Locals Blown Out

Made the decision to take a drive up to the local creek late this morning. The weather forecast called for rain and snow in the mountains at higher elevations. I packed my Sage 2wt SPL series rod paired up with a nice Ross reel. I brought along a small assortments of nymphs and midges in a small fly box. Man I was ready to hook up into one of these pretty rainbows that call the local creek home.

As I'm driving up the winding road, I notice that there are lots of cyclist making there way up the mountain as well, I have to slow down a bit, some of these guys think they own the road and are not sharing like a normal cyclist would. I pull up behind a gold colored Suburban and he's nearly stopped on the road. Oh no, that all I need is to go even slower. I get a view of what is slowing the vehicle down, another pack of cyclist taking up the entire lane. I am not one to honk and hardly ever do, but today was different, these guys were taking up the whole lane going up. I give a quick honk and see the guy driving the Suburban look in the rear-view mirror... Low and behold the pack of riders yield the right of way and form one single file on the way up. The guy in the Suburban took off like a bat out of hell up the road and I never seen him on the road again.

On the way up I'm noticing the reservoirs are muddy looking, usually they tend to be on the green side. As I get to the first bridge I could see that the East Fork is flowing kind of fast and looks quite silty. I keep driving and finally get to my desired parking area and there are only a few cars parked. I take a look at the creek and see some fast moving muddy torrent, bah!! I didn't even set up the fly rod, I grabbed my camera bag and walked a bit and took a few photos.


This first image is the muddy fast flowing West Fork. It's definitely not fishable in these conditions.

I walk over to the North Fork and see that it's flowing a bit fast but on the clear side. I've fished the North Fork on several occasions and have always come up with the tiniest of trout, so I'm going to have to pass up on fishing this creek. I opted instead to take a few photos.

Capturing the North Fork with a slow exposure.

I jumped back in the truck and drove up towards San Antonio Peak, the road was full of rocks and in one part some small brush. The drive up was pretty much uneventful other than spotting the rear end of a small Bobcat, I just got the tail end of it as it trotted over a dirt pile and into the brush.


This is a view from a sort of saddle where two roads meet.

As I'm getting higher in elevation the temperature is dropping, back on the WF & NF it was 51 degrees, here the temperature is going from 41-39. I finally get to this parking area where the view of the mountain is obstructed by clouds and what is starting to look like snow. I get off the truck and sure enough, it's definitely snow. It's a light snow with small flurries, non seems to be sticking to the ground though. I take a quick photo and jump back into the truck and head back towards home.


My parting shot obstructed by clouds.

I didn't get to fly fish on this outing, but I was rewarded with some pretty stunning views and it definitely beat staying home.

Cheers, The SoCal FlyFisher