McCloud
Managed to get away last weekend for some needed R&R and decided to check out the McCloud on Friday before heading over to fish the Fall River. Ah-Di-Na was da nada, nothing, zero, zip. I had one rise to a stimulator, but that was it. It was pretty much the same for everyone I spoke with. It’s still a beautiful place, but the McCloud is max cloudy now and probably won’t change for some time. The out flow from the reservior was brown muck all the way to Ash Camp. I decided to take the back roads to Burney via Iron Canyon reservoir and had a near encounter with a large fury critter. I had been stopping several times along the way to check out interesting creeks and just enjoy the views; when around one corner I managed to startle a fairly large black bear (why are California black bears brown
). It was about 50 yards ahead of me and my view was mostly of his rump as he sprinted away. I was doing about 25mph and never closed on him as he ran up the road and dove into the woods. That pretty much cured me of any delusions that I could ever out run a bear. Btw: for reference, his haunches appeared to be about the same width as the headlights on the Explorer.
Fall River
Fished the Fall River Friday night and managed to catch a few small fish swinging pt’s and birdnests. It was great to see rising fish after the McCloud. Saturday morning was slow and tough, but I managed to land a few beautiful bows below Spring Creek Bridge. The rises had mostly stopped and I was about to head further down river when I took a nice 14” bow. I took another on my next cast and decided that this was the best place to be. No one else was there, so I had this beautiful section of river all to myself. I took several more nice fish and then it stopped. I was again about to move down river when I hooked another fish on the retrieve. It was a subtle take and I thought it was a small fish. He shot out of the water once and I saw he was much larger than any I had caught. I wish I had either a camera or better writing skills to describe that fish, but if you have ever unexpectedly caught a nice fish, then you already know how I felt. The Fall River fish are absolutely beautiful; this one had golden hues in addition to the classic rainbow colors. How big was he? Over 20” I think, but I don’t really know. I kept him in the water the whole time and released him as quickly as possible. Saturday night was slow and I only managed to land one fish. Needles to say, I went back to the same area Sunday morning and started off pretty much the same way. There was one spot with lots of rising fish that they were sipping dries, but I just couldn’t find the right pattern or see anything hatching. I finally switched to a size 20 trico spinner and took one before the feeding stopped. I then moved down river to “the spot” and except for the big one, had a repeat of Saturday. All in all it was a great weekend.
P38
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