Heritage Trout Challenge – Page 4 – Keep Calm and Fly Fish

Out of the six heritage trout on my list the one I looked forward to catching the most was the McCloud River Redband Trout. I had already caught a Lahontan Cutthroat from the Upper Truckee and now I was off to my second heritage trout. The McCloud River Redband was once the only trout native to the McCloud River system above Middle Falls. Natural barriers in the form of impassable waterfalls have separated this sub-species from their coastal rainbow cousins for thousands of years. This allowed Mother Nature to take her place on the easel and paint the bright red band we see today on these beautiful fish.

The McCloud River Redband is one of rarest sub-species of rainbow trout in the world due to it’s small population. I would categorize the McCloud River Redband as the second rarest trout in California after the Paiute Cutthroat. Unlike the California Golden Trout and the Little Kern Golden Trout, many of the tributaries that hold populations of McCloud River Redbands are closed to fishing all year. The only place in the world where you can catch a McCloud River Redband legitimately is Trout Creek and Swamp Creek.

Although rare in the wild, the McCloud River Redband was one of the easier heritage trout to catch. No epic hikes over a mountain pass, no driving on high clearance dirt roads for hours, and no prospecting from hole to hole to find your fish. A fairly long drive and simple trip to Trout Creek and you’ve got yourself a pretty lil’ redband.

My fiancee and I planned on staying the night at Trout Creek Campground since the distance was a bit too far away to make it a day trip. We packed the night before and left the following day at 10am and arrived at the campground at around 4pm, pit-stops included.
“I think we’ve been spoiled,” I told my fiancee. The campground was suprisingly packed full of RVs, ATVs, and occupants. We drove around the campsite a bit and finally found a small spot next to the creek. Once the tent and bedding was set up, I strung my 2WT and set off to explore the creek. Like most heritage trout waters, small stream fly fishing tactics was the name of the game.

After a few minutes of bushwhacking and hiking downstream I finally found a nice bucket that looked fishy. I made a few casts with my dry and got a good rise. Fish on! However… the fly came loose. I could still see the fish so I threw a few more cast to see if I could get it to rise again. Luck was on my side as I finally rose it once more and claimed my heritage trout.

The water in Trout Creek was running a bit low but I was able to find a few holes deep enough to hold fish. Several more redbands came to hand before I ended my day.

The following morning I set out to explore the upstream to see if I could find any fish. To my surprise I found nothing. Perplexed and a bit disappointed, I backtracked downstream and fished the area I was the day before. I caught two more pretty redbands and called the trip a success.

The fishing on Trout Creek was decent but the camping was less than stellar. Parts of the creek had cans and garbage in it, the RVs next to us had guests that were very loud, and the humming of ATVs on the road broke the immersion of fishing for rare trout in the middle of nowhere. My fiancee and I both agreed that we wouldn’t be returning to Trout Creek Campground any time soon.

McCloud River – Middle Falls
On the way out of Trout Creek we stopped by Middle Falls to check out the waterfall. We passed an informational sign that told us about the history on the falls. There was a picture of a brook trout, rainbow trout, and brown trout that caught my attention.

About halfway down the trail to the falls it hits me. “Damn it… I should have brought my rod”. I ran back up to the car, put together my rod, put on my vest and neoprene socks, and ran back down to the falls.

“There are five people fishing here,” my fiancee said with a bit of disappointment. “I’m sure it’ll be fine,” I replied. I observed the other anglers as I strung my rod. No problem.

The McCloud River was fishing great. Throughout the time I was there I caught several stockies and one wild rainbow. I was looking for a McCloud River brown.

I hiked a bit downstream to try and stay out of the other anglers way. The banks along the river were heavily overgrown so I had to bushwhack through what looked like a small animal trail to get to the water.
After trying a few holes downstream with nothing but a few rainbows, I waded upstream and fished a decent looking pool. I made my cast and rose a fish. It’s a brown! “Yes!”. Into the net a McCloud River brown trout.

The California heritage trout challenge has always been an interest of mine since I started fly fishing. The challenge involves catching and photographing six different trout species from their native watershed. Easier said than done. Each species of trout lives in a different area of California ranging from the rocky Northern Coast to the remote High Sierra Nevadas. As a trout heritage challenger expect long hikes, curved and sloped roads, and beautiful Golden State wilderness.

The Lahontan Cutthroat Trout was once the only trout native to the Eastern side of the Sierra Nevadas other than the Eagle Lake rainbow trout. Historical documents recall LCTs that were over ten pounds living in their native Truckee, Susan, Carson, and Walker riversheds. However with the introduction of dams, logging, over harvesting, mining, and non-native species, the LCT lost over 90% of their native habitat. Today only small populations of LCT reside in their native range. The Upper Truckee is one of the few LCT fisheries in California where these are fish are self-sustaining. Independence Lake is also a noteworthy achievement in LCT conservation.

After careful planning and consideration, I decided that the LCT would be my first qualifying heritage trout. A visit to the Upper Truckee drainage could easily be made in a day trip since the drive to Tahoe was only three hours.

The missus and I woke up at 6:20 in morning and we were out of the house by 7:30. I decided the day before that we should cut around Sacramento due to morning work day traffic. We drove through the smoke filled towns of Lincoln and Auburn and finally hit HWY 50 after Placerville. Once we rode through HWY 89 and HWY 88 we finally arrived at our destination, the Meiss Meadow trailhead.

“That was not a moderate hike!” my fiancee stated as she caught up to me. The hike from the PCT to the beginning of the meadow took about 2-3 hours. The climb over the ridge was a bit exhausting but the USFS does a great job as describing it as a moderate hike, not too easy but not strenuous. “That wasn’t too bad.” I replied.
There were a lot more hikers than we expected but they were spread throughout the trail and meadow.
The meadow was beautiful. Typical Tahoe terrain.

The first thing that caught our interest in the meadow were a pair of wooden buildings. Further inspection taught us that these two buildings, a cabin and a storage unit, were built by the Meiss family who owned the land way back then. Along the historical buildings ran a small stream, the Upper Truckee.

I narrowed my eyes to get a better look at the structure of the stream. As I took a step to get closer to the stream I saw a small fish dart out of the main current into the heavy cover along the bank.

After I set up my 2WT rigged with a size 14 humpy, I sighted a decent size fish holding in a concave pool in a tailout. I made several casts and finally rose the fish. My first Lahontan cutthroat trout!

The cutthroat was very squirmy and I lost it before getting a good picture. No worries, looks like I’ll just have to catch another one.

I found several more fish but they weren’t rising for my humpy. “What do these fish want?” I took a second to observe my surroundings and found a ton of small black stoneflies swarming around. This gave me the idea of using a black midge pattern since I didn’t have any patterns that size and color. After the switch I caught several more LCTs that were also just as squirmy as the first but fortunately not camera shy. The Upper Truckee was fishing great. A fun mix of small stream and spring creek sight fishing.

After an hour and a few fish in hand we decided to hike up to Showers Lake which was about two miles north. The last mile incline to the lake was tough and the thousands of mosquitoes that were eating us didn’t help either. We finally reached Showers Lake but couldn’t find any fish aside from little chubs. Either the five year drought had an impact on the lake or the fish were deeper. A bit of a bummer but we made it!

We hiked back down to the meadow and fished the Upper Truckee again before leaving. I helped the missus land her first LCT and caught one last for myself.

The hike back down to the trailhead was much quicker than coming up. We made great time back to the car which was good as the sun was beginning to go down.

We most likely won’t return to Meiss Meadows anytime soon so we took a ton of photos. We came, we saw, we conquered. That’s one down, five more to go.