Cottonwood Lakes

MotoGP · Veteran Member

Cottonwood Lakes

101fish · Senior Member

The fish there are pretty, thats for sure. If you can catch em on the Putah you can expect 40 fish days up there. Only catch is a 'trophy' is 12 inches. I saw some photos in lone pine of some 4 lbers but I have never seen anything over 14 up there, and havent talked to anyone who has either. The larger fish are probably piscavores and consume the little 10 inchers we catch. As for catching them, any size 14-18 greyish dry fly works. So do green mosquitoes, yellow jackets and size 14 black ants (at some elevations). It is very pretty country up there. If you decide to pack in, you will need bear canisters.

shon42073 · Senior Member

I'd have to agree with ya on that, if you can catch fish in putah you can catch ALOT of fish in most sierra spots. I caught fish all day long on my last trip to middle fork stan. what a beautiful place.

windknots · Senior Member

Last year (or was it the year before?) a guy from Caltrout (I think he's a guide from the Dunsmuir area) gave a slideshow at a local Orvis on a lengthy hike he did through the Golden Trout Wilderness with a focus on golden trout. The slides were stunning and ever since I've been looking to head up there but just never pulled it off. Trout were small but were very aggressive in hitting flies. One of the points of the trip was to observe which bodies of water had sustaining populations of trout, so he was getting pretty far off of the beaten path at times.

Something like that is a bit beyond the normal fishing experience, given the difficult access, high altitude, rarity of the fish, and the 360 degree calendar-photo scenery. The only thing that would make it complete is a fly fishing guru sitting cross legged in a yurt on a nearby peak providing the meaning of it all to the fly fishing faithful that successfully make the journey.

BTW, Here's an interesting link from Caltrout with some stats on access into the area and a few other details:

http://www.caltrout.org/docs/WildTroutEconomicReport.pdf

The guy who did the slideshow may have been Brett Matzke, but I just can't remember. I could find out for certain from the shop if you were interested, maybe you could get a local fly shop to bring him in for a guest lecture/slide preso on the Golden Trout wilderness. I stumbled into it by accident and it got me all fired up to go.

101fish · Senior Member

Getting off the beaten path results in phenomenal fishing in most cases up in the seirras. Best way to do this is to backpack it i think. I have spent way to many weeks cruising around the back country terrorizing the fish. As wind knots said, this will also put you on some wild fish as well. Which is very rewarding. Wild trout trout that were never stocked/planted in CA are a pretty rare occurance, and these fish a the prettiest ones I have ever seen. The trout up there strike almost instictivly at anything that is put into their feeding lane. I have even gotten fish pulling a dryfly up stream. It is an almost holy experience if it goes well. I would recomend fishing the high seirra to anyone who can make the hike

MotoGP · Veteran Member

Thanks for all of the replys. I have fished in areas from about 8-9 thousand feet and have caught some nice wild fish, but above 10,000 feet is something I have yet to do. I already got my good friend to commit to the adventure, so now its about planning exactly when and where to go. Also, thanks Windknots for the link.

Shark Diver · Veteran Member

RE: Cottonwood Lakes-June 15th Report