A few days ago we returned home after a month of camping. The first two weeks were spent in California’s Sequoia National Forest. Then a stint in the Mojave Desert where an unseasonably cooling trend made things really nice for us.

The highlight of this trip is the best fishing Joyce has ever experienced. This was planned, so to speak.

Time To Get Serious About Fishing

A few years ago in this post  I wrote, 

“Fishing isn’t about catching fish either. More and more there is so much human pressure on fish populations that it isn’t uncommon for us to only catch only one trout a day unlike it was a few years ago.” 

The gist of the story was about us spending hours just sitting around enjoying our surroundings, the solitude, and each other.

On the other hand, we enjoy trout fishing and the cost for a one-year resident fishing license has risen to $62.90 a year, which is I think the highest in the nation. I’m willing to pay for what I use. California has a vast and intricate freshwater and saltwater fishing system that needs substantial resources to manage, protect, and preserve. But paying $125 per year to catch a few trout is kinda crazy. 

So we decided to get a little more serious about our trout fishing.

Location, Location, Location

Back when I was a teenager, I came across a small creek high up in the Southern Sierra Nevada Mountains. It wasn’t and still isn’t well known. Over the decades I’ve always enjoyed great trout fishing in that little creek, which is why I won’t divulge where it is.

It was here I first introduced Joyce to fishing. There is a small campground near it that we used to camp in every summer after we got married. The campground was usually almost empty, even on the 4th of July. And we always caught our limit!

Unfortunately the sites at this campground are way to small for the travel trailer we bought in 2013, plus some of the roads to get there would be somewhat scary to tow, given some of the narrow hairpin turns. We decided it would worth the time and money to drive the 60 mile round trip from where we did camp to reach our favorite little creek.

Bag Limits and Possession

Bag limits are how many fish a person can catch in a day. Possession is how many fish a person can have, such as in a cooler or freezer at their campground. 

Our little creek has a bag limit of 5 trout and 10 trout in possession per person. It had been many years since either of us had caught five trout in a day. This would change when we visited our favorite little creek on this trip.

Fish, Fish and more Fish

On the third day of this camping trip we drove up to “our” creek in the afternoon, arriving in the late afternoon. In less than two hours we both had caught our limit of 5 fish each.

Back at the campground it was my task to start cleaning the fish, while prepared the fish we would eat for dinner and store the remainder.

Four days later, we headed back in the afternoon. Same results. Soon we had 5 trout each.

Again, back at the campground I began cleaning fish while Joyce prepared a couple for dinner and bagged the rest for the freezer.

And so it continued, making sure we never had more fish in possession than allowed. At the end of our camping trip we had caught 46 trout between the two us, most were 12 to 15 inches in length. When we left the campground we had 20 trout in the freezer.

Other Activities

Aside from fishing, we enjoyed hikes and every night sat outside and enjoyed the night sky.

Bonus Material

The Trout by Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart