One of my absolute favorite things is backpacking and fishing. And more so when you can backpack into a river. This weekend, I got to do just that with one of my good friends who I don't get to see very often (with me being at the whims of a 5 year old and him getting his masters in botany at OSU). I've been to this drainage before, but wasn't able to fully enjoy it since I was by myself and was on edge the entire time because of multiple fresh big cat scat sightings. But I've been itching to get back for the past few years and this time with a buddy.
It's a very remote system with a healthy population of small (8-12") rainbows and a very healthy populations of those dark bulls you know I love.
The weekend started with a long drive Thursday evening with a good car camp that consisted of a sausage and asparagus dinner. An early night led to an early morning where we ate sausage and egg breakfast tacos, broke camp and made the final trek to the trailhead.
The hike in isn't far, 3+ miles, but ~3,000 ft drop in elevation down into the canyon. It was a quick, uneventful hike except the big rattlesnake that made himself known. He wanted absolutely nothing to do with us as long as we didn't try to take the full grown chipmunk out of it's mouth.
The wildflowers were really showing themselves--especially this buckwheat.
My buddy led the way since he had walking sticks and was able to whack the brush for snakes. A very brushy trail made me regret wearing 5" inseam running shorts on this hike
. There was a good portion of the trial where I'm pretty sure my 5' 4" wife wouldn't have been able to see over the brush.
Getting our first good looks at the river as well as being able to scout the bars where we were planning to camp.
We got down to the river at about 9am and immediately started fishing and didn't stop until 6:30pm.
Nothing huge, but notably, this was the first fish of the trip which always means something to me. My buddy Michael took it on a purple hippie stomper. For him, this was the fly of the trip. He only moved on from it after he lost his last one (i tied them all). It was taken on the inside seam in the pool in the photo above.
Fishing the seams and shade lined banks.
This river has so much bug life, I'm honestly surprised we didn't run into more bigger fish. They're obviously there, but maybe we just weren't worthy. A decent drake hatch came off, but to be honest, it didn't matter what you threw.
It's a very remote system with a healthy population of small (8-12") rainbows and a very healthy populations of those dark bulls you know I love.
The weekend started with a long drive Thursday evening with a good car camp that consisted of a sausage and asparagus dinner. An early night led to an early morning where we ate sausage and egg breakfast tacos, broke camp and made the final trek to the trailhead.
The hike in isn't far, 3+ miles, but ~3,000 ft drop in elevation down into the canyon. It was a quick, uneventful hike except the big rattlesnake that made himself known. He wanted absolutely nothing to do with us as long as we didn't try to take the full grown chipmunk out of it's mouth.
The wildflowers were really showing themselves--especially this buckwheat.
My buddy led the way since he had walking sticks and was able to whack the brush for snakes. A very brushy trail made me regret wearing 5" inseam running shorts on this hike
. There was a good portion of the trial where I'm pretty sure my 5' 4" wife wouldn't have been able to see over the brush.Getting our first good looks at the river as well as being able to scout the bars where we were planning to camp.
We got down to the river at about 9am and immediately started fishing and didn't stop until 6:30pm.
Nothing huge, but notably, this was the first fish of the trip which always means something to me. My buddy Michael took it on a purple hippie stomper. For him, this was the fly of the trip. He only moved on from it after he lost his last one (i tied them all). It was taken on the inside seam in the pool in the photo above.
Fishing the seams and shade lined banks.
This river has so much bug life, I'm honestly surprised we didn't run into more bigger fish. They're obviously there, but maybe we just weren't worthy. A decent drake hatch came off, but to be honest, it didn't matter what you threw.
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