Random fishing..

 Lots of Bass, a few small Carp and Squawfish have been the only thing captured recently. For those not familiar with Squaws, they are native to all of the west coast and I believe a strain is also in the Rockies if i'm not mistaken. Depending on the the situation they can be pretty fun. If you grew up around Squaws that were competing with and consuming Trout, you were schooled at a young age to kill em on sight. I'm not down with that now and have mustered up some respect for Squawfish aka (Sacrameto Pike minnow) if they are native to that particular watershed. They were a main staple for Native Americans between Salmonid seasons on the west slope rivers of the Sierras for 1000s of years. To me they are an interesting Native Fish.

Small male Squawfish

Toulumne River

These flowers are  incredibly sticky and line the river banks.
They jack your fly lines and cloths.

Hometown VFW hall. Erected 1860. 

If I can sight fish Squaws with light fly tackle, I will give them my attention, but blind casting for them can be a little un interesting I will admit.. There best atribute has to be that they crush dries better than most Trout, and raelly love streamers. There eats are voracious despite the fact that after the initial over the top grab they dont have much stamina and tend to give it up. Where I target them in clear water, they are pretty fun to sight fish nd it can go on all day fi there is enough around. Like I said, not the best fighters after the initial grab and first run but the bigger fish are bullish. This might possibly be the only Squawfish report I'll ever do so there you have it.  Ha!

My Truck is loaded and i'm heading out in the morning for a few days for something different. Golden Trout. Wild  Goldens are stunningly beautiful and fun to hunt and I really look forward to this every year. I will be in AK later in Sept so this is my only window to get up there before the weather turns in the high country. This year will be solo as is most years and i'll base at about 10k and have 3 or 4 lakes and adjoining streams to day hike out too at around 10.5 to just under 11k. They love small dries and cruize the shallows on the small lakes. Usually I wont see to many anglers, mostly folks hiking the Pacific Coast trail. It kicks my ass everytime getting to them but thats half the fun. A little lower in Elev the same area also has some really nice Brookies and Bows too.  Here is a Golden from last year. I'll post something about this trip when I settle back in. Now go catch something!

More Carp'n

The story is the same. Lots of smaller fish but the fly rods are getting bent often so it's all good. I'll be off doing other fishing the next couple of weeks so I put in a good solid day today and will try and sore lip a few more during the week. I ended up with 20 or so landed for an 8 hr day. They are really keyed in on fry & polywogs so black was key. I had a shot on a real nice Channel Cat that was tailing around and actually got him to eat but came up empty when I came tight. I would have liked to have stuck that fish.

Carp'n

This has been the year for numbers so far. Especially juvinal 3-7lb carp. Bigger fish will come.  The good news is the water levels are dropping a little and we have a year round Carp on the fly fishery so there is plenty of time. Until then, the youngsters are gonna have some sore lips.

This is Fly Magazine

Go check out the new issue..The huge brookies and ridiculous Triggers were some highlights for me. Link is on the side bar.

I went and watched some fish this afternoon. Didn't cast on em. I hammered them pretty hard yesterday. I just wanted to swing by watch em for a while and plan my next move. Hell thats half the fun! This area is tough. No access on the far side you see in the photo and the good side leaves you high in the open to clear water fish. Saw several good fish layed up in the afternoon sun. I broke two off yesterday to concrete that were excellent quality. It's a rich enviroment and grows some beautiful fish. Some unsusual hybrid fish as well, with a few true Koi in certian areas.  Hit another place and stuck one pretty little fish pretty quick. Pretty dead there over all though. Had only three or four shots in a couple of hours ending up with the one.

Flats Carp

I can't get enough. The eats are what makes it so damn fun. The carp were in really skinny water this afternoon eating fry and what looks like small baby catfish. Great numbers of youngters on the fly today. I also obverved them doing something I havn't seen before. They would almost crawl into water that would just cover there back and sit. Just sit motionless. I blew out a couple that were actually behind me when I was wading calf deep, so I backed off to dry ground/shore and started watching them. They would literally NOT move and ambush from that position. I caught two or three this way. If you put the fly on there nose they would literally explode on it. Some cool shit out there!

The day dodn't start all that great though. I set up first this morning on a high pressured city creek that has some really shy fish. It's always worth a shot as they are excellent quality, good clear water and usually morning eaters. Down side, almost zero backcast room and not so great high banks that make it easy for the fish to bust you so one needs to be creative to put it all together. Getting them to go is not easy to do but well worth the effort and pay off when everyhting lines up. There were a few quality fish tailing good but I couldn't feed one to save my life. Between the striat up refusals, missed shots and the grabby willows that always seem to screw me I had to take a deep breath and call it about 2pm. The window there is about 9-11 so I gave it a longer than I should have and hit the road to the lake flats.

Hang on man!