California Gold

Fishing Fishing Reports
1

I first held a fishing rod when I was 3. I first held a fly rod when I was 53. And from the time I was 13 years old and first fished the Sierras, I dreamt of not only catching a golden trout, but landing that magnificent creature with the grace and art of the fly. 40+ years later my dream came true.

I had the privilege of backpacking into the Golden Trout Wilderness this past week, where I spent 4 days (far too short) fishing the headwaters of some of the most beautiful creeks this world has to offer. I was as goofy as an 8-year-old boy, and danced, and cried, and basked in the glory of some of the most spectacular land on this earth. This was a milestone for me, and something I feel privileged to share.

My journey began out of dumb luck. After communicating with guide Dave Neal (out of Mammoth) and talking to the Inyo National Forest rangers, I found that none of the places Dave recommended (and that I wanted to visit) had wilderness permits available (not Dave’s fault, just my procrastination). So, looking at which areas had the highest quotas available, what do I stumble upon, but Cottonwood Pass. I do a little more looking and it slowly dawns on me that this is not only golden trout territory, but heritage water as well. (I really want to complete the CA Heritage Trout Challenge.) I quickly booked a permit and started packing.

Just as an aside, I’m kind of a nut about lightweight gear. My total pack weight, with bear canister (2 pounds empty!), was only 22 pounds–including on-board water and camera. I can do a 10 day trip with a total weight of 27 pounds. I’m still working on setting myself up to do a 4 day trip and get the pack weight down to 19.

I made the drive down to Lone Pine on Sunday and was not encouraged by the weather that was circling over Mt. Whitney. Nevertheless, I picked up my permit and headed up Horseshoe Meadows Road to the trailhead. I had planned to camp at the walk-in campground in order to get an early start on Monday. With hail, rain, thunder, and lightning all around, I decided I didn’t want to start my week with wet gear, so I made the drive back down to Lone Pine and found a motel room.

The hike on Monday began out of Horseshoe Meadows (9,700 ft) toward Cottonwood Pass. Once I was up and over Cottonwood I caught my first glimpse of Big Whitney Meadows. I knew that it was here that I would find the headwaters of Golden Trout Creek (aka Volcano Creek):

After setting up camp, I nervously dropped a fly in the waters of Golden Trout Creek. First cast, a strike. Second cast, fish on. My first golden! And, hot dog! Scored my first fish for the CA Heritage Trout Challenge.

I continued to fish and quickly realized I was in golden trout heaven. I had heard phrases like, “catch goldens by the hundreds,” and blew them off as fishing lies, uh, er, um, I mean fishing dreams. But, guess what? You can. I kept catching fish and was absolutely blown away by their colors:

Next day, I headed out of Big Whitney Meadows, through Tunnel Meadows, and eventually to Little Whitney Meadows, where I set up camp and began fishing. More non-stop goldens.

I knew Wednesday was going to be a big day. Had to hike out of Little Whitney Meadows at around 8,400 ft and make a 12-mile jaunt to the upper reaches of Mulkey Meadows at around 9,400 ft. I’d have to say the hardest part of my entire trip was dealing with incredibly sandy trails–a lot of which were on this day. I don’t mean sandy dirt, I mean exactly like walking on the beach. The trails are heavily used by cattle, mule trains, horse pack outfitters, and backpackers, and all the use has pulverized the gravel.

I had read in Ralph Cutter’s “Sierra Trout Guide,” that the South Fork of the Kern had been infiltrated with rainbows that have altered the coloration of the goldens, and that the most pure of the goldens would be found in the South Fork Headwaters near Mulkey Creek. Look at the color of this one out of Mulkey (note the gold specks):

BTW, this was my first experience with a fly being grabbed in mid-air. Because parts of this creek were so small, all I could do was sneak up, slowly lower my line to the water and wait for the tug. However, because the winds were kicking up, I was attempting to lower the fly to the water without it getting blown into the weeds. Before it even touched the water, one of these goldens came leaping out and grabbed the fly in mid air! Talk about the ultimate dry fly–it never even needs to hit the water. At first, I thought I had imagined it, so I tried it again, and bam. Fish on! The fly never touched the water. Anybody else ever had that experience?

My evening at Mulkey ended with a double rainbow covering the entire meadow. A fitting end to my first journey into golden territory, and the last evening I would be able to fish.

Thursday, I made the hike up Trail Pass, and on the backside was once again returning to Horseshoe Meadows where, though I started only 3 days earlier, it felt like a lifetime.

The memories of fishing creeks like this will be with me forever:

Quick summary: I’d do it again in a heartbeat, and I’m kicking myself for not having more time to get down to the Kern to get a rainbow, as well as Templeton Meadows to try and heft one of those bigger browns. I plan on returning later this year. In total, it added up to 790 miles of driving, 34 miles of hiking, no bear encounters, only 4 people encounters (unbelievable), and one ecstactic little boy.

John

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John -

Great report and pics. Hope you do get another trip up there put together soon.

John

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It’s been 45 years since I caught my first and last Golden on a little creek that tumbled down into the San Joaqin (SP) river near the Devil’s Postpile NM. I’ve wanted to go back ever since moving home to Idaho, from California, but the opportunity never presented itself. Now I’m a bit long in the tooth for a repeat of that trip. Your post has done a lot to re-ignite those memories, and other adventures in the Sierra. Thanks for the great pics and post.

4

Thanks for the report John. Nice photos and great story. I think that child like feeling is the best part of fly fishing. Make sure and give us a report on your next trip.

5

Thanks, guys, for the kind words, and you can bet I’ll post another report. I have plans right now for Montana in 2 weeks, then back to Mammoth area and the Kern in August and September. Just too many fish, and too little time :wink:

John

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the colors on the trout are awesome!

7

What a GREAT TR. Very well written and great pictures (especially that last one). Did you you get any pics of that double rainbow over Mulkey Meadow?

Those are some very gorgeous fish.

You asked if anyone had every had trout come up out the water for a fly…I did, once. I was fishing a pretty small creek in Utah called Nebo creek. The water was a little low but the browns (surprisingly large browns for such a small creek) acted like they were absolutely starving. I had a brown come up for the fly (don’t remember if it was a yellow humpy or EHC) about 2 feet out of the water. I was so stunned that I didn’t set the hook at all.

I appreciate your backpacking drive and descriptions (great to hear of some other light weight packers on the board!). I really hope you get to head back up in the fall.

8

Someday I will catch a Golden Trout, until then thank you for allowing me to live it through your eyes, camera and description. Great report.

Kelly.

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Nicely done John.

Dave

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Ha! Y’all are way too kind :wink:

Wild One, here’s a pic of the double rainbow. Unfortunately, the second ring (to the left of the primary ring) is not quite as visible as I would’ve liked:

And though the colors of some of the goldens were different in Mulkey, there were quite a few that looked like this:

Fishing waters like the headwaters of the South Fork of the Kern:

And Little Whitney Meadows:

is something I’ll never forget! Wow, it’s great to be a kid again :wink:

John

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Yep - that’s really what it’s all about.

John

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I backpacked that very area (Horseshoe meadow to Cottonwood lakes) about 30 years ago. Isn’t it bizzare that the next trail head north, Whitney Portal, is the busiest trail in the Sierras. But turn left to Horseshoe meadows and you can get right in.

I think the Theodore Solomon trail starts there as well. It’s an alternative trail to the John Muir trail that also goes from the Whitney area to the Yosemite area. Less traveled, more places to pick up supplies, not as much up down up down hiking.

[edit] spell checker change my word “bizarre” to “Blizzard”

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John, what a great report and wonderful pictures;

Many years ago, about the time you were making that trip as a 13 year old I was in the Navy, stationed at Lemoore air station near Fresno. I managed to spend quite a bit of time in the high country and treasure the memories.

On a whim or a dare, a buddy and I decided it would be a fun thing to climb Mt Whitney. In our somewhat ignorant but optomistic mind set we decided to do it in one day so we didn’t have to carry anything but food and water. We camped at Whitney portal and left at the crack of dawn and returned well after dark. Sore, dead tired, and almost starved. If I remember right it was 10 or 11 miles up and 6000 feet of elevation gain. The view from the summit was incredible and more than worth the effort.

Thanks for another glimpse.

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Shaky, you guys were definitely nuts :wink: And you’re absolutely right. Whitney portal is right around 8,400 ft, and the summit is just over 14,400. That’s a lot of elevation in a day’s hike! You’re really fortunate too you didn’t get hit by bad weather. When I arrived on Sunday afternoon, the summit was covered with clouds, rain, hail, thunder, and lightning. On Monday morning, it was spectacularly clear and blue. This look familiar?

Whitney on Sunday afternoon:

And on Monday morning:

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John -

Neat set of pics. Never did take the time to summit Whitney when I lived down in Southern Nevada, but I did get some great views of it from places like the summits of Charleston Peak ( 11,913’ ) and Mt. Stirling ( approx 8200’ ) in the Spring Mountains of Nevada, Telescope Peak ( approx 11,000’ ) on the west side of Death Valley, and White Mountain Summit ( 14,236’ ) just across the Owens Valley from Whitney.

Reminds me of a great view we had one time that included Whitney - the one from Mt. Stirling, that little knob on the north end of the Spring Mountains about sixty miles northwest of Vegas. I had taken a group from the local mountaineer club up Stirling. While we were just kind of standing around before descending, I noticed how clear the air was that day. I started looking to the distant peaks I could identify.

Whitney was something like 150 miles to the west. To the northwest, we could see past Mt. Montgomery ( about 13,400’ ) on the west of the CA / NV border and Boundary Peak ( 13,140’ ) half a mile to the east in Nevada to above Mono Lake and Tioga Pass, close to 200 miles away; more northerly we could see Bald Mountain near Walker Lake; north and a little east, the high country of the Shoshone, Toquima and Monitor mountain ranges north of Tonopah, close to 120 miles away; to the NE the big mountains that backdrop Rachel NV, another 75 mile plus view; to the SE the Muddy Mountains east of Vegas, a good 75 miles away; finally, to the south, the New York Mountains in California, close to 100 miles distant.

When I got home that day, I got out maps that covered the area we had seen from Stirling, and double checked the distances. When all was said and done, our views encompassed about 50,000 square miles, an area close to half the size of the state of Nevada ( 110,000 square miles ) or all of New England to include half the state of Maine.

Couldn’t hardly believe what I was seeing standing there on that summit. For all the places I’ve been, nothing has come close to the long views we had that day. From a peak that only goes a bit over 8200’ !!

John

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I was a little young to be very politcal back then, but you can see the Barry Goldwater bumper sticker (AuH2O64) from 1964’s presidential campaign that my climbing buddies induced me to display on the summit hut on Whitney. Wish i looked now like I did then. We had hiked in and camped at the first small lake, and the next day it was all the way to the top and back out. Something over 17 miles, and a lot of up and down. I almost slid off the mountain on the ice covered trail, where they later installed “the cables”. The views going and coming are tremendous, as well as the panorama from the top. There’s a lot of great country surrounding that hill.

17

I’ve climbed Whitney twice. Once in summer once in Winter (Thanksgiving vacation). On the winter trip I fell and broke my wrist on a Sunday. Got down the hill on Monday and drove home. Called the Dr. who couldn’t see me until Wednesday. He told me “Yeah, that’s not a sprain, it’s broken. But after 3 days we need to re-break it to set it properly”.

That was the 2nd most painful thing I’ve ever experienced.

18

John;

Yup, we were nuts and lucky thats for sure. We did do this on labor day weekend and the skies were typical of that time of year. Clear and blue for days on end.

Thanks for putting up the photo’s too. They do look very familiar. Somewhere I have a box of slides of that trip that I am now going to have to dig out and look at again.

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I hesitate to ask what was in first place…Ok. What was the most painful?:smiley: I can’t imagine being way the heck up that canyon and getting hurt and then having to get out of there. Better an upper extremity, than a lower one, but still no bargain. I guess we kinda hi-jacked the golden trout thread a bit didn’t we. I wish that I hadn’t let so many years get away without returning to those Eastern Sierra streams to chase the goldens again. Now I’m too old and frumped up to hike into them any more. Sure would have liked an up-close look at the area around the Minarets.

20

Beautiful fish and mountains. Thanks for the report and photos.