It’s not often you get to mark something off your bucket list. But finally, After 2500 miles of travel, over 20 miles of hiking, and 2 days in the wilderness… Andrew and I were going to be doing just that. The California golden trout is arguably one of the most vibrantly colored and incredible trout on the planet and just being within their native range was something that seemed like a pipe dream only a few years earlier. Day 3 in California had us hiking up a mountain in the middle of the Sierra’s on a quest to finally land one of the most legendary species of trout.
After going on probably the most scenic 3 mile hike of the entire trip, we reached the first spring creek of the day. This particular creek I had almost no information on, but couldn’t figure out why there wouldn’t be golden trout in it. This is what we like to call blue lining, which is essentially just fishing a blue line on a map with no real expectation of what would be in it. The worst case scenario there were no fish and we would head up to the more famous golden trout waters. And the Best case scenario was we find a hidden gem and catch our first ever California golden trout.
We had done it. The legendary California golden trout that we had put so high on a pedestal was now yet another fish to land in our net. After finding the spring head on that stream we decided we’d hit a handful of other creeks within a close hiking distance. That landed us in some of the most incredible country we’d had the chance to fish this far in California.
It’s hard not to fall in love with the variation of color on these little pieces of California gold. The second creek produced fish arguably even more incredible than the first… and after catching more than a few fish we decided to hit yet another spring fed creek. I figured we might as well catch fish in a few different areas to get a true taste of what the California golden trout had to offer… and this stream had some of the most incredibly clear water I had ever seen
That creek was short but sweet. For some reason stalking through the bushes and site fishing has always been among my favorite ways to target trout.. and to do it in this pristine stream for the California golden trout was a surreal experience that I will never forget. After we finished fishing that stream we decided we had energy for one more creek, which was yet another unique stream all of it’s own.
4 creeks, 16 miles, and a set of priceless memories. And just like that the day had come to an end. There’s a weird euphoric feeling you get when you accomplish a goal that you’ve held for so long. The blissful happiness of the moment almost feels bittersweet, and before long you’re heading back down the mountain. As the memory quickly begins to fade I always set my sites on a new goal. Because without something to work towards I feel a sense of emptiness. Spending this time with my brother has also become more important to me as we get older. He now lives across the country so the time we spend together dwindles ever smaller year after year. The days of fishing together nonstop are over, and it signals the end of an era. So I couldn’t care less if this video got 0 views, because I can promise you I would come back and watch this video time and time again just to experience what we got to enjoy on that mountain in the middle of nowhere California. Thanks for watching.
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