California Freshwater

Rapids in between two nice pools

Pool farther down the river, just around the rock corner are class five rapids, this is where I landed 7 fish in a short time

Those are beautiful pools BAT, bet it's peaceful there ,
I see a bunch of "runs"......
OK the 3rd/bottom pic ,right at your feet ,see where that water runs over that big rock to your left?And you can see the current ,that whole line probably holds fish at times and,
,about another 10feet + out to left front of you there's another "funnel" probably a "run",AND right along the edge [closest to you] of the white water ,looks like a submerged ledge, drift bait or fish your lure right along that towards the tail of the pool .
You have a great spot ,it looks real "FISHY"!!!

If I had the pics right in front of me as I type this I'd do better picking runs out but the narrow ,little window available when you post, to see the pics below & the previous posts ,makes it tough,
But up on the actual thread I can see the pics just fine , that whole edge of the white water ,fish that from lower down if you can ,run a RAPALA parallel to that edge all along it ....stop/go/twitch/thats fast water you'll have towatch your plug a few times & learn the best way to work it in that water ,know what I mean?

they look deep too, try to get your lure down to them.&like I said,just for the heck of it ,for the sake of experiment, try a long mono/flouro leader, 6- 8feet,it might make all the difference , or switch to a reel filled with mono,maybe .
Thanks for the pics , that's beautiful water there for sureit's got to be full of trout/salmon.

That 1st/top pick that's a tough one to fish but the water between the huge rock mass in the middle& the far 'wall' , that's where the fish are .

Those are beautiful pools BAT, bet it's peaceful there ,
I see a bunch of "runs"......
OK the 3rd/bottom pic ,right at your feet ,see where that water runs over that big rock to your left?And you can see the current ,that whole line probably holds fish at times and,
,about another 10feet + out to left front of you there's another "funnel" probably a "run",AND right along the edge [closest to you] of the white water ,looks like a submerged ledge, drift bait or fish your lure right along that towards the tail of the pool .
You have a great spot ,it looks real "FISHY"!!!

If I had the pics right in front of me as I type this I'd do better picking runs out but the narrow ,little window available when you post, to see the pics below & the previous posts ,makes it tough,
But up on the actual thread I can see the pics just fine , that whole edge of the white water ,fish that from lower down if you can ,run a RAPALA parallel to that edge all along it ....stop/go/twitch/thats fast water you'll have towatch your plug a few times & learn the best way to work it in that water ,know what I mean?

they look deep too, try to get your lure down to them.&like I said,just for the heck of it ,for the sake of experiment, try a long mono/flouro leader, 6- 8feet,it might make all the difference , or switch to a reel filled with mono,maybe .
Thanks for the pics , that's beautiful water there for sureit's got to be full of trout/salmon.

That 1st/top pick that's a tough one to fish but the water between the huge rock mass in the middle& the far 'wall' , that's where the fish are .

Ok, I see the water your talking about. The water that looks smooth on top?
I have always called that a "boil".

And peaceful?! Across the river is a 1000 foot cliff that no one can scale, abpnd behind me is private property that we know the owner, to the left is again Unscalable cliffs and a waterfall and to the right is private property I am allowed to fish and class five rapids no one can climb up.
Eagles, black bear, salmon jumping, water rushing, cool weather nice cayon breeze.

Does it get much better?

And I will try a long leader next time is 10 lb light enough? Any more then that and they can take me down stream past the rapids and be gone

Also in the top picture that is at full flow. Normally the river is about 6' lower and I can get to a rock and get casts behind that big rock.

No it doesn't get any better ;but close or equal is quiet night fishing the KEYS ,with some Friends ,you knowwhat I mean especially when they're biting.

Yeah Bat ,you got it ;those "Boils" ,smooth water , just fish the lure from up stream thru those spots, , any "line" you can see in the current,you got the hang of it
10# ought to work ,I used 10 alot ,& you're right any lighter ,you'll end up chasing them!! We have !
They are the closest fight compared to SALT WATER fish,

No it doesn't get any better ;but close or equal is quiet night fishing the KEYS ,with some Friends ,you knowwhat I mean especially when they're biting.

Yeah Bat ,you got it ;those "Boils" ,smooth water , just fish the lure from up stream thru those spots, , any "line" you can see in the current,you got the hang of it
10# ought to work ,I used 10 alot ,& you're right any lighter ,you'll end up chasing them!! We have !
They are the closest fight compared to SALT WATER fish,

Tell you about another place up North....One time years ago I was about a mile + back into some State land [ there are 1million state acres ] the place I was turkey hunting in had about 6,000acres on one side of the road/5,000+ other side .....Supposedly was one of the biggest pieces of private land on EAST COAST [before state took it over]
Anyway it butts up against a huge tract, all wild "Forever wild" they call it ,never developed,never will be,

So I'm back in here & went to the stream I know is there , the BEAVERS had dammed it up , big Beaver ponds along it ,So Knowing what I do about Beaver ponds , I got down & creeped up on it & looked in,OOH YEAH, BIG TROUT BROWNS ,BROOKIES, some looked about 30" long.....there's a fish hatchery way upstream where the headwaters are coming out of a lake ,
I went back and caught a couple about 19-20" long and some smaller ,about 16/17" ,then the state broke up the dams & those big boys went on down ,probably into the river it empties into many miles away.

No it doesn't get any better ;but close or equal is quiet night fishing the KEYS ,with some Friends ,you knowwhat I mean especially when they're biting.

Yeah Bat ,you got it ;those "Boils" ,smooth water , just fish the lure from up stream thru those spots, , any "line" you can see in the current,you got the hang of it
10# ought to work ,I used 10 alot ,& you're right any lighter ,you'll end up chasing them!! We have !
They are the closest fight compared to SALT WATER fish,

Tell you about another place up North....One time years ago I was about a mile + back into some State land [ there are 1million state acres ] the place I was turkey hunting in had about 6,000acres on one side of the road/5,000+ other side .....Supposedly was one of the biggest pieces of private land on EAST COAST [before state took it over]
Anyway it butts up against a huge tract, all wild "Forever wild" they call it ,never developed,never will be,

So I'm back in here & went to the stream I know is there , the BEAVERS had dammed it up , big Beaver ponds along it ,So Knowing what I do about Beaver ponds , I got down & creeped up on it & looked in,OOH YEAH, BIG TROUT BROWNS ,BROOKIES, some looked about 30" long.....there's a fish hatchery way upstream where the headwaters are coming out of a lake ,
I went back and caught a couple about 19-20" long and some smaller ,about 16/17" ,then the state broke up the dams & those big boys went on down ,probably into the river it empties into many miles away.

Ya I know what you mean. There is a stocked section of Hat Creek that my dad used to take me to when I was little (we camped there and fishing for the wild ones down river). I remember the old guys telling me that 3' browns would come out when the stocking trucks came and they would just start swallowing fish. I always thought this was another fish story.

Then when I was fishing one day, I was letting my worm drift under a tunnel thing that was underwater. I would let it drift from the top out the back side (sounds simple enough, but none of the "city" fisherman knew to do it and I was catch 5 fish to there 1) anyways I had a decent strike but missed the fish. Next think I know I see this fish swim out that is easliy 36" and about 5-6" thick swim out slowly and just lazily swim up river right beneith me

I will never forget that fish

There are no salmon in this river because it was up stream of a damn, so either a huge rainbow or a big brown, definatly over 10 pounds probably over 15.

That is what keeps you fishing

YOU got that right! It's what keeps you going, I took a mask & fins in a stream up in a crick that has alot of nativesBROOKIES ,but there's Browns & rainbows from stocking
anyway this hole was 30ft deep,& cold ,sun never hits it except for a few minutes ,it's way over the bank & down in a little cut, we used to slide down the "falls " , thousands of years of flow ploished them totally smooth,
Well ,I'm down about 25 feet & looking in all the nooks & crannies, & ledges, ,There were all these Trout heads popping out to look at me then they'd pull back ,but down on the bottm, there were about 5[that I could see,} that had to be 30+" big hooks on thier jaws,males,
My Wife's cousin caught one 25" out of that hole once, it's crystal clear,BLUE,
I've used a mask&looked in just about every Trout stream in NY's Catskill region ,it's unreal what's there,

ONE more BIGFISH stoory......one Easter weekend, we had company visiting for the weekend, so we took a ride up to the NYC water supply reservoir ,one of many it's 180'deep in spots & they flooded 3 whole little towns in the 40s when it was built, [about 10minutes from my place /150+ -mi aboveNYC]
Anyway, we stopped &walked out on this bridge over a Trout stream that empties into it.....There going up into the crick was over a dozen HUGE trout Browns most likely upto about 15 to 17lbs,& a couple looked to be OVER 20lbs,,
We all just stood there open-mouthed,speechless, looking at those Trout,then at each other,not believing what we were looking at,that was back in the early 70s but I never forgot those fish either
There's been 20pounders caught out of there & some right off shore in spring on baitfish ,most big ones tho come from rowboats, no motors allowed! I've caught 5& 6pounders offthe shore on a KROCODILE SPOON,DAREDEVILS, niceBIG Trout ; SILVER with big black spots, they tend to turn all silvery in big water,& the real big ones ,are like that but big orange/red spots mixed w/ the blk ones too gorgeous fish

Krocidile spoons are what I have landed my biggest trout on. Teamed with 6 lb Florocarbon a 7'6" ugly stick lite and a quantum pti 20 and I feel comfortable on most any trout.

And the creek behind my house which runs year round flows into a big lake about a half hour drive away. In the winter when it get flowing my old fishing neighbor says he sees 3' fish every year that come out of the lake to spawn in the river. I have looked and haven't seen any monsters yet (every time I go it seems I am to late and they have gone back). Last year I saw a couple in the 16" range but no monsters.

The creek is cold enough to hold trout and I normally take only about 3 fish every year because it is so small. The first year I lived here I caught 15 in the season. But I don't want to fish the creek out so I leave them unless I have some freinds over that want to catch a fish.

What the creek is chalk full of is Sacromento Pike Minnow, or Squawfish as people call them. Annoying when fishing for trout because they eat whatever you throw normally.

The KROC is a "Killer" no matter where you fish!
I got a 5 POUND / 25inch{ EDIT not 5inch } Brown on a KROC once that must've been trailing the spoon or swimming along side it because all of a sudden it just stopped dead, then when I yanked , it felt real heavy,
This was about a week after the season opened ,water was cold, fish were sluggish,
I thought I had a 15+POUND Laker or something , so I kept pressure on & it came ,but SLOW & it felt huge, I was all excited.
I was using a 9' med-lt spin rod with 8# mono XL Trilene, & an old SHIMANO GTMKIII,reel,old faithful reel, caught loads of fish with it even steelhead including my biggest ,
So it took me a few minutes to get him in , then I see it's hooked in the dorsal fin at the base!!
He must've "bumped" the spoon or it hooked him when he went to turn around to go back to deeper water ,from following, or "siding" that spoon!!

So, what could I do? didn't have the heart to kill him, I let him go,LOL

The BIG Trout you told about ,that ate the stocked fish,the ones you thought were just a story,
reminded me of something that happened here, only with BASS .......BIG Bass
There was a pond
,still here, but it was private, property,
It was originally part of a Hotel/bar/ resort type set up; small , had a few bungalows with it ,
People used to ice skate on the pond ,
Well , anyway it went out oof business in the 60s, the whole property just grew full of weeds,tall grass trees , [we're talking 20years + time span,60s to mid late 80s]
Now all the land around that pond was SNAKE HEAVEN, big Black Snakes water snakes, all kinds.....right up to COPPERHEADS, & TIMBER RATTLERS, so it didn't get alot of fishing pressure, only a few locals would fish there ; because it had BASS that weighed as much as 9lbs in it!!!!
I used to ease my way around the pond casting either a Plastic Worm ,rigged Texas style ,mostly without weight, or a Black JIG' N'PIG ,
I tried all types ,colors, lengths of Worm, up to 12inch Mann's JELLY WORMS & the Absolute best, my Favorite the CULPRIT WORM, 10" in "Water Moccassin" & in BlackSHAD,
with BassProShop SQUIRM"N"WORM, it was" FLORIDA BLACK GRAPE"
The CULPRIT is THE best tho ,I think it's because it's a bigger target you can feel them chew it while they run with it ,