3 Days of Fly Fishing in California's backcountry for some of the most legendary native trout in the world!!
California is well known for the Golden trout, one of the coolest native species of trout in the world. But to catch these fish in their native range, which is what we wanted to do, you have to hike well over 20 miles one way to accomplish that task. So after planning the trip we were able to book a plane ticket and found ourselves deep in a California National Forest.
Day 1 in California's wilderness involved us hiking around 5 miles to catch the Little Kern Golden trout. This native trout is separated from the Kern River Rainbow by one set of falls on the lower end of the Little Kern River. These fish don't quite exhibit the same golden Hugh as the more famous California golden trout, but we were able to find some fish with yellow bellies which made for a cool experience. After catching and releasing our fair share of fish we hiked another 5 miles and set up camp.
Day 2 in California found us face to face with several black bears and rattlesnakes. We learned quickly that California's backcountry isn't a joke and that we needed to be on alert at all times. We hiked to our next locations and started fishing for the Kern River Rainbow trout, which was far more difficult to catch due to the high water levels. We did end up finding a few and then fished a little tributary to ensure we caught a good representative of the species before hiking to our camp site. While setting up camp we literally had snakes slithering around us... which was unsettling.
Day 3 involved a pretty strenuous hike up a mountain in search of the California golden trout. We blue lined a few creeks once we got above a set of falls separating the California golden trout from the kern river rainbow trout. We were able to hit 4 different creeks and catch the native California golden trout in them. One was an awesome spring creek, one ran through some awesome volcanic rock, and another was tannic with pine sap. It was truly one of the most incredible experiences I've ever had fly fishing. The trout were feeding with little regard for our presence, which is not a shock considering we were over 20 miles from the nearest road.
Overall this trip to the backcountry of California in search of the golden trout was one I'll never forget. It was the best camping, backpacking, and fishing experience of my life probably, and I'm not sure if I'll ever get to do it again or not. I truly hope you enjoyed watching Andrew and I fly fish these small streams for trout. Thanks for watching!
#backpacking #camping #outdoors #nature #fishing #flyfishing #troutfishing