An evening outing on the West Carson – 05/06/08

After a long day at work, I was able to hit the West Carson for a quick session. I decided to fish the gauging station. I arrived around 5:20p to wind and more wind. A quick check of the water told me that flows were up just slightly from the previous outing and that the water was even more tinted. Runoff is getting into full swing.

Because of the wind, I immediately rigged with a dual nymph rig and I crimped on tons of weight. It was a tough hour with many casts going astray due to wind, but at the end of the hour I had two half-hearted strikes, two or three fun chases, and one hookup on a small 8″ stocker Rainbow.

This is a perfect end to a long day!

Some DFG Stocked fish love – 05/03/08

Living and working within 10 minutes of two nice rivers has it upside. A lunch break, actually an extended lunch break, can get one a solid hour on the river with the total time away from work exceeding no more than 90 minutes.

Since flows are starting to pump, I decided to hit the smaller of the two rivers as it is not as ravished as the bigger river during runoff. Upon arriving at the West Carson River I noticed another car in my usual parking spot, so I wheeled downstream into the canyon section. I quickly rigged up and was on the water without delay. Fishing lunch breaks are all about moving rapidly. The water is much higher than normal, but only slightly off-color. I toss in the thermometer and it read 46 degrees…perfect! No bugs in evidence, but I had already decided at the truck that I was going to probe fast and roily pocket water with a heavily weighted nymph setup.

I worked my way down to the automatic hole and by my third drift…BINGO…I’m into a cool 10″ stocked Rainbow. 20 more drifts produced 2 more strikes, but no hookups. The automatic hole will normally produce a few fish before the entire hole needs to be rested. Maybe it was the higher flows, the tinted water, or the still slightly cold temps, but there was only one fish to be had this lunch break.

Time to head back to the car and go back to work.