My last trip up to the San Gabriel River was let’s say “interesting”! Filled with exploring little tributaries and portions of the West Fork that are extremely hard to get to. All of the work climbing over boulders, under fallen tress, and through poison oak producing some very beautiful dark colored Rainbow Trout. It was amazing to see the coloration of these fish, almost more resembling a Brown Trout. Equally astonishing was their readiness to take anything that hit the suface of the water. I specifically remember catching about 20 4-9″ fish out of just one tiny little hole. I guess a little adventuring does pay off, even if your legs are burning for a couple of days!
I’ve heard a lot of stories and have seen many pictures of Rainbow Trout with mouth deformities. But never had I caught one until now. I caught this fish on a lower section of the East Fork of the San Gabriel River. I’ve heard of these deformities occurring often in Hatchery raised fish due to over and inter breeding. That would make sense as a lot of these wild Rainbows on the lower portions of the river are descendants of hatchery fish. It did however get me thinking that we might be having a part in these deformities. Especially since I see all kinds of foreign substances introduced in the stream that could wreak havok on these fishes genetic code, as they form. I have seen alcohol, shampoo, plastics, etc. So the next time you’re up in a mountain stream and you see trash on the river, pick it up. Or if you see someone introducing a polutant, stop them and let them know the effects of what they are doing. Let’s remember that these streams are our backyard and the fish that inhabit them are a source of recreation for many people across the south land. I know I want the next generation to be able to enjoy it as I have, do you?
It’s been a while since I’ve gotten the chance to catch a Tilapia. I was going through my pictures the other day, and found this one from a trip up to the San Gabriel River Bed last year. The last time that we were up there it looked really dead, just one cruising Carp. I heard a rumor from someone that DFG only stocks male Tilapia in California waterways, so as not to overpopulate them. Now I don’t know if this is just in the recent years or if this is true at all. I guess we will just have to make a trip down there to find out ourselves. Please if you fish there practice catch and release. If this is true there are only so many fish to be caught, and if not I don’t think that they would be safe to eat anyway.
This week have been one of the worst that I have ever had in my life. My Grandmother is sick in the hospital with a heart attack and lung failure, Work has been crazy, I think I tore a ligament in my knee, and a kid stepped on my fly rod at a Park Lake breaking it in half. With all that said part of the reason why I fly fish is because of the relaxation, joy, irony, frustration along with the many other thing that I get out of it. It’s funny because within all of this chaos, I decided to take a 30 minute breather at a Local Park only to be pleasantly surprised by catching 5 Goldfish in a row. This inevitable put a huge smile on my face as I found myself thinking about how they got there (The little kid that I had never met that decided his goldfish were too big for his fish bowl or the Vietnamese guy who put them in as a tribute to a recently lost relative). Whatever the case catching them was fun and that to me is what Fly Fishing is all about “having a little bit of fun”.
I ‘ll bet you $20, I can catch a smaller fish than you can. I seem to have been born with this strange ability to catch record sized fish. Not the record sized fish that you want to catch (big fish), but some of the smallest fish that I have ever seen. I am not even sure half the time how the fish get the fly is it’s mouth, since the fly is usually about as big as the fish. So, I will continue to post pictures of fish about the size of my wedding ring and take really close up pictures to make then look like monsters.
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