i have a lot of great memories at rfc with my family, so i still feel pulled there once or twice a year. decided to take a day off and drive out monday night and arrive late so i could night fish and then fish in the morning tuesday in relative solitude. instead, i got almost total solitude. but it looks like there's a reason for that, besides just being a weekday.
first sign something was off was my night fishing scout when i got there. never seen the paths so over-grown. creek looked about normal for this time of year, but i saw more beaver and muskrat at the upper lot pool than trout. saw 1 fish just below the bridge, a pair of beavers hard at work the whole time. walked to the dock to scan the water, saw nothing. i didn't bother to fish, just watched and then retired to the middle lot to sleep.
at 6:30 i woke up and headed back to the upper lot and looked around again. no fish. then i went back to the middle lot and walked to the creek and scouted the normal spots - zero fish. zero wallowing backs/rises out in the flats. and zero pelicans, which would make me happy if it didn't seem to indicate there are no fish.
so i got back in the car and headed to the lower lot. walked to the bridge - nothing. crossed and walked down scouting usual spots as i went - nothing. here i did see some pelicans, but no fish, and no signs of fish. no wallowing, no rises, no cruisers. got down to the lower spillway where the stream gets more freestoney/creeky and walked and watched - saw nothing. i noted that the stream is in a new channel in this section - out of the rocky channel, very narrow, very weedy. it's a different creek down there now than it normally is. then i caught some movement and zeroed in on...a carp as long as my lower leg and twice as thick. troutiest water i've ever seen a carp in. saw two more of those, then headed back up.
at the upper pool, i located the one fish i saw the night before in the same spot, holding below the bridge and feeding. i worked on him with this and that for a while and got some looks and refusals, then wandered around just enjoying the sun and bird sounds for a while. came back and gave the one fish one more cast with a fly he had already seen, and he pounced on it. good fish, looked clean and healthy, fought well. i was worried about over-tiring him and tried to get him in too quickly, picked a bad angle and broke him off. was about 21" i'll guess.
i know the creek goes through cycles and so does the stocking, but i've never seen it remotely close to being this barren. seemingly devoid of trout. i'm guessing from the overgrown paths all over the creek that it has been like this for a while, cause no one is walking those paths. i guess the good news is if you like it there, now's your chance to enjoy it in solitude. i know i did.
in recent years i'd guess i normally see several groups of a dozen or more pelicans up and down the creek. yesterday i saw 1 pelican near the upper lot, and a group of 4 down by the lower hatchery. that was it. maybe with covid limiting angler travel they decided it could be a good chance to let the pelicans empty the cupboard and maybe abandon the creek?
i hit another unnamed spot after leaving the creek and connected with a couple of fish, landing one. equal to the first section of my rod, so ~25" and clean as a whistle.
first sign something was off was my night fishing scout when i got there. never seen the paths so over-grown. creek looked about normal for this time of year, but i saw more beaver and muskrat at the upper lot pool than trout. saw 1 fish just below the bridge, a pair of beavers hard at work the whole time. walked to the dock to scan the water, saw nothing. i didn't bother to fish, just watched and then retired to the middle lot to sleep.
at 6:30 i woke up and headed back to the upper lot and looked around again. no fish. then i went back to the middle lot and walked to the creek and scouted the normal spots - zero fish. zero wallowing backs/rises out in the flats. and zero pelicans, which would make me happy if it didn't seem to indicate there are no fish.
so i got back in the car and headed to the lower lot. walked to the bridge - nothing. crossed and walked down scouting usual spots as i went - nothing. here i did see some pelicans, but no fish, and no signs of fish. no wallowing, no rises, no cruisers. got down to the lower spillway where the stream gets more freestoney/creeky and walked and watched - saw nothing. i noted that the stream is in a new channel in this section - out of the rocky channel, very narrow, very weedy. it's a different creek down there now than it normally is. then i caught some movement and zeroed in on...a carp as long as my lower leg and twice as thick. troutiest water i've ever seen a carp in. saw two more of those, then headed back up.
at the upper pool, i located the one fish i saw the night before in the same spot, holding below the bridge and feeding. i worked on him with this and that for a while and got some looks and refusals, then wandered around just enjoying the sun and bird sounds for a while. came back and gave the one fish one more cast with a fly he had already seen, and he pounced on it. good fish, looked clean and healthy, fought well. i was worried about over-tiring him and tried to get him in too quickly, picked a bad angle and broke him off. was about 21" i'll guess.
i know the creek goes through cycles and so does the stocking, but i've never seen it remotely close to being this barren. seemingly devoid of trout. i'm guessing from the overgrown paths all over the creek that it has been like this for a while, cause no one is walking those paths. i guess the good news is if you like it there, now's your chance to enjoy it in solitude. i know i did.
in recent years i'd guess i normally see several groups of a dozen or more pelicans up and down the creek. yesterday i saw 1 pelican near the upper lot, and a group of 4 down by the lower hatchery. that was it. maybe with covid limiting angler travel they decided it could be a good chance to let the pelicans empty the cupboard and maybe abandon the creek?
i hit another unnamed spot after leaving the creek and connected with a couple of fish, landing one. equal to the first section of my rod, so ~25" and clean as a whistle.