Category Archives: Solunar Theory

Forks of the Kern Report – October 20-23, 2022

That is my wife Kelly with a beautiful fish she nailed on a Huck Bow Warrior Perdigon

Relevant Stats for the 4 days:

Flow & Water Conditions

CFS (https://dreamflows.com/graphs/mon.681.php) :

Crystal Clear, stable
~10 feet of silt to 18″ deep at rivers edge
10/20-23 – ~100 CFS

Solunar

(I use the app “Fishing & Hunting Solunar Time PRO” $3.99):

10/20 – 14%, Poor
10/26 – 26%, Fair
10/22 – 59%, Average

Water temp: 48-48 in the mornings rising to 53-55 in the late afternoons

Air temp: mid 70s in the day lowering to 38-45 at night

Weather: mild, then wind gusts to 30mph. stretches of overcast and light rain

Group: Annual Couples Trip: Huckabys, Novaks, Cooleys, Conrads + Jake

This trip was the annual couple’s trip. I love this trip because my wife Kelly comes. And some really fun couples. And Kelly never backpacks anywhere without her best buddy, Meredith. Which means my buddy Lance “has to come”. Also joining us were John and Delia Cooley who you have also read about on this site through many adventures. That is the 3 “over 30 years of marriage” couples. Topping off the group was Micah & Dasha Conrad. Micah is the young filmmaker with the awesome youtube channel who I taught how to fly fish earlier in the summer down at the Forks. Stay tuned on Micah’s Youtube vide of this trip. I will update it here when it publishes.

And sure enough, my old friend Jake Blount, an excellent fly fisher and guide showed up.

Mere took this picture of the run just over the Rattlesnake creek hill. How about that water clarity?!

Peppermint Creek

The plan I typically do with a group like this is to hike in a day early, find a site, then hike out empty the next morning to meet that group filling up with fresh food, beer, etc. before hiking back down with the group. So, I drove up Wednesday, listening to the Padres-Phillies playoff game on Satellite Radio. I made it through LA without much trouble so I still had a good hour of daylight when I hit the lower peppermint creek campground. There was a video of the peppermint creek waterfalls from August when the monsoon rains came. It was a shocking view of the ash from the fire finally making its way down the mountains into the river system. You can see it here. I wanted to see the effects. Not only because of Peppermint creek. But, because I was getting a lot of reports of ash and silt blowing out the Upper Kern River from the Huck site all the way down to the Johnsondale bridge. Also, because in July I fished Peppermint Creek above the campground and did really well. Well, the effects of the flash flooding in the creek are obvious and concerning. Below the campground, the creek is choked with ash and soot. I don’t see how trout could even hold in that first ½ mile before the structure by the BLM primitive camp sites. I don’t believe I even casted once. So, I hiked back up the creek, crossed the road and hiked the creek above the campground. It’s steeper terrain so the creek is not as choked up but there is soot / silt on both sides. I did not see a trout…nor anything alive like bugs in the river. I did cast some moving water but not a single take after an hour or so of fishing while making my way upstream above the falls. In July I was pretty much getting struck on every cast. Granted the water was really low because of the drought and the end of the season. But, I am not confident there was a single trout in that milelong stretch above the campground. It was clear the flash flooding of soot pushed them out or killed them. Mother nature has a way of quickly fixing things so my guess is after a good winter it will be back in shape and the trout will come back.

In Quest of the Huck Site

When I got to the Forks of the Kern Trailhead it was already dark. The mission was to get the Huck Site the next morning. To my surprise and dismay there were 4 cars/trucks in the dirt parking lot and 4 more sets of trucks and campers in the primitive campsites. Then it hit me: camping at the trailhead. Without running water nor anywhere close to fish, the only reason to do that was to hunt. And yep, I had forgot deer hunting season had started. That was confirmed the next morning around 5am as I peered out my window seeing groups of guns pass my truck on the way into the wilderness. It was really cold sleeping in my truck that Wednesday night at the trailhead; uncomfortably cold. My guess was low forties. Hmmm….

Sunrise at the Forks of the Kern Trailhead

There was an awesome sunrise at the trailhead. That is pretty rare. I started my hike in on quest for the Huck site around 8am. There was not a single sole camping for the first 3 miles. But, when I got to rattlesnake camp (the site with the cement picnic bench) I had a giant black dog charge at me barking with it’s fangs bared. Two old guys were in the site and couldn’t control their dog. It was one of 4 times during the trip that dog charged me barking uncontrolled. But, my concern now was if the Huck site was taken I’d have to double back over a mile to “bend camp” and set up there. The more I write on this site about the Huck site, the more popular it gets. That is not a problem for me. I encourage it. I want more people, especially young people to experience the wilderness. That is why I write it on this site. But, I really don’t like doubling back and the next site that can handle 4 or more tents is another mile over the mountain. I was confident the couple’s group was not up for that long a hike in. As I approached the huck site I could see a couple people and gear. Darn. So, I approached them with a smile saying something like, “Hi, are you just setting up here?” “no.”, they said, “We are just leaving.” “Thank God”, I said. “I have 4 tents coming tomorrow and the Huck site is one of the few sites that can handle that many tents.” “Wait, are you Tim Huckaby?”, they said. I believe I said the exact same thing I always say when people recognize me down at the Forks: “Tim Huckaby? That guy is a douche.” Then I laugh and introduce myself. Julian and Lauren were their names. A great young fly fishing couple that loves the Upper Kern like me. Well, it wasn’t long into the conversation before Julian told me he proposed marriage to Lauren at the Huck Site! Talk about proud… I had tears in my eyes hearing that.

Julian and Lauren: A wedding proposal at the Huck Site!

So, I set up my tent in the Huck site. I pinged the couples group I had secured the Huck site with my Garmin InReach.

Soot and Silt

I examined the water in front of the Huck Site. Just like I was warned, the bank was ten or so feet of silt and ash. Silt that was over a foot deep. It had settled so the water was still crystal clear. But, if you stepped in it, the water exploded clouding the water to zero visibility.

I had heard from friends and a number of visitors to this site that after the monsoon rains of august, the johnsondale bridge section (JDB) was completely blown out with soot and ash and silt and unfishable. Mother Nature had finally pushed the ash, soot and exposed dirt of the fires into the river. I had also heard from the same folks that the silt made the fishing from the confluence at the forks all the way up to the huck site really tough. Well, the unfortunate news for spring fly fishers is that the huge amount of silt is going to make its way down the river when runoff starts. Even another drought year is going to push that silt downstream. How bad and how long will depend on the winter we have. I love to fish the JDB stretch in April. But, I fear blown out conditions in 2023 will prevent it.

Yea, that is a Huck Hopper in his face. But, i tied it tiny, size 14 in orange to imitate the October Caddis

Fishing upriver of the Huck Site

I rigged up a 3x mono leader to a size 4 tan huck hopper trailed with 3 feet of 3x flouro to a size 16 Huck-bow Warrior perdigon and set off to fish. I had already told the couples group in planning that I didn’t need to fish much and would concentrate on guiding the beginners. I also wanted to spend a lot of time with Kelly because close to 2 months in Montana and Wyoming over the summer took its toll. So, this was my chance to get in some fishing before Kelly and the gang showed up the next morning. I didn’t cast in front of the huck site. I could see trout in the crystal-clear water in front of the Huck site, along with a group of huge pike minnows (aka squawfish or suckers). I wanted to save those for the beginners. So, I started up stream about 100 feet above the Huck Site just below “Latrine Hole”. First cast: “Whack!” An 8” Kern River Rainbow (KRR) took the Huck-bow Warrior perdigon. “Hmmm…” I said to myself. “Oh no. The first cast jinx.” I casted again….drifted… Nothing. 3^rd cast: “Whack!” A 12 inch KRR that rose to the Huck Hopper! I continued to fish upstream and continued to get rises to the Huck Hopper and continued to catch and release KRRs.

Another nice rainbow with a Huck Midge Perdigon stuck in his nose

I was about 20-25 minutes into it… about 100 yards upstream from the Huck Site when I heard, “Tim!” I looked to the bank and could see someone, but he was obscured by the trees. He came closer and said, “It’s Jake.” I smiled and said, “How in the world did you find me?” “Well, I saw your truck in the parking lot.” That’s Jake. He asked if he could stay a couple nights in the site with me and excitedly, I said, “Absolutely yes. In fact, I’m going to need your help guiding.” Jake, like me, is the type of fly fisher that gets more joy over teaching and guiding other people to catching fish than he does catching his own.

It was around 1pm. Well, Jake ran back to set up his tent then met me in river. I had only moved a hundred yards or so upstream the fishing was so good. I fished the left handers side of the river and he fished the right as we moved up stream together. And we did really well. I can only remember a little lull when the wind blew and I simply switched to two huck perdigon droppers; one size 14 and the lower one 16 and never missed a beat. One out of four takes was on the huck hopper. I caught between a dozen and 20 fish to 16” and Jake did the same. Maybe more.

That’s Jake: an excellent fly fisher who loves guiding and teaching others more than catching fish himself

I told Jake that Micah was going to show up with his wife Dasha around 4:30PM and that I told her I’d teach her how to cast. I asked Jake to take Micah while I did the basic fly casting lesson with Dasha. He gladly agreed. We walked back to the site at 4:30 and no Micah. At 5:30 still no Micah and I started to worry. But, they did show up. All we had time for was a simple casting lesson, though. It was getting dark. Dasha did get 4 takes though. Right at the huck site. We had time to cover setting or fighting fish yet. But, she was a natural at casting. I know this is a generalization, but, it just seems like females take instruction so much better than males. It’s just so easy to teach absolute beginner females to cast for me.

John took this fantastic picture of Delia. It looks like she’s hooked up. If i was there I’d be yelling, “Rod tip High! Get tight with him.” 🙂

I did buy a $9 transistor radio and hike it in hoping to listen to the Padre playoff games. And at nighttime it works! We got to listen to all the games when it was dark.

Why does AM radio work better at night? It is called the ionosphere because when the sun’s rays hit this layer, many atoms lose electrons and turn into ions. You can pick up some radio stations better at night because the reflection characteristics of the ionosphere are better at night.
Source: rovertip.com/which-goes-further-am-or-fm/

That radio now lives in the cache. You could argue it is a safety device. In fact, the Huck Site Cache is more abundant now than it was before the fire incinerated everything. Tools, Camp Tables, extra Fuel, cutting board, kitchen stuff, pads, etc. If you want to use the cache at the Huck site email me and I’ll give you the detailed directions to find it.

Well, it was a huge relief that Jake showed up because I had to do the big hike back up to the trailhead the next morning. I didn’t anticipate getting back to the Huck Site until 11am with the gang. Jake gladly agreed to guide Micah and Dasha the next day while I was on the hikes out and back in.

Does that look like a fun run to fish or what? I put 4 beginners in this run and i believe everyone caught fish

The Hike Out Empty

The next morning, I got hiking with an empty pack at 6:45AM. I got to the trailhead at 8:30AM as planned. But, none of the gang had arrived yet. I talked to some nice folks in the lot and filled my pack with 24 beers and fresh food. The gang showed up, we got a late start, hiked slowly with breaks and didn’t even make it to the huck site until after 12pm. The gang was tired and needed to set up their tents. And frankly so was I. So, I grabbed one of the 24 beers I just hiked down, sat in my backpacking chair and stared at the water looking for rises. It wasn’t long after that Micah, Dasha, and Jake showed up. Jake had a smile on his face when he approached me so I knew it went well. Micah said something like, “Well, tell Tim.” Dasha caught 3 KRRs over 15”! ..a total beginner. I was stoked. Micah did well too under Jakes’s guidance.

That’s Dasha – a total beginner and a natural. Micah gets credit for this outstanding picture

So, suffice it to say that jake and I had our hands full guiding a bunch of beginners and didn’t fish much for the next few days. The moon was totally against us and the gang still did ok on dry/dropper rigs. In the following days the barometer crashed, the wind moved in, we even saw a little rain. All that really hurt the production. So we did see weather… and we were fishing during a really bad solunar stretch. It was tough for the beginners. The wind was bad. It was cold. The wind blew the aspen leaves into the river completely shutting off the dry fly thing. There is only one scenario where I’d switch to the bobber and this was it. The nymphing was still good if you could make the cast and get a drift. It was on the bobber, that my wife Kelly caught a nice 15” in what looked like spawning colors…. But, only after some significant frustration with me as her guide. What is it about trying to teach your wife how to fly fish?…or play golf?…or anything for that matter?… Mere did catch a couple nice KRRs in that session too.

That’s Mere in the background with what looks to be a juvenile pure strain KRR with a Huck Midge Perdigon stuck in his face

Kern River Rainbow Hybridization

What was interesting is we kept seeing colorful fish that looked like they were in spawn…. And sure enough Micah harvested a fish to eat and it had eggs in it. That totally explains why we do so well in the end of season trip. There is a late fall / early winter spawn on the upper kern. Last year I asked steve Schalla of www.flyfishingthesierra.com aka steven ojai about it and he reasoned it could be a sudden drop in water temperature. But, Steve has been watching the hybridization of the rainbows in the Upper Kern closely. And now we have confirmed it: There is a winter spawn in the Upper Kern River. But, environmentally, this is not a positive thing.

I got this from Steve in an email when I sent him pictures: “Notice the spots…they are somewhat large and very few below the center stripe. I would guess there is considerable hybridization with Rainbows.” Steve went on to describe what has happened in the Upper Owens and Lake Crowley seems to be happening in the Upper Kern. “During the winter, the eastern sierras guides call the migrating rainbows their “sierran steelhead”. They come out of Crowley Lake and spawn upstream in the Owens River. I suspect the same is true on the Kern: the Rainbows are not just a Spring Spawn species any longer.”

“Notice the spots…they are somewhat large and very few below the center stripe”. Steve Schalla says this is a hybridized rainbow trout

Translation: stocked rainbow trout (not native to the Kern) have made it all the way up to the Upper Kern River above Fairview dam. That stocked species of rainbow is a winter spawner. These trout are now wild and they are breeding with the Kern River Rainbows (KRRs). The hybridization of the KRR with other species of rainbows is now significant. When you couple that with a significant increase in the number of brown trout in the Upper Kern River (In 1932 a group of women on horses released brown trout fingerlings into Peppermint Creek), it is a huge red flag for one of the very few places in the world that contains a majority of wild native trout.

I have fished the Yellowstone River and its tributaries for years. And I have watched the hybridization of the pure strained Yellowstone cutthroat. Many of the guides in the area claim there will be no pure strained Yellowstone Cutthroats within a few short years. That is a shame and a very tricky problem to fix. As far as I know you can only slow it down. So, my ask of you is this: if you are the type of person that likes to harvest the trout on the Upper Kern (current regs is 2/day). Then make sure you don’t cull a pure strained KRR. Make sure you harvest a hybridized trout. Or a brown trout…. Which are also turning into a problem on the upper kern river.

Check out the spot pattern on this KRR that Micah nailed. Notice the peppery spots that pretty much cover the entire body of the fish: that is a pure strained KRR with a huck hopper in his face.

Last year (2021) I fished the end of the season, nov 15. And we did very well. The fishing was just awesome. Story here. I always seem to slay at the end of the season. And for years I have explained it as “the fish know the food sources are ending and have to fatten up for sitting at the bottom of the deep pools for 3 months until spring”. Last year, many of the fish looked so colorful that they looked and behaved like they were in spawn. Well, now I know for sure why the fishing is so good: Many of those males are in spawn and they just get stupid when they are in spawn.

I am headed back into the Upper Kern for the end of the Season in a couple weeks. My mission is to pay very careful attention to the spot patterns… ie: the pure strained KRRs caught above the big waterfall which is around a mile up river from painters camp. If the hybridization is significant way up there…. Well….uggg… the Entire species of the KRRs in the Kern River is going to suffer the fate of the Yellowstone cutthroat.

Fly Fishing Carlsbad – Agua Hedionda Lagoon

The Pacific Halibut – evolved both its eyes on one side so it can lay flat on the bottom, disguised, so it can attack prey that swim above it.

I have written about fly fishing in places all over the world so it’s long past time I write about the fly fishing in my own backyard: Carlsbad, CA

Southern California, including Carlsbad, has a long history of saltwater fly fishing. In the Surf, legendary Fly Fishermen like Al Quatrrocchi, Nick Curcione, Kirk Deeter, Dr. Milton Love, Jim Solomon, Glenn Ueda, Bernard Yin, Lee Baermann, Jeff Solis, and others have written, presented, and taught us how to fish the Socal Surf…especially for the elusive corbina. In terms of Off-shore John Loo for off shore fly fishing and Conway Bowman always come to mind when fly fishing for Mako’s off the san diego coast.

This article is about fishing Carlsbad’s Agua Hedionda Lagoon from a float tube (or fishing kayak). It’s funny that I have lived in Carlsbad for 22 years; within a mile of Aqua Hedionda lagoon and I had never fished it until just recently. Mainly because I’m a trout guy and just don’t have a lot of expertise in the salt water. Trust me. As I write this I have only fished Hedionda 5 times so I am no expert. But, because I have had success, I want to share it in case you are interested in C&R fly fishing it.

Firstly, let me elaborate my 2 main inspirations and motivations:

If you are a Socal then you have driven by this lagoon many times and stared at it. It’s just south of the Tamarack exit on the 5 in Carlsbad. It’s the lagoon with the water skiers on the east side of the 5. You may have stared at that water and said to yourself, “I wonder if that fishes?” You may have seen kayak fishermen in there and said, like I did for years, “How in the world did they get in there and I wonder if they are catching fish?”
Recently, Mel Ochs and Kai Schumann did a SDFF club presentation on how to fish the bays of San Diego in a float tube or kayak. It was outstanding. I learned so much from that presentation. Let me be honest: I serve as the programs chair for the San Diego Fly Fishers club. It is my job to ink the speakers for the club presentations and I have signed up some famous ones, both worldwide and from the list above. So when I roped them into doing this presentation I was a bit selfish in my needs.

The Spotted Bay Bass – affectionately known as “Spotty”

< Side Note: let me put in a plug for joining the San Diego Fly Fishers Club. It’s only $40 / year and along with all the other benefits, there are 2 presentations by zoom per month during the pandemic; in person once we are finally past it. If you want to go fly fish the bays with the group of folks from the club, at a minimum, they go every Wednesday and would love to have you and show you the ropes of fly fishing the bays. >

About Hedionda: The Science and History

Three major highways cross Hedionda: Highway 101 (aka PCH) along the coastline, the train tracks and Interstate 5. These 3 bridges divide the Hedionda into 3 sections:

outer bay – just east of the coast highway; closest to the ocean. This section holds the oyster, abalone and white sea bass farms along with carlsbad’s hydro electric power plant and the largest desalination plant in N America.
middle bay – separated by the train bridge and highway 5. This section holds the YMCA aquatic park
inner bay – east of interstate 5. This section holds California Watersports and numerous homes and condos with docks on the North side and the infamous Carlsbad Strawberry fields on it’s south site.

Hedionda extends 1.7 miles inland and is up to a half mile at its widest point. All three sections are 8-10 feet deep at their deepest part of the high tide….except for the channel that flows the tide to and from the ocean. That channel runs the entire length from the ocean to the head of the bay where Hedionda creek feeds it. The channel is over 30 feet in depth in and around the 3 bridges. This depth information is important in relation to the fishing. There is more on tides below in the fishing section of this article.

Hedionda is fed by Agua Hedionda creek to the southeast and Lake Calavera Creek to the Northeast. Numerous spring creeks feed those two creeks. But, in reality Carlsbad is a a natural desert so a majority of the water feeding Hedionda is simply lawn sprinkler runoff from well into Oceanside and Vista. There is a significant amount of fresh water that enters the lagoon at the head of the bay making that “back-bay” brackish for those that want to chase mullet with a fly rod. When it does rain that creek is a raging dangerous river.

The most amusing part of Agua Hedionda is the name itself: It means “Stinky Water” in Spanish. The reason is most likely because before a small boat harbor was constructed in middle bay somewhere between 1940 and the 50s, the lagoon was not dredged; it was truly a lagoon. Between the decay of vegetation, the mud and the methane escaping it probably was pretty stinky before dredging provided a constant flush of tidal flow.

From the InterWeb: “The main difference between Bay and Lagoon is that the Bay is a body of water connected to an ocean or lake, formed by an indentation of the shoreline and Lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from larger body of water by a barrier.”

By way of this definition then Agua Hedionda is a bay; not a lagoon. In fact, it has significant tidal flow just like san diego or mission bay. There is plenty of great information from the Agua Hedionda Lagoon Foundation here.

The history of Hedionda is pretty sketchy but, in the early half of the 20^th century Carlsbad was a mostly an agricultural area….boasting the only place you could get the rare and hard to get exotic fruit: the avocado. At that time the bay was not used for anything short of the quickest transportation from the farms to the beach: by row boat. There is some interesting information about the area’s history that the Carlsbad Historical Society turned me onto here. But, not much on Hedionda itself.

most people who love eating halibut, and have never seen one, probably picture it this way: upside down

How to fish it

The Agua Hedionda Lagoon Foundation says there are 70 species of fish that populate it. Being that said only a small portion of those fish are predators: the type of fish you would be catching with a fly rod. And in my limited experience the spotted bay bass dominates that group. But, I’m a pretty friendly fly fisherman so I did talk to a number of gear guys both on the shore and in kayaks. And they all gladly provided a tremendous amount of knowledge to me. In fact, more than once I’d catch a fish, hold it up to a shore fisherman and say, “what the hell is this?”

There are pelagic fish that wonder into Hedionda with the tide. Of those the most common are white sea bass, rays and halibut. But sharks and even corbina are caught there too…along with all the usual suspects you see in the surf. It’s worth nothing that any ocean fishing in a float tube is not for the faint of heart for many reasons. And being that said I did fish Hedionda in a tube in January of 2021 the day after the beach in front of it was closed down because of a 15 foot great white patrolling the surf.

The author, devilishly handsome, paddling out just after sunrise

Harvesting – I have caught a couple legal halibut and let them go. It’s partly because of ~30 years of catch and release fly fishing and partly fear of eating from a bay fed by fertilizers and the cancer causing weed killer, round-up. If I ever do catch a legal white sea bass I’ll have a tough decision to make. The white sea bass farm is in outer bay and there are escapees.

It’s all about the tides – just like any surf or bay fishing in the san diego area your best success is going to be during an incoming and/or slack tide. In fact, the only time you will be able to fish close to the train bridge or Highway 5 bridge is during a slack tide. Not that it was unsafe, but the very first time I fished Hedionda, this trout fisherman was inches from getting pulled from middle bay under the 5 and out into inner bay. I wasn’t paying attention staring at my fish finder as the tide grabbed me. The current during that incoming tide was so strong it was like any large river I have fished before. It took everything I had to paddle my fins away from getting sucked in. I was huffing and puffing more than I have even done on lake Crowley in the wind. Again, I was never in danger. But, if pulled through to the other side I would have had to wait hours for the slack tide to even consider swimming back through again. and it’s not like I could have gotten out of the water on the other side and carried my tube back.

Along with the tide, there are a number of things that negatively or positively affect your fishing success. Here are a few:

fish finder – My aha moment was from the gang of bay fly fishers from the San Diego Fly Fishers Club. They all use portable fish finders. There are some super inexpensive ones from the company “Lucky”. You can find them on amazon.com from $40 and up. After a ton of research, I ended up with the Garmin STRIKER™ Cast GPS. Its list price is $179. It’s an amazing little device that deserves its own gear review on this site. you tether and drag it behind your float tube. I chose 15 feet (of old floating fly line instead of the cord they included). since you paddle backwards in a float tube it looks for fish right in the zone you are stripping through (as opposed to directly underneath you like all other fish finders). I’ll typically cast ~40 feet, let it sink, and strip back. The device uses your smart phone with the garmin striker app as its UI. It clearly shows depth and structure and the fish in the water column they are swimming in. it even counts the number of fish in the schools. I found myself not blind casting until I saw fish on the finder. but, in one of my fly fishing sessions, after running out of my allotted spousal time, I quickly paddled right across the bay where the fish finder showed a ghost town. For the purpose of straightening out my line and tightly winding it back up I hooked up and landed a nice halibut. It made me late. Oh well’ she’ll live. After 31 years of marriage, she knows the “one last cast” thing. So, there is the lesson learned. you will not be able to see the halibut on the fish finder because they sit flat and still on the bottom, typically waiting for prey to swim by.
notice my garmin striker cast fish finder in the background
time of year – I have only fished in winter and done pretty darn well. But, in talking to the experienced gear guys they have all said it gets pretty nuts in spring and summer so I am looking forward to that. They also told me the big halibut come in Hedionda to spawn in spring. Every year I read about 40+ pound halibut being taken in Hedionda by the gear guys. That sure would be fun on a 6 weight.
the moon phases and solunar theory – it’s the hunters and saltwater fisherman that believe in solunar theory. Read about my research and findings on Solunar theory here. Again I have limited experience fly fishing Hedionda but I did fish on a really good solunar day and “killed”. Plus I saw a ton of fish on my fish finder. I also fished on a really bad solunar day and didn’t do so well…and saw very little fish on my fish finder. Draw conclusions as you may.
red tide – whether you believe in climate change or not, the red tides are getting worse and worse each year here in San Diego. I had a bad outing and didn’t see a thing on my fish finder only to find out later there was a little red tide going on. FYI, there was a huge fish kill in Hedionda last year (summer of 2020) because of a red tide. Many of the gear guys I talked to were really worried that it ruined the fishing in Hedionda. It has not.

A gear guy on the shore told me this was a white sea bass. But, another fly fisherman in the club told me this is a Corvina (not corbina)

Gear

I use a fast action 6 WT with a sinking line. In my first outing I used a Rio outbound short line and didn’t do so well. That outbound line is an intermediate sink line. Although it was before my Garmin Fish finder I just felt like I wasn’t getting it down to where the fish were. It’s like my line wasn’t cutting through the current. So, the next time out I switched to the exact rig I use in Lake Crowley: a heavy sink fully integrated 450 GR integrated heavy sink line. That is a line that really gets down quickly.

For a leader I just use 4-5 feet of straight 12lb flouro. Flies: I tie my version of a clouser. I use synthetics, including EP fibers instead of buck tail. I always tie white on the bottom to imitate the naturals. And I tie in a red patch of flashabou to imitate an injured gill plate. I tie the top in chartreuse, blue and grey in sizes 2 and 4. And they all worked. I fish two flies: a size 2 in front trailed by 18 inches of more flouro and a size 4. i really think color does not matter. but, just like in trout fishing the trailing fly gets most of the hookups.

Here’s an example of a couple beat up size 4 clousers i tied. beat up from getting chewed by spotties and halibut. the clouser rides hook up so white is on the bottom. look closely at the red patch that imitates an injured gill plate.

Epilogue:

This may go without saying, but there is nothing peaceful and serene about fly fishing Hedionda. This not like fly fishing the Gallatin canyon in montana. The freeway noise is constant. And depending on which way the wind is blowing the freeway noise can be downright loud. In fact i had a trucker honk at me while i battled a halibut right off the 5. I raised my fist to him in glory.

I know what you are saying, “Where do I park? Where do I Launch? Where did you catch all your fish in Hedionda? I did write that part and created detailed maps. And then I removed it from this article. Why? Well, in respect to the handful of gear guys that helped me. But, honestly, although it’s rare, I recently got a hate mail from a selfish fly fisher that wants his fly fishing location to be his and his alone. So, consequently, doesn’t want me publishing this type of info on the public interweb. I am a strong believer in conservation by awareness. Granted, for every one “hate mail” I get a hundred emails thanking me for info. Fly fisherman are typically such unselfish, trustable and “giving back” type of people. But, there are exceptions; people are people.

I’d be happy to share that map, parking and fishing location info with you. Send me an email from here. And donate $5 to the Agua Hedionda Lagoon Foundation here while you are at it.

Fly Fishing Ecuador

Campuchoca Lodge, near Quito, Ecuador

November 10, 2018

I have caught thousands of rainbows in my time, but this one has to be one of, if not the prettiest big ones I have ever caught and released.

Those that know me know I have been all over the world through business travel… usually related to Microsoft. So, I always get asked, “What is your favorite place in the world?” and my answer is usually, “The one I’m in at the time. But, I can give you a top 5.” Ecuador is always in my top 5 list. Quito is one of my favorite big cities in the world. It’s at 11,000 feet and nestled into the Andes. Its people and its food are awesome. It’s traffic; not so much. However, what big city can argue being just a few hours drive from total nature in the Andes or the Amazon?
That is one of the many reasons Campuchoca Lodge, near Quito, Ecuador is so special. It’s in the wilderness at 12,000 feet near Cayambe-Coca National Park. And it is still within an hour’s drive of Quito. And it has awesome fly fishing that can excite the beginner as easily as the expert.
This was my 2nd time visiting Campuchoca Lodge and my good friend Eduardo Campuzano who runs the lodge and guides me to 20+ fish days of catching and releasing big Andean Rainbow trout.

Campuchoca – aggressive takes no matter how big the streamer is

I believe I did a good job of documenting my last experience at Campuchoca in 2016 well here:

Campuchoca Lodge, near Quito, Ecuador

So in this post I’ll try to focus on what was unique this time; and the fly fishing experience; and guidance on how you can do this too when you are in the Quito area.

Compuchoca Lodge is only 30-40 or so miles outside of Quito, the capital city of Ecuador. Some of Eduardo’s property lies in the national park. Cayambe-Coca National Park is an Ecological Reserve / nature reserve in Ecuador located along the Equator. When the clouds clear (which they did not for me this time), the world famous, snow-topped Cayambe volcano is within view.

I have never been anywhere that has so many hummingbirds; frequently 10+ at a time buzzing loudly while competing for nectar.

Well, what was the same this time around at Campuchoca was catching a lot of big rainbows and getting my ass kicked hiking at 12000+ feet by a 71 year old. But, I am 20 pounds lighter than my visit in 2016 so I think I held up pretty good; a lot better. It was physical for sure. There is some huffing and puffing. I’m sore today and my back and left arm are killing me from hiking and fighting big wild rainbows – a problem I love to have.
Eduardo picked me up at my hotel in Quito. There was zero traffic because it was a Saturday. Because we were excitedly catching up it seemed like we were at the turnoff into the wilderness in no time. As we drove up the well beaten up 4 wheel drive dirt road to the lodge we noticed a few rises here and there. As is typical, Eduardo was quick to point out that the Solunar Calendar was not in our favor and that I should have come to fish a couple days earlier. He said the exact same thing last time and we still killed.
We had a quick cup of coffee and I wadered up. You really don’t need waders or wading boots at Campuchoca; you never need to go in the water. But, I have fallen in love with my $69 wading pants from bass pro shops…. So much that I tend to wear them more than my $800 Simms Waders. I wear Korkers for wading boots so for Campuchoca I used the interchangeable hiking soles for them.

Is this burly little left-hander from N. Hollywood, CA having fun in the Andes or what?!

After a quick cup of coffee we got back in the truck and drove down to the water in the lower part of the Campuchoca lodge property. On this part of the property the water is not natural; Eduardo designed and built it. it’s mostly slow moving, but not froggy and it’s connected by a number of small creeks, locks and weirs. Sure enough we got there during a midge hatch and the rainbows were rising everywhere. I have some fantastic size 20 midge dry flies that kill at home (that I did not tie). I asked permission from Eduardo to use them and he granted it…provided they were really small. But the hatch was on and my Winston Boron 2 6 weight was still in the tube. If you are a fly fisherman you know this feeling: you hurry because the hatch is on and you make mistakes. And that is exactly what I did. I made a mistake that took me 3 hours to figure out. I looped the line around the last two eyelets of the rod.
It took forever to get rigged which included having to put on a brand new 5x leader. Sure enough by the time I was ready the hatch was over. I made 3 or 4 casts (that were really awkward and hit the water hard because of the looped line) and got nothin’. Eduardo told me to switch to nymphing and my heart sunk. Then he told me to use an indicator and I was heartbroken. There’s no grasshoppers in the Andes at 12K feet so using a Huck Hopper would have been silly…I think… I kinda’ wanted to try. So, I whined about throwing a bobber and searched for an indicator in my bag. I haven’t fished an indicator in so long it took me a while to find one and it was way too big for the water I was throwing at.

just another big rainbow caught and released at Campuchoca.

But, I switched my whiny attitude to a positive: “I’ll tie on two of my own “go to” flies to prove they work anywhere”, I said to myself: a size 18 Huck-Midge Cripple dropped by a size 18 huck-green caddis nymph cripple. My first cast with the bobber went nowhere. I hadn’t noticed the loop in the line and the friction it caused. So, I fired one harder and this time the line shot out of the rod without too much friction straight into a tree on the other side of the river. I lost both flies. Sigh. I went to a single huck midge cripple and didn’t get any takes. That is when Eduardo came at me with a really well tied flashy size 6 streamer in rainbow trout colors. Sure enough I got a viscous strike (that is what wild fish do) on it quickly and I battled a nice 18” female rainbow that jumped a number of times. After “Freddie” (Eduardo’s helper) released the fish Eduardo said, “Well, that took a while.”, with a smile on his face. I thought to myself, yea, I guess that was about 30 minutes before the first take so I said my usual, “Yea, we earned that one.”. We fished streamers the rest of the day.
The morning session before lunch was about the best river streamer fishing I had ever had. And all the rainbows were above 14” in that morning session. I did catch one special fish in that morning session: a huge male rainbow way north of 20” that battled me though numerous jumps. It had a red band so prominent it almost looked like a spawning fish. But, the rainbows in the Andes only spawn once a year in May. It just was a huge beautiful wild rainbow trout.

My favorite part of this big beautiful rainbow is the fishing dogs that served as my audience on both sides of the river while I battled.

Most of the water in the lower section is clear so Eduardo typically moves up stream of me a hundred feet or so and spots fish for me. It’s totally fun team fishing. He gets super excited when he sees big fish and now that we are buddies shows intense disappointment with me when I don’t fool them. ?
Around noon we got back in the truck and headed back up to the lodge for a couple tuna sandwiches (pronounced “ahh-toon” in Spanish), water and a beer. Then we headed up the mountain for the 2nd session in the natural section of the river (which by the way is fed by numerous beautiful waterfalls.

It’s hard not to look up when fishing at Campuchoca. There are waterfalls and animals everywhere.

The water in the natural section was not clear. At least it was not this day so we couldn’t do any spotting. There were some slow points, but also some crazy good points of action. At one point I switched out the streamer I was using for a size 10 black marabou beadhead tied with a rabbit strip that I tied. It killed.

Almost like the red-band rainbows of Oregon many of these Andean trout have a well defined red stripe.

There was a point where I was casting 40 feet to an inlet and getting strikes on every cast. It was like 100 fish were lined up at that inlet. The funny thing is I didn’t even notice it. That is another one of the best things about fishing with Eduardo. He tells you where to throw. There’s so much water you could spend the entire day trying to find fish without him. He knows where they are. He is the trout whisperer of the Andes.
All in all, I landed over 20 rainbows over the day. I’m not a counter; that is what Eduardo told me I did. That felt about right. Since I was streamer fishing I bet I had 40 takes where I didn’t hook the trout. That ratio (one landed for every 2 misses) is also about right, especially if you are using barbless hooks like I was.

the fireplace at Campochoca Lodge in the living room. many a crying funny story has been told here with cocktails.

If you find yourself in Quito and want to fly fish (whether you are a total beginner-Eduardo will teach you or an expert) you really do owe yourself a visit to Eduardo at Campuchoca. To top it off it’s inexpensive; especially if you compare the equivalent to fishing guided at a lodge in Montana. Actually, Campuchoca is ridiculously cost effective; like a fraction of the cost when compared to Montana.

Eduardo will custom tailor a visit for you that can include any or all of the following:
• Full or ½ guided days of fly fishing for wild rainbows in the Andes that not only includes an expert guide like Eduardo, but a “boy” who pulls your flies out of the trees and releases the fish for you. It’s such “spoiled” fly fishing. This in itself is a bucket lister for any fly fisherman. But it gets better:
• Custom cooked, arguably gourmet meals, in any combo of breakfasts, lunches and dinners. We enjoyed the back strap of a white tail that Eduardo harvested himself for dinner on this night. Any hunter knows how special that is. It was so good, I actually thought it was a filet mignon (cow) before Eduardo straightened me out.
• Fine wines, beer and custom cocktails like Eduardo’s “signature cocktail”, the “Sole Sombra”, which served “up”, ½ pinchon (kind of like the Ecuadorian version of absinthe) and brandy. They are so good I bought a bottle of Pinchon in duty free so that I can make them for Kelly and me.
• Nights in 1 or 2 bedroom suites in the lodge. The lodge is not a cabin. These are super nice, 5 star level suites with all the appointments. Some of the rooms have stunning views of the Andes.
• Plenty of options that are not fly fishing like horse back riding, bird hunting, target shooting, hiking, trail running, bird watching, and, of course, visits to the national park. So, although I haven’t done it yet, having my wife Kelly join me at Campuchoca for a long weekend is definitely going to happen and would be a great weekend for any couple.
• Pick up and drop off from your hotel in Quito or the Quito airport.

the bar at Campochoca Lodge where Eduardo makes his infamous Sole Sombras

Since writing that first post on Campuchoca in 2016 I have been contacted by numerous people on how to plan this. The number one complaint I get (actually only from Americans) is how much difficulty they have in making contact with Eduardo. This has everything to do with that fact that Americans not only do not use Whatsapp, but most don’t even know what it is.

The rooms in the lodge are beautiful, 5 star level suites with all the appointments. Some of the rooms have stunning views of the Andes.

So, here is your guidance to arrange a trip to Campuchoca easy:
How to fly fish Ecuador when in the Quito area at Campuchoca Lodge:
You need to contact Eduardo in one of 3 ways starting from the most effective to the least effective:
1. Whatsapp – It’s an app that runs on your phone or computer that is the dominant way of communication in Latin America. Install it. Add Eduardo to your contacts in Whatsapp by his phone number: +593 99 973 6205
2. SMS – text Eduardo by his phone number: +593 99 973 6205
3. Email – send Eduardo an email at: EduardoCampuzano767@gmail.com
4. Call him on his mobile phone: +593 99 973 6205

Eduardo does not live at the Campuchoca lodge. He lives in Quito so once you make contact with him he is very responsive. And yes, he speaks beautiful English.

I should not have to say this, but there is no cell signal at Campuchoca so when he’s there he will be out of contact on his phone. And even if they did stick a big ‘ol ugly cell tower on that mountain it would not work. The cellular band ceases to exist at about 12K feet. But, he is very good about getting right back to you if you leave him a message.

Here’s a great video of Campuchoca from a drone on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=261&v=Qnl9h5M4jro

Campuchoca has a web site: http://www.campucocha.com

Have fun at Campuchoca. Email me a full report.

Forks of the Kern Fly Fishing Report – Fall 2017 Version

And Backpacking Gear Review

October 20-23, 2017

Check out the fall colors on the Upper Kern

I have backpacked the Forks of the Kern Trail to the awesome fly fishing of the upper Kern River over a dozen times since my very first backpacking trip 7 years ago in August of 2011. I have been in the Spring a few times and in the Summer many times. But, I had never been able to go in the Fall; until now. The shocking thing for me and the group of 9 guys that joined me (ages 12 to mid-sixties) was the colors. I was shocked to see all the yellow and orange in the trees…and not just aspens. I had never seen anything in the trees but green in the many years of visiting the Forks. So beautiful.

The Upper Kern River crew:

Sean McElroy and my son Mark
Aaaron Eagleton and his dad (who’s story I featured in California Fly Fisher Magazine)
Steve Franco (Aaron’s uncle)
Me
Martin Loef and Steve Ray (backpacking and wilderness gurus)
Larry French (my cousin and life long friend of Martin)
Not Pictured: The world famous Warren Lew who took the picture

The most fun for me was that my son Mark was part of the group. I have not got to fish with him in a while. He’s a stick, toning his skills a couple years in Bozeman. He’s 22 now and I just don’t get as much father-son q-time as I’d like. At 22 I didn’t hang with my dad too much either. I regret that now.

As for the fishing this was one of those trips where the fishing matched Solunar theory perfectly. The first day the fly fishing was good; the 2^nd day was average; the 3^rd day was not so good.

These screenshots are from the app, “Fishing & Hunting Solunar Time Pro”. I have mentioned this app in this blog before. It’s a godsend. The regular version is free. The Pro version is worth every penny of its $2.99 cost. I use it religiously….although solunar theory is not bullet proof, it does help. It certainly helped on this trip matching up perfectly to the quality of fishing. Get it in your apple or google app store.

Backpacking Gear Review

Before I get into the fishing report let me provide some guidance (from an old guy fly fisherman’s perspective) in terms of a backpacking gear review for my fellow fly fishers. 7 years ago when I started backpacking as a means to get to fly fishing I acquired gear in the exact same way many of us fly fisherman buy fly fishing gear when we start fly fishing. When I started fly fishing 25 years ago I bought the cheapest stuff. I bought a $60 Cabela’s rod with a $30 Cabela’s reel. My waders were the cheapest neoprene Cabela’s waders. As the years progressed, technology helped the fly fishing industry just like it has helped every industry. I started replacing my cheap fly fishing stuff with the latest and greatest stuff. The best $100 I ever spent was on the Simms Waders that have the zipper. If you are male over 40 you know what I mean… Well, when I started backpacking I bought the cheapest stuff too. And that means the heaviest stuff and the stuff most apt to break down quickly. The difference, though, between backpacking and fly fishing is that the technology curve is on hockey stick growth in backpacking. There is just only so much technology, especially electronic technology that you can throw at fly fishing gear. But, in backpacking….the sky is the limit. And I am a technology guy. So I purchased 4 new backpacking gear items for this trip. And now that it’s over I could kick myself for not doing it years ago. Because this stuff was worth every penny.

Check out the colors on this monster Kern River Rainbow I fooled

Here is a summary of the 4 items I purchased and used for the first time on this trip:

Osprey Aether AG 70 Backpack – The 7 years of hard use on my Gregory back pack and its eventual failure was the impetus of all these purchases. I’d say I got my money out of that Gregory. I bought it on SierraTradingPost.com for under $100. The arm straps finally ripped to the point of giving out. After doing the research I was pleased to see how technical the backpacks had become and how light they are. From experience I knew I needed a 60-70 liter pack to handle the 1 to 5 night backpacking treks I typically do. There was one pack and one company that really stands out at the leader in my research. I convinced myself I deserved the top of the line so that is what I got: The Osprey Aether AG 70. You can’t argue with “Winner of Outside Magazine’s Gear of the Year Award for 2017” … So light (5lbs 6oz); so comfortable. I didn’t get the pain in my shoulders after an hour hiking like I always did with my old pack. This pack balanced perfectly and has this special technology that keeps the pack away from your back so it ventilates. It has tons of features and gets ridiculously good reviews on the internet. But, for me, (and for you fly fishers) the best feature of this pack is the top lid that converts to a daypack. Yes, you snap off the top of the pack and it’s a smaller backpack big enough for all your fishing stuff, food, water, a jacket and more. I didn’t have to bring a separate lightweight fly fishing hip pack because of this feature. The retail for this pack is $310 and it’s worth every penny. I cannot tell you how pleased I am with this pack.

Big Agnes Flycreek HV 2 platinum Tent – Ok, I don’t deserve this tent like I deserve the Osprey Aether AG 70 BackPack. This tent is pretty much way too nice for me. I’m officially backpacking spoiled now. This tent is expensive at a retail price of $549.95. And there is a reason for that. Like my dad always said, “in life you typically get what you pay for.” It’s huge for a backpacking tent: it’s a 2 man tent with a really high ceiling. It’s super easy to set up. But it’s number one feature and why I’m so pleased with it: The trail weight for this tent is 1lb 10oz. I’m not kidding. When I handed that tent to others…and I did it numerous times, it induces shock on how light it is. And usually a shake of the head. My cheapo tiny single tent I have used for 7 years weighs 4 times as much as this tent at 1/3^rd of the size. I cannot tell you how pleased I am to save almost 5 pounds with this tent.

Katadyn BeFree Water Filtration System – This little device is the best kept secret in the backpacking industry. Buy the .5 liter version of this now at a retail price of $40 and you will thank me. I have watched countless backpackers struggle with large bulky water filtration pumps over the years. That is why I have been a Steripen fan for years. I have owned two of them. Their customer service is awesome and their device is awesome. They even replaced the bulb in one of my older Steripens so I could get more years out of it. I have used my steripens all over the world and will continue to. But, for the Kern…and frankly many of the rivers in the US, the Katadyn Befree removes just as much bad stuff native to US waters like giardia. But it also filters out everything but the water. All the little pieces of plant material, dirt, etc. the SteriPen uses ultra-violent light to kill the bad stuff. It’s a wand you wave in the water for 2 long minutes. The Katadyn BeFree filters the water. You just scoop up the river and start drinking. No waving wands, no pumping, no hassle. With the steripen I always carried around 1.5 liters of river that eventually got warm. With the Katadyn BeFree you just scoop up cold water and start drinking. That means you can literally throw away the water you don’t want. It’s cleans really easy too. The Steripen weighs 5 ozs. The Katadyn Befree packs down to tiny and it only weighs 2 oz. There is a reason it won BackPacker Magazine’s 2017 Editor’s Choice Award.

Big Agnes Helinox Ridgeline FL135 Trekking Poles – The lord didn’t give me much, but, he did give me the “goat gene”. I’m agile. I always have been. It’s just in my genetics. I always assumed trekking poles were for the non-agile that needed stability. I met a young backpacker in a prior trip to the Kern, Kyle Focht, that set me straight on how trekking poles are more than that. More than agility and stability, trekking poles also help you to power up hill. I tried my wife’s trekking poles on a trip in august and was shocked how much they helped. I knew then I had to get my own. These FL 135s are my very first trekking poles, so they are good ones, but not the top of the line. They are made from aluminum, yet less than a pound in weight. Btw, they also serve very well as a wading staff.

When all was said and done with my new purchases, I had saved close to 10 pounds in load weight. Like I said before. I wish I had done this years ago.

The devishly handsome author using his trekking poles as a wading staff crossing the Little Kern River.

The devilishly handsome author using his trekking poles as a wading staff crossing the Little Kern River.

Fishing Report

Friday, October 20 – We got an early start on the hike in. We made it to camp late morning and set up tents, made wood, etc. In the haste to set up all the beginners with dry dropper rigs and at the same time do a satellite text message to tell my wife had made it, I forgot to zip the pocket with my phone in my shirt. When I bent over the river to put the food and booze in to keep it cold my phone popped out and sank 18” to the riverbed. I cussed a storm because that would be the 6^th or 7^th iphone I have lost to a river or lake. I was in no haste to pull it back out so I secured the food first and then fished it from the bottom. It has happened to me so many times before; even twice in the Kern; that I knew it was toast. At least at the time I thought it was…

We got camp set up and were fishing by lunch time. I did well. I swear I would have caught 20+ fish in 6 hours that day if I wasn’t guiding and tying lost flies back on the rigs of the 4 beginners we had on the trip. In reality though, my most fun of the trip was guiding and doing exactly that. I’d rather pull flies out of trees and guide a beginner to a fish than catch a fish myself any time. In any event I caught a dozen quality fish in the 2-3 hours I fished. I did get a few takes on my size 4 huck hopper. But, I failed to hook any of them. Most of my takes were on a large black stonefly nymph imitation. That is a staple fly of the upper kern.

Check out the size 10 stonefly hanging out of this unlucky rainbow’s face

Saturday, October 21^st – what I remember most from this day was me hooking another fish and hearing mark from a distance say, “Damnit”. That’s not like him to be frustrated. He was mostly hanging with his buddy Sean, guiding him because he was a beginner, for the first day and a half. btw, Sean caught two fish on this trip. that is pretty good for a beginner. Anyways I’m guessing the guiding had to weigh on the frustration a little. So, that was my opening to help him out…and spend some q-time with him. We spent the next couple hours together and I didn’t fish at all. I simply did the “guide thing” and made a number of suggestions and changes to his flies and approach. Thank God for me those suggestions worked for Mark. Mark started catching fish and was the big winner that day. He caught 3 quality fish with me while I was with him. And for the rest of the trip he did well. I learned at the end of the day when we all got back together at camp that some of the other guys did not do well. I had that dwindling solunar performance in the back of my mind and feared what the next day would bring…or wouldn’t bring.

Sunday, October 22^nd – We hiked for an hour up river, over the mountain, before we started fishing. It’s something I have always wanted to do, but never had people with me that were willing to do it…and to go with it the brutal 5 mile hike back to camp after a long day of fishing. Frankly it’s hard for me to do this because you pass miles and miles of awesome water in the process. They say….well, I say, “the farther up river you go the better the fishing gets.” And it makes sense since the fish up river just don’t see the artificial flies like the ones near the confluence. Unfortunately my fear of the solunar prediction was realized; it was slow… I think I fished and hour without a take. And I was getting good drifts. That is pretty rare for me on the Upper Kern no matter what the conditions. I wanted to say I couldn’t understand what changed in terms of hatches, but I did have that solunar theory thing in the back of my mind. I usually can figure out what the fish are eating if you give me a couple hours, but there were few bugs in the air and nothing rising and nothing being spooked and nothing worked for me. I went hours without a single take.

I caught up to mark and that is when I saw it and laughed; an impressed laugh. He was standing on a huge rock, close to 10 feet above the water level. He was in front of a long deep bend in the river. He had a gap in the trees behind him big enough for a back cast. So, he was making 50 foot single hauls to the opposite side of the river with a dry/dropper rig. I wish I was close enough to video it. It was impressive. Plus I could see him long distance mending so I can’t imagine the drift was easy. He sure has become a great cast. I was still 100 yards away when he hooked up on a big fish. He battled it for longer than what I would deem normal and brought it to hand and showed me from distance after I screamed, “Woo!” from 100 yards away. It looked huge. I guessed over 20”. When I got to him he said, “17”.

Mark Huckaby doing the 50 foot single haul to the opposite side of the river with his buddy Sean fishing the head

I still hadn’t landed a fish that day, though. And slowly I found out no one but Mark had either. So, slowly but surely everyone started their long treks back to camp except for me. I found myself at Kern Flats (which I believe is over 6 miles from our camp) in front of the famous bend which is always good for at least one fish…and nothing. It was getting late in the day and I knew I had at least a 1.5 hour hike back to the site, skunked. That is when I said myself, “if I am going to get skunked I’m going down with size 18 dries.” As I walked back I found Mark and Sean in “their hole” and told them to check in with me on their walk back so I wouldn’t worry. Half of the way back to camp was one of my favorite runs I walked by earlier in the day without fishing it. It took me a while to get there. Mark and Sean caught me as I tied on some 5x to the end of my leader, then a light colored size 18 mayfly imitation that was similar to a random handful of naturals I had seen during the day. They moved on, hiking back to camp. I moved into position to cast, which meant rock hopping my way closer to the middle of the river so I could get a cast. I stared out in front of me at the run hoping to see rises where I had seen them so many times in years past….nothing. From my rock I had to make a simple 30 foot cast straight up stream. First cast…whack! 6” incher. Nice. I fished for 10 minutes and got struck on almost every cast. I had landed 4 to 12” before mangling my leader because of my quickly tied poor knot when I tied on the tippet. So, I cut it off and said to myself, “if I can catch my fifth on what is essentially a 6 foot 0x leader, I’ll call it a total success and head back to camp. I had to nip the leader at an angle just to thread the size 18 hook. Success; 10” er. I would have loved to stay and whack 20 trout after that full day of being skunked, but walking back that far to camp alone in the dark in that part of the sierras is not smart. So, I took off happy. And then it occurred to me. We had not caught a single fish in front of camp yet. And we had all fished it hard for 3 days. That that is one of the most prolific spots on the river. I said to myself, when I get back to camp I’ll throw 5 casts to see if I can break the skunk there. It was a long 45 minute brisk hike back up and over the mountain. As I approached the camp all the guys already had whiskeys and were trading the day’s stories. I looked at Mark with a smile and held 5 fingers up. He said, “We heard you shout. We knew you are on.” I explained to the guys what happened and said, I have to try it here. So I wandered 50 feet down to the river. First cast, whack! I shouted “Woo!” and some of the guys ran over. After landing the fish I handed the rod to my cousin Larry French and said, “take over” I headed for a backpacking chair with whiskey and he got a strike too with Warren guiding him.

Mark Huckaby with one of his big Kern River Rainbows

Epilogue

Through a matter of circumstances, I hiked out alone. I like to do that at the Forks. I like to push myself. I made it from camp to the crossing of the little Kern in good time. My goal was to hike the 2 miles and 1100 feet up and out of the canyon in under an hour. With my new trekking poles I was pretty confident. 1:04 – that is pretty good for an old guy.

It was a great trip and fun was had by all. The real bummer for me is November 15 and the winter looms. That ends the fishing season for most of California until Spring. It’s back into the man cave to tie hundreds of flies for the hundreds lost this season for me.

There were quality fish hooked, landed and there were frustrations with trees and slow times. I honestly believe we learn from our entire experience on the river: from the most advance fly fishers like me to total beginners we are always getting better whether we are catching fish or not.

I believe a totally fun trip was had by all. I’d love to make that an annual trip with that group.

The view of the flat water on approach to “Huckaby Camp”

My iPhone: You are not going to believe this. On that first day we put my iphone in a plastic bag with the silicon desiccant packs from backpacking food and let it sit in the sun for 3 days. It worked. I didn’t even try to turn it on during the trip. When I got to my truck after the hike out I plugged it in and it came right up. When I finally got to signal an hour later in Kernville all the txts and emails flooded in.

Solunar Theory: As Applied to Fly Fishing

For the last 4 months, I have been studying Solunar Theory. There is plenty of information on the internet and countless books on it. My infatuation with solunar theory started when I fished in the Ecuadorian Andes with Eduardo Campuzano, owner of Campuchoca Lodge near Quito, Ecuador. That adventure is detailed here. My amusing / eye opening experience was Eduardo using an app on his android phone, staring at it for a period of time and then saying, “Tim, you have come on a below average stretch of fishing days. You should have come next week.” At first I thought a storm must be moving in with the barometer falling. However, the weather was perfect, sunny and even some clouds for potential hatches. I asked him what he was staring at and he basically said, “The solunar score for today’s fishing. It’s only a 44 and tomorrow is 43.” Amusingly I said, “out of 100?” and he said yes. Now, I was really skeptical, but intrigued. I stared at his application on his phone and he showed me how the week coming the scores were in the 80s and 90s. He told me it was based on science. And that statement is what got me motivated to learn more about Solunar Theory.

I did pretty darn well in hot creek on a poor solunar fishing day

Well, we went out fishing and I did well. After practically every fish I caught, I teased Eduardo with the statement, “Below average fishing.” with a smile on my face. He always retorted, “You should come back when it’s good.” So after two, what I would call good days of fly-fishing and some cocktails, I decided I needed to learn more.

Since then I have tested Solunar Theory “in the field”. This is about my findings and conclusions.

a big spawing rainbow caught on the upper owens river on a good solunar fishing day.

Background on Solunar Theory

John Alden Knight created the Solunar Theory. Essentially Solunar Theory is that fishing is best when the sun and moon are closest. Mr. Knight was an avid fly angler and wrote many books on fly-fishing. He wrote three important books on Solunar Theory:

In 1926, while fishing in Florida Mr. Knight analyzed some local folk lore that which inspired him to evaluate 33 factors that seemed to influence behavior of fish. The theory was that these 33 factors caused fish to be periodically more active. One by one each factor was disproven until 3 remained: sun, moon and tides. It was from this field research that Mr. Knight created Solunar Theory. Sol for sun; Lunar for moon.

It is also commonly accepted that Solunar Theory applies to all living things. from www.solunar.com:

“It is now known that the sun and moon are the two major sources of the astral energies that daily bombard the Earth and all her life forms. The closer they are to you at any given moment, the stronger the influence. The day of a new or full moon will provide the strongest influence in each month.”

You can learn a lot more about Solunar theory from Mr. Knight’s books or www.solunar.com.

We’ve had a record winter in the Sierras this year and water temperature definitely affects the fly-fishing.

Field Testing Solunar Theory

After i got home from Ecuador i intended to immediately buy the Solunar Theory app that Eduardo uses. Well, i thought i bought what i thought was the app. The app store is so saturated now that i bought a solunar theory fishing app, but it was the wrong one. i was really disappointed with it. Turns out I bought the wrong app. After some investigation, I bought the right app; the app that Eduardo uses, called “Fishing & Hunting Solunar Time Pro” from the iphone app store for $2.99. It’s a really well written app. I’m a software guy. I know a good piece of software when I use it.

You can download the app in the apple store here.

You can download the app in the google store here.

I reached out to the developer of the app, Anton Nikitin, anton.nkt@gmail.com, and he was very responsive to a few questions I had on the use of the app. I now use the app all the time. It’s one of, if not the only app I use with fly fishing.

An excellent Solunar Fishing day on the Lower Owens River as reported on the Fishing & Hunting Solunar Time Pro app

So, I started my testing of Solunar Theory fishing on excellent solunar fishing days. My first fishing day was in the surf in Carlsbad, CA….skunked. The solunar app told me it was a “93” day and I caught the rising tide perfectly in the morning. I only fished for a couple hours. Skunked. Why? Because the waves were huge. It was impossible to get a cast and the line down with enough strips to make it effective. That was my first lesson on solunar theory: so many other factors can screw with it.

But, I did have 2 back to back weekend trips to the lower Owens River in the eastern sierras just weeks later. The first weekend was 3 days where the app showed excellent Solunar fishing days above 90. The following weekend it showed the exact opposite solunar fishing days: poor, in the 20s and 30s. Surely that would be a good test: fishing the exact same place on both good and poor solunar days. It was not. Why? The river was blown out. But, I did go to the upper Owens river for a single day each of those weekends where the river was not blown out. The problem was that I did good on both weekends there. Not great; good. I caught big fish on both those days. I even caught a handful of quality fish in Hot Creek on a bad solunar day. Hot creek has not fished well in a long time because of the drought. I did slightly worse on the bad solunar days, but, not enough to blame it on solunar theory.

An poor Solunar Fishing day at the beach in Carlsbad as reported on the Fishing & Hunting Solunar Time Pro app

Summary

I believe Solunar Theory as applied to fly-fishing does help. I am going to continue to field test Solunar Theory. If I was guiding full time I would use Solunar Theory religiously for the way I fished; not when I fished. In good weather and good river conditions, I’d be much more apt to dry fly on excellent solunar days and much more apt to fish “under the bobber” on poor solunar days.

However, as contrasted to hunting or fishing conventionally there are so many other factors that affect success in fly-fishing: Weather, the Barometer, river flow, water temperature, time of year, hatches, spawning, etc. Nothing, including Solunar Theory replaces skill, knowledge and a little luck: a good cast that puts the bug in the right water at the right time and even a little luck is still the best prescription for fly-fishing success. But, if Solunar Theory can help your chances of success, then why the heck not leverage it?