Family vacation time this past week. We headed up to Huntington Lake in the Western Sierras on Tuesday night for a few days of relaxing, hiking, and of course a little fishing.

8/6/03

My Dad was pretty anxious to go do a little fishing at Rancheria since he had been there for a few days before Summer and I got there and had not fished yet. We headed down mid morning and fished for 3 or 4 hours. They had the water pumping into the lake full bore and the fishing was pretty good for 8 to 12 inch rainbows. We caught and released 22 between my Dad, Summer, and I. Every fish was caught drifting salmon eggs in the current. The trick in the river section is to use 4lb test, two medium split shot, and the tiniest little red gamakatsku salmon egg hook you can get. The little red hooks are amazing. Wish I had these 15 years ago when we used to fish there :) Cast upstream and let it drift down and it was a bite every 3 or 4 casts.

8/7/03

I fished by myself for about an hour and a half on Thursday trying to see if I could get any browns. The water was still pumping full on from the power house. I fished in the fast water with a silver/green pins minnow and managed 4 small browns, no rainbows. The browns were very skinny, but they sure are mean little guys for their size. Talked to some kids who had a 12" brown in their creel that they had caught on worms.

8/8/03

Fished by myself again in the evening at Rancheria for about 2 hours. The water was pumping only half speed and the fishing was slower than the first day. I managed 8 rainbows on eggs but had to work for them in the faster water.

8/9/03

Mom, Dad, Summer and I hiked up to Twin Lakes for the day. The views were awesome this year as there were not any fires like last year and the air was really clear. Summer and I walked around the bigger lake throwing rooster tails and she caught the first rainbow. That was about good for her, but I kept fishing for another half hour or so and managed 6 small but gorgeous little rainbows. High altitude trout like to stalk the grass lines in the summer time and it was fun to sight fish them and watch them hit it.

After the hike I tried Sierra Summit for a bit, but there were not fish there, so I went back to Rancheria. Caught two rainbows right away on eggs. Both of them had a hook in their throat which I relieved them of along with my hook. Then they turned the water off completely. Only the second time in 20 years of fishing Huntington that I have seen them do that in August. That was it for the fishin! I headed back to the condo for dinner.

So another great week at Huntington goes by all to fast and now it's back to work. I'll leave you with this qoute from a great book that was in our condo titled "A 1916 Honeymoon in the Sierra" by Lettie G. Dresser. This is a description of the fishing in Mono creek in 1916 before they dammed Edison Lake

"Never before or since have I seen so many fish in one place outside a fish hatchery. The water was perfectly clear, and when one came suddenly into view near the stream, the trout, in great numbers, darted up the creek. By approaching the stream more cautiously, Percy being the expert fisherman that he was, in a little more than an hour had his limit which was in those days was fifty fish. Naturally we couldn't eat that many fish before they would have spolied, but back at camp we divided with the other campers."

Not to shabby huh! I guess the difference that 87 years makes is that it took us 4 days to catch about 40 trout, and we didn't keep a single one :)

A few pics

Mountain rainbow
http://www.calfishing.com/images/daily_reports/8_8_03_twinlakes_rainbow.jpg

Summer reeling one in
http://www.calfishing.com/images/daily_reports/8_8_03_summer_twinlakes.jpg

More Twin Lakes action
http://www.calfishing.com/images/daily_reports/8_8_03_rob_twinlakes.jpg

Small brown on Pin's Minnow
http://www.calfishing.com/images/daily_reports/8_7_03_small_browntrout.jpg