Start of the California Heritage Trout Challenge?

Driving home from San Francisco after helping my daughter and son-in-law with their move, I found myself with a choice - a quick 12-hour drive directly home, or a more leisurely 15-hour route through Lassen Volcanic National Park and then through some remote high desert country east of the Sierra/Cascade mountains. Once I discovered there's a tiny stream to visit in those remote high desert lands where trout can be found, the choice became obvious. What's three more hours of driving when you can fish for tiny trout in an isolated stream on the way? More precisely, the Goose Lake redband trout, a subspecies endemic to just a few streams in northeastern California/southeastern Oregon. So I rolled out of San Francisco shortly after 5 am heading for the hills.

First stop was a small stream in Lassen NP reported to have a population of brook trout. Fished a bit of a meadow section without seeing a fish to the fly or darting away as I walked up the stream. Finally, below the culvert passing under the highway, I saw a few small trout feeding in the tailout. Got a couple to rise to the fly, but didn't get the hook into any. With limited time and not a lot of action, I decided to accept the skunk and continue on my way (after trying a few more holes upstream). Although maybe no fish were brought to hand, but it's hard to call it a skunk when you get to fish in a place as beautiful as this!

Kings Creek in Lassen Volcanic National Park

A few more hours on the road brought me to Goose Lake, a large lake that is sometimes there, sometimes dried up. I could see water in the distance, but the lake was not the target. A few miles up a gravel road to the east, a small creek on public land was reported to have a population of Goose Lake redband trout. When the lake is full, some of these trout can migrate to the lake and grow large, but in the small tributary streams, a 12-inch fish would be a monster. 

I drove to where Google Maps had shown a section of the stream running through a meadow area and found a lovely little creek, a bit smaller than I expected, but plenty big to hold fish. And fish there were, in every long stretch of flat water with sufficient depth. From the first drop of my fly, I was getting strikes. After missing a few, I got the hook into this beautiful little Goose Lake redband. This subspecies is noted as being quite pale with a lemon-yellow body, especially below the lateral line. This one fit the description perfectly.

A Goose Lake redband

Hoppers, renegades, a wet caddis were all equally attacked, but the hooking ratio was really low. They were really fast or I was really slow. It was a little easier to get the fish on the hook with the smaller flies. All ranged from about 4 to 9 inches. After my allotted hour, I headed back to the car. Seven more hours to home, but the smile I was left with stayed with me all the way (I pulled in the garage at 1:30 am).

Beautiful little creek for my first California trout

I later discovered that California has a challenge similar to the Utah cutthroat slam, called the Heritage Trout Challenge. You have to catch six of the eleven species of trout native to California in their native waters. Since I now have the first one down, and my daughter and son-in-law will be in California for the next few years, it looks like a challenge that I will have to accept. So watch for a few more posts from California in the future!