So to continue from last week’s blog post . . .

 

 

A view from the Upper Owens River. Looking towards Mammoth Mountain Ski Resort. All those black spots amongst the grass in the distance are cows: lots and lots of cows. I don’t think I have seen so many cows on one place before. Fortunately for us (and them) there was a fence between us. Ironically, they weren’t making nay noise just chomping away on the grass.

 

Our first day fishing on the Upper Owens and we are streaming fishing – Ugh!

My success at streamer fishing had been little to nothing in the past, so I wasn’t terrible thrilled to try again, but like with anything there is always a learning curve so I decide to just go with it and see what happens.

After spending the entire morning struggling I finally made a cast and got it where I wanted it, made the mend, let out line, got the fly to sink and then make the swing, stuck the rod tip deep into the water and began to strip in and voila!

I caught a fish!

And then it was lunchtime and quite frankly I was exhausted. Streaming fishing or fishing with streamers with a weighted line is a lot of work. I needed a break.

We spent the afternoon at Rock Creek, but also I didn’t get any pictures.

 

So the next day we were off to the San Joaquin – my favorite place to fish. Right now in the fall is the best time to be there.

No crowds.

The leaves are changing.

Not too hot, not too cold.

It is simply beautiful.

And there are fish to be caught.

Another great aspect of the San Joaquin is it is the perfect river to use a Tenkara rod (so is Rock Creek, but like I said no pictures) vs. using a traditional fly rod.

The go to fly for us was one I had tied. Originally called a ‘Frenchie’ or ‘Hot Spot’, it’s a little nymph on a jig hook.

I tied them in orange not because I thought the fish would like orange (but they did!). I tied them in orange only because I like orange!

We nicknamed this fly the pumpkin spice.

Yes, I was teased a lot that I name my fly based upon an item off the Starbuck’s menu . . . it could be worse, right?

So our fall fishing I over and now we are all back home. But the great memories remain and I look forward to next fall and visiting my favorite river.