Heritage Trout Hat Trick with a Redband Double (long)

[jburge]

It's been a while. Yeah, really. Here on the "left coast" we've had a winter that dropped an enormous amount of snow (can you say downhill skiing in July?), which meant runoff later than usual, and also meant all these poor fishermen have to wait longer than usual to fish their beloved waters.

Finally, it all came together. Time off from work, a clinic for California Heritage Trout sponsored by the CA Dept of Fish and Game, and an extended weekend. Game on.

You know, I have to say we really are incredibly fortunate here in CA. I was able to visit some pretty remote waters, gaze at some absolutely stunning scenery, and pick up three glorious little trouts for our state Heritage Trout Challenge (HTC).

It started with the HTC clinic. Jeff Weaver and Stephanie Mehalick, both from the Heritage and Wild Trout Program, presented the clinic to six of us on Thursday, July 18. We (from all over CA) met WAY up north near the state line and overlooking Goose Lake. Jeff and Stephanie did a fantastic job of introducing us to the history of not only the Goose Lake and Warner Lakes Redband fish, but also the geology of the land and the conservation efforts that are in place to protect these resources.

I can't say enough about the clinic. If you have the time, I'd highly encourage participation. It's completely free, and all you have to do is show up. You're responsible for all your own travel, accommodations, and fishing gear, but what you walk away with is a wealth of knowledge and respect for our heritage fisheries. Jeff mentioned they're doing a Lahontan Cutthroat clinic on July 24 and an Eagle Lake Rainbow clinic later in the year (he didn't have a specific date). PM me if you'd like contact information.

After an initial hour or so of information gathering and note taking (I have a notebook full), we headed up a dirt road to one of the few available tributaries to pick up the Warner Lakes Redband. Once we arrived at the "swamp," we broke up and spread out. I knew it was going to be a great trip when, I kid you not, I just peeked over some grass, literally dropped the fly in the water (no casting here), and it was fish on. Grabbed the pic and it was one goal achieved for this year's challenge.

After lunch at a small local lake (one of the highlights was a bald eagle soaring about 30 feet overhead), we headed over to one of the tributaries for Goose Lake. We spent some time looking over the restoration efforts for this little creek, talking about what has worked, what hasn't, and what some possible alternatives are. We then headed several miles further upstream, where once again we spread out and tried our luck for the Goose Lake Redband. In pretty short order, it was another heritage trout on. Eventually, everybody had to leave, but since I was camped in the woods not too far away, I fished until dark.

The following day I drove back to Sacramento, got cleaned up (a little), reorganized my backpacking gear and headed up the hill to see if I could land a stream version Lahontan. (Side note--for the HTC there is a lake version and stream version of the Lahontan Cutthroat trout. I had, up until this weekend, landed only the lake version.) I left the house early Saturday, arrived at the trailhead just after 10:00 a.m., backpacked in and setup camp, and was fishing by 1:00 p.m. Fortunately, it didn't take too long to land my first fish.

I had three goals for the HTC this year--the WL and GL Redbands, and the little Lahontan. Little did I realize I would be able to realize the entire dream in one extended weekend. It was just over 1,100 miles of driving, about 12 miles of hiking, great people, and the sense that we're all very, very, lucky to have this kind of grandeur in our own backyard.

Warner Lakes tributary creek:



Warner Lakes Redband:



Creek-side view:



Goose Lake Redband:



So, would you fish here until dark?



Lahontan Cutt:



Try casting up here. I saw a little guy just sipping away and was EXTREMELY lucky to get a cast far enough upstream to set up a good dead drift, and... fish on!



Sierras in July:



I call him "beastie boy":



Snow in July:



Cheers!

John

[MontanaMoose]

Wow John, when you report, you report ! Good trip and some nice trout too. CA has so many trout opportunities one would think more ppl would check it out. Homewatered out of Siskiyou County for 20+ years and i never did get up to the Warners. I'll have to check it out sooner than later i'm thinking. Beastie Boy...man, he looks like he could take a finger off for his size. Fierce looking he is. Glad you had a good trip John and got to get out to see the sights and sample the water.

Cheers,

MontanaMoose

[Ron Eagle Elk]

Great report and wonderful pictures. Thanks for including the scenic pics, they round out the report nicely and gives us a chance to see your part of the counttry.

REE

[JeffHamm]

Great report. Those are quite the shoulders on Beastie Boy! Pretty buff for a little guy.

- Jeff

[jburge]

Thanks guys! Glad you enjoyed it. I just can't seem to get enough of both the country and the fish

As a side note, I sent a picture of that little "beastie boy" to Jeff Weaver, an Associate Fisheries Biologist, and asked him about the shape and what would cause that. He said:

"You will be interested (and possibly slightly disappointed) to know that the chunky LCT [Lahontan Cutthroat] you caught is a victim of repeated electrofishing and resulting injury. We have shocked that entire upper drainage annually (sometimes more than once a year - in the past, anyway) for nearly 20 years to physically remove non-native brook trout in order to restore the LCT population. An unfortunate side effect of this restoration method is occasional injury to the fish you're trying to protect!

What you observed is termed "perciform" body type (perch-like) and is the result of a spinal injury from electrofishing, leading to disproportionate growth across the length of the fish's body. Fortunately, we tally all injuries when we do our population monitoring and generally fall short of 5% of the population exhibiting injuries from previous electrofishing."

So the little guy had been hurt, but I can tell you it didn't stop him from eating, he fought with big dog attitude, and he and his other pool-mates hadn't been consumed themselves by the non-native brook trout.

I hope to have more heritage trout reports next month.

Cheers!

John

[MontanaMoose]

And here i thought Beastie Boy was a male in spawning attire and shape. Well at least that's what i wanted to think. So that i have this right, the LCT is indigenous to the area mentioned in the report ? If so, this i did not know and i thought i knew a lot about that part of the state. Looking forward to more heritage trout reports John, thanks.

Cheers,

MontanaMoose