Southern Sierra Gold

[Devan S.]

I've been looking forward to my yearly westward trout trip for months at this point. Plan was to fish the southern Sierra's, finish off my California Heritage trout challenge, and finish off my Western Native Challenge for all states except Alaska. 

I had not done the amount of research I normally do but knew we had plenty of time to pivot if we would need it with few targets and all being reasonably close together. Little Kern Goldens, Kern River Rainbows, and California Golden Trout. 

Landed in Vegas about 1 am Saturday 8/26. Caught a few hours of sleep then burning a trail across the desert to the mountains. Original plan was straight for the California Golden Trout but we decided at last minute to pivot and work West to East. Up into the mountains we went higher and higher along the mainstem of the Kern river. 

Dropped in right away at first trailhead to good fishing for Little Kern Goldens. What they lack in size, they make up for in color. A very short hike to find fish.

That fish turned out to be my big fish of the trip.

We all 3 caught more fish than we cared to count in just a couple hours of fishing. Also got our first wet muddy boots in the meadows. Fishing mostly in a burn scar and many, many trees we thought could fall anytime in the wind. We decided not to sleep here and head down a curvy road to town. 

 

[Devan S.]

We ended up staying in Porterville, Ca which as it turns out, is about as far from Forks of the Kern trailhead as it is from Sequoia/Kings Canyon NP. What the heck, we burned a day driving looking at trees and looking for bears. Some fishing was done but no catching happened. 

 

 

[Devan S.]

 We spent the night right near the trailhead for Forks of the Kern. Forks of the Kern drops immediately 1,200 feet down in the first 2 miles prior to crossing the Little Kern. Its also mostly in a burn scar so almost zero shade. Going down was no problem early in the morning cool. Crossing was chilly in the early morning. 

We knew we had to get away from the forks themselves and get aways into the upper Kern to avoid "mutts" that might cross with some Little Kern Goldens. 

[Devan S.]

We did not bring waders or wading boots. The Upper Kern would have been much easier to fish with waders or a desire to get wet and slog back out. We did not have that desire. We put on sandals for crossing the little kern which was little and easy to cross. 

I almost stepped on this rock hopping along. This would have surely ruined the trip. 

 

 

[Devan S.]

A beautiful location with fairly difficult access. You really needed to be able to cast and the shoreline shrubbery prevent many good spots from being fished well. Add in there was another group hopping around with us. It was a challenge but we did catch our fish. 

I assume later into the afternoon the dry fishing would have picked up but we bailed about noon. It was getting hot. About the time we headed out I realized I had not packed the water I thought I did. It was somewhere between 90-95F coming up and out. Miserable, elevation, no shade, and not prepared fitness wise was not good on me. 

Some might argue with me but these are just a Rainbow in a difficult place. Box checked. 

 

[Devan S.]

We closed out the day with a sunset trip to Dante's view in Death Valley California since we had to work around to the East side of the Sierra's anyways. 

It's wild being in a place and it be totally dark and still 110F. We also hiked out into the Mesquite Flat Sand dunes in the dark. We were the only ones out there. 10/10 for a dark sky park. 

Our plan for the next morning was to get permits for camping in the Golden Trout Wilderness overnight down by Golden Trout Creek. We were bummed when we found the Inyo National Forest visitor center was closed and we couldn't get permits. Instead we went up to the cottonwood lakes area and found some Golden's. Its unknown how many we caught but it was a bunch. Each pool or run had 3-5 fish and they were not spooky like most fish in these types of spots. 

 

 

 

[Devan S.]

We finally got permits and hiked the 11-12 miles into where GTC and South Fork of the Kern get within a couple hundred yards of each other. Those fish were even less skittish and often would launch themselves out of the water to get caddis flies dangled above the water. Reckless abandonment.

 

 

 

[Devan S.]

The hike itself is not terrible. It's high elevation 9k+ but mostly downhill going in. The issue is that the trail in probably 90% sandy dusty dirt. Which makes it far harder than you expect. 

Coming out over Trail Pass is is about an 1,100ft climb in fairly short order. Lots of open area exposed to the sun. It was hot but not 90F hot. We also had much better water situation. I did develop blisters about mile 2 going in so they matured nicely over the remaining 20+ miles. 

Overall it was a fun catching trip. Nothing giant but some of the prettiest fish we have caught along this adventure. I'm sure from a numbers perspective we blew most other trips out of the water. 

If I had to do it all over again, I think a mule train from the west side to the east side fishing the same/similar locations would be far more leisurely and would allow you to fish more quality water vs. just running through the water closest to you after hiking for miles. 

[Quillback]

That's a pretty neat trip!

[Terrierman]

WOWSA.  Nice report on a heck of a trip.