Just got back from the annual family vacation to Huntington Lake. We spent 9 awesome days in the sierras hanging out, fishing, hiking and generally relaxing :) I have to confess that I lost track of where we fished on which days but I fished a little just about every day we were up there. I'm going to break the report down by where we fished rather than by day.

Huntington Lake: The big news at Huntington was the flash flood that hit rancheria creek a few weeks before our trip. Apparently there was a huge thunderstorm with large hail that turned the normally tiny rancheria creek into a raging 8 foot deep torrent. Up by the power house at the head of Huntington you could see where the flood came down and not only washed out a huge channel for the original creek but also cut an entirely new channel right by the power plant! It was pretty nuts. The flood also washed a ton of debris and logs into the lake. So-Cal Edison was there all week pulling the logs out and there was still a 200 yard debris field when we left.

So fishing at the rancheria end of the lake was quite a bit different than it ever has been. My Mom has been going to Huntington for over 50 years and she had never seen anything like it. I've been fishing this area for 23 years and it was kind of sad to see the change in the river bed which has been virtually unchanged as long as I've known it. Basically the channel got filled with gravel down the middle so there are very few areas for the trout to get behind boulders like they used to. As a result the current was stronger and pushed further into the lake and the whole week we only caught 1 trout in the areas that used to be our best holes :(

There were a few bright spots though... I explored some areas that used to be decent but not great and there were still a few trout around. There was one hole in particular that was holding some decent trout. The first time I fished it I picked up 2 browns on pins minnow and 2 rainbows, one on the minnow and one on a berkley gulp crawler thing. One of the browns was a nice sized one, maybe 14 inches or so :) I only had my camera phone with me so the pic was kinda cheezy

http://www.calfishing.com/files/Images/huntington_06/best_brown.jpg

The second time I fished it I plucked out 6 rainbows on salmon eggs and one brown on the pins minnow. The rainbows were all nice fish that had been in the lake for a while. I kept this one for dinner.

http://www.calfishing.com/files/Images/huntington_06/13incher.jpg

Here's another pic of a brightly colored rainbow

http://www.calfishing.com/files/Images/huntington_06/speckles.jpg

We wet a line down by Will-o-the-Wisp one evening during a cookout but didn't get any bites. Sometimes you can soak powerbait down there and catch some rainbows but this year was slow.

Portal Forebay: I fished the forebay by myself early in the week one afternoon. When I got there some kids were catching fish after fish by the road but I walked around most of the lake and only caught 2 on thomas bouyants. I made my way back near where they had been fishing and the fishing got pretty stupid. Apparently they had planted right before I got there and it just took the fish a little while to move out. Once that happened it was almost every cast for 2 hours. I tried to count how many I caught but it was hopeless. A gold thomas bouyant was all you needed though I did try a rooster tail which worked almost as well. The thing I noticed was that the rooster tail fish would swallow the bait badly where the thomas bouyant fish would almost always get hooked in the lip. I gave two fish that didn't make it after being caught on the rooster tail to some other fishermen and switched back to the bouyant even though you lost about 1/2 of the fish that bit. By the time I headed home, I'd probably caught 50 trout :)

Here's some in the water action

http://www.calfishing.com/files/Images/huntington_06/forebay_bouyant.jpg

Fish that I gave away to some other people

http://www.calfishing.com/files/Images/huntington_06/forebay_planters.jpg

Later in the week we headed back to forebay. Summer, my Dad and my sister fished while my Mom did some painting. Here's my Mom in action

http://www.calfishing.com/files/Images/huntington_06/mom_painting.jpg

The fishing was not as good as before but we got a good spot and had a fun time. My sister was on fire with the powerbait setup, it was pretty funny. She outfished us all catching 9 trout. My dad was a close second catching 6. Summer brought in two on the thomas bouyant (I was proud :) ) Myself... I spent a lot of time releasing fish and helping everyone but I did fish and I'm ashamed to say I was completely skunked! I had a blast though, we all had a great time just relaxing, fishing, and enjoying the beautiful weather. Here's some pics of that trip

Dad and Jocelyn battle a trout
http://www.calfishing.com/files/Images/huntington_06/dad_jocelyn_forebay.jpg

Dad bringing one in (check it out jumping in the lower right)
http://www.calfishing.com/files/Images/huntington_06/dad_jump.jpg

Close up
http://www.calfishing.com/files/Images/huntington_06/trout_jump.jpg

Me wishing I could catch a fish
http://www.calfishing.com/files/Images/huntington_06/rob_kidding.jpg

Summer showing me how to catch one
http://www.calfishing.com/files/Images/huntington_06/summer_catch.jpg

Nellie Lake: My Dad had to take a flight out of Fresno for a few days on business so Summer, my Mom, my sister and I decided to hike up to Nellie Lake. We've been there a few times 10-15 years ago but not recently. There used to be pretty good fishing for rainbows there so I was excited to go check it out. The hike is about 9 miles round trip and we took our time. The weather was beautiful and we only saw one other group on the trail.

Fishing at the lake was not what it used to be, I think its in a down cycle or something. I caught one small rainbow and saw a few other similarly sized fish jumping and swimming around. Summer fished with me and didn't have any bites. We didn't fish much but the lake is tiny so it didn't take long to see what was happening. Regardless it was a nice hike and the little trout I caught was gorgeous like the high altitude fish always are.

On the way to the lake
http://www.calfishing.com/files/Images/huntington_06/nellie_sign.jpg

A pic of the lake
http://www.calfishing.com/files/Images/huntington_06/nellie.jpg

Fishy
http://www.calfishing.com/files/Images/huntington_06/rob_nellie.jpg

Doris Lake: Our friends the Langes were at the lake with us all week and Cory has a jeep so Summer and I went up to Mono Hot Springs with him and our other friend Kelly to take the short jeep trail to the trailhead for Doris Lake. The plan was to go swimming since Doris has some warm springs that keep the water temperature up but I brought my rod, you know... just in case. Swimming was great but I didn't see any sign of trout. There were schools of chubs though and I caught a few just to check them out up close. Interesting little fish. I think they were spawning in the mossy grass.

http://www.calfishing.com/files/Images/huntington_06/doris_chub.jpg

Notes and Miscellany:

This sign was tacked to the side of the general store.

http://www.calfishing.com/files/Images/huntington_06/sailing_sign.jpg

When I was about 12 years old I lost a good rapala to some sailboat that cut 100 feet behind our boat. I think it was his fault personally....

Every year I buy some Pautzkees (sp) green label salmon eggs for this trip. They've always been the best salmon eggs for as long as I can remember. This year I bought a few jars and they were much smaller and softer than I've ever seen. Don't know whats up with that but it was disappointing since they only lasted 1 cast in the river before they turned pink or just fell off.

I saw some people releasing trout at portal forebay by grabbing them with a towel and pulling the hook out. Please, if you are going to release a trout, unless you really know what you are doing... don't touch the trout. Every trout fisherman should have a pair of forceps to release fish. Just hold the line directly above the fish and leave half the fish in the water. The trout will stop spinning around after a few seconds so you can reach down, grasp the shank of the hook, lock the pliers and shake down and away from the hook point. If you really want a pic, lift the fish out quickly, hold it over the water and don't squeeze it. Here's a pic releasing a forebay trout

http://www.calfishing.com/files/Images/huntington_06/rob_release.jpg

Sierra Summit didn't have any fish in it. They don't seem to be stocking it as much as they used to. I didn't check Tamarack creek but I have a feeling they have not been stocking there either.

Overall, it was a great vacation! Here's one last pic of Rancheria Falls :)

http://www.calfishing.com/files/Images/huntington_06/rancheria_falls.jpg