Keep Calm and Fly Fish

I last visited the Upper Kings river over three years ago in October and fished some of the best fly fishing water the Central Valley had to offer. Since that trip my wife and I bought our first home and welcomed our baby girl to the world. It’s been three years of the classic taking care of the kids and working on the house routine. Now that things are finally starting to settle down I found some time to plan a second trip to the Upper Kings with my cousins. The plan was to spend two nights at Garnet Dike and explore the river above it that is only accessible through hiking, boulder hopping, and bushwhacking.

The Upper Kings has had its fair share of getting beaten by mother nature since I was last there in 2022. In 2024 the road to Garnet Dike was destroyed after several winter storms. Large boulders and landslides blocked several parts of the road and rushing water carved out other portions of it. The road would be closed indefinitely until repaired which happened surprisingly fast reopening mid-2025. Just after the reopening the Upper Kings was hit by a lightning storm in August that sparked the Garnet Fire which burned over 60,000 acres of the north side of the river. Although things look to have calmed down at this time we have yet to see the outcome of what the Garnet Fire will have on the river this coming winter and spring.

Fresno is about a three-hour drive from my location and I wanted to get on the river before the sunset. We were able to meet up and be on the river a little past noon. The weather was much warmer than I had expected in mid-November with highs in the 80s and lows in 60s. The flows on the Upper Kings were at around 300 CFS which was a bit on the low end for my tastes but still plenty of good water fish. The water was starting to really cool down for the winter but just warm enough to keep the fish active. I didn’t observe a whole lot of insect activity despite the warm weather. It felt like most of the hatches were done for the year with just a few appearances of caddis and mayflies throughout the day.

The fishing was great. The first day we fished a little less than a mile above the Kings River Trail exploring all the different holes and pockets. The following day we explored a little further past where we had left off the previous day and covered about a total of a 1.5 miles of water above the trailhead. The fish were taking all kinds of flies but seemed to like the prince nymph and BWO patterns the most. Most of the fish were found in pockets, seams, and tailouts. The deep beautiful pools where we should’ve found some monsters were unfortunately empty.

The last day we fished below Garnet Dike and the difference in fish density compared to the section above it was night and day. Although we only fished parts of the river that were easily accessible from the road the fishing was tough. It just didn’t seem like there a lot of fish and you had to really work to find them. It would be interesting to see if the spots that take more effort to get to fishes better.

Overall this visit to the Upper Kings was a great. There’s is still a lot of unexplored water to see on the Upper Kings river and I am looking forward to making more trips in the future.

Kings Canyon is the second deepest canyon in North America with a depth of 7,700ft. Carved by glaciers of the past the tall granite walls that overlook the river are truly a sight to be seen. The Kings River is made up of three forks: the South, Middle, and North fork. All three of these forks converge to form the Upper Kings River which flows into Pine Flat Dam just outside of Fresno, CA.

I’ve fished Lower Kings below Pine Flat a few times in the past and fishing can be decent when it’s stocked. Between Pine Flat bridge downstream to Alta Weir is a put-and-take fishery that is just as heavily stocked as it is fished. From Alta Weir downstream to HWY 180 bridge is a stocked catch-and-release fishery. This section was created primarily to offer anglers an opportunity to fish for bigger trout just outside city limits. In a discussion with my cousin who is a local we discussed the issue of poaching within Central California. There is a large ethnic population within Fresno and the Lower Kings River is the only accessible river that is stocked with trout. My cousin spoke of people keeping more than their limit and poaching within the catch-and-release section. Not only is there the issue of overfishing and illegal fishing but also of river release. The Lower Kings is probably best fished at 500 – 600 CFS however the flows are heavily dependent on agriculture; extreme flows during the spring and summer are reduced to a trickle in the fall and winter. The Lower Kings is truly an unfortunate tailwater fishery.

The Upper Kings River above Pine Flat Dam is the ideal Central California fly fishing destination. It ticks all the boxes: freestone, difficult access, large trout, strict regulations, and prolific insect population. The Upper Kings River from above Pine Flat Dam to Garnet Dike allows a two trout limit and from Garnet Dike upstream to the confluence of the Middle and South Fork is catch-and-release only. All the trout in the Upper Kings are wild making this a special fishery.

My research on the seasons of the Upper Kings tells me that it is best fished during the fall (late September – early November) when the water is lower and the temperatures are cooler. The spring (March – early May) looks like it can be good before the run-off turns the river into a dangerous raging torrent of death. The high flows continue until the run-off ends in the summer mid-June or early July. Although fishable in the summer (July – early September) the Upper Kings is subjected to high water temperatures making it potentially lethal to catch and release trout in the lower sections of the river. I’ve seen photos of anglers doing well catching smallmouth bass in the summer so the Upper Kings might be a good smallmouth fishery during the summer. The winter (late November – February) looks like it might a hit or miss depending on the weather. I’ve read that flows on the Upper Kings below 1000 CFS are fishable and below 500 CFS safely wadeable.

From the Lower Kings the road winds around Pine Flat Reservoir for about an hour until you get your first look at the Upper Kings. I recommend taking motion sickness medication if you are susceptible as it is incredibly windy and somewhat bumpy. Pass Bailey Bridge the road turns into a dirt road that travels through several campgrounds before the road ends at Garnet Dike. Although there were more campgrounds than I would have liked to have seen on the Upper Kings I observed that access to the river was restricted to a small area around them. The majority of the narrow dirt road placed us high above the river making scrambling down a steep canyon the only way to access the Upper Kings.

My cousin and I fished about a mile of water around Garnet Dike. The water temperatures were good and the flows were decent at around 185 CFS below the North Fork. One of the most interesting observations I made during this visit were shucks of October caddis on the rocks along the river. I had always thought that October caddis emerge like all other caddis so discovery this was pretty exciting.

The fishing was fair. The pattern I noticed with these Upper Kings River rainbow trout was that they were very pool oriented. I caught a few in pocketwater but the majority of them seem to be holding in pools that had riffles dropping into them or in the deep runs below them. I throat pumped a few to see what they were eating and discovered that they were eating a little bit of everything with the addition of lots of tricos which was fascinating as I’ve only found trico eaters on spring creeks. The pattern that we did the best with was a prince nymph but we had grabs on frenchies and caddis emergers as well. The average size fish was about 14″ and the fish of the day was 18″. I was pleasantly surprised how hard these Upper Kings rainbows fought. Though they were spread out quite a bit each fish was worth hooking into.

Due to how remote the area is I concluded that the Upper Kings isn’t day trip friendly. It can be done however the best experience would have been to fish the entire day and then camp at one of the various campgrounds overnight. There was a ton of water that we weren’t able to get to before it got too dark. The Upper Kings is a fantastic wild trout fishery that I hope to someday fish again in the future. I’m thinking of a backpacking trip either hiking in from the Kings River trail or going down the Yucca Point trail to the confluence of the Middle and South forks. So much water so little time.