for some beers and wings at Art's.  There was snow on that little peak just to the south of town!  We got over Lassen just in time.

Sunday morning, our last day we drove over to the Hat Creek riffle.  From 8am to about 11:00 we had it all to our selves and it was on fire! I had 9 fish in hand with two about 18 inches, the second of which went on a long downstream run and gave me a great fight.  Got them all on nymphs bought from the Putah box in Creative Sports!

Already looking forward to next years trip!

 

(photos to come)

 



-- Edited by Bob Loblaw on Tuesday 24th of September 2013 08:43:27 PM

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coolbee


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Days of skunking aside, sounds like a great trip man. I've always wanted to try the Pit. That along with the East Walker are on my to do list for this fall/winter.

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kbarn


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The Pit is tough to wade! Nice trip. Thanks for sharing.

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bono


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that is a trip that myself my son and my buddy and his boys went on about a month ago, we stayed in a remote little camp site on the upper reaches of hat creek right near lassen park. We fished Battle creek res and didnt do much there so we then fished Manzanita lk and caught a handfull of fish. The next day we fished Crater lake just east of hat creek and freakin nailed a whole bunch of smaller sized rainbows 12 to 13" on average. The hot fly there was my Bono bee as there were fish literally jumping on the shore for some wierd bees that were there. The day after that we hiked into Thousand lakes wilderness and spent all day walking to 3 of the larger lakes there and we fished them as well. We used mostly dries and site casted to cruising fish along the shoreline, we caught quite a few fish there as well but nothing big again. Then the last day we pounded the Pitt and did real good there as usual. Make sure if you fish the Pitt you take off the indicater, wade agressively and use dark brown or black patterns.And lastly Bob that is a bad a-- rv fishing rig you guys had I need one of those!!



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Greg Bonovich
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Bob Loblaw


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Thanks Greg...I'd never heard the "no indicator" rule on the Pit.  I'll try that next time.  My buddy was killing them on a 2 fly set up with a big horrible green thing on top with a furry red tail; looked like something you'd get in 'My first fly fishing kit" at Walmart.  He also fished with no weight and didn't want to get into the river.  I don't know how the hell he caught so many fish....probably had something to do with the fact that he was only broken off one time, whereas I spent most of my day tying knots! On the upside, I managed to not fall on my ass which is a first for me on the Pit...on the downside, after losing my nice Brodin net on the Pit in August I've been relegated to my Bass Pro Shop $20 back up and I managed to lose it too!  Sticking your net in your wading belt is fine for Hat Creek, not so good when you're risking life and limb on the Pit.

That RV set up is very cool indeed!  especially since it rained so much....wish it was mine!

 

 



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rgloft


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bono wrote: why no indi 

that is a trip that myself my son and my buddy and his boys went on about a month ago, we stayed in a remote little camp site on the upper reaches of hat creek right near lassen park. We fished Battle creek res and didnt do much there so we then fished Manzanita lk and caught a handfull of fish. The next day we fished Crater lake just east of hat creek and freakin nailed a whole bunch of smaller sized rainbows 12 to 13" on average. The hot fly there was my Bono bee as there were fish literally jumping on the shore for some wierd bees that were there. The day after that we hiked into Thousand lakes wilderness and spent all day walking to 3 of the larger lakes there and we fished them as well. We used mostly dries and site casted to cruising fish along the shoreline, we caught quite a few fish there as well but nothing big again. Then the last day we pounded the Pitt and did real good there as usual. Make sure if you fish the Pitt you take off the indicater, wade agressively and use dark brown or black patterns.And lastly Bob that is a bad a-- rv fishing rig you guys had I need one of those!!

 



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