Take The Challenge

The California Heritage Trout Challenge gives anglers a chance not only to catch wild trout from their native drainages but for completing the challenge by catching, photographing, and recording any combination of the 6 of 11 native trout species still fishable in California. You will receive a personalized certificate with artwork from renowned fish illustrator Joseph Tomelari, showing color images representative of the 6 trout you caught along with date and location.
3 subspecies of cutthroat trout and 8 subspecies of rainbow trout are your target. Mosquito has identified 7 of them that are in our in our fishing range. Excluding the 3 golden trout for they require long hikes into wilderness in southern California, every other fish can be accessed within a reasonable area for a five fly's trip. Coastal cutthroat and lahontan, and coastal rainbow, eagle lake, McCloud, goose lake, and Warner lakes redbands are all catchable.

So are you up for the challenge.

club patch/ logo

PLEASE SOMEONE COME UP WITH A CLUB LOGO SO I CAN GET SOME T-SHIRT'S PRINTED BEFORE OUR NEXT TRIP.. I'M TO NEW TOO THE TEAM TO PICK ONE OUT, SO SOMEONE PLEASE POST ONE, (OR MAYBE A FEW AND WE CAN VOTE) AND ILL GET IT GOING.. HERE'S A COUPLE I FOUND

Finally, Baum lake

Loaded the boat with all are gear and topped it off with a load of wood, camping in the mountains during november can be cold. Late season fishing can be excellent or you can have a bad storm make for tough going we're hoping for the former.

Meeting Klinkhammer at Cassel camp where we plan to mostly fish baum lake, it's only a 5 min drive down the hill but also have the canal stretch of hat creek that flows right through camp good locale. Got in that evening got nice campfire going and ate meatloaf sandwiches while we bs'd and Klink tied flies for tomorrow.

Up early.... it's kinda cold, but we're all up and have the boat on the water by 8:00 am. Within seconds of us getting down to the water and Klinkhammer has already spotted fish near us in the shallows and after further study of the water rises as well. Rowing to a spot where numerous rises had been seen and in no time I had a fish on nice brown trout on a bwo, skunk was off now. Oared in to an area where the water entered the lake, anchored in, and Hares ear was onto the only rainbow caught in baum this weekend, Shortly after Klinkhammer found a nice brown on dry and by then we all had got into a few fish nice start to the trip.

Another unfortunate part of fishing late fall is that it's dark by 5:30 in the summer you can fish till 9:30 so you don't have a whole lot of daylight. After fishing and Motoring around trying to learn the lake a bit it was time get a late lunch and if the sun permitted finish off with hat creek. The sun was good to us and so was the creek cause it didn't take long and Klinkhammer got what would turn out to be a good evening full of rainbows started. Back at camp we all decided to hit it fairly early to get an even earlier start, so not long after dinner snores could be heard.

Another cold morning but we are all up and after burning the last of the wood to warm us up we put on are waders and down the hill we went to fish baum once more. Rising again as we put the boat in, Crap I forgot my flies, luckily Hares ear decided to go back for them while we watched the boat. In the time he was gone I had caught a nice fish from shore and we realized how well you can fish here from land. A few minutes out on the boat and we were already taken hares ear to shore where he would go about catching one fish after another. But all was well we did just as well from the boat and finished off all fishing shore before heading back to camp to pack up . Great fishing trip everyone was content as we all had done well this weekend.

After 4 years of talking about going we made it and it was everything they said it was. Till next year

The Five Fly's go to Humbug valley

After a long drive we finally made it to a campground on deer creek where we went about setting up camp while waiting for Klinkhammer to arrive. The trip took longer than planned and alot of that had to do with missing a turn and driving all the way to Manzanita lake before realizing. Our new fly Blue dun learned the hard way about O'Brien mapless navigation. We did make it, all though it was a different campground and we did have to get directions from a local but we made it.
Woke up early and decided on fishing the water right near camp, it was a good idea Blue dun and Hares ear were on to fish right off. We finished the morning fishing a few miles down stream near the big red bridge where right under the bridge a rather large rainbow broke Blue dun off just as Prince was about to grab em... so close. We all decided that we would take the rest of the afternoon to pack camp and head out to look for Yellow creek and camp there if we found it, in an hour camp was down and we were on are way.
Way, way, way, up an old country road after washboard, potholes and enough dust to cause a dirt blizzard we find an enormous open valley with mountains on all sides and a small beautiful stream that flowed through. If nothing else it was sure a nice place to camp. Shortly after arriving we were on the water and even though we had action right off the bat we knew it would not be easy here the water is crystal clear fairly shallow not very wide add the fact that there's not much cover and it makes it real easy to spook fish. And if you do catch one the next problem is getting it in, large cut banks and heavy weed growth make for some real battles. As we headed back to camp are thoughts were of the evening hatch and the shadows on the water and as I come around the last bend of the creek before camp I here a big splash to big to be a fish and when I round the corner it's the newest fly Blue dun. He had gone to the creek to wet his hands when the ground went out beneath him and in he went it was quite a site, but he could laugh it off he wouldn't finish before he caught a trifecta a bow, brook, and a brown not bad.
That evening was no easier, and as we sat around the fire I felt humbled though we all had strikes and a few fish were caught I knew the keys to this fishery were yet to be found. That morning came and went quick and before I knew it we were saying are goodbyes packing up camp and on the road home. Good trip and a good welcome for the new fly Kurt (Blue dun) Kennedy til next time.