I just got back from my traditional summer foray into the mountains of California, though the venue this time was up in the Tahoe area, instead of my usual haunts down by Mammoth Lakes. This was kind of an exploratory trip, as I hadn't fished up there much before, and there were as many misses as hits. Still, it was great to get away from the world for a week and breathe some mountain air.

I've always had good luck in this type of stillwater; had these lakes been near Mammoth they would have been stuffed with hordes of brookies eager to eat a dry fly.









Unfortunately, in this area someone long ago stocked the waters with bullhead. You can walk up the edge of the lake in areas and see a hundred tiny catfish swimming around. There are still trout, but I think the fishery depends heavily on stocking, especially in the lakes. I saw a few rises, but didn't spot or raise any trout in the five lakes I tried to fish.

Nonetheless, the tiny streams connecting the lakes do hold fish in the bigger pools.



I had much better success fishing moving water. Once I got it dialed it was pretty easy, fun fishing for wild rainbows to 10" or so.



I spent some time targeting bigger fish in the Truckee and Little Truckee rivers, but mostly missed out. I landed one at 16" or so, and missed a few more strikes. But mostly I learned that these highly pressured fish are seriously snotty.

One highlight of the trip was fishing this lake.



Right in the marina area was a school of big bass chasing bluegill around in one to three feet of water. I had a blast sight casting to them, despite being routinely ignored, and hooks pulling a few seconds after being set. Still, persistence pays off and I eventually got a clean hookset on this guy (small red/white clouser).



He taped to 21" or ~5.5lbs depending on which chart you use. Easily my PB. Landed on 5x tippet.

Anyways, a fun trip. Sunset at my lodging.



Until next time...

Awesome Stuff!! How is the public access to water there? I've only been to Tahoe for skiing.

Excellent. Nearly all of the trout streams and lakes are in national forests, so there's very little restriction to access.

Some of the lower rivers have a lot of private land on the banks, but if you can get to the river legally you're all set as long as you stay in/on the water.

Solid post and beautiful pics. I imagine California is a little greener than it's been in recent years...are they fully recovered from the drought?

Well, the lakes are all full and the flows pretty much everywhere are higher than they've been in twenty years.

But I think there's some lasting appreciation that most of the state is actually a desert...

I lived in the (CENSORED) of California, also known as El Centro, back in the mid eighties to early nineties. That was honest-to-God desert for sure. Once the sun went down it was easier to understand why people continued to live there. You could see every star in the sky.

You're right about most of the state being a desert, but my favorite memories always involved non-desert areas...Yosemite, Pismo Beach, Mount Julian, etc. My first ever experience fishing for and catching a few trout were at Lake Cuyamaca on Mount Julian. Now I'm addicted.