Self-portrait taken at Peppermint Falls Ranch last season.

Short answer: it’s going to be a great season.  I could be wrong. There is some “rocket science” in my speculation.

The long answer follows, along with some science, and my reasoning for my bold prediction.

There are many factors that go into a great fly fishing day when fishing for trout on a river:

• The weather (specifically the barometer, but also cloud coverage, the air temperature and wind)
• The time of year
• Water temperature and clarity
• The moon (solunar forecast)
• The natural food sources that are available and where the fish are feeding in the water column
• Fishing Pressure by Humans
• Flow

On the Wild Section of the Upper Kern River, the most important of all those factors, by far, is flow.

That’s my wife Kelly getting ready to set while my buddy Lance watches her expertise in the background

I have written this many times. not only on this site, but also in magazines.  And I have the 25+ years of experience fly fishing the Upper Kern River to back up that statement.

The Wild Section of the Upper Kern River fishes best when the flow is under 500 CFS.  At 250 CFS the river is crossable in many locations and fishes very well.  At 150 CFS and below there is just nowhere the Kern River Rainbow can hide from a good cast because they are compressed from a huge space into a small one.

The North Fork of the Kern River (often called “main fork”) has a total length of ~165 miles.  It drains Mount Whitney, which at 14,505 feet is the highest mountain in the contiguous United States.

The purest strain Kern River rainbows are the ones with small peppery spots from “head to toe”.

So first let me define what part of the Kern River I’m talking about. The Wild Section of the Upper Kern River is in the Golden Trout Wilderness of California’s Sierra Nevada Mountain Range.  The wild section of the Kern starts at the headwaters flowing out of Lake South America at the base of Mt. Whitney and officially ends 5,600 feet upstream of the Johnsondale Bridge (JDB).  My definition of the end of the Wild Section is much farther upstream at the confluence of the Little Kern River. This area is also often called the Forks because the only way to get to it is earned by way of the Forks of the Kern Trailhead.  The wild section of the river is surrounded by both the Golden Trout Wilderness Area and Sequoia National Park.

The first of many downstream dams on the Kern River is The Fairview dam, which is 3 miles downstream from the JDB on Mountain Highway 99.  The Fairview Dam “protects” the upper section from the prolific trout stockings in the recreational section.

So the Wild Section of the Upper Kern River is a freestone river, which is a river that is primarily fed by runoff, snowmelt and/or rainfall, rather than by springs or tailwater releases behind a dam.  So Mother Nature dictates the flow during the springtime runoff in this river.  In March of 2023 it peaked at 24,000 CFS.  In October of 2014 it was below 100 CFS.

That’s Craig Keshishian mid-set, who I guided at Peppermint Falls Ranch last summer. We stuck them pretty good that day.

Under my guidance that the river doesn’t fish best until it’s under 500 CFS, in a typical runoff year, that typically means the river doesn’t back down and fish well until the middle of July.

It is my prediction that 2026 is not going to be a typical run-off year.  Time will tell if I’m right or not. In a typical year the Upper river peaks between May 1st and mid-June between 3,000 and 4,000 CFS.

Through a number of internet resources I watch the flow of the Upper river (above the Fairview Dam) like a hawk every single day of the year.  For me the most useful website to do that at is the Dream Flow site here because it gives you a 7-day, 30-day, and 5-year history of the flow. As I write this in the first week of April, the river has been falling for ten straight days. That’s not unprecedented. But it sure is strange. I’ll speculate why below.  I also follow snowpack. but there just isn’t a prolific amount of information or sensors in the mountains that can make any predictions of runoff with confidence.

For many parts of California, including areas in the Sierra Nevada, this March was the hottest in recorded history. I hope you’re still with me because here’s where it gets interesting:

Record Hot, Dry March Wipes Out California Snowpack, Leaving No Measurable Snow for April Survey

“The Department of Water Resources (DWR) conducted the April snow survey and found no measurable snow, a stark indicator of how record‑hot March temperatures and high‑elevation rain have erased the Sierra Nevada snowpack months ahead of schedule.”

To me that means we’re going to have an insignificant runoff, which means we’ll be fishing the river a month, if not two months, before we normally get to, starting in mid-July. This is not unprecedented. We had four straight drought years back in 2012-2015.  Those were the best fishing seasons, by far, that I’ve ever had in my close to 30 years of fishing the Upper Kern River. Those seasons are well documented with pictures on this site.

Am I excited? You better believe it!  If you want to fish with me, I do it in a number of different modalities, including:

• I guide for Peppermint Falls Ranch. At PFR you can guarantee a lack of fishing pressure because their giant swath of private property makes it impossible to get to that section of the river, any other way. No backpacking needed. They’ve built a trail system down into the canyon. You can also helli-fish from PFR. They have a helli-port on site. We get in a helicopter and fly to the back side of Mount Whitney and other places where very few humans have fished the Upper Kern River.
• I guide for Golden Trout Pack Station. They’ll put your stuff on mules so you don’t have to backpack with 40 lbs or more on your back. You can ride one of their horses or hike it. They’ll take you miles and miles up the river to places that very few humans have seen, let alone fished. They’ll even feed you if you want.
• We can backpack by way of the Forks of the Kern Trailhead (or some other trails for those who are more fit and/or more adventurous). The descriptions of those modalities are here.

So gather up your Upper Kern River flies from my site and let’s go!

yea, that is a huck hopper stuck in this KRR’s face

It was a unique year for me for a number of reasons. In fact, thinking back I only did one actual fishing trip to the Upper Kern this season where I got to fish: the annual SDFF trip. I ended up guiding (for free, of course) a significant part of that trip too. But, I did have a day fishing  by myself that I doubt I’ll ever be able to repeat. See below.  On every other trip I guided.  And I guided a lot and had a hoot of fun doing it.

I guided the Upper Kern this season way way more than I fished the river.  It’s the first time I can remember I had to turn down guiding.  I can’t remember a year when I had to say no to guiding so frequently.  All of those turn-downs were at the last minute.  I’m still a CTO at a software company so my life doesn’t support guiding last minute.  Additionally, I get asked to guide the Johnsondale Bridge Section (JDB) and I always politely decline.  There are many unwritten rules of guiding and one of them is respecting the territory of another guide or shop by not guiding their water.  I leave the JDB section all the way down through the recreational section of the Kern to the guides of the Kern River Fly Shop.

That’s my tent; that’s my horse on the right. on the Upper Kern River above Big Kern Lake

The season was also unique for me in that the majority of my fishing and guiding was not in the forks section.  I define the Forks section as the stretch from the confluence of the main fork of the Kern and the Little Kern Rivers upstream to the Huck Site (just short of rattlesnake creek).  Y’all know I love the Forks section of the Upper Kern.  but, guiding for both Peppermint Falls Ranch and for Golden Trout Pack Station has allowed to guide and fish in some unique places, places on the upper kern I had never been to both below and above the forks section.

I did notice in social media and a number of emails that I got, that as the season moved through late summer to fall to winter, folks (including guides) struggled to catch fish in numbers in the Forks Section.  I heard some complaints that the river seemed crowded at times.  over-fished, hard to believe.  I feel like I’m partially to blame because I wrote an article on the Forks of the Kern for the summer issue of California Fly Fisher Magazine.  And guess what?  That article I wrote is up for an award!  Btw, I have two more articles coming in CA fly fisher in the winter edition.

I had no idea this article would make the cover of the mag and be such a big deal when i wrote it.

Some of the highlights of my season:

Guiding for Golden Trout Pack Station – Mid June

I adore this picture of kate bennett. also look closely at the “head to toe” spots. it’s a pure strain.

I guided the Bennett family (Dad and twin 17 year olds) in mid-June right in the  middle of runoff.  I was a bit worried about the flow. The good news is that we were far enough upriver to be able to find good water.  We rode horses all the way above Big Kern Lake to Gold Trout Pack Station’s camp.  The mules carried the gear.  No need for backpacking on this one.  You are allotted 50-60 lbs of gear.  That means camping equipment; not backpacking gear.  Yes, you heard me right.  I rode a horse for 18 miles.  Horses terrify me.  “The devil’s staircase” which is part of the journey is no joke.  Normally I would have hiked in advance to figure out the fishing before the horses and mule team with everyone.  But, I just didn’t have the time. I survived. We found good water about ½ mile upstream from camp and stuck ‘em.  We had one big calamity on the trip.  One of the horses got its leg stuck in a big group of sweepers in the river.  It took a couple hours and the horse was exhausted; it had given up, and ready to drown.  But, Bill (the dad) came up with a genius leverage idea that helped us partially free the horse’s hoof.  Then Steve Day (owner of Golden Trout Pack Outfitters) whistled, and the cattle dog went ballistic on the horse, pissing it off enough for it to struggle it’s way free.

i can’t believe i rode a horse 18 miles

The Annual SDFF club trip to the Forks of the Kern – mid July

so fun catch and releasing these guys on Huck Hoppers

From my Instagram Post in Mid July: So fun. Great group! 9 tents in the Huck site. I swear it was coincidental that it was at the same time as my article in CA fly fisher magazine published! On Saturday I had one of the best fly fishing days there ever. And that says a lot for a guy that has been fishing there over 25 years… 30 landed over 16”. 6 of them over 20”. Huck hoppers. But it felt like I could have thrown a bare hook and still caught big fish. I have never had to fight so many on the reel. My arm hurts. Actually everything hurts. I earned it. It’s physical enough just backpacking into there. but I did fall twice. I’m cut up, bruised and sore. Totally worth it.

Many of you will recognize this run. it’s right in front of the Huck Site.

Peppermint Falls Ranch – July 21

Chris Kirby with a big ol pure strain

From my Instagram Post end of July: It is rare that I get to guide a Fly fisher with expertise. Beginners are pure joy to teach how to fly fish but yesterday at Peppermint Falls Ranch. I had the pleasure of guiding Chris Kirby. Now a friend… who knows his way around a trout stream. I’m not much of a counter but I’d say we c&r’d between 20 and 25. W some real monsters in there. Mostly on dies! Long live the Huck hopper!

The real hero in this story is Chris’s wife Sonya, though. She chased a 2 year old around for 12 hours while Chris waved a stick in a river w me.

Chris caught close to 20 of these. that stretch of water at Peppermint Falls Ranch is just epic

Peppermint Falls Ranch – September 27th

Craig Keshesian – clearly i need to teach him how to do a trophy shot.

I got to guide Craig Keshesian, a pretty famous political strategist and TV personality.  Great Guy!  We’re buddies now.  can’t wait to fish with him again and we already have 2026 plans.  What was interesting about Craig is that he’s fairly new to fly fishing.  most beginners have real problems with setting.  Shit, setting on river right is my biggest weakness.  But, man this guy could set.  We fished on top with Huck Hoppers but, found that a dry / dropper with a midge perdigon I tie was necessary for numbers that day.  and we caught numbers.  I dragged Craig up and down that wild river.  At PFR it’s so wild there is no river trail.  The entire stretch in miles either way is a total bush whack.  We had so much fun it was way past dark when we hiked out of there.  PFR sent the drone out looking for us.  I think I almost killed him. 🙂

Craig Keshesian in battle

2026 Season

Next season I already have guided trips inked for Painters Camp, Hole in the Ground, Big Kern Lake and beyond… Beyond, you might ask?  How do you get farther upstream than an 18 mile hike / horse back ride to Big Kern Lake without spending 2 weeks hiking at altitude?  Well, you do it in a helicopter.  Yep!  Next season I get to heli-guide!  It’s a quick flight from the PFR heliport to the back side of Mt. Whitney, the headwaters of the Kern River.  We get dropped off in the morning and they pick us back up end of day.  If you want in on that deal then send me an email and I’ll hook you up with Lacee at PFR who will handle the cat herding.

check out the propeller on this KRR… with a huck hopper stuck in his face…

It was mid September, 2024.  In all honesty, I wasn’t as normally excited as I am to get to Upper Kern River by way of the Forks of the Kern Trail with 45 pounds on my back.  I was coming off 5 straight weeks of fly fishing adventures in Wyoming and Montana.  I was just home for a week.  Let’s just say my wife was not pleased.  And she made it very clear she wasn’t happy about me leaving again for 4 nights backpacking on the Upper Kern River.  But, this was the annual trip with the San Diego Fly Fishers club.  I’m the president of the club.  I organize and “cat-herd” this trip each year.  I mean, the Forks is my place, right? I should have been stoked. This trip was postponed 2 months earlier when the forest service cancelled our permits because of fire.  I had people counting on me.  I couldn’t back out.  Plus, the flow of river and the weather seemingly lined up perfectly.  It had all the makings of a special trip.

But how do you top 5 straight weeks of fly fishing in WY and MT on some of the most famous rivers in the world?  I mean, I fished for 33 straight days and loved every minute of it.  Sometimes I went days alone.  And I cherished those times. But, mostly a new set of friends joined me each week.  It was such a great trip for my soul.  I lost weight, my blood pressure went down and I stopped biting my fingernails.  After that trip, I decided I was going to do everything possible to do it every summer for the rest of my life.  So, how do you top this?:

• Lower Green River, Section A near Dutch John, UT
• Worthen Creek, WY
• Leg Lake, WY (backpacking in the Wind River Range)
• Unnamed Lakes in the Wind River Range (backpacking) + streams, WY
• Wind River in Dubois, WY
• Hoback River, private section, WY
• Green River headwaters near the Green Lakes, WY
• New Fork River, Alpine, WY
• Cliff Creek, WY
• Upper Green River near the Warren Bridge, WY
• Upper Green River BLM, WY
• Hoback River in the Canyon, WY
• Crystal Creek, WY
• Gros Ventre River, WY
• Wiggins Fork of the Wind River, WY
• Stillwater River, MT
• Clark Fork River, MT

There is one thing I’m not good at: taking selfies w my iphone.  but, you can imagine the size of this one just by how huge his eyes are.  also notice the amount of spots below his lateral line; “head to toe”.  that is one way to just how pure strained the KRRs are

It wasn’t that I was burnt out on fly fishing.  Or that I missed watching TV.  I brought a starlink with me on that 5 week adventure so I could stay connected with family and with work and still make meetings.  I think it was just that I had seen so many new places and fished so many new rivers, the Upper Kern just didn’t seem that special anymore.  I had fished that section of the Upper Kern river hundreds of times before.  I know the first 10 miles of the Upper Kern from the confluence of the Little Kern River like the back of my hand.  I know every run, pocket water, hole, head, tail, riffle, rapid and pool.  There are only 2 permits that allow guiding on that part of the Upper Kern River in the Golden Trout Wilderness and I’m listed on one of them.

It was special.  I didn’t know what I was in for.  I had a special day on the Upper Kern River that fly fisherman dream about their entire lives.  The funny thing was that a big storm hit Kernville (35 miles to the south) hard the prior two days and that crash of the barometer made the first two fishing days below average.  It was that 3^rd fishing day that was special.

It has everything to do with a unique species of trout, indigenous to this special river in California’s Golden Trout Wilderness.  The Kern River Rainbows (KRRs) are wild natives which constitute 99% of the fish in the river.  There are so few places left in the world where a single unique species of wild trout are untainted by nonnative stocked fish.  The Upper Kern River is one of those places.  Granted the hybridization of the Kern River Rainbow (KRR) is spreading upriver from the stocking mistakes of generations before.  Hybridization is where one species breeds with another.  In this case it’s the KRRs breading with stocked rainbows.  There is also a brown trout population in the Upper Kern that is growing and moving up river.  You can’t stop it. There doesn’t even seem to be a motivation to slow it down. When describing the hybridization problem, I even had a biologist from the Forest Service say to me, “What is the problem?  The fishing is still great, right?”.  Well, yes it is.  But, that is not the problem.  I have written this non indigenous and hybridization “issue” before.

You have heard/read about “the stages of a fly fisher” undoubtedly many times before.  My version goes like this:

1. You’re happy to catch a stocked trout on a fly rod
2. You catch fish on flies you tie yourself
3. You focus on quantity (40+ fish days)
4. You focus on quality (big fish and/or only wild fish)
5. You catch fish on a rod you built yourself
6. You focus on other species (ie: saltwater and/or bassfly fishing)
7. You only fly fish with Dry Flies
8. You purposely make fly fishing more challenging becuase the rewards are so much greater

Well, now after close to 35 years of fly fishing I’m in phase 8.  The sheer pleasure of making fly fishing more challenging; accomplishing those miracles casts and drifts, those impossible sets, those physical battles.  Largely fishing with Dry Flies.  Well it, is a thing that is difficult to describe.

Just another beautiful KRR stuck on a huck hopper.

This is a great example.  On this special day I got to fish alone.  Don’t get me wrong.  I love fly fishing with others.  Especially beginners and those in stages 7 and 8.  But typically if I’m not fishing alone on the Kern I’m guiding at some level.  But, I love fishing alone just as much.  I was working up “the other” side of the river.  At 250 CFS there are places where it is possible to cross the river.  Since this was the lowest flow of the year and I did have a bit of trouble crossing I knew I was going to fish water that had not seen an artificial fly yet this season.  In the distance I saw a big KRR rise. But, It was over 50 feet upriver.  Instead of exiting the river and walking up stream and putting myself in a good position for an easy cast like you should.  Or slowing carefully wading closer with stealth.  I grabbed the challenge of the 50+ foot cast to the 2 inch window it required.  Other than the obvious challenge of the cast, the set is almost impossible in a situation like that.  With so much line out, you cannot get tight without a lightning quick, herculean set. Assuming you get a take, one of 2 things typically happen in this scenario: You miss the set or you break off in the violent process of setting.  I lucked out.  My Huck Hopper stuck him in the face and he stayed on.  Now I faced the issue of battling a fish who was now over 60 feet away and swimming fast.  And the guilt that comes with fighting a wild native fish too long to exhaustion and consequent death because of it.  So I “horsed him”.  I turned him hard, he jumped.  Even at distance I could see it was a big KRR.  But, then he ran back fast at me. I was ready for that.  With that 16” KRR in a manageable range now, I fought him quickly to hand where I released him without ever taking him out of the water.  I smiled and said to myself, “I could call it a day after that.”.  I did not.

this one had been caught before.  notice his maxillary (upper jaw) is dislodged.

My problem is I’m having trouble understanding why most of the fly fishers I know (and I know a lot of them… all over the world) have not come to this stage 8 of “enlightenment” with me.  “Why would you throw a bobber on the Upper Kern when you can dry fly?”  And don’t get me started on tenkara… that is just plain stupid on the Upper Kern River.  “Why would you even run a nymph if fish are rising?” When you do the hopper / dropper thing you are negatively affecting the drift of the dry fly on top.

Here’s a hot tip for those wanting to be a great fly fisher on the Upper Kern: Don’t automatically go to a dropper.  The dropper negatively affects your drift.  it acts as an anchor slowing your dry fly down making it drift unnaturally.  I believe a huge part of this special day, and why i did better than everyone else, was because without a dropper I was getting great drifts (well, that and the Huck Hopper just works there).  Wait until you stop getting takes on top for 20-30 minutes before tying the dropper on.

There is a stretch of the Upper Kern just short of 6 miles from the confluence that I kept thinking about as I worked up river.  It’s where my son Mark, now a guide in Montana, caught 2 fish at a time when he was 15.  It’s winding bend of 3 separate runs.  It’s barely fishable unless the river is under 250CFS because it’s a dangerous set of rapids. At this flow tamed, I had already crossed the river and was fishing the “left handed” side.  As I approached, I could see multiple places that could hold KRRs.  I had a single big Huck Hopper on.  I think I C&R’d the first 5 of my casts.  I said out loud to no one, “Does this get any more fun?” as I laughed.  I moved around and up, I bet I caught 3-4 more.  And they were all big fish.

“Sand Camp” was just up river from me now and a hour earlier, on their way back to camp, a couple buddies from the SDFF club said, “We hit sand camp pretty hard so you may want to skip it.”  As I approached it, phase 8 kicked in.  The challenge was obvious. Two people caught multiple fish here and put it down. So, yea, with the same Huck Hopper on, I looked across the rapid at the head of the run. “There’s no way those guys had the ability to cast it across the river, over the rapid, mending in the air, hoping for a rise on less than a 2 foot drift.”  Whack!  Another 16”.  I nailed another 20” with a “normal” drift in the seam next.  That is where I called it.

I probably have taken this selfie 30+ times over 30 years….and this view of the river as you hike in still never gets old

It was a long 2 mile hike down river and over the mountain back to camp.  I looked at my fancy Garmin watch and I already had 27,000 steps.  All by myself with plenty to reflect on. I was smiling and thanking the fishing friends I have accumulated that have now passed.  “Mike, Ken, Jack, Sam, thanks for a great day.”  All in all, I know I caught over 25, none smaller than 12” and all on dries.  5 over 20”.  All on a rod my buddy Jack, who passed a year earlier, had made for me.

As I walked into camp, I leaned my rod against a tree and dropped my fishing pack.  I walked towards the group headed for my backpacking pouch of Jack Daniels.  One of them proactively came at me with a “How did ya’ do?”  I smiled and simply said, “Great day”.  No details.  Just a simple, “Great day.”  Everyone had good days.  I congratulated each of them.  I mixed the JD with river water in my cup.  I sat, stared at water, smiled and reflected.  No one there needed to know about my special day.  I’m blessed.

Here’s a great example of a beautiful run that just hadn’t been fished yet this season because of the lack of access on either side.

What a tough fishing season 2023 was for the rivers of the Sierra Nevada. And specifically difficult at my beloved upper kern river.  I should have known something was up when me and my buddies tried to get into the Forks for the end of season: 3 days in mid November 2022… and were stopped by too much snow and a giant fallen tree on unplowed Forest Road 22S82.

There’s huck truck… stuck on unplowed forest road 22S82 with a giant tree in the way in Nov of ’22

2023 was all about high flows.  It is the simple fact that all rivers just fish a lot tougher in high flow.  Even when the Upper Kern is not blown out in muddy conditions, if the water is higher than the willow line it’s just going to be tough to get in position safely for a cast.  Last year, the Upper Kern River just never backed down into a fishable state…. Only experts (or those who hiked more than 10 miles upriver, above the confluence of the Kern and the Little Kern) had any modicum of success there.

And like the Kern’s buddy to the North, the Kings River, it is just really tough, if not dangerous to fly fish the Upper Kern in high flows.

That’s me hiking upriver from the Huck Site looking for good water in 400+ CFS conditions.  Picture Credit: Valerie Rose Hirschberg, a guide client of my who brought a DSLR using actual film!

My definition of the Upper Kern is up river from the Johnsondale Bridge. I have written many times that the Upper Kern fishes great below 250 CFS.  When it’s below 250 CFS the Upper Kern is crossable in many stretches.  When crossable, you can get a fly almost anywhere.  You can get a fly to places on the opposite bank that just are not possible to reach without crossing. And with lower flows there are just not many places where a trout can hide from an artificial fly.  Well, the Upper Kern never really came down below 400 CFS in any significance for the entire 2023 season.  And in early March of 2023 it went to 24,000 CFS!

As I write this article in early January, 2024, in California we are at the lowest snowpack level in 10 years. This is a sharp contrast to last year, the biggest winter in California recorded history.  What is interesting, though, is that the current runoff is still at the highest level I can remember for this time of year… by far.  It’s still hovering at 400 CFS.  And it’s January.  We should be seeing the upper kern river flowing well below 200 CFS in January.  It’s twice that volume right now.  What does that mean in terms of fly fishing the 2024 season?  Well, maybe nothing.  The River could back down to a trickle.  Runoff depends on many factors not the least of which are the density of the snowpack and the temperature.  But, it may mean we have to add 400 CFS to the normal springtime runoff… which would be bad for spring and summer fly fishing on the Upper Kern.  We’re waiting to see how the Spring Runoff period goes.  And when the road to the Forks Trailhead is going to open.

That’s a KRR in the hands of my buddy Addea, who nailed it right at the Huck Site.

Western Divide Ranger district opens Forest Road 22S82 and the ~2 miles of dirt road (Forest Road 20S67) to the Forks trailhead when:

1. They are confident the snow has backed down enough to clear indicating the winter is over.
2. That is when they can clear the roads of the boulders and fallen trees blocking the road from the prior winter’s storms.
3. The Little Kern River Crossing (which is part of the trail) is not too crazy dangerous which coincides with big flows on the Kern.

In my 20+ years of fly fishing the Forks, the opening can be as early as the beginning of April and as late as the end of June.  It’s not like Western Divide Ranger District has unlimited resources to get the road open quickly.  It’s the simple and sad fact that we have consistently cut our forest service budgets for decades in California. Technically, the season is May 15 – Nov 15.

So, I’ll be watching the flow of the Upper Kern River every single day until then.  Feel free to check in with me.  I will pay special attention at the beginning of March.  Historically in March, before the runoff period, the flows can be well below 400CFS.  The Forks trail won’t be open.  But, if the river is in shape and the weather cooperates, I backpack from the Johnsondale bridge upriver 4-5 miles and get a little springtime fly fishing in.  That was not doable successfully (or safely) last year.

Epilogue

That’s Val standing at the Huck site in the exact position of where the big tree with the swing used to be.

For you Huck Site Fans: I cannot tell you how many emails, txts and conversations I had last season that started with “Did the Huck site survive?”  It did.  The “Huck Site” is a primitive campsite on the Upper Kern River 4.2 miles from the Forks of the Kern Trailhead.  I have been working on that site for over 20 years.  It’s a popular site for many reasons.  And now it has survived the ‘21 fire and the ‘23 flood.  But that atmospheric river in March of ‘23 and the 24k CFS that came with it took its toll. Because of the steep decline of the river down from the site, the rapids that go with the decline, and flat area across the river downstream from the Huck Site, water didn’t build up to the level of where the firepit is and when we put tents.  But it got close.  Remember the tree swing?  It’s gone. In fact, the giant tree that the swing hung from is gone with it…without any trace of it, roots and all.  You can’t even tell a huge tree was ever there.  Of course that means it has opened a 50 foot long unobstructed area for casting. I had trimmed the branches on that tree for over 20 years so that people could get a side-armed roll cast under it.  Now, the entire tree is gone.

Dave took this picture of me struggling to get this big corvina into the net

Dave Zoby turned to me and said, “No one is going to believe this.”  I laughed and agreed.  The fishing was so good. it’s just laughable at points.  You see, Dave read my prior article on the annual SDFF camping / kayak fly fishing trip to southern Baja, 600 miles south of the border, from 2 years ago.  He then contacted me with an email asking if he could tag along for a few days on the next SDFF club trip to southern baja with the intention of writing a feature article on the adventure for a well-recognized fly fishing magazine.  My answer was, “Of course, Yes.”  I just didn’t have confidence at the time that he’d actually pull it off.  He did. Punta Abreojos in Baja is a long way from San Diego.  But, it’s a really long way from Casper, Wyoming.  Dave is professor at Casper College in Wyoming and a professional writer with numerous published articles in fly fishing magazines.  And now he is just another dear friend I have accumulated over this 30+ fly fishing journey.  Along with my Baja mentor, John Ashley and Dave’s dog Henry, we covered some serious water in the mangroves over 3 days during my 11 total days on this trip.

There’s Dave with the most cherished fish of the mangroves: the Broomtail Grouper

Dave’s dog Henry also made the trip.  Henry is a big black lab and a hoot of fun to be around while fishing. But, here is the irony: I’m not a dog guy.  At all.  I didn’t grow up with dogs.  The border collie we have at home I call, “Kelly’s dog”.  Which is a testament to how awesome henry is.  While Dave and I wade fished Henry would alternate between us, pointing like a hunting dog at the fish we’d hook up on.  If I hooked up Henry would run over to me and point.  Then he’d hang with me waiting.  Only to abandon me as soon as Dave hooked up.  That went on for hours and it was hilarious.  Now that I’m home, I keep telling kelly’s dog: “You’re not a fishing dog.”

There’s me and Dave with Henry doing that pointing thing…

Dave’s article on this trip will appear in the January, 2024  issue of Gray’s Sporting Journal Magazine.

With my description of this year’s encounter, I’ll attempt to augment (and not duplicate) the info & guidance I already did on this magical part of the world with my prior article.

This was my 3^rd time to this part of southern Baja on the Pacific Side.  It’s an annual trip of the San Diego Fly Fishers club and this year there were 15 of us including 2 females camping on the edge of the Estero.   And man did I have fun with the group fishing for 11 days.

One of the big differences this time is that I used a different kayak.  In the prior two trips, I used a Hobie Mirage Sport.  It’s small and fast; two attributes that make it perfect for the travel there and for navigating the Estero.  But, stability was not one of its attributes.  It was subject to tipping in current and there was no possible way to safely stand up on it; even in the most calm water.  Well, I was lucky enough to stumble into a used Hobie Mirage Lynx Kayak that is perfect for this type of water, travel and fly fishing.  It’s built in the materials like a stand up paddleboard making it super light.  The boat is only 40lbs making it easy for me to load on top of my Tundra by myself.  Because it’s light and built so efficiently for travel in water it’s lightning quick.  Because it’s light it gets a bit pushed around in strong wind, but you can’t have everything.  The fact that I can stand up and cast on this kayak is pretty awesome.  Standing up was also pretty effective in letting me spot fish hanging at the edge of the mangroves.  It’s so stable I can pretty much walk up and down its deck.

this picture captures the mangroves pretty well. there are miles and miles of pathway through the mangroves. Someone like me that didn’t get the direction gene needs to pay careful attention not to get lost.

Fly Fishing Highlights

I’m still no expert in the Estero.  But, I can confidently say I am so much a better fly fisher in this place than I was 3 years ago.  And my results show it.  I’m not exaggerating when I told you I probably strung 10 straight 40+ fish days in a row.  Here are the species I caught the most:

• Broomtail Groupers
• Corvina
• Corbina
• Halibut
• Bonefish
• Spotted Bay Bass

But, I did catch a number of other species too.  I caught so many species in quantity I found myself getting spoiled.  I don’t like that feeling.  It’s the feeling of disappointment instead of joy when battling a huge fish only to find out it’s an enormous spotty when getting it close to the kayak.

I have fished in Hawaii a gazillion times and have thrown at more parrot fish than i can count. But, i never have caught one there. So, you can imagine my surprise when i caught a parrot fish in Baja.

So, it may sound strange that I did experience of component of failure on this trip… and actually like it.  It sets the tone for my number one goal for next year:  I did not catch a single fish on a popper.  And God I tried.  I tried every day to get the groupers and corvina to rise to my popper.  And I failed.  I’m not sure why it was so different from last year when getting a tight cast to the mangroves was rewarded.  It might be that the water was not as clear as it was last year.  Or colder?  Who knows?  Either way I have a goal for next year.

These big Corbina fight you right to your feet.

Also unique this year was the sheer amount of broom-tailed groupers I caught.  For the prior two years I really struggled to find them.  It made them special.  They are the target species and that was a challenge for me in prior years.  not this year, though. This year I caught a gazillion of them.  I also caught a gazillion big corbina (called the “ghost of the coast” here in Southern California and really difficult to catch in the surf).  They were rare for me to find last year.  For some reason, though, unlike last year I did not catch a gazillion Corvina.  I bet I only caught ~20 of them this year.  Strange.  Each year the estero gives you something different.  I like that.  We do this trip in Spring every year.  It sure would be interesting for me to fish it in each of the seasons.  Another goal.

Kainoa

Kainoa: his first trophy shot

Hands down my favorite part of this trip in terms of fishing was teaching Kainoa how to fly fish.  Kainoa is a 20 year old, straight A college student at UC Irvine and was there with his dad, Rich.  These are great people who are fun to be around and veterans of this trip and of Baja.   And both are veteran conventional tackle fisherman.  This type of fly fishing in the Estero is not conducive for success for beginners.  You really do need at least a 40 foot accurate cast and good line management and quick line stripping skills for success.  So, I was confident I could get him casting proficiently.  But, not so confident he was going to get takes like I would be with a beginner on a trout stream.  Because of his prior fishing experience, he took to the overhand cast quickly.  I even taught him to roll cast so he could get the line in position for a big overhand cast.  It was his pickup that was impressive.  A good line pickup off the water is hard to teach.  That type of skill just seems to only come with hours on the water; not from a beginner.  Once he mastered the pickup he was averaging an efficient cast about a 1/3^rd of the time and recognizing what happened on the failed casts.  So, he was way ahead of a normal beginner.  But, that stripping the line thing is physical and takes some dexterity.  He was getting better…. But, not getting takes.  And it didn’t help that people were catching fish all around him.  He stayed with it, though.  I gave him some space to figure things out like I do with every beginner and fished myself.  But, by the end of day one he had not gotten a take. Day 2 was a different story.  He caught a small spotty and it was high five time with pictures.  I joked that I taught him 6 of the 7 elements of fly fishing.  But, failed to teach him the 7^th: the trophy shot.  It wasn’t just a few minutes later when I looked over and saw his rod bent in half with him losing line.  I quickly set my rod down on the sand and ran to him fumbling with my camera.  After a decent battle we could see it was a big halibut.  A beginner without any fishing experience would have lost that fish right at their feet.  But, since Kainoa was not a beginner to fishing he used the rod and momentum to swing that halibut up to shore immobilizing it.  I was hooting and hollering and clearly more excited about it than Kainoa.  Since Rich and Kainoa were going to harvest this fish we had time to do a proper trophy shot.

Kainoa in battle

We always remember the ones that got away more than the ones we catch and release

On the last day of fishing I got out on the kayak early with the group.  And we all absolutely killed.  Mid day the gang headed back to camp in fear of the afternoon winds which had been brutal every day.  I decided I was going to push it to the max (temping fate with the winds and current of tide shift) because it was the last day.  But, I did stay close so that no matter how bad the current or the wind got I’d have less than ½ mile to peddle back to camp.

Alone now, after successfully fishing “grouper alley” pulling a few broom-tailed groupers out of the mangroves I found myself close to the main channel, a ½ mile entrance and exit of the current into and from the pacific.  There was an amazing channel against the mangroves that I fished on foot a few days earlier on the other side at low tide so I peddled over to see what stage of tide it was in.  Unfortunately, where I waded on sand was already under water.  So, with no place to put the kayak safely while the tide rose, I turned to figure out what I’d fish next.  I had always done well stripping fast while trolling in the main channel for bonefish so that was an option.  Facing the ocean, I saw the current ripping in by a point of sand.  That formed a current seam of 2-3 feet of slow water behind the protection of sand with the current ripping by in 5-10 feet of water on the other side of it.  The type of water that would be epic in a trout stream where the trout use the least amount of energy in the seam only to dart out into the current as the food goes by.  But, here in estero I had only experienced predators in the base of the mangroves or in deep water.  So I moved the kayak into position and casted into the current seam.  My line tightened.  Hung up.  I immediately envisioned breaking off and calling it a day… calling it a trip.  We’ve all had this happen: Then my hung up line started moving.  It was slowly moving away from the ocean towards the mangroves.  At first I thought, “Darn, I foul hooked another shovel nose shark.”  But, then I thought to myself, “There’s no way a shovel nose shark would be there in that position unless he randomly swam right into my strip.”  That is when I felt the head shaking.  It now realized it was hooked in the face.  The fish picked up speed.  I had him on the reel but was losing line as he picked up speed dragging my kayak with him.  I chased him like a captain would do on the open ocean getting an angle fighting to get the line back the line.  Multiple thoughts ran through my head.  I assumed it was a huge halibut.  But, it could have been a legendary grouper.  Could it have been one of john’s infamous red pargos?  Then the fear set in: 20 LB flouro, a size 2 hook that could bend out.  and what I had the most fear of: two knots involved I personally tied…

i can’t figure out how these young folks do such awesome selfies holding fish. i’m terrible at it.

After a number of runs.  After about 10 minutes of battle I got him to the leader and up to the side of the boat…..  I still didn’t get a good look, but it did see it was a monster.  Too big to pull onto the kayak and it was not tail hooked.  He shot away again.  around the 20  minute mark I tightened the drag to max.  this was no cheapo reel.  It was a high end Orvis large arbor designed exactly for this type of battle.  20 lb flouro.  The fish was toasting my reel at full drag.

Now the fish had dragged my kayak 200 yards in the main channel, and it appeared to have intentions of dragging me out to sea.  ½ mile away was the door to the open ocean.  Getting dragged out to sea was not an option; too dangerous.  So, I man’d up and horsed him, risking breaking him off.

It was the end of the day and the wind was up; The surge / chop was up.  There was no one around to witness my battle. I kept going through scenarios in my mind convincing myself there was no way to land it…. then as quickly fantasizing about hauling a halibut the size of my kayak back to camp.  I fantasized how I’d kill it because I didn’t have a tool with me to do that.  Then as quickly I switched to fantasizing about taking a picture of it on the shore and dragging it back into the water to let it go.  I fantasized that I was now “old man of the sea”….with no one crazy enough to still be out fishing; no one to see me in this battle; no one to believe it.  I looked down to my reel and I could see the backing coming.  It’s my hang up.  But, I just believe there are so few scenarios (if any) where a fly fisherman needs to be in the backing.  Getting pulled into the backing is for amateurs that don’t know how to fight a fish and don’t care if the fish dies as a result of the battle. it’s really hard on the fish to get all the way into the backing if you intend to release it.  again, that is my hangup.  That is when I decided “enough is enough” and decided the battle needs to stop whether I lose this fish or not.  I took a 45 degree angle towards shore about 50 feet away and peddled like crazy.   My strategy was to beach the kayak with the rod held high, get out and battle the fish on foot.  I knew it was risky in terms of losing the fish.  But, the battle was getting unsafe and I was alone.  I got out quickly and beached the kayak.  but the fish was going the other way taking out line and now my rod was parallel to the water, full drag, and the fish was still headed out to sea.  I lifted the rod so it could help in the fight,  It was not long after that when it broke off.  I have to admit I was bummed.  I typically laugh when I lose a fish.  I reeled up and there was some consolation that the flouro broke right in the middle of my leader and not in either of the knots.  I peddled the ½ mile back to camp getting pounded by the waves, fighting the current, but still in a fantasizing state of mind.  I fantasized about fishing in the main channel on next year’s trip.  Another goal for next year.

That’s John on the GPRMS radio from his truck “El Mucho”. we use the radios to communicate with each other as we caravan across Mexico

Fly Fishing Guidance

As mentioned prior I’m no expert yet at fishing the esteros of southern Baja.  But, each year I learn a little more.  And each year the Estero fishes differently.  3 straight years I have seen different conditions which demanded different types of flies, fly lines and tactics.

I can tell you this, though, with conviction: The color of the fly I fished in the estero this year was insignificant as compared to the structure of the fly.  It should be stated that many of my fishing partners, some of whom are experts on the trip disagree with me.  They only fish yellow or chartreuse over white.  Those colors definitely work.  And those colors are the only colors that they fish.  well, I fished every color I had and everything worked….as long as my fly was in the right part of the water column.  What did not work were flies that were designed to fish in the wrong part of the water column.

There’s Kim Jones in battle with a big Corbina. Notice the tide coming up on her. In about an hour she’d be in 5 feet of water in that spot

In my notes from last year I remarked that I tied too many clousers.  Last year the fish were mostly in the top of the water column so I was missing them.  I was stripping back flies below the fish in the water column because clousers have big, weighted eyes.  So, this year I must have tied 3 dozen unweighted deceivers.  And guess what?  This year, most of the time the fish were in the bottom of the water column so it was the clousers that didn’t work last year, that worked great this year.  In my notes to myself from this years trip… which I’ll read 11 months from now as I prepare to tie for the trip, it says: “tie clousers in all sizes of eyes so that you can cover all parts of the water column”.  It also says, “Design a deceiver like pattern that has a little weight to it to fish in 1-3 feet of water”.  I have some ideas…

Punta Abreojos

Leonor & Bacilio gave each of us a couple cans of fish from the Cooperativa. when i got home i made Abreojos Chipotle Fish Stew with my yellowtail with Leonor’s recipe and it was spectacular

Hands down one of, if not the most special experiences on this trip was finally getting to visit the tiny city of Punta Abreojos and being invited for dinner into the home of Bacilio & Leonor Romero.  The drive is about 15 minutes from where we camp.  This tiny city is run and managed by a cooperative.  In the US we call that a “co-op”.  In mexico it’s called a “Cooporativa”.

I have to admit I used GPT to help me with the next part:

Punta Abreojos is a small fishing village located on the Pacific coast of Baja California Sur, Mexico.

Fishing cooperatives, also known as “cooperativas pesqueras” in Spanish, are organizations formed by fishermen to collectively manage and sustainably exploit marine resources in their area. These cooperatives play an essential role in promoting sustainable fishing practices, protecting the environment, and ensuring the economic well-being of their members.

Typically, fishing cooperatives have a set of regulations and guidelines that govern fishing activities, such as defining catch quotas, enforcing fishing seasons, and establishing sustainable fishing methods. By working together, fishermen can have more control over their livelihoods, negotiate fair prices for their catch, access credit and resources, and participate in decision-making processes.

Bacilio is one of the profession fishermen of the Cooperotiva.  The Cooperotiva has their act together in terms of conservation unlike many Mexican towns on the pacific (and frankly much of the US) that are “fished out”.  The cooperotiva at Puntos Abreojos even  has a full time watch for poachers.  They are famous for a lobster season that they regulate and manage.  Their ocean is a healthy one.  They manage a thriving ecosystem.

here’s the gang at the home of Leonor and Bacilo.  From the back of Tom’s head clockwise: Michael, Bruce, Kim, me, Gorge, Rich, Kainoa & John

I met Bacilio last year through John Ashley on this trip.  God only knows how John originally met Bacilio… and that is a testament to John.  Last year Bacilio brought his home-made ceviche to camp for us.  Just a surprise gift.  That is how awesome he is: a bunch of gringo fly fishers come into his town and he welcomes them with open arms and brings them gifts of food.  This year Bacilio showed up at camp with Leonor and a pot of Frijolies Charros.  Leonor knows her way around a kitchen.  In broken Spanish we communicate.  Of course, the more alcohol John and I consume the better Spanish speakers we are.  Well, I guess I shouldn’t have been shocked when Bacilio and Leonor invited us to come over to dinner on Saturday night….all of us.  We drank beers and laughed.  We were served “sopa de albondigas de pescado” (fish meatball soup).  It was specatular.  I could have called it goo there.  but, no.  out came the fish tacos. It was an honor and I will spend the rest of my life trying to figure out how to repay them for their generosity and kindness.

Let’s just say Leonor knows her way around a kitchen. This is the set of ingredients for the abogondigas soup

Summary

If you have read my stuff on this site before or have gone on a fly fishing trip with me, you will remember my tradition of “the ceremonial last cast” right before ending a fly fishing trip and leaving.  I pack up everything except for one rigged fly rod and when it’s time to go I execute.  Typically it’s 5-10 casts and mostly I get skunked.  I never change the fly that is tied on from the day before and many times that fly is not appropriate for the conditions or time of day.  And that doesn’t matter to me.  So, after 11 days, after 2 hours of packing HUKTRUK, and after mounting the kayak on the Yakima racks on top, ready to go I announced to the gang, “Time for the ceremonial last cast.”  I walked down to the water and within 4 casts I caught and released a halibut.  I couldn’t help but think of a quote from Steve Rinella, an accomplished writer and TV personality from one of his Meat Eater hunting shows.  So, I have taken the liberty of slightly wordsmithing Steve’s comment from one of his shows because it reflected my thoughts at the time so well:

“As we prepare to leave this place.  I’m as entranced as the first time I came here.  I alternate between excitement about plotting my return and pushing even farther into the mangroves.  And dread about the idea that this place and people will change somehow into something unrecognizable; something less unique.  I try to grab onto snippets of visual memories and to lock into my brain those moments that most exemplify the things I love here.  In hopes of keeping the images from fading away from my mind the way things seem to slip into the currents of time.“

High Tide. I took this picture from the back of Huktruk where we camped

Is that the rainbow trout popper i built, painted and tied hanging out of this largemouth’s face? Why yes it is…

I came to the shocking reality of the largest winter in California recorded history in February of 2023: Most of the places I love to fly fish in the Sierra Nevada will not fish well (because of runoff) until August or later this year.  And some of those places just will not be accessible at all this year because the roads are destroyed (or will become destroyed when the big runoff comes in June).  I know my way around a trout stream.  I have been fly fishing for trout for decades.  So, in the beginning of 2023 the writing was on the wall: I would not be able to do my annual springtime fly fishing trips for trout in the Sierra Nevada and I’d be lucky to do any fly fishing in the Sierras by August.  If I wanted to fly fish I would have to find alternatives.

So, I made it my quest to learn as much as possible about freshwater fly fishing for Bass with popper flies.  In the fly-fishing club that I serve as president, The San Diego Fly Fishers Club, we have quite a few experts at “the bass thing”.  And we have many lakes in and around San Diego County that support healthy populations of largemouths, smallmouths and many other fresh water fish species willing to take a fly.  I have caught plenty of freshwater bass in my time.  I have fished for bass on top plenty of times successfully with Huck Hoppers.  But, I had heard these legends of popper fly fishing and was intrigued.

How fun does this look?!

So, with a ton of internet research, reading books and magazines, and many discussions with the experts I had access to, I learned as much as I could.  Then I put what I learned into practice on 6 fishing days over 3 different lakes during the months of April and May, 2023.  This is my account of that journey from February to May of 2023.

I have an obsessive personality.  I’m not obsessive/compulsive where obsession ruins the rest of my life.  But, when I set out to learn something…. Well, let’s just say I don’t half-ass it.

The first component I got obsessed about was building, painting and tying popper flies.  We use them religiously for the dorado in baja.  But, when talking to the experts like Jim Brown (long time San Diego City Lakes Manager and godfather of fly fishing for bass in san diego), he mentioned that fishing with popper flies is the ultimate in fun when fly fishing for bass.  It’s pretty obvious why: you fish on top like a dry fly and the bass rise to the popper.  The thing that is different from trout, I was told, is that “Some of the takes on top are viscous”.  So, I made a little visit to the man-cave of my friend and expert John Ashley.  He showed me the popper flies he made, painted and tied.  I was shocked.  He showed me his Copic Airbrushing system.  Well, $100 later with a small compressor then turned into ~$200 in supplies.  I was worried because I have very little artistic talent.  I’m an engineer by trade.  And there is very little guidance on the painting part of popper flies on the interweb.  but, through some practice I managed to paint some trout and frog popper flies.  They looked pretty good, I must admit.  Which made me worried that they wouldn’t work.

this is one of a handful of frog popper flies i built, painted and tied.

With the popper flies I had made and the knowledge I’d gained from the experts I headed out for 6 fishing days spread over 4 weeks with some confidence.  I had success.  But, I was humbled during many points.  Here is a short chronicle of my adventures:

April 21-23: Squaw Lake

Every year the San Diego Fly Fishers Club does a weekend of camping at Squaw Lake.  Because of calendar conflicts… and because it’s right in the heart of spring trout fishing in the sierras (in every year but this one), I had never got the choice to join.  I really had no idea what or where this place was until after I decided to join in and go.  After staring at google maps I could see that it was part of the Colorado river system right on the California side of the border with Arizona (the river being the border).  But, I had no idea what I was in for.

I’m in love with my Hobie Lynx Kayak.  i get so much range out of it and can actually stand up and cast.

On the guidance of my fellow club members, I did the dawn patrol thing so I could get there early and secure a decent campsite.  So, I was in the water in my kayak by 10am.  I was fishing alone.  The first thing I noticed was the current.  It really is part of the Colorado river and a float tube would be almost impossible except for close to the camp.  I fished a popper for a good couple hours before I gave up.  I failed to fool anything to come up to the top of the water column.  I fished what looked like really good water with tons of vegetation on the banks.  So, I switched to a medium sink like and more traditional clouser like patterns and started catching fish.  in the main channel while drifting under current and doing a very fast retrieve I caught a striper.  They pull like crazy but don’t jump like a largemouth does.  I caught a few largemouths here and there but, I wouldn’t call the fishing crazy good.  There were long periods without takes.  It was during one of those long periods I noticed what looked like an entrance to a protected lagoon.  I stared at Gaia maps on my phone and sure enough it was a 100 by 100 yard lagoon behind brush.  You’d couldn’t see through to it by looking.  But, there was a tiny entrance protected by weeds underneath and brush on both sides.  I made a run for it and made it through.  And that is when it got nuts.  I was fishing water that didn’t see a lot of flies, if any, and was killing.  Really I should have switch back to the popper.  I could kick myself now for not doing that.  But, I was having so much fun raling largies I didn’t.  after an exhausting day of fishing I got back to camp and John Ashley, my bass fishing mentor and friend was there.  he said, “I know the lagoon you are talking about.  Just wait until tomorrow.”  Little did I know at the time.

fighting the current through the narrow set of channels on the way to imperial reservoir

“if you are up for it, tomorrow we’ll go to Imperial Reservoir.”, John said.  I shot back, “we have to load our kayaks and drive somewhere?” “Oh no, my friend, we’ll do a jungle boat cruise against the current to get there.”  Well, that mile long physical adventure of a journey turned out to be an epic day.  I am pretty sure I landed over 25 and lost just as many.  I caught a ton of largemouths including a couple stripers.  But, my favorite part was when, in a small lagoon I found john and switched to a popper fly to fish with him.  He watched me and immediately said something like, “What in the hell are you doing? No no no.  that’s all wrong.”  In all the guidance and discussions I had about popper fishing for bass I somehow failed to glean the most important information: how to strip back the fly.  I was stripping it back fast like you fish for dorado in the open ocean.  In freshwater bass fishing you cast the popper fly as close to the bank as possible.  Then you let it sit for a painfully long amount of time before jerky slow strips.  But, it was the end of day 2 and I still hadn’t caught a bass on a popper fly.

Stripers, at least the ones i caught, fight hard but don’t strike on top and don’t come up for a fly.  The only success i had with catching stripers was stripping fast in deep water.

What a special oasis in the desert this place is.  But, I have to wait until the winter to get back there.  Understand you can’t just go out there to Squaw Lake any time of the year.  It gets hotter than hell out there.  It’s a winter and early spring fishery.

doing these selfie trophy pics with my iPhone is a challenge that I’m already tired of

May 5-6: Lake Mead

When a business trip to Las Vegas for the startup I’m working with appeared on the calendar, I reached out to the las vegas fly fishing club for guidance on how to fish lake mead.  What I got in return from Kris, member of the board at the Las Vegas Fly fishing club was incredible help.  Especially on where to camp and fish.  It’s faster for me to drive to Las Vegas than fly so I threw my float tube in the back of my truck and did another dawn patrol drive.

I had the entire place to myself. The drought: the actual high water mark is above where i’m taking the picture

It took a small section of legit 4WD but when I got to the lake, I literally parked 5 feet from the shore in an oasis of coves of crystal clear water and had the entire place to myself; not a sole for miles in any direction.

This time armed with one of Jim Brown’s Fenwick fiberglass rods from the 70s, I tied a popper on and attacked… for hours without a strike before switching to a sinking line again convinced I’d never catch a largemouth on a popper fly.  Discouraged, I was mentally ready to get skunked.  But, with a medium sink line and a shad looking clouser I hooked up, battled and released a nice sized striper.  “It took 3 hours, but I finally caught a fish.” is what I txtd my wife, Kelly.  I caught a couple more fish over the next hour or two.  There were smallmouths.  Cool.  But it was slow and I still had not seen a largemouth let alone a shad boil.

Much of Lake Mead allows disbursed camping on BLM land.  I spent 20 minutes building this campfire pit.  Then disassembled it when leaving.  I ultimately believe this will all be under 50-100 feet of water again within a few years.

It was the end of the day so I peddled (My Hobie Lynx is a peddle driven kayak) back to camp, made myself a cocktail, cooked a steak and listened to my beloved Padres get whacked by the Dodgers.

“Today is a new day.” I told myself at sunrise.  And I had until 3pm when I’d pack up camp, drive to the strip and clean up at Caesers before the software launch party I was to attend that night.  As I staggered out of the bed in my truck, I noticed another truck about 200 feet away.  I was not alone.  After making myself a cup of coffee I spotted the guy.  He was a gear fisherman and he started early.  I walked over to where he could see me and shouted hi.  Well, soon enough he wander into my camp and we chatted a bit about the fishing.  He was a nice guy for sure.  I didn’t learn anything though because he was a gear fisherman.  For the next 20 minutes while I scrambled to get ready to fish myself he literally fished right in front of my truck.  But, he didn’t catch anything.  Hmmm…

I caught a half dozen or so small mouth bass.  but, i never managed to catch a largemouth in Lake Mead… or any fish on a popper fly.

By the time I got into my kayak to fish it was close to 8am.  for the next couple hours it was slow.  I caught a smallmouth and that was fun.  My goal was to fish the shoreline and all its coves going north for at least 2 miles.  Then it happened.  I caught a smallmouth that barfed up a shad as I was pulling him in to release him.  But, the shad was tiny.  Like 1 ½” tiny.  I was fishing shad patterns that were over 3”… over 2 times the size of the naturals.  So, I scoured my fly boxes for a smaller shad pattern and found a small streamer in white that would have to suffice.  It did.  I started killing.  And I was pleased because I figured it out.  It took me like 6 hours of fishing to figure it out.  But, I did.  It got so good that in the process of unkinking my medium sink like I hooked into a big fish with the fly just sitting there skimming the bottom.  After a significant battle it turned out to be a big catfish.  In that final 2-3 hours I caught about a dozen fish.  half of them smallmouth and half of them stripers.  There were no largemouth to be found and I still hadn’t caught a fish on popper flies.

My large net skews the size of this catfish.  it was pretty huge and drug me around in my kayak for a while before I could tire him out.

May 10 & 12: Barrett Lake

Barrett Lake in San Diego county is world famous.  It is a very special place.  It has been covered in fishing magazines and television shows for years.  It’s so special that when reservations / tickets go on sale for Barrett each year, it has to be done on Ticketmaster.  Jim Brown told me that many years ago, the late 70s I believe, when they decided to hand over the ticketing season for Barrett over to Ticketmaster it was the first time Ticketmaster collapsed because of scale.  Realize, at the time Ticketmaster had already successfully handled tickets for the Rolling Stones and Frank Sinatra tours.  So, now you fly fishers can relate to the young folks you recently saw crying in social media because Ticketmaster collapsed for the 2023 Taylor Swift tour.

As much as i hate my iPhone, it sure does take good pictures.  I lucked out on this picture.  this big largemouth jumped and flipped in the process.  I probably lost him in that process.  Notice the mirror image of him on the lake.

Lake Barrett is restricted to catch and release, single hook, barbless fishing; rare for a bass lake.  It also is one of the many reasons the fishing is so good there.  Its season is just 3 days per week (Wed, Sat & Sun) for 4 months starting in May.  Tickets are released monthly on a controlled basis and the access is limited to a small restricted amount of anglers on those days.

I have been lucky to have fished Lake Barrett for the last 3 years.  and I have had a lot of success there thanks to guidance given to me from Kim Jones, who I call, the “Queen of Barrett”.  But, I had never popper fished there.  and I had always fished in a float tube which basically limited me to about a mile from the dock.

I had to txt my buddy Kim Jones and ask her what the hell this one was. “Black Crappie”. Even they rise to a popper fly at Barrett

Well, the SDFF club has the rare pleasure of renting Lake Barrett for a single day of exclusive use each year from the city of San Diego.  It costs a bunch of money and hassle in terms of permitting and insurance and such.  But, we know what a special thing it is for our members, so it is worth all the expense and hassle.

Back to Ticketmaster.  I had the day/time of the go on sale for Barrett for months on my calendar.  I got myself logged in on Ticketmaster at least 10 minutes in advance saying to myself, “This is the year I get to fish on opening day.”  I seemed to be sitting in some form of electronic queue. By the time it was my time to purchase the first 4 dates were already sold out.  sigh.  Just like every year I bought the first available.  Now I was pissed because the day I picked, Wednesday, May 10 was just 2 days before the Friday date that the SDFF club had the lake.  I figured I’d give the tickets away until I said to myself, “what the hell.  Even though it’s a huge drive there and back I’ll fish it a couple days before and provide that intel to the rest of the club who would fish it a couple days later”.

Just another big Barrett Bass

I talked to Jim Brown the day before my first shot of the season at Barrett and he said, “If I were you I’d fish poppers all day.”  So, even though I had still yet to catch a largemouth on a popper fly I resigned myself to that plan.  And yea, I was worried.

It was early like you are supposed to be and I headed out on my kayak.  I had already lost my fishing buddy (jim Casteluzzo who I treated to the day) because he got in the water a good 20 minutes ahead of me.  So, alone I attacked the western side of the lake in a northern direction towards Pine Creek.  As previously mentioned, I have fished barrett before, but never in a kayak (which has a much larger range than a float tube).  And I still hadn’t caught a fish on a popper fly.  So, my mission was to explore places in the lake I had never seen before.  And catch a barrett largemouth on a popper.

This is the typical “cookie cutter” ~14″ largie you fool at Lake Barrett. But, there are some monsters in that lake.

Well, I fired one of the rainbow trout poppers I made for the first 20 minutes with nothing.  I said to myself, “I know the fish are here. I know I can catch them with a medium sink line.”  I didn’t think you could be too early in bass fishing.  I was carrying two rods so I switched and immediately caught a huge black crappie and then a largemouth.  So, I grabbed the popper rod again with resolute.  Within minutes I had my first largie on a popper!  I was stoked.  Within two hours I had lost count of how many takes I had.  At one point I was all by myself laughing, all by myself, and saying out loud, “It can’t get any more fun than this.”  At the end of the day I figured I had landed over 25 on popper flies and lost easily that many to my lack of bass fighting skills and barbless hooks.

My favorite moment was a big largemouth that struck my popper fly on the way up on a jump….and jumped clear out of the water with the popper.  I set on him in the air.  You can do that with bass.  That would cause calamity with a trout.  Well, it was close to 4pm now and I was txting back and forth with my buddy Kim Jones asking her how late I could stay on the lake.  But, the reality was my over 60 year old body was killing me from all the fights with fish.  I could barely cast my arm hurt so badly.  So, I called it a day… a very good day and peddled it back to huktruk for the battle on the 5 north home.

Barrett really is beautiful lake in the spring.  I literally have 20+ pictures of the mirror image thing like this from the Hauser arm of the lake.

Well, I had intel alright.  And that word spread throughout the club.  2 days later I decided I’d try the Hauser arm of the lake because I had not been there either.  Since I had so much success 2 days prior I also decided I’d be in no rush and be happy with whatever happened.  But, it seemed like the entire other 50 fly fishers went down the Pine creek arm…. Seemingly armed with my fishing report of a 2 days prior.  I basically had the entire hauser arm to myself.  I marvelled at the calm water and the nature all around me.  I caught a lot of fish.  but, I wasn’t as “agro” about it like a couple days prior.   I probably caught half as many as the couple days prior. At one point I chased a huge largemouth chasing a bait ball of shad for over an hour.  It was futile.  By the time I got to where he struck, him and the bait ball were 100 yards away.  I fished a popper fly all day.  And was really happy about it.

Here’s another picture I totally lucked out on. notice the popper fly hanging out of the face on this one.

Conclusions

I have this saying.  I bet I have said it a thousand times: “Nothing fights like a Trout.”  I know I said it about the Corvina of Baja in the article I wrote here.

As it turns out, fly fishing for bass can be just as strategic as it is for trout.  And I learned the hard way that “matching the hatch” when it comes to fly fishing for bass, is just as important as it in in trout fishing.  It’s just not about bugs; it’s about figuring out what they are eating and matching the size and color.  Just like in trout fishing you have to observe, adapt and overcome.  I liked that part of bass fishing a lot.  I also found myself loving fishing on top for largemouths as much as I love drifting a dry fly down a river.

My quest completed multiple times: C&R largemouths on Popper Flies.  Of interest, I ultimately had success on a lot of different popper flies both that I tied myself and some that I bought….like this one…which is the crystal popper we use on Dorado in Baja of all things.

If you read my article below and watched that video you are going to be shocked by this incredibly surprising great news:

As of today, 6/28/2023, The Forks of the Kern is Open!

Yep, it’s true.  Steve Day of Golden Trout Pack Station just called me with the news.  I then called Western Divide Ranger district and confirmed it.  As it turns out the private businesses (ranchers, loggers, etc.)  that are on Forest Road 22S82 fixed it themselves.  They couldn’t afford not being able to get in there.  My guess is that Western Divide Ranger District then went in and fixed the dirt road to the trailhead.

of course, the river is currently a raging torrent of death at 5,500 CFS and rising right now.  It’s unfishable.  Just crossing the Little Kern River that is part of the trail would be a challenge, if not impossible.  But, i will be watching the flow closely through July and get in there as soon as possible and report back.  Remember that the Upper Kern fishes best under 500 CFS.  if you are an advanced / expert fly fisher, you could manage under 1,000 CFS.  But it would be difficult to find fishable water.

I was resigned to the fact that the Forks would be closed the entire year like it had been in two prior years after the fire.  So, this is just awesome news for someone like me.  I’ll be guiding under the permit of Golden Trout Pack Station this year.  If interested in fishing with me guided on a backpacking adventure contact me to discuss details, questions, etc.

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This is the article I have procrastinated on for months.  But daily I answer so many emails, calls, txts, messages about the 2023 fly fishing season for the Upper Kern River.  It’s time to come clean on the reality of the situation.  I have talked to a few experts and done a ton of research.

It’s official: 2023 is the biggest winter in California Recorded History.  The mountains above 12,000 feet in the Sierra Nevada, we have a lot of them, have over 75 feet of snow. 

On March 10th, 2023 my beloved Upper Kern River shot up from 500 CFS to 26,000 CFS in just 12 hours!  By the time that water reached Kernville the river was at 39,000 CFS and there was worry of the bridge being compromised.  The bridge did survive.  On the Upper Kern, I doubt anything at the huck site still exists. My guess is even the fire pit is gone.  The good news is that type of flooding flushes the Kern of it’s silt and makes for a better spawning habitat.  We want wild native Kern River Rainbows spawning in abundance.

So I have some news and it’s not necessarily good.  The biggest winter in CA history has already wreaked a lot of havoc.

I recently heard from Western Divide Ranger District that the road to the Forks of the Kern Trailhead turnoff, FR 22S82, is destroyed in numerous places. 

Check out this helicopter video footage of FR 22S82. It’s shocking.  The road is just gone in multiple places.  There are landslides and boulders as big as cars on that 20 mile stretch.  God only know what that 2 mile dirt road stretch looks like that goes to the trailhead.

Western Divide Ranger District told me it is very unlikely that the forks of the kern trailhead will be opened this year.  That’s all they can say right now.  There currently is no official word.  IMHO, It’s going to take 10s of millions of dollars to fix that road.  Since it leads nowhere and so few people live on that road, it’s not going to be a priority like fixing highway 180 is on the western side of the Sierra.  And come springtime there will be a lot more roads to fix.

So the reality is that you will not be able to come even close to driving to the Forks of the Kern Trailhead this season.

 I have been discussing this with my backpacking fly fishing buddies, the forest districts and Steve Day of Golden Trout Pack Station.  You have heard the saying: “Where there is a will there is a way”.  Well, with fly fishers, where there is a river, there is a way.  The yearlong closure of the roads to Forks Trailhead means the backpacking into the upper kern are just going to be longer, harder and more arduous this year.   It’s also just a given that the river won’t back down and be fishable until august.  It’s funny that for years I thought of the Forks as a difficult trail.  Now that it’s gone, I think of the Forks TH as convenient. Realize that the Forks Trailhead was closed for 2 years just a couple years ago because of the fire.  Talk about a river getting a break to recover: for 3 of the last 4 years the Upper Kern won’t feel the pressure of us waving sticks throwing artificials at it.

Here are the most legitimate options for Backpacking overnighters for Fly fishing the Upper Kern this season of 2023:

1. Lewis TH near the town of Ponderosa and the clicks TH.  Currently you can’t do it because the roads are destroyed.  Nor would you want to do it now because of the snow.  But, the roads will most likely be fixed all the way in to this trailhead by summertime.  it’s 4wd to the TH.
   1. Lewis TH to the Forks TH – 8.5 miles + the 2 miles down to the confluence
   1. Lewis TH to Kern Flats – 12.5 miles.  1400 ascent; 4000 decent
   1. Lewis TH to Hole in the Ground – 13 miles with 4k of elevation gains and 2k of loss on the hike in.
   1. Lewis TH to grasshopper flats – 12.5 miles with 4k of elevation loss and 2k of gain on the hike in.

• Freeman Creek Trail to Forks TH – 7 miles to the forks TH + the 2 miles down.  Near quaking aspen and just north of Ponderosa.  500 feet of elevation, plus 1800 decent, then the 2k decent to the confluence.  Not at elevation.

• Blackrock TH to Painters Camp – 9 miles starting at 9000 feet and losing 4,000 feet in the process.  This is a brutal hike out where you have to gain back 4k feet and you are already at altitude.  So, you do it with a stopover at Jordan hot springs half way.  9 mile creek there fishes well.  I did this one last year and the fishing is spectacular.  So is the camp.  So is the scenery. 

• Rincon TH to the forks – 12 miles.  9 miles of straight motorcycle trail awful until you descend down to the forks from the other (south) side of the river, bushwhacking a good portion of the way because the trail is rarely used.  2500 of ascent and 2700 of decent.

• Johnsondale Bridge Trail – 5.2 miles.  Easy access on the highway from Kernville.  The trail is much more rugged than the Forks trail and a lot more used and fished.  The trail officially ends around 4 miles where the logical continuation is up the old mining trail to the rincon trail.  But, you can climb and bushwhack your way another 1.2 miles until the canyon walls are so steep and the water is so deep you can’t go any farther.

Of all these there are 3 that are the most logical for the backpacking fly fisherman:

1. Easiest – Freeman Creek Trail to Forks TH – 7 miles to the forks TH + the 2 miles down. 
2. Farthest up river – Lewis TH to grasshopper flats – 12.5 miles with 4k of elevation loss and 2k of gain on the hike in.
3. Blackrock TH to Painters Camp – 9 miles starting at 9000 feet and losing 4,000 feet in the process. 

There are other ways to get to the Upper Kern for the adventurous, young and fit and fearless, of course.

The “Other” Issue

The white elephant in the room is, of course, flow.  The largest snowpack year in California recorded history is going to start melting in June, if not earlier. 

The havoc has yet to even start.  When that snow starts melting.  Well, it’s going to cause flooding conditions and destroy roads.  Hopefully, it won’t take more lives.

According to LADWP, April 1 snow surveys came back with historic results. We surpassed 2017 (the biggest year in the past 50 years), and 1969 (the biggest year on record), and set a new April 1 high snow level with the final snowpack recording 296% of normal April 1.   That is just short of 70” of water content that will mostly melt and wreak havoc below.  See the details here.

The question I’m asked the most is: “When will the Upper Kern be in shape to fish this year?”  I use the gauge above the Fairview dam on the Dreamflows site to track the river flow here.  My general rule is that the Upper Kern fishes great when the river gets below 500 CFS.  That usually happens at the end of June / Early July.  This year that won’t happen until August…if we are lucky.  Sure, you can successfully fish stretches of the river when it’s higher flow.  But, it’s just harder to wade.  It’s harder to get a cast for a legit drift.  And it can be dangerous. 

News

So, what is the good news?  Well, it’s ultimately going to be a better river as a result of this big winter.  Also, a legitimate way to fish the Upper Kern this year is to have Golden Trout Pack Station do the heavy lifting. 

Over the last 20 years I have run into owner Steve Day and his wranglers, horses, and mules of Golden Trout Pack Station many times on the Upper Kern River and have come to know him as a genuinely great guy.  let’s face it… Steve’s business and the services he offers are pretty awesome.

So, for those of you, like me, that dread a 11 mile hike at altitude with a 4,000 foot gain and 45 lbs on your back… One of the modalities Steve’s business offers is called a “dunnage trip”.  That is where mules carry all your stuff and you hike in (separately) empty.  But, the mules don’t just carry your backpack… they carry coolers full of ice and fresh food… and beer.  And you hike in empty.

This would be a legitimately fun way to fish with or without me.  To have the mules carry all your stuff, depending on group size, it’s ~$400 per person, max of 150 lbs per mule …. fresh food, beer, coolers, everything.  You hike in empty.  In addition to that are guiding fees if you choose to use a guide. 

Contact Steve Directly from the Golden Trout Pack Station site.  Feel to contact me to discuss details, questions, etc.

Final Notes

Last season I was lucky enough to guide and teach a young film maker, Micah Conrad and his wife Dasha, how to fly fish.  Now, there are addicted fly fishers.  if interested to see the fun had when I’m guiding check out the two short videos Micah produced on the experiences here:

Fly Fishing a REMOTE River for Wild Trout with a 30 YEAR Fly Fishing VETERAN – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEEm1Ql9RFo&t=165s

EPIC FLY FISHING and Backpacking a JAW DROPPING Remote River! – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDXa_wv1AxE&t=419s

So, there it is.  I can / will live without another season of the Forks of the Kern Trailhead….at least by driving there.  I sure as heck am going to hike there.  I trust you can too.  Look forward to seeing you out on the river… no matter how much harder / farther it is going to be to get to it.

This article is about the spread and hybridization of non-native trout species to the upper sections of the Kern River. Let me be clear: this increase and hybridization of nonnative species makes the fly fishing even better. With more species in the river there are more trout to catch. With more little trout being hatched, more bigger trout are eating them and getting huge. The great fly fishing in last few seasons of fly fishing on the Upper Kern certainly prove that. The fly fishing on the Upper Kern River has been nothing short of spectacular. The concern to many is that the Upper Kern River is one of the few places left in the world that only contains wild native trout…. A pureness that has not been “ruined” by the stocking of non-native fish.

The Kern River Rainbow is special.  It is classified by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as a candidate species for listing under the Endangered Species Act.  The upper Kern River is also special. From the Forks of the Kern upstream to Tyndall Creek is a designated Heritage and Wild Trout Water.

At the end October ’22, on the annual “Couples Backpacking Trip to the Forks”, my wife Kelly caught and released a large rainbow on the Upper Kern River just short of Kern Flats. It was a beautifully colored fish. But, other than a glance I barely looked at it. That is typical of me. In my haste to get the hook out of its face and take the trophy shot and get the fish back into the river unharmed and healthy as quickly as possible I failed to notice something interesting. And concerning to many. I didn’t notice that it was most likely a male fish in spawn.

Well, one of the couples on this trip (Micah & Dasha) love to eat the trout when backpacking.  So, legally, they harvested two trout.  I’m not weird about that.  Just like I’m not weird about conventional tackle fishermen like some fly fishers are.  I just don’t like the taste of a wild native Kern River rainbow.  To me, they taste like bugs…. which, of course, is mostly what they eat. My wife Kelly likes to eat them to as does her buddy Mere.  So I do a recipe where I poach the hell out of them wrapped in foil over an open flame in olive oil, white wine, lemon and seasonings that does it’s best to take that gamey taste away… but, it really doesn’t.  I have documented it in my stories on this site a few times. 

Well, in the process of preparing the fish for the frying pan Micah says to me, “Do you want to eat some of the eggs?”   “Eggs?” I thought to myself.  “It’s October.  Kern River rainbows are springtime spawners.  Huh?”.  There are plenty of rainbow trout that are fall and winter spawning fish.  The Upper Owens River is a testament to that.  And those trout in the Upper Owens are all nonnative stocked fish that have turned wild.  They come out of Crowley Lake and up the river to spawn.  Most of those rainbow species in Crowley (and there are a number of rainbow trout species in that lake) come up the Owens River to spawn in the winter.

Well, I wrote up the story of that trip here.  And on the very top of that story is that now fairly infamous picture of my wife Kelly with that fish.  Here it is:

Steve Schalla, my friend, authority of fly fishing in the sierra, and owner of https://www.flyfishingthesierra.com/ – the ultimate resource for the fly fisher who wants to learn how to fish the sierra, saw that picture and said to me, paraphrasing, “Tim, look closely at that trout.  It’s a hybridized fish.  It barely has any Kern River Rainbow in it.  Notice the lack of spots below the lateral line.  Also notice the lack of spots on the face.  Also notice the sparse, large spots on that fish.  A Kern River Rainbow has small, peppery spots which are profuse over most of the body and on the fins.”

I pulled this straight from Steve’s site, and you can find it directly on the “interweb” at Steve’s site here:

Distinguishing Characteristics
The Kern River Rainbow can be distinguished by irregularly shaped spots that are both above and below the lateral line. The spots decrease as the extend towards the belly. Coloration is similar to the Coastal Rainbow trout, however the Kern River Rainbow has a distinct red stripe with faint parr marks along the lateral line. The dorsal, pelvic, and anal fins have a white tip. You will also find orange tints along the belly.

The Kern River Rainbow (Oncorhynchus mykiss gilberti) is a subspecies of the Kern River Golden Trout. The Golden Trout are thought to be derived from the rainbows that were isolated about 70,000 years ago by both glacial and tectonic activity. It is suspected that 10,000 years ago, Redband Rainbows or Coastal Rainbows migrated from the Northern Sacramento Basin to the Kern River System by way of the San Joaquin drainage into Lake Tulare. This was a period of very wet climate conditions. The Redbands hydridized with the Kern River Goldens to produce an unique subspecies, the Kern River Rainbow. This fish had a distinctive “rainbow trout” appearance with the coloration and spotting pattern but retained the “Golden Trout” aspect with the distinctive, yet fading, Parr Marks and Red Stripe along it’s lateral line.
Much of the integrity of this subspecies has been lost within the Kern River system due to stocking of hatchery-bred rainbow trout throughout the 1900’s. Only since 1990, has non-native trout stocking been discontinued. Recent genetic testing indicates that the purest strains of Kern River Rainbows occurs in the Kern River from the confluence of Durrwood Creek (5 miles below the confluence of the Little Kern River) to the headwaters in Sequoia National Park. These Kern River Rainbows are genetically distinct from the other rainbows found further downstream. Genetic sampling found that the rianbows below Johnsondale Bridge have hybridized with stocked rainbows to such an extent that they could no longer be considered “Kern River Rainbows”.
Pure strains of Kern River Rainbows are being reared at the Kern River Hatchery in Kernville. A program is in place to re-introduce these pure strains into its historical range and keep non-native trout out of the upper river.

Trends

I’m not a scientist; I’m not a fish biologist.  What am I is someone who is fascinated by the biology of the Kern River and its surrounding ecosystem.  So, I read and study and listen to experts as much as I can about it.  I am also someone that has fished the Upper Kern River for ~25 years.  And because of that I notice trends.

It appears to me that this hybridization of the pure strained Kern River rainbow with stocked fish is a trend that seems to be spreading farther and farther up river each year.

Another trend I have noticed is the lack of fight in some of the fish I catch and release.  I cannot tell you how many times I have said out loud and on this site, “Nothing Fights like a Kern River Rainbow.”  The Kern River Rainbow does numerous aerial acrobatic jumps and they just don’t give up.  But over last season I really did notice fish with the lack of vigor typical of a nonnative stocked fish.

Additionally, one of the trends I have noticed over time is the amount of brown trout in the Upper Kern River. Brown Trout are not native to the Kern River. They are not even native to the United States. When I first started fishing the Upper Kern it was unheard of to catch a brown trout in the Upper Kern. 15 years ago I’d catch maybe 1 brown out of every 250 trout I’d catch. 10 years ago that ratio was down to 100-1. I swear for the last couple seasons it’s more like 50-1. Shoot, I even caught a large brown right in front of the huck site.

How did stocked nonnative trout get in the Upper Kern River?

Before I attempt to explain this little “chestnut” let me talk about the sections of the river relevant: 

• Section #4 is from Riverside Park in Kernville up to Hydroelectric Powerhouse #3 run by Southern California Edison (SCE)
• Section #5 is from Powerhouse #3 to the Fairview Dam
• Section #6 is from Fairview Dam to Brush Creek which is .6 miles short of the Johnsondale Bridge.
• It is generally accepted that the Upper Kern section starts at the Johnsondale bridge and goes for over 60 miles to the river’s headwaters at Lake South America (which helps to drain Mount Whitney).

It’s well known and publicly published on the California Fish and Game site here that that the lower, downstream sections of the river (4&5) get stocked with nonnative trout. That huge amount of fish planting supports a number of businesses in Kernville and the surrounding areas. It written that CDFW tries to plant only triploid trout within these sections. A triploid is a fish that has been genetically engineered not to spawn. So, all the energy that is used for spawning goes into making them get big quickly. It’s great for the catch and keep traditional gear fishers and the sporting industry. But, as a fly fisherman if you have ever caught a 8 lb triploid, you know it’s like pulling dead weight. Hatchery fish, so crowded, eroding their fins on narrow cement lined pens has not been a recipe for success…. Especially in California. That is well documented. Interestingly enough, The Wyoming Game and Fish Department has the only captive California Golden Trout brood stock program in the world….Wyoming! How embarrassing for us Californians. It’s also interesting that most folks in the science and fly fishing communities of the rockies believe that there is no such thing as a pure strained Yellowstone Cutthroat anymore. It has succumbed to hybridization.

A few years back there was an attempt to rear pure strained brood stock Kern River Rainbows at the Kern River Hatchery. But, those fish succumbed to disease and had to be destroyed.  Disease is a common story for hatchery fish. 

So, with a man-made impediment in the Fairview dam preventing the hatchery stocked nonnative trout in sections 4 & 5 from moving up to the Upper Kern River.  And plenty of natural impediments in terms of waterfalls and class 5 & 6 rapids between the Johnsondale bridge and the confluence of the Little Kern River and the Main Fork (north) of the Kern River (commonly called “the forks”) in the way.  Then how the hell are nonnative, planted trout appearing 40 miles upriver?

Well, the short answer is that the experts assume nonnative trout were occasionally planted above the Fairview dam at the Johnsondale bridge at some point in the last 125 years.  But, there is no evidence nor documentation that I can find to that fact.  There, is, however plenty of documentation of nonnative trout being planted in the many tributaries of the Upper Kern River from the Western side of the Sierra.  In fact, there is documentation of once instance where a dozen or so women rode horse back to Upper Peppermint creek (~10 miles from the trailhead of the Forks of the Kern) and planted brown trout fingerlings around 100 years ago.  That would explain how brown trout are appearing and getting more prolific through time.  That is what brown trout do.  Just look at how they have taken over the Lower Owens River.  So seeing more and more brown trout in the upper Kern River is concerning to me.

“Honey, I’m going hunting. Do you mind grabbing your girlfriends and a bunch of the horses and carrying these little fish in buckets for 40 or so miles and pour them into peppermint creek so I can fish for them next summer?”

But get this: Many scientists believe hybridization could have occurred naturally: through a natural invasion of coastal rainbow trout. And consequently, hybridization could simply be a natural process. There are plenty of examples in nature of cross breeding.

In recent years, the California Dept of Fish & Wildlife (CDFW) conducted surveys in search of pure strained Kern River rainbow trout. Genetic studies found a population in a headwater lake to Big Arroyo which is on the High Sierra trail at an altitude above 10 thousand feet. Those pure strained Kern River Rainbows we the ones attempted at the Kern River Hatchery. Unfortunately, it was unsuccessful. An Upper Kern Basin Fishery Management Plan was written by CDFW to restore, protect, and enhance the native Kern River rainbow trout populations and prevent them from becoming an endangered species. The execution of that plan has yet to be realized.

Call to Action

Let’s be clear: Hybridization is not something that is fixable in a legitimate, let alone humane way.  You can only slow it down.  And one may not even want to fix it. Plenty of states including my own have done the “kill everything, then plant hatchery born pure strains.”  But, you can imagine the complications and risk for failure in that tactic.  Nature has a way.  Even if it’s not natural. 

Every year for the last 10 or so I have fished the Upper Kern at the end of the season.  I have documented it well on this site. The fishing season closes on November 15^th.  But, the weather makes it miserable for the backpacker.  This trip is not for the faint of heart because even if it’s not snowing or raining, the nighttime temps can dip into the teens.  The fishing, however, is always spectacular.  Now I know one of the reasons why.  Much of the great fishing has to do with the spawn of the non-natives.  Male trout get really stupid during a spawn.

So, after that October 2022 couples trip I was motivated and inspired to pay special attention to catching nonnatives during the November end of season backpacking / fly fishing trip. By this time, that picture of Kelly and my stories and discussion had spread to CA DFG, CalTrout, Trout Unlimited and numerous people from the relevant forest districts. I had email threads going a mile long with the good folks interested in the state of hybridization.

The ask was simple.  Me and some of my expert level fly fishing buddies were to pay special attention to and document what we caught and released.  Documentation was defined as the picture of the trout, where it was caught, and the date and time it was caught.  Today’s smartphones stamp each picture with a lat/long in addition to the date/time so the “where and when” would be easy.  Our lack of photography skills would be the issue, but seemingly not too difficult to overcome.

Armed with an excel spreadsheet provided by the Forest District we would also have a column where we would estimate the mostly hybridized and/or nonnatives, barely hybridized or pure strained and document that.  Not a scientific process at all.  Just a gut feel from some fly fisherman.  But, this would be valuable research (and generally interesting) before a massive genetic testing effort occurs… which I imagine is in the works soon.  For me, the most exciting, interesting part of this trip was that we were going to fish and document above the giant waterfall that is around a mile upstream from Painters Camp.  It’s 200, maybe 300 feet tall.  Getting around it requires a death defying climb up the west side, which of course, I have been stupid enough to do.  Or following a trail that goes over 2 miles and almost a mile away from the river on the east side.  If you stare at that waterfall you would say, “There is no way in hell a trout can make it up that thing.”  But, mother nature has a way.

So what did amateur field biology project to see the effects of trout hybridization in the Upper Kern River yeild? Nothing. The snowstorms of mid November 2022 prevented us from even getting to the Forks trailhead. I was fine with driving my tundra in 4WD in 2-3 feet of snow on roads not plowed. We got within 4.5 miles of the trailhead. there were some awesome huge boulders on the road we had to navigate around. Ultimately, we were forced to stop in front of a giant tree, felled on the road by the storm. We didn’t even attempt to budge it. The tree lying on the ground was taller than me. We couldn’t push or pull it with the trucks because it landed perpendicular on the road. Darn.

So the mission is planned for spring / early summer.  And since it seems like we are going to have the biggest winter in California snowpack history it may be end of July before we can get in there to do the amateur field biology project to see the effects of trout hybridization in the Upper Kern River.  If you are interested in participating in the project, either as part of my group or on your own then email me from the contact page on this site.  

Sources:

Sections of the Kern River, July 31, 2022 by Arnold Lynn

https://www.dependablepickup.com/what-are-the-sections-of-the-kern-river/

California Department of Fish and Wildlife: Kern River Rainbow

https://wildlife.ca.gov/Conservation/Fishes/Kern-River-Rainbow-Trout

https://wildlife.ca.gov/Fishing/Inland/Kern-River-Rainbow-Trout

Steve Schalla’s Fly Fishing the Sierra

https://flyfishingthesierra.com/upperkern_lk.html

https://www.flyfishingthesierra.com/kernrain.html

Wyoming Game and Fish

Wyoming Game and Fish Department – Wyoming Wildlife Magazine

California Fish and Game Fish Planting Schedule of the Kern River

https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FishPlants/Default.aspx?county=Kern

THE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA EDISON COMPANY KERN RIVER 3 HYDROELECTRIC PROJECT REVISED SEDIMENT MANAGEMENT PRACTICES https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/waterrights/water_issues/programs/water_quality_cert/docs/kern3_ferc2290/kern3_wqcert.pdf

Over the years, I have sold a gazillion huck hoppers off the timhuckaby.com site.  People adore this thing.  I adore this thing.  I have caught fish on the huck hopper all over the world.  But, many of you fly tyers want to tie it yourself.  I get it.  Fly fishing incorporates a lot of pleasures intermingled with some frustration and even pain.  And one of those pleasures is fooling a fish on a fly that you tied yourself.

I call my home water the Upper Kern River even though it is 300 miles north of where I live.  I have taught many many people how to fly fish on the Upper Kern River.  Shoot, my son Mark is a fly fishing guide in Bozeman and he cut his teeth on the Upper Kern.  My favorite stretch of the The Upper Kern is within the Golden Trout Wilderness and is accessed by the Forks of the Kern Trail; typically with a backpack.  What I call the forks is a 15 mile stretch of river above the confluence of the main fork, north, of the kern river and the little kern river.  There is not a lot of altitude at the confluence, less than 5000 feet, and for that 15 miles and beyond the river and it’s surrounding area supports a huge population of many species of grasshoppers.  Between teaching folks to fly fish losing hopper imitations to trees or simply just having the trout chomp and waterlog those flies I had a similar  problem to Charlie craven. Charlie Craven’s “Charlie Boy Hopper” was my inspiration for the Huck Hopper.  But, unlike Charlie, I was backpacking.  I didn’t have the luxury of tying more flies at night.  I would simply run out.  I needed a durable solution that was easy enough to tie that produced results. 

So, I started field testing my first prototypes on the upper kern and the results were spectacular.  There was just one problem.  I also needed a nymphing solution in a dry/dropper rig.  The upper kern has deep runs where getting the fly down produces very well.  But hanging two heavy nymphs below a fairly large, size 6 huck hopper would sink it.  At the same, I reasoned that the upper kern river should never see a bobber.  It’s too special.  The Upper Kern River within the Golden Trout Wilderness is designated as a “Wild and Scenic” river by the State of California.  It is one of the only places left in the world that supports a majority of wild natives: The Kern River Rainbow (KRR) is its own sub species of the rainbow trout.  So, I started tying huge huck hoppers in sizes 2 and 4.  I call them battleships.  And to my surprise the kern river rainbows continued to attack them.  In fact even the little KRRs would rise to those big huck hoppers, grabbing them by the legs and pulling them down to drown them.  Big flies equals big fish and I started catching some monster KRRs.  And those big huck hoppers could hold up even the heaviest of nymphs all day long.  Doubles were now not a rare thing on the Upper Kern with a big huck hopper on top.

Credits to the great Charlie Craven for the inspiration: https://charliesflybox.com

And thanks to Par Avion for the music! http://www.VivaParAvion.com

The video includes fly tying techniques for the beginner. and details the materials I use and where i get them. but it also covers the background, history, why and how:

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.

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…. 

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.

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. 

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. 

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.  

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.”

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.

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.