Some More Time In The Backcountry

The heatwave has dissipated somewhat and it's finally starting to feel like fall.  With that in mind we set out with our backpacks to try out luck at some wild trout.  With headlamps we hiked through the night and made our way into the backcountry.   

Awakening to a cold morning just above freezing, we sluggishly made breakfast and set up for the day's fishing.  Already set up with dry-dropper rig, I was too lazy and my fingers too cold to re-rig with a more appropriate nymphing set up.  That did not stop Chul though as he re-rigged with a Czech nymph.  I waited until well past 10am before I started to really fish hard when the sun finally hit he water activating the sluggish fish.

We both managed several fish all on dry flies until the wind picked up and put down the fish.  Fishing was slow but we manged a fish here and there.  Apparently from our conversations with several other fishermen, we didn't do half bad as they all struggled to get fish to bite.  Seemed like all of them were nymphing and couldn't get many if any to take.  So we decided to forgo the last day and pack out Saturday.

Summer of Suck Continues

Spent some time at one of the locals only to find the once great stream is now devoid of any fish.  Thanks drought.

MVL In A Sorry State

Orange County's once premier private bass lake has died.  Golden algae has devastated the fish population.  Mass die offs happened earlier this year, halting trout plants.   As a result Mission Viejo Lake recently began planting tilapia and catfish.  Since neither Chul or I had ever caught a tilapia on a fly, we thought we'd give it a shot.  What a waste.  We have never seen the water in such a sorry state.  It's quite a shame.  All the fish we saw were died ones floating on the surface.  One at the docks which was a tiny sunfish and later a 2 pound catfish.  We were told the tilapia were holding deep.  Without a fish finder and armed with only 5 weights with 150 and 220 grain heads it was pointless.

Cognet Le Capucin

Cognet is a French company dating back 1835 and has been a family business since 1902.  They gained a worldwide reputation for their famous Douk-Douk knife.  Among their lineup is Le Capucin, a classic French shepherd's knife. 

Carried by the Romans, the friction folder design is one of the oldest known knife design still in existence.   With origins from the Pyrenees, this knife is also known as "the knife with two pins."  The name comes from the fact that it has two pins, a pivot pin and a stop pin. 

Le Capucin derives from the fact that the end of the knife's handle resembles the hood worn by the a group of Friars, the Orders of Friars Minor Capuchin.

Somewhat antiquated by today's standard, the friction folder is a simple design made from a single piece of wood without any liners, backspring, or lock thus creating a very lightweight knife at 1.5 ounces.  

The blade is said to resemble a sage leaf.  It is flat ground and forged out of XC75 carbon steel.  Although there is no nail nick there is plenty of steel to grip to open the blade.  Markings on the steel are kept to a minimum with only a discreet Cognet logo on the steel.

The handle accommodates my medium sized hands and there is plenty of room for larger.  Le Capucin comes in several variations of handle materials from horn to wood but I choose the olive wood version. 

A close up view of the two pins.  While I love any knife (or any product) with a story or history, it seems the French knives keep getting my attention. 

Maserin Mushroom Knife 804/OL

For some time now I've wanted to start mushroom hunting.  Unfortunately due to the drought conditions, it has made mushroom hunting in Southern California pointless.  So I'll have to wait until we get some wet years before I can go out and try my new folding blade.

Having never hunted mushrooms I looked at several knives before choosing on the Italian Maserin 804 in olive handles.  While there are mushroom knives more expensive, this Maniago hand-made Maserin can be considered a "higher" end model at $82.95.  Most quality models from reputable companies like the Italian made Mercury, or French made Opinels start at around $30.  Unlike most mushroom knives the 804 comes with a sheath.  Also included is a warranty card.

Generally all mushroom knives come with a blade, a brush, and a ruler.  Price differences lie in how those features are incorporated into the knife and it goes without saying so does fit finish and teh quality of materials.

If you've never seen a mushroom knife, a unique feature of most mushroom knives is the design of the blade.  Most blades have some kind of curve and like most Maserin mushroom blades this model has a two tier concave design.   The locking blade is made of 440 stainless steel.  There is a large nail nick but I find it unnecessary as there is plenty of steel to hold on to while opening the knife.

The handles are made of olive wood held together with four pins.  At the butt of the handle houses the rotating concealable mushroom brush that is made of nylon.  On one side of the handle is an etched metric ruler to add in positive identification.

On the other side it is plain without any etchings or markings.

Typical in most mushroom knives I've seen the handles have no bolsters.  Both the liner and backspring are stainless steel.  The lock is located at the middle of the spring.  The liners do not extend all the way down the scales as it stops where the rotating brush is located.

In the Swiss Army Knife fashion there is tweezers hidden in the handle.  Easily accessible for picking twigs or debris off mushrooms.

A two position belt cordura belt sheath is included.  Carrying the knife vertically accommodates belts just over 2.5 inches while if you choose to carry the knife horizontally you'll be lucky to fit it in a one inch belt.  While there is a two button closure the bottom button is perfect length for this knife.

Good Meal But Bad Fishing

Chul helped me out on a house project so I treated him to dinner and afterwards we attempted for an hour to coax a few bass on a popper in the darkness but had no luck.  Maybe next time.

Quick Session

Spent about an hour on the local brown water managed a carp within the first few minutes.  After that I did some exploring of new sections of river that was loaded with carp sunning in skinny water.  Winds were already blowing hard when I arrived so I didn't spend too much time fishing.

Morning Carping

Spent couple hours in the late morning chasing down some carp.  Managed three to hand before I started filming off a mini tripod.  Once I did that it seemed like the fish got video shy and refused to take even at the most perfectly presented fly.  I could have sworn some of those were taken but it seemed only to spook the fish off.  I later learned my hook had broken off and would have at least doubled my tally for the day had I known.

Hiked 18 Total Miles To Catch One Fish Among Us

After monitoring weather reports, we decided to hit up the backcountry as cooler weather was predicted.  This cooler weather though came at a price, thunderstorms in the high country.  Despite knowing this we risked the tough fishing in the hopes we could fool a fish or two.

We left Thursday afternoon hoping to beat the holiday weekend traffic.  We arrive at the trailhead and with headlamps readied began our hike into the canyon as the sun was setting.  Knowing a full moon was in our future I packed a few mouse patterns in the slim hopes of getting an aggressive trout to come up at night.  We made camp and I threw a few casts without any success.  We noticed even with our headlamps the water was murky and visibility low.  Fishing tomorrow was going to be tough.

The plan was to hike in deep to an area we never seen before so we awoke made our breakfast and started our trek.  We tried not to let the murky water let us down but add the fact that it was going to be warm did not ease our minds.

Fishing was tough.  I tried every method possible- dries, dries and dropper, indicator nymphing, high sticking, Czech nymphing, drop shotting, streamer fishing with both floating line and sink tips.  Nothing.  To add insult to injury, cicadas and hoppers were abundant which would have been epic fishing had the conditions cooperated.

Chul finally hooked up with our only fish of the trip on a caddis pupa.  We pumped the stomach for contents and the fish was loaded with caddis pupa, larvae, mayfly nymphs of various sizes and a cicada.

We tried fishing a bit upstream until we decided to call it quits and head back to basecamp.  My new lightweight Patagonia Rock Grip boots I bought specifically for backcountry fishing disappointed me as it caused both heels to blister.  These made fishing even more miserable.  Moleskin didn't even help.  When we arrived back at camp we started preparing our freeze dried meals while we waited for the food to rehydrate we fished the twilight hours in the hopes of getting a trout to rise.  None were willing.  In fact we only saw four fish come up at this time.

In the morning we awoke, packed our gear and fished on the way out.  In retrospect we should have simply hiked out in the cooler early morning weather as the fishing was no better than the previous day despite the water clearing up to some degree.  We made it back to the truck treated with cold Gatorades, mango and oranges from the Yeti.  Our call to avoid driving home on Sunday was a brilliant move as the lower section of the river was an absolute zoo.  We headed to our favorite Mexican restaurant for lunch before heading home in time for the light show.

Happy Independence Day!

Canyon Lake Topwater Action

Lately I've been itching to catch some bucketmouths on poppers so when my buddy Luc texted me if I wanted to fish Canyon Lake, I jumped at the chance.  Originally Luc was to fish with guide Vaughn Podmore chasing yellowtail at Catalina this weekend but winds made Vaughn cancel the charter.

With his trip canceled Luc decided to fish Canyon for the weekend.  Yesterday he invited John and they did well with 20 fish among them in a very short 3 hour window.  And as always Luc doesn't lower himself to fish anything but poppers (at least on his lake).  Today I would join him to try our luck on the opposite side of the lake they were fishing.

Unlike public Socal lakes, Luc can launch his boat and fish anytime he wants.  So we fished prime time topwater hours hitting the water at 5am which meant I woke up after 3 hours of sleep at 3:30am to arrive at his house on time.

I started with the monster pink popper fly that I caught a beast at Barrett last year.  Luc was the first to hook up and after he managed a handful he suggest I change flies to a white or chartreuse popper.  When Luc makes a suggestion, it is wise to listen.  So I did as I only had one blow up (that I missed) as Luc was already managed a couple.

It was not long before I was on.  My first fish was a four pounder with many more that followed.  As always when Luc thought there was a fish sure enough a fish would come to the surface.

The intention was to only fish to about 9am as the topwater bite shuts down naturally once the sun hits the water but as we had some cloud cover we stay past 10am.  We could have continued but it was starting to get hot and most holes were already hammered by other fishermen so we packed it in.  I lost count of how many fish were landed but it was several, but I lost at least 3 and missed just as many if not more.

As It Used To Be

For the longest time I wanted to get a clopping carp.  So I hit up the local brown water to see if I could get a carp on a dry.  It was a calm overcast morning.

When I arrived on the water the carp were clopping but just not in the numbers as they were yesterday.  I put on a cottonwood seed fly I tied last night but it had no takers.  I'm not sure what they are feeding on but it must be small as I don't see anything coming off the water.  I switched to a parachute Adams.  Seeing several fish mudding and eating on the bottom, after an hour I gave up and decided to go subsurface. 

Frustrated I couldn't get any fish to take I moved to another section of the river.  This area was loaded.  The river is low and fish can be easily sight casted.  Humps could be seen all over as these they fed.  I managed more fish than I recall mostly in 6 pound range with the smallest at 4 pounds.  I did hook up with a fully charged carp that was at least 10 pounds and fought him for ten minutes until the fly popped out of his mouth 20 yards away.

This place used to be like this but its been years since I saw action this good.  It's good to see it back.  While I didn't get my clopper it was a great day.