We headed towards the Sierra Sunday morning. We left town at 9:30AM and were soon driving through the Red Rock state park on hwy 14 on our way to Walker pass. The plan was to get gas before Lake Isabella and taking Canebrake road over to Nine Mile canyon road on up to Monache meadows. Well we found the gas station we were looking for is closed for good. We then found ourselves in Kernville getting gas and heading up towards Johnsondale to take an alternate route to Monache meadow. No problem for the 4runner and I ran into everything from S10s to Suburbans to F350 up there. The road is just rough enough to keep your average car camper out. Anyway, onto the pics.
Monache as you enter the first meadow area. This is what we had driven 5 hours to see.
We got the second to the last campsite in the river camp area. This is about as far as you can drive up the south fork Kern River.
Dinner time at my camp kitchen. Carne asada tacos!
Small Brown trout from south fork Kern River just north of the river campsites. Flylining salmon eggs on barbless #10 single hooks. Notice the lip hook. I was a little rusty fishing with bait and ended up having to keep 2 of the 6 fish I caught on this hike.
The family in tow. The boy is two and this is his first camping trip. His big sister is a seasoned pro.
This is what I believe to be the first of three fish dams put in place to keep the Brown trout out of the Golden Trout Wilderness just a few miles up stream. I did not get to hike past the damn this trip. Although I did see one guy with a limit of Browns from above these falls, so they are still in there. I estimate this fish damn to be about a mile from camp.
Here is the pool just below the falls. I managed two Goldens and two Browns from here.
First golden. He was a bleeder and was kept.
Another pic of the same fish.
Same fish again. On his way to the stringer.
A couple casts later and I pulled in this fairly nice Brown. He too was kept.
Same fish.
Here is the next Brown. I was getting a little better and was back to lip hooking now.
South fork Kern river just out of camp the next morning.
There were hundreds of these sucker fish in the river. I had the pleasure of dealing with two of them.
Another brown from under the log.
Another Brown.
Another big sucker fish. He was running drag! I though I was going to be a hero for a second there.
Here are a few random Meadow pics. This is the river camp junction right before Bakeoven Dune. Bakeoven is to the right of this pic.
This is the meadow east of Bakeoven dune. That is Monache mountain in the upper left.
This is the road going east out of Bakeoven. We followed it for a couple miles and turned around. The map shows it going to a locked gate in about 4 miles. It was a very thick sort of creepy forest to drive through.
This is back out of there headed towards Olivas cow camp.
Here is the upper river crossing in the meadow.
The boy pretending to drive my truck once we had arrived at our new campite for the evening.
From here we headed back out to Blackrock station and down to Kennedy Meadows. A quick stop at Kennedy meadows General store for some milk and we were headed down Nine Mile Canyon back to the 395. From here we headed up to bishop and got a room at the Trees Motel for the night. The next morning we packed up and cruised up to Intake Two for some possible bendo. It was not off the hook but we were not disappointed either.
A few fish from Intake Two out of Bishop. All fish were released here.
My ugly mug with a sight fished Brown. We had spied this fish cruising the shoreline and after a hand full of attempts I was finally able to get him. He was shaped like a torpedo. Very skinny but a large head and tail.
Another victim of sight fishing. Flylining salmon eggs was the deal once again.
Only fish on the 506 super duper that day.
This was the boys first camping trip. He was a bit of a hand full but he was diggin it.
A few more fish. Now I was split shotting the salmon eggs in the current at the southeast corner of the lake.
My daughter gettin some BENDO!
Here was her fish. Nicest one of the day!
Little dude ready to leave.
We set up camp in the Sabrina Basin campsites just above the North Lake turnoff. It was a very nice clean, quite campsite. We were there and setup early so me and Amanda cruised down to fish the island at Lake Sabrina this afternoon. A little rock hopping and we were fishing in no time.
First cast! Silver 506 super dupe. Sadly this fish got all three trebles in his mouth top and bottom. I had to keep him. I have since switched over the bulk of my metal to single hooks. I will miss more strikes with the single hooks but I will avoid this situation all together.
Amanda getting some more BENDO!
On our way back after the sun went over the hill. A few more feet of water and you will have to swim to the island!
We managed four more fish from Bishop creek before heading home the next morning. I also snagged some broken line in the creek and pulled in a brand new gold shimmer 1/8oz Kastmaster. Score!
We stopped at Manzanar on the way home. Its worth the stop. Lots of cool stuff to see there, but sadly I saw nothing about the "Manzanar Fishing Club". These guys used to sneak out of this place and go fishing up Sheppard Creek, and then sneak back in. That is dedication! The only pics I got were of the Graveyard. There are still six Japanese buried here that died here during WWII.
Here is the guard tower out front. There were 8 of these during WWII to keep watch on the 10,000 Japanese interned here.
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