Greenbacks and Mountain Tops

Colorado's state fish, the Greenback Cutthroat Trout, has been notoriously absent from my species list for some time. I decided that this summer was the time to remedy this. Having done a number of solo native trout quests in my time (paiute, apache X 2, goldens, lk goldens, etc. etc.), I thought it would be more fun to spend the weekend with a friend so I called my ultra-reliable fishing buddy Steve. Per usual, he was down. A plan was hatched. Because I was dragging Steve out from Miami, I figured I needed to add a little flare to the trip beyond just catching the rare Greenbacks. This came in the form of backpacking and mountain climbing. The plan was:

• Meet in Denver on Thursday and then drive to Estes Park and spend the night


• Hit the trail early Friday and hike up the Roaring River to Lawn Lake while fishing along the way


• Camp at Lawn Lake Friday night and fish the lake in the evening


• Crack it early Saturday and climb the 13,425 foot trail-less Mummy Mountain


• After the summit, fish Big Crystal lake for large cruising Greenbacks


• Fish the inlet stream between Crystal Lakes and Lawn Lake on the way back to camp


• Bust out early Sunday for the car, have a nice lunch in Estes Park, and then make for Steve's 5PM flight in Denver

The trip went off without a hitch.


Greenbacks and Mountain Tops

On the way to the trail head coming down the road to Horseshoe Park we got our first view of the area we would be hiking. Lawn Lake and the Roaring River are noteworthy as an earthen damn that was built in 1903 to increase the size of the lake failed July 15, 1982 at 6:00 in the morning. A huge amount of water was release and rushed down the Roaring River canyon spilling massive amounts of debris and water into Horseshoe Park and down into Estes Park. Three campers were lost in the flood. Twenty seven years later the alluvial fan created as the debris spilled out of the canyon is still clearly visible. The peaks in the background, from left to right, are Chiquita at 13,069 feet, Ypsilon at 13,514 feet and Fairchild at 13,502 feet.



The Lawn Lake trail starts at 8,500 feet and works its way up to 11,000 at the lake over 6.3 trail miles. Most folks that fish the river for Greenbacks don't venture too far past the first point the trail hits the river. For a small river this area gets hammered. Especially on the weekends. We saw at least a dozen rods on both our way up and down that were fishing the lower section. It is too bad they didn't walk a bit more, because once you gain some altitude, the river and the fishing experience take on a whole new character.



This is the view of Mummy Mountain from 10,000 feet elevation on the trail. We fished a bit below the high-grade river section you see in the foreground but spent most of our time above it. Once above this section the fishing improves dramatically.



The higher we went the more the Greenbacks seemed to be wearing their spawning colors.



Greenbacks are amazingly beautiful fish.



Stealth paid dividends.





For the fish too...





The upper section ends, as to be expected, at Lawn Lake. You can see the outlet of the lake and the site of the damn failure in the photo below. The 12,398 foot "Saddle" is directly in the background and Hagues Peak, 13,560 feet, is to the right.



Steve pulled this nice fish out of the outlet channel at the base of the lake.



To celebrate the end of the first day we opened up the Hudson Single Malt.



Perhaps owing to the altitude or the long hike up (or maybe the Hudson), the next morning our planned "alpine start" slipped a little bit and we did not set out on the trail until around 10AM. This is a view of the summit of Mummy Mountain, our target for the morning.



On the way up toward Mummy you pass near Crystal Lake and the small stream that connects it and Lawn Lake. We made sure to make a point to return to this spot later to fish where the creek drops off into Lawn Lake.



To climb Mummy Mountain you follow an established trail toward the saddle then head into off-trail around 12,000 feet for the scramble up to summit at 13,500 feet. This is our first good look at Big and Little Crystal lakes.



This is me partway up Mummy. You can see two things here; that the wildflowers were out in force, and that the hike up Mummy was pretty steep.



Getting closer to the summit.



The final 500 foot or so push to the summit got a little "boney". Photo below of Steve holding up a rock.



Finally, a view of the summit and a sense that you really could die up there if you fell.



We could see our camp at Lawn Lake nearly 2000 feet below.



At the summit! (In Steve's left hand is the peak register)



The views of Crystal Lakes, the Roaring River and Lawn Lake.





The climb up Mummy took about 3 hours. The trip back down to where we had stashed our fly rods at the turnoff to Crystal Lakes took just over an hour. For those unfamiliar with Big Crystal Lake, it is purportedly home to some of the largest Greenback Cutthroat trout anywhere in the world. At 12,000 feet, the lake has no real consistent insect hatches and a very short summer feeding season. Consequently, the fish cruise near the drop-off around the perimeter of the lake opportunistically eating anything they can. Or so we've been told (including on our hike in during a brief conversation with a guide from Wild Basin outfitters that was guiding a husband and wife team on the Roaring River).

It turned out that we would not catch a single fish in Big Crystal lake.

I wouldn't have wanted it any other way. Here is what happened.

I can say with absolute certainty that there are large Greenback Cutthroat trout in Big Crystal lake. Little Crystal, by the way, is fishless as best we could tell. Probably because there is no good outlet stream for spawning and the two lakes are not really connected in any way. The trail to Big Crystal lake approaches the lake at the outlet stream. Before we could even see the water, we could hear big fish splashing. When we finally did see the outlet stream, what we saw there amazed us. Probably 90 percent of the fish in the lake were in the 250 yards of prime outlet stream in 6 to 24 inches of water. There were hundreds of fish (if not into the thousands) and they were all getting busy. Chasing each other, biting, flapping their tails out of the water, digging into the dirt and "shivering". The big fish were making wakes as they cruised. Some large fish were swimming in water that was so shallow their backs were exposed. The site of all of these rare fish stacked in such perfect, seemingly manicured, spawning habitat was incredible. And some of the fish were truly huge, easily over two feet in length. In order to best share this experience, below I am going to post most of the pictures Steve and I took as well as a short video that Steve took.









Steve's video.



A wider perspective to give you an idea of what the overall spawning habitat looked like. Honestly, it was like a Koi pond. But instead of Koi it was loaded with ornery Greenbacks.



After watching the fish do their thing for quite some time, we made our way out to the lake to see if we couldn't catch any. We didn't see a single fish rise in the larger lake and I only saw one cruiser and got a short strike on a streamer. We did see fish migrating in and out of the outlet stream. They just were not interested in eating.

A great picture of Steve fishing Crystal Lake.


Steve took this picture looking back toward me (Mummy in the background).



After spending a few hours at Crystal Lake taking it all in, we made our way back down to the spot at Lawn Lake we had noted earlier in the morning. We also fished the small inlet stream above Lawn. The inlet stream was good. The dropoff into the lake was great.



That night we did pretty well fishing till dark. Then we finished off the Hudson and hit the sack. The next morning we packed up and covered the 6.3 miles back down to the car in about two hours and made it back to DIA in time for Steve's flight back.

Great trip. Great fishing.

SAVE THE PAIUTE

UPDATE: Caltrout made it easy to contribute--CLICK HERE

I've had the pleasure of hiking into Silver King Creek at Llewelyn Falls on two occasions. The first was a solo trip that I wrote about here. The second occasion was a trip with Bernie Weston and DFG's Dave Lentz. On those trips I caught three native Paiute Trout that had come down over the falls from the pure population above.

I went back a second time because the three of us thought it would be the last chance to catch a Paiute in its native range for some time. The day after our trip Silver King was to be closed for rotenone treatment to remove the non-native rainbows to make way for the native fish. Unfortunatley, on the evening of the day before the restoration was to start, after the DFG had mobilized at the trailhead and organized supplies and volunteers, a last minute lawsuit and court order sidetracked the restoration efforts.

As part of the restoration plan and ongoing management effort, the regulations were changed effective the day the treatment was to take place. The fishing closure point on the creek was moved from the falls a ways downstream to Tamarack Creek. This new closure point has remained in effect since that day in August 2005 and has effectively wiped out any possibility of catching a Paiute in their native range. I do know of one person that went into Silver King below the new closure point and caught a Piaute at the conflunce of a tributary creek that holds Paiutes in its headwaters. To me this was remarkable. I've also spoken with a few folks that have caught Paiutes in legal waters outside of their native range. To do this requires some tough off-trail hiking, good navigation skills, and a lot of determination.

This is a Paiute that was caught just below the falls.



Four years later Dave the DFG is continuing in their efforts to restore the Paiute. They are obviously committed to doing everything they can to protect diversity and are in it for the long haul. My hat goes off to them and I stand committed to do whatever I can to help support the goal of restoring native species to their native ranges. Silver King is a beautiful creek in a spectacular high alpine setting and its beauty will only be enhanced if this rare trout is able to once again fin in the waters that drove its diversification.

Below is a letter from Dave Lentz of the DFG:

I would like to request that Sac-Sierra TU write a letter of support for the Paiute cutthroat restoration project on Silver King Creek. This would entail endorsing the alternative number 2, eradicating non-native trout below Llewellyn Falls using rotenone, from the draft EIS/EIR that is in comment period now.

Here are links to information about the restoration project. First, DFG's website which has the NEPA/CEQA documents(600+pgs, about 9MB). Comment letters can be snail mailed to DFG in Rancho Cordova or emailed, as well. Comment Deadline is May 4.--

http://www.dfg.ca.gov/fish/Resources/WildTrout/WT_Paiute/WT_PaiuteCutRestor.asp

Also, a link to Ted Williams, Conservation writer for Fly Rod and Reel Magazine that has a lot of background on the Paiute cutthroat project and other western native trout restoration issues:

www.flyrodreel.com/node/11698

Letters from individuals (in addition to a chapter letter) that support restoring the Paiute cutthroat would be greatly appreciated--this may turn out to be "numbers game", supporters v. opponents, in certain of the approval arenas that the project must pass. There are several permitting steps that are vulnerable to opposition. Supporters should favor Alternative 2 in the EIS/EIR and support returning the Paiute to its native home. So, this would be asking a favor of you individually, as well to write.

Letters to: Stafford Lehr, Calif. DFG, 1701 Nimbus Rd., Rancho Cordova, CA 95670

or email letters: SilverKingPublicComment@dfg.ca.gov

let me know if you need more info. Have a great board meeting and keep up the good work!!

thanks, Dave Lentz


David Lentz
Threatened Trout Coordinator

California Department of Fish and Game
Fisheries Branch
830 S Street
Sacramento, CA 95811

Upper & Lower Sac

A couple weeks back I spent the weekend up around Redding and fished the Upper Sac one day and then did an overnight float trip on the Lower Sac the next two. The reports said the Upper Sac was fishing tough with high water and that the Lower Sac was on fire. The reports were pretty accurate.

I fished the Upper around Delta at a few spots I like and have caught big fish at in the past. The lower part of the Upper Sac is a great stretch of the river with bigger water and bigger fish. It seems that there are a few larger and wild fish down low that can be difficult to catch and a lot more "cookie cutters" up top. At least that has been my experience. I managed to dredge this nice fish up not too far from Delta.



Before starting the drift on the Lower Sac we fished near the Sundial Bridge. This picture is a must have for norcal anglers.



We drifted from Bonnyview down to Jelly's Ferry and camped about half way in between. The boat was a two-man pontoon that was pretty easy to fish from. About half the fish caught came from drifting and half from wading. I'll take wade-caught fish over fish from a boat any day. There are truckloads of fish in the Lower Sac and if you drift enough water with a good drift you will catch them. On the other hand, when you are wading you can find a spot where there are likely fish and then use knowledge and experience to figure out what is going on. We had one such experience on this trip where it took about an hour to figure it out, but then once we did we yarded 'em.

Below are some representative Lower Sac rainbows.

Fly Fishing the Everglades

This was my third holiday season in a row spent in Marco Island, Florida with my wife's family. Marco is a great place to spend a few weeks in winter with warm water and fishing right out the back door. During the days we fished with Kevin Mihailoff out of Chokoloskee. After three years fishing with Kevin in the winter in the Everglades, I'm pretty convinced that he is the best fly fishing guide in the area. He works hard. Poles his butt off, and always, always, puts us on fish. We may not catch them all, but Kevin always gets us double-digit sight-fishing shots at good snook, tarpon and redfish.

That's right: sight-fishing. I think most fly fisherman aren't aware of the quality fishing to be had in the Everglades. In the vast network of bays, creeks, and mud flats there always seems to be a spot where we can find, spot, and cast to large fish.

The first day we headed south down Gopher Creek to a spot that Kevin thought would hold some fish at a point where two creeks come together. Suffice to say, the snook were stacked.

This is the spot.



The backside of the point (where the fish were) was being guarded by this gator.



Behind the gator, the fish were, indeed, stacked. The foam and swirls in this picture are from snook eating. If you have never heard a snook eat, you need to. Words that were used to describe snook eats during our trip included; roast, crush, chomp, smash, smack, pop, destroy, and crunch. All of these descriptions are pretty accurate. Snook eats are, to say the least, not subtle.



On another day I fished with my good friend from Business School and partner on last year's Christmas Island trip, Steve. I am slowly working on converting Steve from an off-shore sailfish kind of guy to a fly angler. With trips like the Cuttslam , Christmas Island , and this run to the Everglades, I should be successful. Here is Steve fast to a snook.



Me with a snook on from the same spot.



A decent snook.



One afternoon Kevin took my father-in-law and I looking for tarpon. We found a dozen or so laid-up in a small bay. I got a nice one to eat (guide estimated at 140 pounds+) but after eating the fly it swam right at the boat a jumped in a raging, thrashing fit and threw the hook. Roger, though, being a much more seasoned tarpon angler, was able to get one to eat and stay buttoned. This is the first jump (CLICK THE PICTURE TO VIEW IT IN A LARGER FORMAT).



Just after the second jump...



Guide Kevin getting ready to get soaked. This tarpon was medium sized for the Everglades.



On my last day fishing, in addition to catching a number of snook, we spotted this redfish in about 10 inches of water and I was able to get him to eat (there was a drop of water on the camera lens). Redfish always surprise me by how hard they can pull for their size.



There are lots of gators in the Everglades.

KAMCHATKA PROJECT

This is one of the coolest anadramous fish research projects I have heard about in a while. A group of seasoned expedition kayakers are going to run three un-navigated Kamchatka streams to survey salmon populations for the Wild Salmon Center.

A good friend of mine, Shane Robinson, will be one of the team. What I can't wait for from this team is the sweet photos, videos and reports that will surely follow the expedition. Shane regularly writes about their first descents and kayaking expeditions at The Range Life.

I've been following these guys adventures for some time with an eye toward the great fishing they must float over. Unfortunately, though, I don't think they typically bring fly rods with them or would even have the energy to fish anyways after the kind of days they put in. Maybe we can outfit them with some equipment and show them how to catch some salmon dinner out there in Kamchatka?

There is not a ton of money out there to support research expeditions like this and these guys need support from the fishing community. You can read about and support the expedition at: http://www.kamchatkaproject.org/expedition.html.
They are also keeping a blog about the trip here: http://kamchatkaproject.blogspot.com.

Please support them if you can.

Upper Sac Family Weeked

I spent the weekend of September 13th and 14th on the lower portion of the Upper Sacramento River at the House on the River. The House on the River is a vacation rental in the small community of Delta that used to operate as a fly fishing lodge. The house was great, well equipped with hot tub, an HD projection system with all the channels, a serious AC system and good access to the river and with plenty of room for the three families that went. The three husbands would go fishing each morning and evening and spend the day and night with the family. The House is also set up great for cooking with a full kitchen, coal grills, gas grills, smokers...If there is a way for meat to be cooked it can be accomplished there. Just, please, leave the fish in the river!

The House on the River:



Happy families at the beach.



My new daughter enjoyed herself.



Family friend and kids. Also happy.



Suffice to say, the family vacation aspect of the trip was fantastic. So how about the fishing?

As most know access to the Upper Sacramento is pretty good and where there is not vehicle access one can always follow the railroad tracks, although be careful as these tracks are highly used with trains going up and down day and night. The old feel for vibrations on the track trick is not very reliable and sometimes when the trains are at speed you have very little warning. There is always room to get out of the way but being so close to a huge locomotive shakes the soul and is tough on the ears. Nevertheless, following the tracks is key to getting to the lesser fished honey holes.

I learned something new this trip that I had not realized on prior trips to the Upper Sac: There are big wild fish there, although they are few and not easily caught!

We started off fishing near the most obvious access from the house which is also a heavily used beach and swimming hole. Don't let the good looks of the hole fool you, if there are any fish there they get hammered. This is the hole at the beach.



Although with some walking and aggressive wading the fishing picks up considerably. My trusted source of great fly fishing information, Leo at Fish First, convinced me that the Upper Sac was indeed a tail water masked as a freestone as Tom Chandler on the Trout Underground once reported. Taking that to heart, I primarily fished size 20 and smaller midge patterns. They produced well.



This guy had a bit of a belly on him.



This is not a great picture, being blurred by the water, but I think my hand gives some perspective to the size of the fish.



Fish on the rocks (from where I was standing it was either this or get swept away).



One cool thing that Craig the proprietor of House on the River does is let people who catch fish over 20 inches sign the wall. The wall gives a great sense of the history of the place, both who had been there, what they caught and on what flies. Most people got their big fish on big streamers and crawfish patterns (I swam a goblin through a dark, deep hole and it just got hammered, unfortunately I did not hook up).

The wall of fame.



This is the wall a bit closer in.



For those of you that are also fisherman, fathers and husbands, the House on the River might be great way to succeed at all three.

Northeast California/Southeast Oregon

I managed to free up a few days and decided to make a long drive north to chase down a few new native trout. I headed up past Alturas California and then up 395 a ways right to the border of Oregon and into the epicenter of redband trout diversity. According to Behnke there are seven distinct populations of redband in the neighborhood (not to mention some cutthroats, bulltrout and maybe some remnants of the extinct alvord). I had my sights set on two redbands and one elusive char.

First up was the Warner Lakes Basin redband trout. This trout is found in a few creeks and streams in Oregon and just two in California. I wanted to get mine in California. The creek I fished was pretty skinny at it's headwaters and when I pulled up to where the dirt road crosses I was surprised to find a substantial herd of cattle on the creek. The creek was pretty well trampled here and very dirty from all the cattle walking through it. I managed to find some clear water upstream but it was darned skinny water. I dapped a fly over a grassy edge and picked up a trout.

After the first trout I decided to head downstream a bit and see if I could find some water that might hold bigger fish. I found what I was looking for.



The water downstream was great. I might have been in Oregon at this point but I didn't care. The creek was great, the water was ice cold and each pool held a dozen or so hungry trout. The water temp was shockingly cold for a high desert stream. But what was even cooler than the water temp was how great the creek laid out for fly fishing. Incredibly spooky trout that could be cast to from a distance that rewarded a soft landing and well placed fly. I hooked a cast around the bush on the left in the shot below that drew a nice redband.



As I moved upstream the creek got better and better with pool after pool full of wild native redbands.



Me creekside in Northeast California. Or was it Oregon?



Next up I wanted to catch an Upper Klamath Lake Basin redband. I dropped down into Lakeview and got an Oregon fishing license because for the next fish I was certain my fly would be landing in Oregon waters. From Lakeview I made my way north east into the Fremont National Forest.

Me at the trailhead.



This creek is home to pure populations of both Klamath Basin Bull Trout and Redband Trout and if you enjoy crawling through the most choked thicket of alders, willows and who knows what else to emerge into ankle deep water flowing through a tunnel of vegetation where not only is standing out of the question but you can forget about wiggling that 7'10" one wieght than this creek is for you. Sometimes it can be harder to get a fly on the water at 3 feet than at 30 and let's not even talk about a good "drift".



But when you do manage to get a fly on the water the reward is pretty sweet.



I hiked about two miles up the creek hoping that it would open up a bit. Unfortunately it did not. The hike was nice and the canyon boxed up a bit but the creek was largely inpenetrable so I decided to hit another nearby stream that I thought might be a bit more "fun" to fish and that I knew to hold pure redbands. This last creek was spring creek clear, about 20 feet wide and had great trout holding structure and was a great way to finish off the trip.