Went on a Jeep run over the weekend and camped alongside the E. Carson Just south of the 89/4 split. Spent less than an hour fishing but hooked a few fish 10-14" range that fought rather well. The bait dunkers in the group did well with worms.
High temps were around 85 degrees with some clouds and thundershowers in the evening. The river realy middied up bad Saturday morning following Fridays downpoars but cleared up just fine by 4pm Saturday.
Robert
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Winter eats heat the way darkness swallows light. The terrors of failed power and frozen stems are stymied with fire, smoke and white ash.
We hit the east fork Thursday afternoon right after the rain and it was pure brown and ugly. That was my first trip to that river, so it was disappointing. Friday we went to west slope waters which were nice and clear. The Silver Fork fished well on dries.
Apparently I just missed you guys. I came over the Ebbets pass Friday morning to find the East Carson muddy and unfishable. Proceeded to head towards the Monitor Pass and 4 wheeled down the Barney Riley trail in my Wrangler. 10 miles of basically creekbed rock which took 2 hours one way. Its nice though because it ends at the bank of the East Carson and you can cross the river (when its low enough) and take a dip in the hot spring tub. Do you know of this trail lightfoot? There is also another one which takes you about 1/2 mile from the East Carson with about a half mile hike down a dried creek bed into the Wild Trout Section. Great area to fish... If you need directions let me know, I hope to be heading there in late August.
So, the East Carson was a fishing bust, so we headed over the Monitor Pass to the West Walker which was running high and brown. Blahhhh. Passed Bridgeport and went to Green Creek with perfect water flows and great camp sites. Beware of the mosquitos, there are everywhere and swarm just like nats even with spray all over your body.
Made our way back over the Sonora Pass to the Middle Fork Stanislaus at Spring Gap. Nice campground with Brown and Rainbow fishing up towards the bridge. It was unbelievably hot, but later in the evening (7:30) they started to rise with a sporatic caddis hatch. Lots of spinners in this area, but they tend to take off around dinner time when the FF'ers make their way to the riffles. :)
Headed back to the Bay Area in my bikini only covered Wrangler thru Modesto, Tracey and Livermore in 110 plus heat. It was miserable to say the least. Fun trip tho...
BTW, the Silver Fork is a fun little area. Did you go to the Caples campground and hike up to the confluence? Suppose to have some browns lurking under the rocks there. And if you go higher about the meadow section, across the bridge there is a great pool section there with eager risers on Royal Wulffs and Caddis patterns. Perfect wet wading area...
I thought about heading over the Barney Riley trail on Saturday evening with the hopes that we might be able to cross the river but too much food to eat kinda killed that idea. Not necessarily a bad thing.
This was a wheeling trip for the club http://www.vacavillecliffhangers.com so fishing was certainly secondary. We ran the Deer Valley trail from North to South. It's an easy trail but we were looking for a relaxing trail above the heat. No need to beat on our rigs in late July anyway with Sierra Trek right around the corner. Fordyce tends to find the weak link.
Not sure of Capels campground. We camped in the same area that the Lake Tahoe Hi-Lo's stage for their poker run at the hwy4/wolf creek junction just past the turnoff for Monitor pass.
Years ago I spent a lot of time on the W. Walker and always stayed at Levitts meadows campground but that was back in the bait dunker days. Seems like it would be kinda tuff to fish the canyon with a flyrod. Roosevelt lake 3 miles above the campground is nice for cutt's. Never managed any fish out of the second lake though.
I hear you on the heat and bikini top. I take a small squirt bottle with me and adjust it to mist. Hang it from the strap for your top and it's your personal swamp cooler. Granted we drove back down when it was 114 and we resorted to just pouring 1/2 frozen bottles of water on our heads. Cleanest my dash has been in months.
my rig
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Winter eats heat the way darkness swallows light. The terrors of failed power and frozen stems are stymied with fire, smoke and white ash.
lightfoot, your pic didn't show up in my browser for some reason. I ended up breaking my rear hardpan mount off of my axle. Damn stock mount steel is so thin guaged, I built a new one with a notch so the bolt will move a bit before attempting to break off again. Great idea on the mister, I just kept sucking on ice cubes.
We stopped at Pickel Meadow on the West Walker and hiked in and then paralleled the fence line. No way was I going to try to wade across it. Looks like the cows are destroying the bank where the risers hold. Really bad...
I'll try to post a pic of my rig a little later. 92 auto inline 6 with 33" Goodyear MTR's.
Panhard mount on a YJ (leaf springs) really isn't needed. The leaf springs locate the axle laterally just fine. Jeep started adding the panhard bar to YJ's probably for liability reasons more than anything else. All of the CJ's, Scouts, early Broncos (rear only) ran leafs without the panhard. I'd toss the thing but thats just me.
98 TJ, 4.0, ax-15, Atlas II, ProRock 60's, 37" Pitbulls, ect ect and an empty wallet.
I've never fished the Pickle meadow area. It just always seemed to get too much pressure due to ease of access. Funny thing is the few times I've fished Levitt meadow I havn't done all that well either.
It would be nice to head back to the W.Walker, Rosevelt lake and Kirman lake. A lot of good memories from there.
Tight lines and rubber side down.
Robert
__________________
Winter eats heat the way darkness swallows light. The terrors of failed power and frozen stems are stymied with fire, smoke and white ash.
