On the eve of California Trout Opener

[DruLeeParsec]

I just put 100 yards of backing line and a new DT 5 F line on my old reel in preparation for tomorrow's opening day. I took the dog hiking today down to the bear river and at mid day on an 80 degree day after a very bright half moon night I still say fish striking bugs 4 times. I know where I'll be tomorrow morning.

How about you folks. Is anyone else here ready to strike out on opening day?

[Gramps]

There's no opening day for trout. I fish them year around.

[DruLeeParsec]

OK, that's true. There are rivers that are open all year. But quite a few of the Sierra Mountain rivers are only open from the last weekend of April until the first weekend of November. So tomorrow is the first day this year that we can fish them.

[J Castwell]

Welcome Dru, nothing like the memories captured on 'opening' days. Go for it. Catch one for me too.

[flyster101]

A fish report would be nice. I can still remember those opening days like it was yesterday. Looks like great weather for this weekend, 90 in Bishop.

[California Bob]

Dru:

Good luck and good fishing.

I won't be fishing today however would like a report on what conditions the streams are in. I know we didn't get much rain and snow this year, so I would interested to see what they are looking like.

One nice thing in CA is that we do have some streams/rivers that you can fish all year round. This enables you to get out and get your fix earlier in the year. However openers are fun for those Sierra waters that were closed till today.

Back in NJ where I grew up, I couldn't wait till Opening Day in early April. Many fond memories.

[Gramps]

OK, that's true. There are rivers that are open all year. But quite a few of the Sierra Mountain rivers are only open from the last weekend of April until the first weekend of November. So tomorrow is the first day this year that we can fish them.

I didn't know that. I've never fished No Cal.

[Flyboy@ak]

The Kenai River system and all of Bristol Bay here in Alaska closes for trout fishing Monday to protect the spawning rainbows. Opener is June 11. It was 30F this morning, so we are still awaiting the end of "breakup". Lakes are all iced over, but they remain open season year round. Looks like a couple of more weeks for ice to go out though. Will do another drift on the Kenai tomorrow, then will be waiting for the flowing water openers. Enjoy your openers guys!!!

[Wednesday Caster]

Like Gramps, I fish a local all-year c&r river- San Gabriel near Pasadena. Opted to fish the local beach instead this morning.
Score: (2) 20"+ Leopard sharks and (2) surf perchs. My best surf fishing thus far.

[DruLeeParsec]

Well here's what happened. This, by the way, is also my first fly fishing attempt ever. So I'm a total newbie.

On Friday, the day before my local river opened up, I took the dog for a hike along the river. We played in the water and I sat on a rock in the water for a while. While I was there I saw a fish strike about 5 times in less than 5 minutes. I could see that he was striking right over a deep depression between two underwater rocks. "Well that makes sense" I thought. He has cover from predators and he doesn't have to fight the current. As food floats over him he can just rise and get it. And this was around noon on an 80 degree day. If a fish was rising like that at mid day it must be great in the morning during a hatch.

So that was my spot. I knew I'd be coming back the next day.

Saturday morning dawns and I'm having a seriously tough time getting out of bed. I'm moving from one job that ended Friday to a new job on Monday. I use to be a music teacher and I lived "musician's hours" of getting up at 10 am and going to bed around midnight to 1 am. So when the alarm went off at 6:00 am I was completely groggy. (But now I have to do this every day so I might as well get use to it)

Somehow I dragged myself out of bed, had a quick breakfast and packed up the truck. I had my fly rod, a couple boxes of flies I've tied, my cheap waders, a few bottles of water and a folding chair. A quick drive of no more than 10 miles brought me to the trail head.

For the past 4 months I've never seen more than one other car in the parking area near this trail head. Yesterday it was packed with trucks. Everyone was there. I found a parking spot and hiked in about half a mile to my pre-selected hotspot. I found a good place to enter the river downstream where I could approach the hot spot from behind some bushes. I set up my chair and suited up in some fleece pants for warmth and then my waders.

A buddy of mine told me that an Adams would work just about everywhere up here so I tied one on to a 6x tapered leader. I tried to be careful and quiet about entering the water and did my first ever on the water fly cast.

You know what? It's a lot easier to cast when you're standing outside on a big lawn than when your hip deep in cold water and surrounded by bushes. It took about 8 or ten tries to actually get my fly where I wanted it. And then it happened . . . .


Actually, nothing happened.


Not a rise, not a ripple. It was the most calm water you ever saw. I didn't see any fish rise for anything.
The only thing that bite my flies was the tree behind me. I donated an Adams and a Royal Wulff to a bush on the shore. I tried fanning my cast across that hole to cover the whole length of it and I never saw a single fish.

So I moved up river a bit and tried casting over dark spots down stream of underwater rocks. Nothing. I looked for seams between fast and slow moving water. Nothing happened. I started noticing that my left foot was getting really cold. My cheap single layer nylon waders were leaking and this was only their first day of use.

I gave it a good try for about an hour and a half. I tried a lead weighted pheasant tail nymph to see if I could get any response in deeper water. Not a thing. The whole time I never saw so much as a single fish rise.

So I went back to my chair. got out of my waders and squeezed the water out of my socks. As I let them dry in the sun I just sat back and watched the beauty of the river. There were lots of tiny white flies around as well as several large mayflies. I'll have to tie some of those since that was what I was seeing. I watched a spider weave his web and watched some geese fly overhead using the river to navigate their path.

It was a darn good day anyway.

Back at the truck I met another fisherman and his young son.

"Any Luck?" I asked.

"Not a bite" he said. "It was just a long walk in the sun for nothing."

I told him about the fish I saw yesterday and how I couldn't find anything today. He said "It's the same thing with the deer and the turkeys. When opening day comes they seem to know and they hide away. But the day before it's like 'OK kids, eat all you can. Tomorrow we have to hide' "

He told me they were going to go fish under the bridge. They can usually catch something there. I filed the that away in my memory for next time. Then he told me about a 25" trout he caught there once. I filed that one under "Fiction".

I came home, had a sandwich and a beer. Let my leaky waders dry out and thought about my morning. I didn't even come close to catching a fish today. But I was out there enjoying the process. I was in a beautiful spot playing with a nice fly rod on a beautiful river. For me, It was a good opening day and a good first attempt at fly fishing.

I had fun. I'm going to do this again.