Kayaking: Silver Fork American River 5/6/2014
Spring kayaking in California on the Silver Fork of the American River. Located just outside of Kyburz, CA, this run boast’s one of the steepest miles in Lars Holbek’s guidebook, “Best Whitewater in California”. An early morning lap with Scott Lindgren, Thomas Moore, Jared Nocetti, Scott Ligare, Taylor Cavin, and Robby Hogg. I did see a few fish rise right before the river rapidly started to drop. I have yet to bring my fly rod into the middle of this stretch of river.
El Dorado County
Fly Fishing the American River#1: Silver Fork
Last fall there was a rumor swirling around town that a Fish & Game truck broke down on it’s way to Silver Lake where they planned on stocking 16,000 lbs of rainbow trout. The story goes that to save the fish, they dumped all 16,000 lbs into the Silver Fork American River. The boys and I decided to go and check it out.
Fly Fishing: Chili Bar: September, 2011
On Friday, 9/23/11, we brought Greg A. and Dick H. on our Chili Bar fishing trip. We had a great day with both guys hooking into several very nice fish. We were on the river by 8:00am, and the action started instantly. At put in, I noticed some fish working on the surface on the other side of the eddy. Our main focus of the day was going to be fishing big streamers on type six sinking lines, sometimes using split shot. However, I rigged Dick’s rod with a small foam body dry fly to start, and he hooked up a nice little rainbow on his first cast of the day! At this point, I knew it was going to be a good day. Within the first mile, Greg slams a big brown. For the rest of the day, we fished hard, and both guys hooked into several nice fish.
This nice rainbow trout was caught in the run just below 2nd Threat
Fly Fishing: Red Shack Mission
The plan was set. We were going to meet at the red shack, just off hwy at 12:00pm. Scott Blankenfeld and I (Robby Hogg) have fished The Chili Bar Section of the South Fork American River six or seven times this year out of a raft. We wanted to get into the good stretches with a lower river flow to see if we could get some more dry fly action on the surface. From the turn-off down to the river is about 2.5 miles. Down hill on the way in, up hill on the way out. I had taken for granted how much access we get while using the rafts. The hike out reminded me of that fact.
The trail accesses The South Fork American River about two miles downstream of The Chili Bar Dam at Race Horse Bend. Once we arrived at the bottom, we decided to work our way up stream. Our rods were set up with a hopper dropper rig with a big grass hopper on the end of a 9’ leader, followed by 18” of tipit with a small dark wet fly. I feel this set-up doubles your chances. Right off the bat, we saw a rainbow working just above us. Scott presented his hopper, with a bright pink underbody, with great success.
We worked the the pools between Racehorse Bend and Meatgrinder with our hopper dropper set-up on the way upstream. At the top of the pool I switched and put on a big streamer. At this point I have not even had a hit. On our way back down I worked my to the top of the eddy right below Racehorse bend. First cast pulled out a little guy. At this point the sun started to dip and we called it a day. It took a lot of effort to get in and out of here, but over-all, it was another good day of fishing.