[Note: I’m posting my fishing journal from 2015 as “retro trip reports” in chronological order and plan to write up future trips directly on the blog. I drowned my iPhone 4S on this trip, and so lost all of the photos.]
Weather: breezy (15-25 mph), muggy, mix of overcast, rain sprinkles, and sun, predicted thunderstorms didn’t materialize
This was James’s first for real fishing trip. I was only back two days from Dark Canyon and my left foot is still hurting and lame. I planned the trip on the way back, then thought we’d have to call it off because the forecast called for 60% showers and thunderstorms and wind. It improved late on Saturday to only 40% so we decided to take a run at it.
The morning looked pretty good, no rain, no obvious threatening rain. We first went up to the little upper pool on Grannis, as I thought that would be the best chance for James to catch his first trout. The connecting road to C24 was closed for repairs, so we had to detour to the west. We went to the Bear Creek parking lot where there were two cars. Passing the upper Grannis parking lot there were two cars. We got to the little upper pool at about 10.15. There was nobody there, but there were obvious recent tire tracks and footprints, likely from earlier in the morning. The water level seemed a little down from the last time – it was very clear and nowhere to really hide and there was already more weed growth in the water. There were 4-5 decent trout sitting in the tail of the deep bowl pool but they were completely uninterested. I think the pool had been fished heavily earlier in the day. We tried woolly buggers then I tied a killer bug on for James and we got it down to where they were, but they just totally ignored everything. Oh well.
So we headed to The Stream Whose Name Must Not Be Uttered. I was dismayed to find a car there already and almost pulled the plug, but we suited up and went down. James was wearing his waders for the first time ever. The undergrowth had really sprouted green since the last time, and this revealed more of a set path down to the water, basically the same way I went last time. I guess whoever else was on the stream had gone downstream, because we went upstream and didn’t see anyone all day. I thought I saw fresh tracks, so maybe the person got there early, went upstream, and then had gone downstream before we arrived.
I got James set up by the sunken log at the tail of the first excellent upstream pool, right where you come down. There were creek chub feeding and rising so I was pretty sure we’d get him his first fish. He had lots of follows and strikes, but still can’t really see the fly and can’t yet see the strikes. Eventually he caught one, but by snagging it near the pectoral fin as it tried to strike. Oh well, counts. I took a photo of him with it with my iPhone. Shortly afterward he got one properly, a nice sized one hooked in the lip. Shortly after that, I mindlessly put my iPhone not in my pants pocket, but in my waders pocket. Then I waded into the upper part of the pool. I got the phone out to take a picture of James casting in his waders and it was completely drowned. Water ran out of the charging port for quite a while. I pressed the home button (bad idea, it turns out) and it was completely nonfunctional. Weirdly, later on the flashlight function of the flash came on spontaneously and couldn’t be shut off. It stayed on through the evening until it drained the battery. Back home, internet research quickly pointed me toward putting it in a ziplock full of uncooked rice to draw out the moisture. Supposed to stay in it for 2-3 days. Big question is whether it shorted out. If not, there is some chance it will come back. At time of writing, it’s still drying in the bag [note added later: it never came back to life and had to be replaced with a new iPhone 6]. At least the battery was for sure run down by the flash, so it can’t wake up for texts or whatever and short out before it’s dry. Unless it already did.
ANYWAY, James was a trouper. He was wobbly in his waders and uncertain at first, but by the end of the day he was confident and wading everywhere without worry or problems. He went on to catch one little tiny fish, maybe two inches long, that we’ll count as a small creek chub, though it could have been anything, plus a fourth small but not tiny creek chub (he says – I was a little upstream and didn’t see it up close). So four hooked and landed fish, fine for his first ever real trip. I hope the phone comes back, or I won’t have a photo of his first first. There are no other photos for this trip because of the early phone drowning.
For me, a lot of the time was spent sorting James out, unsnarling James’s snarls, etc., and several prime places I positioned him and let him have first go. At the upper part of the first nice pool, where I caught one of the big browns last time, I caught something foreign to me, a bass-like little critter. Internet tells me it might have been a green sunfish or possibly a bluegill. Bluegill is supposed to be less likely based on habitat, but I’m pretty sure it had a blue, not black, gill cover spot. I took a photo of it before the camera was killed, so if it comes back I should be able to get a better ID. Apart from that, I caught 15 creek chub. I saw several trout, mostly getting spooked. I’m pretty sure I had one briefly hooked, maybe another, and another couple of strikes.