Dreaming of that Past Day!

Have you ever had one of those trips that was so awesome....moving....so memorable that you find yourself longing for another shot at it.  Well, the Sierra Nevada's is one of those areas.  The fish are unbelievably beautiful!  The scenery will take your breath away!  For an adventurous fly angler, this high country experience is a must have!

I have been fortunate enough to  have been drawn to the region three times now.....yes, three times....and every trip is a very memorable time in God's creation with friends, flies, and fish.

JOHN BOWLING THROWS A TIGHT LOOP

TO WAITING GOLDEN'S

UNBELIEVABLE SCENERY IS AROUND EVERY TURN

SAO GUIDE BEN BARGER FISHES THE SAN JOAQUIN

WHILE JOHN BOWLING FILMS FROM THE OPPOSITE BANK

BEN BARGER FISHES UP THROUGH THE CANYON

Two years ago, we shot a lot of film while on the trail and from it came my true desire to shoot and edit films.  Upon arriving home, I began work on my new series that I entitled, "The Adventures of Flybum."  So, after many, many hours of learning how to be a better editor and finding out what shots I "should have" gotten, I finished a less than perfect volume one.  At nearly an hour in length, it was the first large scale project I had ever attempted.  It has now been shown at many fly shops across the region as we have done fly tying demos or while speaking on the greatness of the Steelhead Alley region.

That first volume is entitled "A Journey to Evolution Valley" and will always be near and dear to my heart.  Not only was it my first punch into truly high elevations, but it was my first film.

Here is a much shorter film that I reworked from footage contained in that first volume completed more than a year ago.  I hope you enjoy it...

Until next time, tight lines and good shooting!

Patrick "Flybum" Robinson
Head Guide
Steelhead Alley Outfitters

California's Sierra Nevada's - Part 5

The trip continued as we explored up stream from camp.  All I have to say is, what a spectacular stretch of water!  I mean the awesomeness of this part of the adventure was mind blowing!  

It all started with the average boulder hopping that is the norm for this area.  Everything is granite no matter where you look.  It just varies in its shape and form depending on where you are.  Below you can see an average area around camp.

As we fished our way up river, it was mostly your average western pocket water, with the occasional riffle, run, tailout combo......these where the good holes.  Most were loaded with fish that were more than eager to rise....if.....if you made the right presentation.  I don't want to say that these fish are hard to catch, but the big ones aren't stupid.  They are wild....and they will let you know!!!

In the above hole I caught the colorful bow below.  It is hard to see it in the small format of this photo, but the hot, red stripe down its side was unprecedented on the trip.  Very beautiful to say the least.

As beautiful as the bow was, there is something about the browns!  This one in particular had a striking appearance.  We were careful to not admire for too long.  Instead we snapped a few photos in hope of capturing the beauty and moved on.  Like all other attempts, the true beauty escaped at some point....you know how it is?

Below is another brown caught, but this time with the fly in it's mouth.  This fly produced most of my fish for the trip and many, many fish for others as well.  It is a modified hopper pattern that I designed before going out this year.  I knew what size pattern I wanted, knew that it had to float high, and be nearly indestructible.  After some working and reworking, I finally got a good looking fly......and the good thing is that it fishes almost better than it looks....and my buddies will vouch for that!

Here is my friend Ben who fished this entire stretch with me.  I dare say that some of the best fishing of the trip was had by Ben and I.  It was on this day that we had a micro caddis hatch take place for about thirty minutes that we were able to dial in on........I dare say we owned those fish!  They shut down on the big flies as soon as the hatch ensued.  We got dialed in and pulled out some large fish, one after another until that magic moment.....you know....the moment when it all stops, just like it all started.

Ben landed some nice browns on this day!

The below photos were shot on a different day, but really capture some of the beauty of the river in this gorge section.  This was an amazing granite gorge!!!  At times we had rods in our mouths and needed climbing gear to get to the next hole.  Sometimes you just had to throw your hands in the air and climb out, over, and around to the next access point.

The next three photos are much larger so that you can click on them and enlarge them for greater detail.

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This was my favorite stretch of the South Fork of the San Joaquin hands down!  I can't describe for you here what it was really like.  You just have to take my word for it or better yet, go experience it for yourself.

Until next time, tight lines!

Patrick "Flybum" Robinson

Head Guide

Steelhead Alley Outfitters

California's Sierra Nevada's - Part 4

Well, as promised, here is the next installment albeit a bit later than I wanted it to be :)

In the last blog, I said we would be moving to the next camp, so here we go.  After packing up camp and carefully practicing "No Trace," we shouldered the packs again and began the three mile trek to camp two.  This camp was located at the confluence of Piute Creek and the South Fork of the San Joaquin River.

Shortly after leaving camp, we came up on a Mule Deer doe.  After snapping several shots of her, we noticed that she was looking over shoulder....most likely another deer and most possibly her fawn as she was a good size deer.  Sure enough, a rather excited fawn came rushing up behind to find her mother and immediately tried to suckle.  We were lucky enough to get this on video.  Here is a photo that I snapped shortly after shutting off the video camera....

After a morning worth of hiking, we arrived at our next camp and what would be considered our base camp.  It was a beautiful location sitting right on the river.  Below is a shot standing on the bank next to camp and shooting upstream just prior to sundown.

After spending the rest of that first day in camp, we organized a trip down river with a plan to fish it back up.  It was a decent stretch of river with some holes holding large numbers of fish (that we could see).  Who knows what was there that we couldn't see?  At any rate, here is a photo of my buddy Ben throwing a cast to an upstream lie.

And here is a the subsequent reward for his labors.   This fish was feisty and did not want to be photographed, so this impromptu was the only one documenting his downfall :)  He is back in his home ready for the next eager angler.  Numerous fish we caught or missed in this area, but regardless of the outcome, we had a blast exploring new areas of water.

As we moved upstream, the river wound through different types of terrain, but the most interesting was the zone just downstream from where this photo was taken.  The area was so loaded with downed evergreens of differing species, that we could walk for untold hundreds of yards along the river without touching the ground.  Later we found out about an amazing Sierra phenomena called Mono Winds.  They have been clocked at 100mph in the Yosemite Valley which was in the vicinity (within a couple hundred miles) of where we were camped.  I guess you needed to see it to believe it.

The photo below was just the standard view for this trip.  Sick to look at, I know :)

And last but no least, here is a sneak peak at a Golden Trout.  I have had a number of people request some photos of the Golden's and given the pace of my blogging, they couldn't stand to wait any longer :)  So, here is a photo of a nice Golden caught on the South Fork of the San Joaquin upstream a mile or so from our base camp.  Rest assured there will be some more Golden Trout photos to come.

In closing, if you are interested in more specifics on how to get to the area that I fished on this trip, go to your nearest bookstore that carries a good selection of magazines (Barnes & Nobles) and get the latest issue of Southwest Fly Fishing.  I have a short published there this month that gives details.

Until the next installment, get those Steelhead rods cleaned up and ready to roll.  The fish are already moving in and we will be swinging flies soon.

Tight Lines,

Patrick "Flybum" Robinson

Head Guide

Steelhead Alley Outfitters