June 18th, 2005 Mystery Creek

Time: 9:00am - 1:30pm
Weather: Overcast and cool
Water Temps: Didn't check.
Water Level: Slightly high
Water Conditions: Very slightly off color and weedy.
Insects Observed: Didn't check
Hours fished: 4.5
# of fish caught:  5
Method: Short Line Nymphing
Set Up: 7'0" 7'0" Fast Action Cane Rod W. Cattanach 704-3 made by yours truly, 7.5ft Orvis 6x leader to first nypmh. 12" Orvis 6x to second nymph. Split shot as needed 6-8 inches above first fly.

Narrative:

The wacky weather that we’ve been having this year forced me to skip my planned day hike into the high country. Mid June and it’s still snowing in the Sierras. The back up plan was Mystery Creek. Mystery Creek I was sure was not blown out by high water. I was right but about a dozen other people were thinking the same. Again, the creek was crowded.

I’d really set my sights on fishing the Emigrant Wilderness but I enjoy fishing Mystery Creek. The weather was nice and the water slightly off color. Mosquitoes were out and on the hunt. My brother in law, Chad , again led the charge upstream.

Mystery Creek was unforgiving today. The fishing was tough, tough, tough. I don’t really know why, it’s obvious that the streams been hit pretty hard since opening day and maybe it is simply fished out. Chad, who is pretty good at sighting fish, had only seen one fish all day. Between the two of us, we had only landed one fish in the first 3 hours of fishing. That fish was one that I had foul hooked just below the gill plate. It was a good fish and gave me quite a tussle before it came to hand.

We reached the big fish water about mid day. It was empty, which is surprising due to the pressure the stream is facing and the fact that it is considered the best (read: easiest) hole in the river. Chad and I quickly set up at the two pools. I hooked and released two fish rather quickly. Not unusual for this spot; but even here, the fishing was tough. I fished the lower lie and Chad fished the upper. On our last trip we had done the opposite. I fished the upper while he fished the lower.

We were quickly joined by a bait fishing couple. The fish were striking very, very lightly and I barely managed to catch two additional fish before Chad and I swapped places. We went fishless from that point forward. Shortly, another bait fisher and then 3 of his family members showed up and we decided that 8’s a crowd and called it a day.

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